Vintage Sports Car Club Oulton Park

Good weather and a very healthy crowd greeted the Vintage Sports Car Club on their return to Oulton Park for the Hawthorn Memorial Trophy meeting last weekend (18th July).

A huge variety of vintage machinery took to the Cheshire circuit, with everything from a 1950s Indy Car to a 1935 Fiat roadster represented.

Top billing went to the Premier Cru race for Pre-War racing cars. Despite a thin grid of just six cars taking the start, Nick Topliss in ERA R4A and Paddins Dowling in ERA10B showed you only need two cars to make an entertaining race.

Topliss made the better start, and opened up a sizeable lead in his 80 year old Grand Prix racer. However, Dowling set about chipping away at the gap, and finally took the lead with a do or die move at Fosters on the final lap of the race.

The ERA battle resumed later in the afternoon during the Hawthorn Memorial Trophy race, but this time for third place, with the Kurtis Indy Roadster of Fred Harper being more than a match for the 1930s Grand Prix machines.

The Boulogne Trophy for Vintage Racing Cars provided the most entertaining race of the day. Five cars fought a frantic battle for the lead, with Tom Walker’s 11.7 liter Amilcar Hispano Special emerging victorious after 12 minutes of fantastic competition.

Other winners included Nigel Hall, Andrew Mitchell and Julian Grimwade, while the Frazer Nash squad took Team Relay victory in the day’s closing race.