JPR UVIO RECAPTURE FUNCUP TITLE IN THRILLING OULTON PARK RACE DAY
Will Heslop claimed the Hyperdrive ST-XR Challenge as the BRSCC’s North Western Centre staged their final Oulton Park meeting of the season.
All 8 races employed Oulton Park’s International Layout except for the 2 ST-XR Challenge encounters which used the short Fosters Circuit. The first of the latter contests featured a great start by Adam Brown which put him out in front but Heslop remained right on his tail no matter how hard Brown drove. Behind these two XR2s, Justin Roberts’ Fiesta ST had another pair of XR2s, driven by Greg Speight and Michael Heath, filling his mirrors.
As the contest entered its closing stages, Speight and Heath moved ahead of Roberts. Meanwhile, up front, Brown ran wide exiting Fosters handing the lead to Heslop. As Brown rejoined having lost some momentum, it forced Speight to slow. Heath tried to seize the moment and pass both cars in one swoop up Clay Hill but there was contact which saw him and Speight spear heavily into the barriers. The results were declared according to the running order at the end of the previous lap therefore Brown was the winner.
Brown’s second start of the meeting was another good one but once again he ran wide exiting Fosters after a couple of laps albeit without the dire consequences of earlier in the day for those following him. Nonetheless, soon Roberts was out in the lead with Heslop demoting Brown at Old Hall. Heslop harried Roberts until early in the last lap when he got ahead to win both the race and the title in fine style. Ryan Bowron and Jason Hennefer took a win apiece in the XR3i Class.
The Avon Tyres Northern Formula Ford 1600 Championship enjoyed a Double Header with both parts won by Tom McArthur in a B-M Racing-tended Medina Sport who clinched the Pro section of the Champion of Oulton in the process. His first victory wasn’t secured until the last lap when a better set up than erstwhile leader Chris Middlehurst (Team Dolan Van Diemen) for the drying conditions allowed him to get better drive exiting Cascades to set up a pass at Island. Doug Crosbie, who was taking part in his first race of the year, completed the podium in his Van Diemen and won the Super Classic category in the process.
On the first lap of race 2, Crosbie dived down the inside of Middlehurst at Cascades to take second. This manoeuvre allowed McArthur to break away. Middlehurst was soon back up to second and closing down McArthur as Crosbie spun down the order. McArthur managed to repel Middlehurst’s challenge to take victory number 2 of the day as Davide Meloni’s Van Diemen completed the podium despite having contact with Calum Grant in the braking area for Hislops on the final lap. Simon Hadfield took the Super Classic honours in sixth overall just ahead of the recovering Doug Crosbie.
The Fun Cup Championship went all the way to the wire with a 4 hour season finale in Cheshire. The 2 Rent Dominos team need to win with JPR Uvio in third place or lower. With the latter occupying the final place on the podium after the final round of pit-stops all 2 Rent Dominos had to do was pass the leaders, DespatchBay.com, with around 20 minutes to go. The two cars headed down to Hislops side by side… both missed their braking points and slithered on to the wet grass. DespatchBay.com had the momentum to cross the green stuff and reach the safety of the tarmac to speed away to take the laurels. 2 Rent Dominos had to slow more to avoid a collision and when the applied the throttle to pick up speed they spun and stalled. They recovered just as JPR Uvio were passing and became involved in a spirited battle for second with the champions elect. 2 Rent Dominos took the place by 0.125 secs.
Making a guest appearance were Superkarting UK who enjoyed a trio of races. Mark Gellatly had a 100% finishing record on the top step of the podium but it could have been a different story had Andy Guillford not pulled off on the first formation lap with dirt in his carburettor. He got his engine running cleanly again for race 3 and charged up the order to finish just 0.231 secs behind Gellatly having started at the back of the grid.
The BRSCC wish to thank the officials and marshals who enabled this meeting to take place despite conditions being very wet at times …and we hope to see many of our loyal friends in orange at our final meeting of the season at Anglesey on 17th November.
You can find a detailed breakdown of the weekend’s results at Anglesey here OULTON PARK RESULTS
Dave Williams
