The BRSCC’s North Western Centre had a star-studded entry list for the final race meeting of 2024 at Oulton Park on 26th October. This included the recently crowned British Touring Car Champion, Jake Hill, who shared the Morpheus Motorsport Fun Cup car with Ginetta Junior front-runner, Charlie Hart. Meanwhile, British GT contenders Ian Loggie, Phil Keen, Harry George and Luca Hopkinson were all gunning for Fun Cup glory along with motor racing legend, Anthony Reid, who was returning to the championship after a couple of years’ absence.
Aside from all those big names, another BTCC driver, Mikey Doble, competed in the Vinyl Detail Fiesta ST150 Challenge.
A foggy morning gave the Clerks of the Course something of a headache – the Fun Cup drivers had to complete their mandatory 3 qualifying laps behind the Safety Car ahead of their races. The first of these was a 1 hour “Sprint” followed by a 3 hour Enduro.
Having won the last round at Donington, Neil Burroughs and Ted Bradbury had to start the 1 Hour contest from the back of the 28-car grid. For Oulton, they had changed their team name to “The Ninky Nonk”
Hill had worked his way to the front of the field after 15 minutes when Loggie crashed heavily on the exit of Druids bringing out the red flags.
The first (of 2) pit-stop windows opened as soon as the race restarted. The pit lane was very busy. Hill pitted to hand over to Hart while, further back, the UVio/Hoffmans car (Fabulous Randaccio/Farquini Deott) made a lightning stop to convert a lowly grid position into second place. This became first when Hart ran wide at Old Hall. Hart fought back to get in front as UVio/Hoffmans dropped to third behind The Ninky Nonk. This trio had a huge battle until The Ninky Nonk moved ahead and pulled away from UVio/Hoffmans with Hart in the Morpheus car in tow.
A rapid final pit-stop sealed the win for The Ninky Nonk with the margin of victory increasing when Hart had some side-by-side rubbing with a backmarker at Brittens. Olympian-GRD (Chris Dovell/Riley Phillips/Simon Rudd) finished fourth to retain their championship lead.
As this was the first time that Hill and Hart had competed in Fun Cup, had they won this race, they would have received a £10,000 rookie jackpot from the organisers. Even so, for coming second, they still received a cheque for £3,000.
The Fun Cup 3-hour Enduro was the final motor race at Oulton Park in 2024. Having won the Sprint earlier in the day, The Ninky Nonk once again started from the back of the grid. Phil Keen was the early leader in the car that Ian Loggie had crashed in race 1 although his pace was slowed after 3 laps by the Safety Car. The incident which caused this interruption caused significant damage to the barriers at Island Bend.
The armco took more than 30 minutes to repair which meant the Safety Car was still out when the first pit stop window opened. There was total chaos as the entire 28-car field pitted at once. The leaders were boxed in as those further down the order came in and blocked their exit routes. This meant the Keen/Loggie car re-joined well down the order.
When things settled down after the Safety Car period, the Hill/Hart entry was leading the way from the Olympian – GRD car which was being driven by Simon Rudd. Both were reeled in by The Ninky Nonk. As Olympian – GRD just needed to finish well up the order to clinch the title, Rudd moved over and let The Ninky Nonk car through allowing its driver, Bradbury, to have an epic battle with Hart right up until the second round of pit stops.
A quick stop by Team Greenheath (Gary Bate & Paul Turner) put them in the lead after the second round of pit stops however, during the course of this stint, they were passed by the UVio/Hoffmans car and Jake Hill. The latter pair then spent lap after lap side-by-side with Phil Keen making it 3 abreast at one point as he unlapped himself.
UVio/Hoffmans didn’t refuel at the third round of pit stops and so enjoyed an enormous advantage of over 15 seconds during the next stint and were still in the lead an hour later after the final round of stops.
With just under half an hour to go the Hill/Hart car and The Ninky Nonk both had to serve drive through penalties while Team Greenheath went into the barrier at Brittens but reversed out and kept on motoring. All 3 cars were now out of contention for the win.
Therefore, with 15 minutes to go, UVio/Hoffmans were still leading with Olympian – GRD second and gaining rapidly having not taken on fuel in the last 2 stops. With 6 minutes left, Olympian – GRD drew alongside UVio/Hoffmans on the approach to Lodge. The 2 cars made contact but both continued with UVio/Hoffmans still ahead. They then had a ferocious battle with UVio/Hoffmans holding the inside line forcing Olympian – GRD to the outside line at every corner.
There was more contact at Cascades on the last lap. Both cars ended up in the gravel. Olympian – GRD had the momentum to keep going through the “kitty litter” and emerged back on the track to take the win and the championship as UVio/Hoffmans remained in the gravel promoting Hill/Hart up to second with The Ninky Nonk coming out on top of a 4 car battle in the closing stages to take third.
What a race to end the season!
Earlier in the day, at the start of the first Vinyl Detail Fiesta ST150 Challenge encounter, Dan Robinson converted pole into the race lead as Doble made a poor start and dropped to sixth. The contest was then neutralised at the end of the first lap due to a crash at Dentons. The marshals quickly cleared the incident so that the Safety Car only did a single lap. Robinson pulled away to take the spoils as Michael Blackburn, who was lacking front end grip, fended off Sam Watkins. A lurid slide through Brittens cost Blackburn momentum over Hill Top and allowed Watkins to pass him into Hislops. On the next lap, George Foxlow dived down the inside of Blackburn into Lodge to take third. Max Buxton and Doble also managed to pass Blackburn to push the champion elect down to sixth.
Foxlow’s was a notable performance as this was the first time he had competed against adults having switched from the Fiesta Junior Championship.
Later in the day, it was Robinson’s turn to make a poor start as Watkins led the way into Old Hall. Blackburn had an amazing getaway from sixth on the grid to take second place and push Robinson down to third. Further back, Buxton and Foxlow made contact as they crested Deer Leap at the end of lap 1. Foxlow fish-tailed across to the right of the track and – either by luck or judgement – ended up entering the pits!
As Watkins and Blackburn duelled, Robinson and Mark Blunt closed in to make it 4 for the lead… but then there was a pause in the action as the Safety Car was scrambled to allow the debris from the Buxton/Foxlow incident to be cleared.
Watkins waited until the last possible moment before flooring the accelerator at the restart. This allowed him to open out a few lengths. However, Blackburn pumped in a quick lap and was back on his bumper before taking the lead next time through Cascades.
Watkins and Robinson pursued Blackburn for the remainder of the contest but Blackburn held on to cement his second championship in 3 years with another race win. Blunt lost fourth to Doble at the final corner.
Jack Fabby took his Praga to a comfortable victory in the opening Zeo Prototype Series race. Behind him, Shane Kelly in another Praga briefly lost second to Mike Jenvey (Jenvey Gunn) the first time he tackled Island Bend but got the position back exiting Druids. He could not shake him off however and Jenvey overtook him at the start of lap 3. Jenvey was able to pull away safe in the runner-up position despite having a broken rocker arm in his suspension.
The second contest was red-flagged after a car crashed at the exit of the first corner. Jenvey was grateful for that driver’s misfortune as it gave him time to repair his suspension. He had been absent from the original grid but he was able to take his place for the restart. He took second from Kelly at the end of the first lap and then filled the mirrors of the leader Fabby until he struggled to change out of first gear coming out of Lodge. After that, he never went below third gear. He was soon back on Fabby’s tail before taking the lead at Lodge with 5 minutes to go. He went on to take the spoils as Fabby’s Praga developed gearbox issues of its own which caused him to miss Brittens chicane at one point.
The BRSCC would like to thank all the marshals and officials for their help at this meeting, especially for the ingenuity shown in dealing with the foggy conditions at the start of the day. We hope they enjoyed the racing once it got underway.
Dave Williams