Datum Motorsport completed a clean sweep of every overall win so far in Race 2 at Oulton Park, with Maurizio Sciglio and Marco Anastasi once again posting a one-two finish in the teams’ Ginetta G56 GTA machines – they kept those positions from lights to flag, except for a one-lap sojourn mid-race, where they took their mandatory pit stops side-by-side, and ended the race a quarter of a minute apart. Behind them, Neill Wallace, starting the SVG Ginetta, relinquished an early third place to the similar Assetto machine of Robin Grimwood, but after the pit stops, Ian Astley used his experience garnered over more than a quarter of a century to chase down the final podium place; cutting over a second a lap out of the gap to Grimwood, it stabilised in traffic, then a pass on the penultimate lap saw the veteran GT specialist bag third place, over five seconds to the good at the flag. Jonny MacGregor and Josh Tomlinson, in the MacG Racing Mazda RX8, put in a solid performance to finish a safe fifth overall, and in possibly his best performance so far, Callum Noble, in the Thorney Motorsport BMW E46 that John Thorne’s team had hurriedly repaired the gearbox, had cut through the field from the back row to finish sixth.

Oulton Park hosted the first Trophy Championship races under our new title sponsor ROWE

It was a better race for the TSR VW Golf this time, although a bit smokey, Rob Ellick partnered-up with Callum Noble’s BMW to ease a cut-through from the back of the grid in the opening laps, and Fynn Jones consolidated the Class 3 lead in his second stint, taking seventh overall, and the class win by a lap over Steve and Ed Cook’s Honda Civic, while Race 1 class winner Will Puttergill’s pace in his Civic fell dramatically in the closing laps, and he struggled home to third place, and it was an unusual DNF for Paul Goodlad, who parked his VW Scirocco out on the circuit with suspension failure. Arthur McMahon made it a brace of Class 2 wins in his Mauger Motorsport Honda Civic, and the Team BRIT squad had repaired the suspension of the BMW 240i with road-car components, opening-stint driver Paul Fullick reckoning the handling was “like a bag of washing in a washing machine”, but nevertheless, Tee Mathurin brought it home to pick up the second-place silverware.

Andy Tucker and Ollie Meadows piloted the High Row Motorsport Clio to a class win

 

The Clio class, as before, provided some intense racing, and it was once again High Row and Dragon Sport to the fore. Andy Tucker led for High Row, shadowed by Rhys Lloyd’s Dragon Sport machine, in the first half of the race, and the positions were maintained by Ollie Meadows and Jack Meakin in their stints, with Tucker’s performance earning him his long-awaited and coveted Driver of the Day award. Third place once again went to Chris Bialan and Simon Mason in the rejuvenated Sim Dynamics Clio, with High Row’s James Harrison and Ben Jenkins ahead of lone driver Craig Guest in the Spires Motorsport car, while it wasn‘t the best day for the Dragon Sport entry of Travis Coyne and Jake Hewlett; beset by penalties in Race 1, they lost time in an unplanned pit stop early on to fix an errant front valance, which put them down the order, finishing a lap down on the rest of the class. Again, Alex Turnbull stood on the top step of the podium in the Ginetta G40 category; no BMW to dice with this time, but nevertheless, two exemplary races from the lone driver.

Words: Steve Wood; photos: Paul Cherry.

Andy Tucker – Driver of the Day