FLUCTUATING FUNCUP FORTUNES


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The BRSCC North Western Centre staged the final car race meeting of the season at Oulton Park last Saturday. Contenders in the Fun Cup UK series were the main focus and they produced a very eventful 4 hours of action.

Up until the first pit-stop window 252 Team Happy held a narrow advantage from 245 Team RAM but after the stops the latter car had a comfortable lead. Before the next round of driver changes 131 JPR Motorsport had overcome a lowly grid draw to move to the top of the order. They pulled away from everyone in the middle part of the contest.

Moving into the 3rd hour, 223 Team Eclipse had good pace and were rapidly closing on JPR however their challenge ended when the lapped 190 Solutions Racing vehicle lost control on the exit of Lodge and speared into the side of the Eclipse car which was innocently passing by. With the safety car deployed the leaders lost most of their advantage and after a second appearance of the safety car (because someone had ground to a halt in a dangerous place) JPR were overtaken by 147 Team Honeywell and 252 Team Happy.

Honeywell extended their advantage but were awarded a “stop-and-go” for speeding in the pit-lane (one of many teams caught by the radar trap towards the end of the race). While serving this penalty they exceeded the limit in the pits for a second time and the Clerk of the Course called them in again. Despite these problems Honeywell were looking menacing in the runner-up spot with less than 15 minutes to go when Team Happy were made miserable when they too received a penalty for the same pit-lane infringement. Things went from bad to worse for the Happy crew when the car then faltered and retired with 3 laps to go leaving Team Honeywell to win 10 seconds ahead of Team RAM.

The Fun Cup was supported by two double headers for the Dunlop TVR and BRS Recovery XR Challenges.

Danny Winstanley took the first TVR encounter having pressured Marc Hockin in the opening stages until his rival missed a braking point and allowed the 18-year-old through. Unfortunately Winstanley's Tuscan broke when the red lights went out the second time the field took to the track therefore Hockin was able to take the spoils unchallenged. Tim Davies scored two 10th place finishes which was enough to secure the title. Congratulations Tim! These sportscars made a fantastic sight and sound around Oulton's swoops.

Simon Robinson clinched the XR Challenge crown when the Fiesta driver came home runner-up to Escort Class Champion Chris Jones after a race-long dice which was a perfect way to end their season. Earlier in the day Robinson had been victorious when his main rival for the title, Michael Blackburn, crashed when trying to pass him around the outside at Shell.

The full meeting results can be found at Click Here


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