BRSCC KICKS UP THE SPRAY AT OULTON PARK
A day at the races for the BRSCC at Oulton Park in Cheshire saw wet and damp conditions from start to finish, making the day’s action a little more interesting for all five championships and series in attendance. Alongside endurance action from SuperSport Endurance Cup, sprints in the rain from Fiesta ST150s, Super Classic Formula Ford, Evolution Trophy and MG Metro Cup also brightened up an overcast and grey Cheshire circuit.
Just shy of thirty cars, the PBS Brakes SuperSport Endurance Cup visited Oulton Park for the very first time with defending Pro-B class champion Julian McBride’s BMW M3 taking pole in qualifying and leading from the outset with an early first lap safety car aiding his chances. He was eventually chased down and passed by the Aldo Riti/ Kevin Clarke M3 after twelve laps, who then took over in front until they made their first mandatory stop on lap 20. McBride retook the lead for another eight laps until he too pitted, promoting Lee Collins to P1 in his Caterham.
A second safety car helped Clarke and Riti back to the front, before more scheduled stops cycled the M3s of Peter Moulsdale and then McBride into the lead and then a third safety car in the closing stages lifted the Porsche 996 of Matt Spark to the front of the pack. This gave him a lead of over seven seconds with Moulsdale’s BMW chasing him down in the closing stages, and eventually Spark was caught and passed on the final lap.
Moulsdale and Spark were not only first and second overall, but Pro-A and Pro-B class winners respectively, with the overall top five completed by McBride in third, Clubman-A winner Jamie Hadley and Keir McConomy’s BMW 1 Series, while other class winners in the field were Tony Kiss and Ben Gillias in their Morgan Plus Four (Pro-C), Rashan Chigorimbo’s Audi TTCup race car (Clubman-B) and David Drinkwater & Adam Read’s BMW E36 Compact (Clubman-C).
Vinyl Detail Fiesta ST150 Challenge championship leader Mike Blackburn would only see five racing laps before his day came to an abrupt end in race one. Max Buxton started race one from pole but a poor start dropped him to 11th by the end of the opening lap and left front row mate Daniel Robinson to end up taking a lights-to-flag victory. He was joined by Samuel Watkins and Thomas Ikin on the podium ahead of Dan Wyke in fourth, while Mark Blunt was promoted to a top five in the closing stages when Blackburn ended up hitting the barriers hard and was out for the rest of the day.
The second race was run in two parts, with Dillon Davis leading at the time of the red flag after four laps ahead of Buxton, Liam Browning, Robinson and Aiden Vickers in the top five. On the restart, the race would only last for another three laps before the red flag was called again with Buxton and Ikin two of the drivers that wouldn’t see the flag. As for Davis, his first ST150 Challenge win was confirmed ahead of Browning in second, followed by Robinson, Blunt and Alec Townley.
Tom Hawkins picked up where he’d left off by grabbing the respective pole in the Super Classic Pre ‘99 Formula Ford Championship, fastest of the cars in that category while four invitation class cars started just ahead in their own race.
Focusing on the Super Classic ranks, Hawkins put in a dominant performance to capture the victory in race one as well as top Super Classic A, finishing some ten seconds ahead of Super Classic B winner Jaap Blijleven in second, Paul Mason in third, then Richard Freye and Super Classic D class topper Oliver Buckton in fifth. Paul Britten also took honours in Super Classic C.
After the second race had to be restarted following an early clash between three of the Invitation class cars, the Super Classic element saw Freye lead the opening couple of laps before Blijleven quickly worked his way to the front and remained there until the finish. Hawkins moved up to P2 with both of the top two again winning their classes (SCB and SCA respectively), followed by Freye, Mason and Ian Schofield. Buckton and Britten were again class winners too.
Looking back at the results of the multi-category BRSCC Evolution Trophy, Adam Marshall would take the flag first in race one and topped the Classic VW Cup runners, ahead of Robert Buckland in the best of the Finsport Renault Cup cars and Paul Bancroft’s Audi TTCup car in third.
In race two, it would be Paul Dunningham’s Audi A3 that would cross the line first and also win the CWVC contest, followed by Richard Clarke’s Clio Cup car that won Renault Cup and Marshall’s Golf in third.
The entry also featured two BRSCC BMW 1 Series SuperCup cars in the hands of Stefan Oates and Chris Coomer respectively.
After reappearing in the Hickford Construction MG Metro Cup and winning both races at Donington Park, Jack Ashton went to Oulton Park hoping to do the same again in Cheshire. In race one, he was kept in touching distance more this time by Mike Williams, helped by a mid-race safety car and the pair always less than a second apart. By the flag, Ashton was still victorious but only by 0.6 seconds with Robbie Kenning, Matthew Simpson and Dick Trevett in the top five.
Williams then got a better start to race two to lead the way from the outset, again chased by Ashton as the roles reversed between two drivers. Ashton got as close as 0.035 seconds at the line at the end of lap five to taking the lead, but had to settle for runner up spot as Williams secured the win, ahead of Kenning, Jon Moore and Trevett.
Written by Scott Woodwiss
