LAST-LAP DRAMA STRIKES AMID MGCC ACTION
There was drama aplenty in MG Car Club’s Oulton Park meeting last Saturday wherein no fewer than three last-lap leaders lost victory.
Jason Burgess got back to winning ways in MG Trophy, beating the returning Ross Makar in the opening race. Burgess looked set for another win in race two after passing poleman Adam Jackson after a frenzied battle, but Burgess pulled off on the final lap with a vibration, caused by two wheel studs shearing. Jackson therefore took victory.
Burgess told Motorsport News: “I got side-by-side with [Jackson] coming on the start-finish straight and that lasted all the way down to Shell [Oils hairpin], it was fantastic.
“Then I had a mechanical breakdown on the last half of the last lap. [But] I had a lot of fun and some good racing, and that’s what you come for.”
There was a similar tale in the Midget and Sprite Challenge, as Richard Bridge dominated. The returning Stephen Collier likely would have challenged him, but he couldn’t set a qualifying time as a rotor arm failed. He recovered to finish second in race one but brake and exhaust problems kept him out of race two.
Bridge won the opener and was repeating the trick in race two until he stopped on the last lap with what he suspects was a broken halfshaft. Reigning champion Pippa Cow inherited first.
Champion Mark Eales was first home in the Metro opener, a task made easier when early leader and title rival Mike Williams’car mysteriously cut out then righted itself, by which time he was at the back. Eales though at the last lost victory with a 10-second penalty for a false start that dropped him to third. Dan Willars took the win.
Eales though won the second Metro race, holding off an eager Williams throughout. The race took place on a shared grid with MG Cup after a late timetable change.
With championship leader Richard Buckley absent with work commitments, both MG Cup races were won by Fergus Campbell in his dayglo-liveried MG ZR 170. And Campbell’s day was even more impressive as he also raced his ZR 170 in the two MG Trophy races, and thanks to the late timetable change his last two races were back to back.
The first Cockshoot Cup race was truncated by a lengthy safety car period, which left a two-lap sprint for honours. And there was still drama as Keith Egar in his Midget swept past Paul Wignall’s MG ZS 180 for first entering the final lap, then Wignall crashed out almost immediately exiting Old Hall.
Egar doubled up in race two, this time keeping the chasing
Karl Green in his ZS 180 at arm’s length.
Andrew Thompson dominated the first Morgan Challenge race, helped by that poleman Tom Andrew first had a poor start then dropped out as his gearbox was lapsing to its automatic shift setting, creating various problems.
In race two though Thompson had to give best to Roger Whiteside’s +8, which got past Thompson at half distance then pulled clear.