CROWHURST RIDES HIS LUCK FOR A DOUBLE
Graham Crowhurst took both victories in the BMW Car Club Racing championship contest at Oulton Park, but benefited in the first race when the on-theroad winner was handed a track-limits penalty.
Mike Cutt (E36 M3) made the best start but Crowhurst (E46 M3) passed him into Cascades for the first time.
Cutt gave chase, but after he took the lead at Old Hall two laps from the end, he reckoned he wouldn’t have done so without backmarkers delaying Crowhurst. The five-second penalty reversed the result.
Cutt pulled off the circuit just three laps into the second race, giving Crowhurst a clear ran. Paul Cook was a distant second in his E46 M3 while reigning champion Ben Pearson completed the podium in the debut event for his new M235i. In the 6-cylinder division, Lee Piercey made it four class wins from four.
Historic 750 Formula featured on the International layout for the first time, with Christian Pedersen’s methanol-fuelled Austin 7 taking a lights-to-flag victory. John Village finished nearly half a minute adrift in his eponymous V2, while Richard Prior took third in his first race in the ex-Lyndon Thruston DNC, beating its former driver, now HCS-mounted. Simon Gallon came out on top of an entertaining tussle in the supercharged Austin 7 division, beating Timothy Roebuck in the ex-John Miles car.
In spite of limited data, the handicap race later was a success, with Village coming through to win on the last lap and the top eight covered by 16s. Geoffrey Cowell’s Austin Ulster Special led onto the final tour but finished 13th.
Simon Walker-Hansell claimed his first two Bikesports victories in spite of suffering a heavy cold. The 2021 champion Leon Morrell made the best of the rolling start in the opener to lead in his Radical SR3 and he held it into a brief mid-race safety car period. His North Motorsport team-mate Walker-Hansell, also in an SR3, gained control soon afterwards, grabbing the initiative on the Shell Oils loop.
Doug Carter very briefly headed race two in his PR6 but Walker-Hansell had the lead from after the first corner to the chequered flag. Tin-top and rally convert Jack Leese (SR3 RS) was a close second in the end, while Alistair Smart beat Carter to class honours for a second time in the day.
Richard Webb dominated Sports 1000, with his accumulated victory margin across two races being well over a minute, while Joe Jessup and Jake Hewlett shared Type R Trophy honours.