CATERHAM DAY AT OULTON PARK
Michael Gazda is hot favourite to tie-up the Tracksport title at Oulton tomorrow. Photo: www.ajbphotographic.co.uk
Oulton Park will reverberate tomorrow to the sound of 90 Caterhams as the popular Cheshire circuit hosts the Caterham Motorsport Raceday. Supporting Surrey’s finest will be 18 Mk3 Mazda MX5’s, the best turnout yet for the Mazda SuperCup, which was a very late addition to the BRSCC’s portfolio this season.
In the Roadsports Championship, newly wed Stephen Nuttall has a comfortable eleven-point margin at the top of the table following a brace of wins at Brands Hatch. On home turf and wearing the satisfied grin of a man on honeymoon, we wouldn’t bet against him extending his lead even further tomorrow. Behind Nuttall, things are set to hot up. Second place man Alex Gurr will be relaxing on the beach somewhere this weekend so Welshman Pete Fortune will need to maximise the opportunity – nothing less than the podium for Fortune’s technicolor-dream-car will be good enough though.
With just tomorrow and one more to go, on paper it looks like Austrian driver Michael Gazda is going to run away with the Tracksport championship. Main rival, Oliver Jarrett, was never really a contender for the lead at Brands, allowing Gazda’s margin to grow to ten points. But all is far from lost for Jarrett. With drop scores being taken into consideration, he is still in touch and the drivers are about to face the most challenging circuit of the year, with everything to play for and no margin for error.
In the Supersports, leader David Robinson’s title campaign was dealt a blow at Brands Hatch when a mechanical failure ended one of his races. However, the 24-year-old and his DPR Motorsport prepared white car remain at the top of the table, albeit with a reduced margin; giving his challengers a much needed boost and once again bringing the title hunt alive. Chief amongst Robinson’s challengers are Lee Wiggins and Mike Hart who will both be aiming to crank up the pressure on Robinson tomorrow.
Following the Brands Hatch GP round, DPR Motorsport driver Stuart Leonard comes to Oulton Park as the R300 Superlight championship leader, despite the regular podium visitor having taken only one win so far this year. The twisting, undulating circuit should feel relaxingly familiar to Leonard whose last race outing, in between R300 events, was behind the wheel of a Mercedes GT3 car in a six-hour race on the legendary Nurburgring Nordschleife.
Team-mate Ollie Taylor, who dominated the early rounds and Terry Langley are Leonard’s closest challengers. Both need to get their campaigns back on track, but if they spend too much time fighting amongst themselves, Leonard will be given the opportunity to hold on to that championship lead.
Tomorrow is the final two rounds of the year for the BRSCC MX5 Supercup and the championship title race still wide open! The top three drivers in the points table, Paul Sheard, Andrew Clarkson and Matt Davies, are covered by the smallest of margins after a season’s racing. Even those lower down the table are still in with a mathematical chance if the top three get it wrong! That said, Paul Sheard is in the strongest position. He can take the title simply by finishing ahead of his main rivals. On the other hand, a non-finish would drop him well down the points table. There are so many possibilities that it really is impossible to predict what will happen.
For the timetable, entry lists & Final Instructions visit CATERHAM RACEDAY