OULTON PARK: BARC BY PETER SCHERER
It was a late 1-2 in the CNC Heads Sports Saloons for the Sakers of Paul Rose and Steve Harris. Garry Watson’s Westfield led Joe Spencer’s Locosaki initially but, after Rose got the better of Harris from the start, he split the lead duo on the second lap.
Watson held on for another six laps before Rose made the decisive move into Old Hall. The Westfield driver retained a solid second until his car cut out exiting Lodge on the last lap. Harris went by but Watson managed to fire up again to retain third, from Spencer, Dave Harvey’s Locosaki and Ric Wood’s BMW M3 GTR.
Lee Bowron and Michael Blackburn’s Xr3is made an early break in the first combined XR Challenge/scottish Fiesta race until Bowron spun at Druids and the pair collided. Greg Speight’s XR2 was left clear, but Michael Heath’s hopes of second were wiped out when Scottish Fiesta challenger Wayne Macaulay t-boned him at Shell. Blackburn eventually reclaimed second at Island on the last lap at the expense of Ben Atkinson.
Speight’s hopes of a second win were dashed when he suddenly lost power after a couple of laps. This allowed Blackburn to win, with Scots Kevin Whyte and Chris Milford ousting Atkinson on the last lap, while Steve Poole also dropped back with engine maladies.
All of the Caterham Graduates classes provided exciting racelong battles. Both Super races featured three-way battles between joint championship leaders Edward Benson and Andy Molsom with Toby Briant joining in. Benson made it five wins with a double, but all three had a share of the lead. Briant lost ground to his rivals towards the end of race one, but had the legs of Molsom in race two. Graeme Smith won the concurrent Classic class, coming out on top in a final dash in both races over Steven Mcmaster after they exited Lodge virtually side by side on both occasions.
Luke Cooper was another double winner in the Megas. He swapped and changed throughout race one with championship leader Oliver Gibson, but a four-car battle was down to three when Glenn Burtenshaw crashed at Old Hall and delayed Roger Ford. Cooper just kept Gibson at bay with Ford a distant third.
Declan Dolan had the edge over both Cooper and Gibson in the second race, but he gradually slipped back to sixth and left it to become a two horse race for the victory spoils. Cooper then escaped from Gibson, who was left defending second from Ian Noble. Jamie Winrow won the concurrent Sigma class, dominant in race one, but had Jason Gale much closer in the second.
Dylan Stanley and Lee Bristow shared the Sigmax victory spoils. Stanley took the win in race one, but was under pressure from Bristow. Cedric Bloch split the pair too and led briefly, but Stanley held on with Bristow losing second to Bloch on countback after the race was red flagged.
It was any one from five for the race two lead, with Bristow and Stanley alternating. From half way Bristow managed to break clear for his sixth win of the year. Stanley managed to retain second from Bloch and Simon Oliphant.
1 Paul Rose (Saker RAPX); 2 Steve Harris (Saker RAPX) +10.927s; 3 Garry Watson (Westfield SEW); 4 Joe Spencer (Stuart Taylor Locosaki); 5 David Harvey (Stuart Taylor Locosaki); 6 Ric Wood (BMW M3 GTR). CW Watson; Spencer; Steven Parker (BMW Compact); Mike Hurst (SEAT Leon Cupra); Clive Dix (Ford Puma). FL Rose 1m44.321s (92.89mph). P Watson. S 35.
1 Greg Speight (XR2); 2 Michael Blackburn (XR3I) +1.489s; 3 Ben Atkinson (XR2); 4 Chris Milford (Fiesta ST); 5 Lee Shropshire (XR2); 6 Steve Poole (XR2). CW Blackburn; Milford; Mark Noble (Fiesta Si); Josh Orr (XR2). FL Wayne Macaulay (Fiesta ST) 2m04.923s (77.57mph). P Lee Bowron (XR3I). S 29.
1 Blackburn; 2 Kevin Whyte (Fiesta ST) +1.258s; 3 Milford; 4 Atkinson; 5 Michael Heath (XR2); 6 Shropshire. CW Whyte; Atkinson; Noble; Barry Farquharson (XR2). FL Macaulay 2m04.757s (77.67mph). P Speight. S 28. Briant; 4 Harry Cramer; 5 Tom Hayman-joyce; 6 Anthony Jaffe. CW Graeme Smith. FL Briant 1m56.391s (83.25mph). P Benson. S 24.
1 Benson; 2 Briant +0.512s; 3 Molsom; 4 Hayman-joyce; 5 Jaffe; 6 Barry White. CW Smith. FL Hayman-joyce 1m57.289s (82.61mph). P Benson. S 24.
1 Cooper; 2 Gibson +1.205s; 3 Noble; 4 Andrew Skinner; 5 Rayment; 6 Dolan. CW Winrow. FL Dolan 1m56.433s (83.22mph). P Cooper. S 19.
Caterham Sigmax Graduates (10 laps)