BRSCC NW BEAT THE CLOCK

Fast work by the BRSCC’s North Western Centre enabled an 11 race programme to be completed at Oulton Park on Saturday despite the original schedule only having 15 minutes of contingency. Officials were keen to thank the circuit’s maintenance staff for their prompt action throughout the day. The challenge was made tougher by the need to clear away debris from a major accident in the final event of the afternoon. This was done in time for an abridged rerun to be fitted in before the circuit’s 6:30 pm curfew.

The spectacular crash occurred on the first lap of the second outing for Porsche Club Championship contenders when the cars of Peter Morris and Marcus Carniel became entangled on the run down the Avenue. Having ploughed into the barriers at the top of Denton’s – horrifyingly they were vaulted by Morris – both vehicles cartwheeled and rolled down the track either side of the Armco. In no time the full complement of Rescue Crews were on the scene to release the mercifully unhurt drivers.

Morris experienced the high and lows of motorsport on Saturday as he had earlier won the opening Club Championship encounter following a close tussle with Mark McAleer. Mark Sumpter led early on but became embedded in the gravel at Shell when attempting to outbrake McAleer who had just snatched the lead into Old Hall. Sumpter had come to rest in a dangerous place which required the intervention of a Safety Car while the marshals extricated his stricken Carrera. Sumpter later took the laurels in the restarted final race of the afternoon.

More action from the Stuttgart marque was provided by the Porsche GT3 Challenge. Both of their two thrashes featured three-way dices for the lead between Karl Leonard, Oly Mortimer and Graeme Mundy. Leonard and Mortimer took a win a piece.

Post 89 runner 16 years old Chris Middlehurst continued his embryonic motor racing career with a convincing victory in Round 11 of the Avon Tyres Northern FF1600 Championship. John Loebell was the man to beat in the Pre 90s although Ian Parkington led the opening lap and kept the veteran honest throughout.

More regional competition came in the form of the S&G Response XR Challenge. Mark Robinson cruised away from the trio battling away for second. Simon Sheridan took the runner-up spot ahead of Pete Lancaster and Steve Poole. The latter had headed into the first corner wheel to wheel with Robinson but gradually fell down the order to fourth. Michael Heath was grateful to the marshals who helped him out of his car when he tipped over onto his roof at Druids.

Another singing the praises of those in orange was Jeff Wilson who later described the use of blue flags as “Brilliant” when they warned the traffic of his presence as he picked his way through to win the first Northern Sports & Saloons encounter. When the diverse entry for this series came back out on the track Wilson again took the laurels but he saw more yellow flags than blue as the Safety Car had to be deployed when the Ginetta of Alex Rae came to rest in a dangerous place.

The karters from the UK Cup were on hand to make a couple of guest appearances. Paul Platt was in impressive form when he dominated the opening foray in his 250cc racer but instead of taking start number 2 he headed pitwards leaving the way open for Jason Dredge to take the spoils. The leaders in the 125s produced some of the best dicing of the meeting with Ben Willshire just managing to do the double.

For the offficial results CLICK HERE

Dave Williams