BARC Oulton Park – 29th March 2014

The warmest day of 2014 so far greeted a good crowd and packed grids for the opening meeting of the season at Oulton Park, with the BARC North Western Centre’s flagship CNC Heads Sports Saloon Championship taking centre stage.

With a hugely oversubscribed grid, the CNC Heads championship were given two races, with the slower Class D, E and F cars going first. Paul Dobson led the field away in his Lightning McQueen liveried Mazda RX-7, with Ilsa Cox attempting to give chase in her Seat Leon Supercopa. Dobson built a good lead by half distance, sliding the flame spitting Mazda around a sunny Oulton Park. Cox mounted a late charge that brought her within a second of Dobson by the finish, but ran out of time to challenge for the win. Tony Ellis finished third after a superb fight back from dead last in his older RX-7.

Classes A, B and C got their turn later in the day, with Paul Rose leading the field away from pole in his Subaru powered Saker Rapx. Robert Spencer initially gave a spirited chase in his Stuart Taylor Locosaki, but eventually fell away to finish over 30 seconds behind the bright red Saker. Alistair Chalmers rounded out the Podium in his Caterham.

The MSA British Superkarts provided the fastest action of the day, with Liam Morley setting a new lap record of 101.75mph in his very rapid 250cc Anderson in the Divison 1 Superkart. Liam along with four other Superkarts were just guesting off the back of the grid and made to start behind the packed grid of 125cc Open Karts but soon came through the field. Reigning champion Paul Platt made short work of the rest of the pack, surging to a large early lead and then continuing to lap in the 1m 40s bracket, the only driver to do so, and crossed the line to win followed by Stephen Clark (F450 so not eligible for MSA points), Dan Clark and Toby Davis. In race two the grid was a bit depleted due to various non-starters but it was a close first lap between Clark and Platt. By lap 2 however, Paul Platt was at the front and then got to work pulling out a lead which by half race distance was a good 2.5 seconds. As they went over the line it was Platt, Stephen Clark (F450), Dan Clark & Toby Davis.

The day had begun with a typically close fought encounter from the Citroen 2CV racers. These may be the most unlikely looking racing cars, but they produce excellent racing. Pete Sparrow took the spoils in the first of the day’s three races, with the top three being separated by less than two seconds at the chequered flag.

Peter Rundle and Simon Clarke broke away and finished 25 seconds clear of the field in race two, with Rundle completing a double and sealing victory in the non-championship race at the end of the day.

Full results can be found here

Words and photography by Richard Crawford

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