MURPHY FOCUSED ON OULTON TASK

The BRSCC North Western Centre are back at Oulton Park tomorrow for the penultimate time this year and as we move into September the end of season starts to come into sharper focus.

Certainly, John Murphy will be focused on the job in hand – securing the Avon Tyres Formula Ford Post 89 Northern & National titles. The Merseysider has a thirty-two pint lead at the top of the standings but Neil Winn closed the gap at Oulton two weeks ago and Martin Short is also still in contention.

There will be no such tensions in the Pre 90 Formula Fords as Stuart Jones claimed the overall and Class C titles at the last meeting. There are however various class battles to be settled amongst the twenty-six Pre 90 entrants.

In the BRSCC Formula Jedi Championship, 2011 champion Richard Mitcham could well have retained his title come Saturday evening. The Boston driver is in sparkling form and has the added security of a hundred-point gap between him and the second place driver. That man is Indian competitor Alok Iyengar, who has performed consistently well to keep ahead of the experienced Barry Armstrong. Barry is also enjoying his best season to date and will be eager to impress on what is his home circuit.

There is a tremendous fight going on for dominance in the OSS Championship. Darcy Smith tops the points table in his Radical SR4 and he has performed brilliantly to keep serial champion Tony Sinclair in second place. Sinclair’s Jade usually has the title wrapped up by this stage of the season so it will be interesting to see how he reacts to the new challenge.

Roger Evans is the man leading the Alfashop backed Alfa Romeo Championship but he is nursing a slender three-point advantage over previous leader and two-time champion, Neil Smith. Third place driver Anthony George misses the race but fourth place Ray Foley cannot be discounted from the title battle, as he is only twenty-seven points adrift of Evans.

A touch of nostalgia will be added by the appearance of the 500 Owners Association 500cc Formula 3 cars. The ‘500’ movement has an important role in the history of Oulton as the first ever race at the circuit, in August 1953, was won by the late Don Truman, in a 500cc Kieft.