WIGGIN WINS AS LANGRIDGE GRABS TITLE LEAD
Joe Wiggin took two Mazda MX-5 Championship wins out of three at Oulton Park but, despite going without a victory, John Langridge moved into the points lead.
Will Blackwell-chambers, champion for the past two seasons, headed the standings going into the meeting and, even though he finished no lower than fourth during the trio of races, his sixpoint advantage was converted into a four-point deficit by the end of the day.
Compact Cup convert Wiggin opened up by taking the lead of race one at Shell on lap five of 10, thereby extending his winning streak – started at Snetterton – to four. Ben Short ended his run in race two, coming out on top of the early skirmishes with Wiggin, who also lost out to Langridge by the end of lap two. Former Fiesta racer Langridge held on to a second successive second place, despite Wiggin’s best efforts.
Wiggin made a poor start to the final race, dropping back to fifth by Cascades as Short converted pole into an early lead. Langridge took over into Hislops on lap five but double 5 Club champion Short elbowed back in front at Knickerbrook, with Langridge mugged down to sixth.
Wiggin was one of those to profit, and two laps later swept ahead of Short at Cascades, with Blackwell-chambers following him through. Langridge salvaged a podium by passing Short at Old Hall on the final lap.
“To come away with three podiums is lovely, but that last race was really spicy – proper Mazda racing,” said new championship leader Langridge.
The most frequent podium visitor in the MX-5 Super Series, Joe Marshall-birks, added three more at Oulton, including two victories at his home track.
The 20-year-old from Crewe had an excellent fight with James Kell in race one, with Marshall-birks twice taking the lead around the outside at Old Hall, only to lose it again at Cascades on the first occasion. Behind Kell, Garry Townsend became the 17th different podium finisher of 2019.
Marshall-birks was hampered in race two by a five-place grid penalty for an on-board camera infringement, but he was ahead by Old Hall on lap three of 10 and held on to beat Kell by a tenth. Kell turned the tables in the final race, where Marshall-birks lost places after a safety car restart and had to pass Kell’s father Darren to reclaim second.
Red flags at the end of race one and beginning of race two blighted the Northern Formula Ford rounds. In the first, Jack Wolfenden (Firman) lost the lead to Tom Mcarthur (Medina) at Hislops on lap three and was hoping to manage his overheating car and make a late attack, but was thwarted by the stoppage.
Mcarthur led throughout the restarted second race while Wolfenden battled with the returning Chris Chisnall (Medina) initially. Wolfenden challenged Mcarthur on the final lap, but the leader missed a gear at Druids and Wolfenden made contact, dropping to fifth, while Chisnall went off into the barriers in avoidance.
Nigel Dolan (Van Diemen) was promoted to second behind Mcarthur.
William Heslop did the double in the ST-XR Challenge races in a bid to improve on third in the standings. The XR2 driver led from lights-to-flag in the opener, in spite of close attention from Greg Speight. The later race was reduced to a one-lap sprint after a safety car, with Heslop grabbing the lead from Speight immediately. Erstwhile championship leader Adam Brown managed third and fourth.