Oulton Park Gold Cup 2013

Glorious weather and a packed entry of over 400 historic racing cars greeted a big crowd for this year’s Oulton Park Gold Cup meeting.

With the Cheshire circuit celebrating its 60th anniversary in 2013, the organisers had arranged a fantastic 20 race programme spread over two days.

Topping the bill were a pair of races for the Super Touring Cars of the 80s and 90s. In true BTCC style, the first race featured controversy aplenty. Derek Palmer qualified his ex-David Leslie Nissan Primera on pole position for Sunday’s opening race, but it Paul Smith who stole the show, using the turbocharged power of his Ford Sierra RS500 to lead into Old Hall on lap one.

Smith led the pack until lap three, when former BTCC driver Patrick Watts attempted to pass the Ford driver at Cascades, causing a hefty collision between his Peugeot 406 and the Sierra, and bringing out the safety car. Both cars were forced to retire, leaving James Dodd’s Honda Accord heading the pack. The following six laps featured a titantic battle between Dodd, Stewart Whyte and 90s BTCC fan favourite John Cleland. Dodd eventually pulled out a slender lead, with Whyte bearing Cleland back into third. Monday’s second race was a much tamer affair, with James Dodd taking another victory from Stewart Whyte, with touring car legend Tim Harvey finishing on the podium in the Labatt’s Sierra RS500

The HSCC Guards Trophy grids were bursting with high quality entries, resulting in the Sports Racing and GT classes getting a separate race each. The prototypes went first, with the bank holiday crowd being treated to a superb tussle between the V8 power of Chris Goodwin’s McLaren M1 and the agility of Martin O’Connell’s Chevron B8. McLaren factory driver Goodwin held the narrowest of leads until three laps before the flag, when gearbox failure lead to his retirement. O’Connell swept to a commanding lead, heading an all Chevron B8 podium at the marque’s home circuit.

In the 40-minute GT mini enduro, Mike Whittaker had to use all of his 4.7 litre V8 power to keep Dan Eagling’s nimble Lotus Elan at bay around the undulating Oulton Park circuit. Chris Scragg took the final podium spot in his Jaguar E-Type.

Monday saw the single seaters of the Derek Bell Trophy take centre stage, with Michael Lyons stealing the show in the day’s opening encounter. The young driver took no prisoners in his fearsome F5000 Lola T400, flinging the V8 powered car around Oulton Park before spinning at Knickerbrook, handing the lead to Greg Thornton in his March 761 Formula 1 car. Lyons had fought back to second when a huge six car accident at the top of Clay Hill brought the race to a premature halt.

The second Derek Bell Trophy race saw Lyons taking over his father’s Hesketh F1 car, and starting from the back of the grid. He wasted no time in despatching the field of F2, F5000 and Formula Atlantic cars, taking only a few laps to catch the leaders. A fantastic scrap between Lyons, Greg Thornton and the F5000 Lola of Neil Glover ensued, with the power of the Chevrolet V8 in Glover’s car balancing perfectly with the more agile F1 cars of Lyons and Thornton. Lyons forced his way past, and pulled out a large lead by the end of the 20 minute race. Thorton took second, with Mark Dywer getting past Glover in his F2 March-BMW.

The Oulton Park rally stage also featured action on both days, with a wide variety of historic rally cars running throughout the weekend. The crowd was also treated to a Spitfire aerial display on Monday lunchtime, rounding off a truly fantastic celebration at one of the UK’s finest circuits.

Full results from all 20 races can be found here.

Words and photography by Richard Crawford

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