GREAT SCOTT AS HE SEALS CLASSIC STOCK TITLE
Lee Scott (Ford Fiesta XR2I) sealed the Classic Stock Hatch championship with victory in the opening race at Rockingham, surviving a four-wide moment off the line to lead out of the Deene hairpin. Title rival and polesitter Matt Rozier (Peugeot 205 GTI) dropped out of the running with a fuel pump problem. After an attempted fix, the double champion suffered the same issue in race two. Scott took a podium and Andrew Thorpe in his Citroen AX GTI the win.
Paul Jarvis secured the overall Hot Hatch championship with two Class C second places in his Citroen Saxo VTR with a meeting remaining. His nearest rival Alistair Camp (Ford Fiesta ST) snatched the overall race lead on the final lap having slipstreamed Ben Rushworth (Honda Integra DC2) on the oval and dived up the inside of Neil Martin (Honda Civic) at Deene. Rushworth repaid the favour with the race two victory.
Ian Allee moved a step ahead of his Locost title rival Ben Powney, who was absent for the first race. Allee, though, was restricted to a fourth-place finish as an intermittent misfire made him vulnerable on the highspeed oval section with Jack Coveney the winner. Allee recovered to take the victory in race two in a battle against Louis Wall. Powney raced from last to seventh.
Ali Bray took a hit in MX-5S after running straight on at Deene under pressure from title rival Ben Short, who went on to win. Bray recovered to fourth. Guest entrants Sam Smith and Michael Comber dominated race two, but their use of Hankook tyres instead of Davantis meant they were ineligible for points, handing Paul Bateman his first win ahead of Short and Bray.
Carl Shield inherited the M3 Cup win after Simon Walker-hansell was given a 15-second time penalty for exceeding track limits. Championship leader Adam Shepherd was runner-up, and won the second race after Walker-hansell and Shield went off at Deene while battling for the lead.
Lewis Carter won in the 330 Challenge class, but was roughed up in race two by contact with Matt Maxted into Deene. He finished second behind David Drinkwater.
The Formula Vee racers met stormy conditions. Points leader Ben Miloudi (Storm GKBM 2015) held his advantage despite losing his nosecone against Graham Gant’s WEV FV01. Miloudi’s title rival Adam Macaulay followed him home to second in his Sheane FVEE. Race two was cancelled due to the weather conditions.
Billy Albone clinched the RGB title with two wins in his Spire GT3, followed home by Scott Mittell (Mittell MC53) in second as a fuel injector leak in race two ended his hopes of taking the title fight to the final meeting.
A sudden hailstorm brought out a safety car in the middle of the Roadsports race. This, combined with the Class A cars struggling for traction in the wet, meant that Class B’s Steve Hewson (Peugeot 205) won.
Paul Cook/wayne Lewis won the Armed Forces Race Challenge in their BMW with Daniel Smith (Ford Fiesta) victorious in the handicap event. Christian Pederson (Austin 7) overcame a last lap gearbox woe to win in the Historic 750 Formula race.
Post-’90 championship rivals Josh Smith (Firman) and Matt RoundGarrido (Medina Sport) came to blows while scrapping for the lead of the second Northern Formula Ford race with Jake Byrne (Ray).
Round-garrido chose Lodge as the place to snatch second from Smith, but the title contenders made contact and were forced to retire, both suffering wishbone damage. While Round-garrido was frustrated as his car had been performing well, he joked that there was only “about £30 worth of damage”. However, Smith, who now trails Luciano Carvalho in the championship, summed up the clash as “unnecessary”. The incident gifted Byrne his second win of the day, having beaten Smith in race one, which finished behind the safety car.
It had been a day of intermittent showers, creating changing track conditions and unpredictable racing through to the final chequered flag. This was most notable in the first of four Northern Formula Ford races. “You’re always experimenting in conditions like this,” said pre-’90 race one winner Jaap Blijleven. “The grip was challenging, it was so greasy.” The Dutchman admitted that although he had the misfortune of being the first man into Turn 1 on the unpredictable surface, he admitted that he was also lucky as his Reynard’s cockpit avoided picking up spray. Despite Blijleven’s cautious approach, it was a comfortable victory ahead of Chris Hogden (Van Diemen), who summed his race up as “wet and lonely”.
Blijleven went on to take the race two victory, all but confirming the Pre-’90 championship crown.
Jason Clegg admitted he’d been complacent behind the wheel of his Tuscan in the first of three TVR Challenge races, and hadn’t expected the sudden charge of winner, and fellow Tuscan driver, Darren Smith. “I hadn’t really been checking my mirrors and suddenly he was past. I couldn’t really push too hard with the weather like this,” he explained. Before Clegg could compose himself and try to fight back, a late-race downpour forced him to focus on not making any risky moves and saving his car for the remainder of the day.
That decision paid off in race two, where he was the victor. But another downpour in race three warranted another cautious drive from Clegg, coming home in seventh. Dean Cook took the win in his Griffith.
The micro-sports prototypes of the Irish Global GT Lights contingent were also in action at Oulton Park.
Championship leader Peter Drennan took the first two races, but the hat-trick narrowly eluded him. Despite persistent attacks from Chris James and Conor Farrell, Drennan managed to escape the critical tow in the first two races, but it wasn’t to be in race three. Mark Braden, in his orange machine, latched on to the tow at the beginning of the final lap and managed to hold off Drennan in a photo finish over the line.
Andy Baylie and Simon Hill shared a win apiece in the combined grid of Mk5 and Mk2 Golfs.
In the Welsh Sport and Saloon championship, Ford Sierra Cosworth driver Jason Davies failed to make it a clean sweep after struggling in the wet race two. He finished ninth, 27 seconds behind winner Dave Harvey in his Stuart Taylor Locosaki.