MOTORSPORT TO THE ‘TENTH’ DEGREE

The BRSCC’s North Western Centre laid on a thrill-packed 10-race programme at Oulton Park on the last day of the final month of Summer. At times, the action was almost too hot to handle and the BRSCC’s marshals & officials did an excellent job as they promptly dealt with a number of incidents to ensure all events were run to their completion before the circuit’s 6:30pm curfew.

No less than 34 hot-hatches lined up when the Advantage Motorsport XR Challenge runners were joined for a brace of outings by competitors from the Peoples Ford Scottish Fiesta Championship. What a spectacular sight they made! Although the visitors from North of the Border left the grid 30 seconds after their southern counterparts, this separation disappeared in their first encounter when the Safety Car was scrambled after Adam Burgess spun on the exit of Cascades and caused all manner of mayhem. When the green flag waved after 3 laps it was the XR points leader, Michael Heath, who was ahead but soon he had been demoted by Craig Brookfield and Ralph Fernihough.

The former gradually eased away until the final tour when he lost control on some fluid (possibly antifreeze) that had gone down at Island Bend. This triggered an incident that involved the first 5 cars and caused Heath to roll. Scottish Fiesta man, Scott Robertson, picked his way through the carnage to take an unexpected win. Brookfield avoided trouble to take the second set of laurels when he was just half a second ahead of Craig Readyhough at the flag.

There was more last lap drama when the Post89 class of the Avon Tyres National Formula Ford Championship took to the tarmac. Luke Williams had been out in front until half distance when he was overtaken by Austin Kimberly.Williams was then pushed down to third by Skylar Robinsonon the penultimate lap however next time round the two leaders collided at Cascades. Williams slowed to avoid becoming involved in the incident but his lack of momentum down Lakeside Straight put him in a vulnerable position. Into Island Bend he had to defend his lead from 3 other cars and made contact with David McArthur. Both hit the barriers but were unharmed as James Raven took the victory.

Earlier in the day Jamie Jardine and Chris Hodgen had battled it out at the head of the Pre90 field with the latter coming out on top.

Zack Booth went home unbeaten after the Mighty Mini men and women had enjoyed a double header in the Cheshire countryside. In race 1 there had been three-way battle for second in which Steven Rideout came out on top ahead of Charlie and Ralph Budd. Next time around C. Budd took the position by a comfortable margin after Rideout and R. Budd collided on the opening lap.

Jamie White and Peter Tervet twice finished less than a second apart as each took a turn at drinking the victor’s champagne at the end of two exciting Super Mighty Mini contests. Neven Kirkpatrick and Patrick Ford were third and fourth but reversed their finishing order later in the day.

Steven Brown must have had a nasty shock at the end of the opening lap of the first Toyo Tires Porsche event when he collected Adam Croft at Deer Leap after the latter rejoined the circuit having slid wide on the exit of Lodge. Although Brown crawled into pits, Croft’s car was stranded in a dangerous position and necessitated the Safety Car to control the field for 3 laps while the marshals made the track safe. When the action resumed Richard Styrin eased away to take the flag ahead of the dicing duo of Ian Loggie and Steven Bowles. Styrin won in a similarly dominant style from Loggie later in the day while William Sharpe demoted Bowles to take the final step on the podium on this occasion.