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Oulton Park
April 9th
The opening round should have seen 20 cars, but we
lost Anthony Wills during the preceeding week, when it was confirmed that the
RP21 had failed to make it out of Bernard’s workshop before he departed to
Friday pre race testing saw several drivers take to
the track, to blow out the cobwebs after the winter lay off. Both John Hesp and
Jon Nash wished they hadn’t bothered, as JH suffered a brake disc failure which
chucked him into the barrier, taking off a corner. JN, running with Colin
Williams’ old engine from last season, blew it up (his rebuilt engine having
been blown up whilst on the dyno !!) So we were down to 17. 14 Class Bs, and only 3 Class
As. With Peter Denham off to Monoposto having sold the Merlyn, and Steve
Collyer being tempted across the channel to race in the European CFF
Championship, and Steve Bradley defecting to Class B, things are looking bleak
again for the pre 74s. Dave Lowe was there of course (this being his third
meeting of the year already..), as was Keith Ward in his first outing since
Thruxton, and a welcome back to Jon Davis in his DL11. Class B was headed by current champion Paul Walton, with Richard Shelton in his repainted 25F. Steve Bradley was out in the ex Mike Messenger RF80 now owned by Ian Millward. Other Class B regulars included Simon Davey, Colin Williams, Dave Malpas, and Jeff Palmer. Graham Legget was back out in Paul Smith’s immaculate 25F, and it was good to see Alan Williamson, Mac McKillop, Michael Whitehead and David Owen. And finally, a warm welcome to two new boys : Michael Burdon in a PRS, and Paul Mills in a fabulous RF80 that he has built up over the past 2 years. Qualifying late morning was cold but dry. Simon Davey
broke his gear linkage on his out lap, and toured round in second to record 3
timed laps. David Owen spun at Druids, stalled, but made the mistake of being
too courteous to his fellow drivers by parking it out of harms way. The
It was a long,, cold and wet afternoon waiting for the
race. Amazingly, we had got away with 10 dry races in 2004, so I suppose it had
to happen eventually. Although it had stopped raining, it was still rather
slippery, as was evidenced by one or two bent FF2000s which got caught out 2
races earlier. Most had elected for a
wet set up. At the start, Paul bogged down with wheelspin,
allowing Dave and Richard through. Richard’s second place was short lived, as
Paul made it past on the first run down to Knickerbrook, and then set about
passing Dave. This he succeeded on lap 2 at Druids, to take a lead that,
despite very close attention from Dave, he was not to lose. Dave kept him very
busy to take the Class A honours, with Richard taking 3rd overall,
having lost touch towards the end when lapping
the tailend. Simon did not disappoint in his recovery drive from the
back row, and made it all the way up to 4th overall by flag fall. Jon was
hugely pleased to complete an untroubled if rather lonely race to 5th
(and 2nd in Class A). This was an excellent achievement from the
novice driver who secured his first Novice Challenge victory. Further back, there had been a great dice between
Steve, Colin, Dave Malpas and Graham, who circulated for most of the race
within a couple of seconds of each other. It all went pear shaped for poor
Colin on lap 9, when he pitted from 6th with fading oil pressure.
Graham then spun at Old Hall, allowing Dave to inherit 6th, but only
to spin himself at Cascades ! This allowed Steve to resume in front to take the
6th place, with Graham coming in 7th and Dave in 8th.
Michael Burdon had a trouble free run to an unlapped 9th in his
first race. With Colin being classified 10th, Paul Mills also
finished his first race in 11th, with Michael Whitehead, Keith
(still suffering from gear trouble) and David Owen completing the finishers. Of the retirements, Jeff Palmer had a manifold bolt
fall out, with Alan Williamson and Mac making contact at the hairpin on lap 1. See a more comprehensive race report by Kevin Turner
on www.ff1600.co.uk , together with photos by Lee Chatburn, for
which you have my thanks, and we look forward to seeing you again later in the
season. And so to Silverstone next weekend. Let’s hope everyone who had problems at Oulton can get them sorted – a busy week ahead for some ! ADH.
Cobra Driver of the Day - Paul Mills | |
