AN AUTUMN OUTING TO OULTON PARK


CATEGORIES:

Oulton Park in Cheshire is always a favourite place to race for us at the BRSCC and with our penultimate visit of the season we bring more variety with single seaters, tin-tops, sportscars and a couple of cracking guest championships to entertain the local crowds. There’s also the potential for titles to be settled and champions to be crowned.

The Production GTis are set to put on another entertaining day’s racing with the Mk5 Series leading the way – Photo: Jon Elsey

The main focus of the day is likely to be on the ongoing duels amongst the Avon Tyres Northern Formula Ford 1600 Championship, with the schedule accommodating for separate races for cars in the Post ’89 and Pre ’90 categories respectively. Luciano Carvalho has picked up the championship lead in Post ’89 from Joshua Smith with Matt Round-Garrido only 3 points behind 2nd place. While the title isn’t likely to be decided here, all 3 will be keen to score at least one win to keep themselves firmly in the hunt for #1. One crown that could be wrapped up is the overall honours, as runaway Pre ’90 leader Jaap Blijleven needs to outscore Carvalho by 30 points or more to pick up the Northern title he missed out on last season. Considering the form he’s been on at every round he’s contested it’ll be tough but definitely not impossible! Watch out for inter-class battles up and down the order too.

For fans of tin-tops and saloons, the Teekay Couplings Production GTi should be a great sight as they return to one of their favourite stomping grounds. This season both the Mk2 Championship and Mk5 Series run together on the same grid, meaning the racing is closer and more entertaining than ever. The Mk5s don’t score points towards a championship at this stage, but James Colbourne did an incredible job to take the win in both races at Brands Hatch on his first weekend in the new car. Nevertheless, all of the regulars are back once more with Simon Hill, Martyn Walsh and Adam Hance amongst those who will be challenging for victory. In the Mk2 Championship, Chris Webb appears to be on course for back-to-back crowns in the 16V category with Dan Gibbs and Nick Porter chasing him all the way, while the 8V contest is a runaway domination by Matthew Eccles but Silverstone winner Rusty Laidler will be out to stop him.

Also in the mix at Oulton Park will be the final championship rounds of the Dunlop TVR Challenge, a series which harks its history back to the mighty TVR Tuscan Challenge that dominated and entertained British circuits from 1989 to 2004. While there are a couple of the legendary Tuscans out in force here, the overall title looks set to be heading to a Class C car for the third successive year, with Mike Luck the only driver to have broken into 3 figures in his points tally. Should Jason Clegg make an appearance in his Class A Tuscan Speed Six, he could upset the party and steal it himself, while Alan Jones will also be a man to watch in Class A+ in his mighty Sagaris. Also, 2015 champion Alex Champkin is back, this time in Class B with a bigger engine in his title-winning Chimaera.

The first of our guest championships is the awesome and always entertaining Golfmech Irish Global Lights. These micro sports-prototypes, powered by a 600cc bike engine, started their racing life on UK shores in their own championship, however a number of them have made their way across to the Emerald Isle and compete for glory in their own series. Wherever they go, the racing is always massive fun to watch with a fight for the lead almost always in store. Top drivers that you can expect to see dicing for P1 include Mark Braden, Ivor Millar and “Mad” Max Brennan.

The second guest championship sees competitors travel not too far across the border with the Welsh Saloon & Sportscar Championship with a large grid of cars spanning a wide variety of makes and models expected. Tyrone Luffarelli is the man of the moment as he leads both Class B and overall in his little Peugeot 106 GTi, but Jason Davuies will be hoping to continue his success in Class C with his mighty Ford Sierra Cosworth as he sits 42 points behind. Plus, Tyrone will have to content with family members Fabio and Melissa on track, as well as Dave Scaramanga’s VW Scirocco and Gareth Haycock’s VW Golf. It should be mighty!

So, once again there’s enough variety on this race day to keep any racing fan happy, no matter what their preference. With at least one set of championships looking to be settled here in Cheshire, the race will be on to see if any more can be wrapped up before the day is done!


CLUB PARTNERS

Race Entries
& Membership