Fabby and Townsend take Britcar victory
After double-headers at Croft and
Brands Hatch, the Britcar Endurance Championship came to Oulton Park with 18 cars for a one-day, single-race event.
After qualifying on a track that was still damp in places, the Praga-renault R1T of Danny Harrison/jem Hepworth secured pole position with the SB Race Engineering Ferrari 488 Challenge of Paul Bailey/andy Schulz alongside for the rolling start. But it was young Jack Fabby in the other VR Motorsport Praga R1T who burst through from the second row as the cars raced towards Old Hall for the first time, immediately opening a significant lead for a couple of laps until the safety car was called to enable the Taranis-chevrolet to be extricated from the gravel.
Fabby carried on where he left off once racing resumed so that by the time he made his compulsory pitstop well into the window – and handed over to Garry Townsend – he was half a minute or so ahead of the nearest opposition, the Radical RXC Coupe of Steve Burgess.
This was more than enough to enable Townsend’s slightly slower pace to ensure that they took their first overall win of the season and bring themselves very much into contention for the championship. Behind, Ben Dimmack, in for Burgess in the Radical, was at real risk of being overhauled by a spectacular Schulz, who admitted never to have driven round Oulton so quickly before in the Ferrari. But a quick spin dropped the Italian car too far back to make up for lost time, although Schulz never gave up and was just four seconds behind at the flag.
In the Trophy race, Rob Smith’s Peugeot RCZ was equally dominant to begin with, but his large lead melted away after the pitstops, with Charlie Campbell not on the same pace. It meant that the combination of 76-year-old Nigel Ainge and Danny Cassar in a Honda Integra DC5 ran out comfortable winners from Barry Mcmahon, whose tasty Alfa Romeo 156 was given a very hard time by Britcar newcomer Kester Cook’s smart Ford Fiesta, which earned Cook the Driver of the Day award.
Three very well-stocked Caterham Graduates races produced two lights-toflag battles between Sigmax drivers Harry Senior and Steve Clark, Senior prevailing in both side-by-side finishes. Without the Sigmaxes, Andrew Whitton won the third encounter in his Sigma 150 by an uncaterham-like margin of nine seconds, having previously shown his pace in race two by finishing third overall.
The CNC Heads Sports/saloons races attracted large and varied grids, Paul Woolfitt winning both in his very rapid Lotus Exige, but chased all the way by
Luke Armiger’s Vauxhall Tigra Silhouette. Danny Bird’s Spire GTR and David
Harvey (Stuart Taylor Locosaki) squabbled over Class C honours not so far behind.
The Kumho BMW Championship races also had the same winner in the form of Mike Pensavalle and his E46 M3, but it was not for want of trying by Brad Sheehan and, in race one, Lucky Khera. Khera had a spectacular rise from the back of the grid to challenge for the lead, but was thwarted when he clobbered the kerb too hard at Hislops minutes from the end.