Fun Cup UK Final Round Oulton Park

The Fun Cup series delivered one of the races of the year to close out their season at Oulton Park last Saturday (14th October), as four cars battled for the win and the championship in a four hour endurance encounter at the Cheshire circuit.

JPR UVio, Track Torque 2Rent Dominos and Team Trooper all went into the final race of the year with a chance of taking the title, but as the flag fell it was the #1 JPR UVio car of Farquini Deott and Graham Roberts which took the crown, behind the race winning DespatchBay.com car of Andy Bicknell and Marcus Clutton.

The race got off to a fractured start, with three safety car interventions within the opening half an hour, as the 30 car field struggled to sort themselves out on the narrow track. Following the first round of pitstops, the DespatchBay.com car of Marcus Clutton was in the lead, ahead of Paul Turner and Henry Dawes.

By the end of the first hour, Clutton had pulled out a comparatively large 3.3 second lead over Paul Turner, as ex-BTCC racer Anthony Reid brought the Team Trooper car into the leading group. This left the championship title contenders in second, third and fourth place in the race. The safety car made another appearance as the race hit the two hour mark, and most of the leading cars dived for the pit lane to change drivers.

In the third hour the top ten cars were all on the lead lap, with Andy Bickell keeping the DespatchBay.com car in the lead, closely followed by Chris Hart in the 2Rent Dominos car. Behind Hart, Franquni Deott and Harry Mailer were engaged in a battle over third place, from which Mailer emerged victorious. He then set off after Chris Hart and passed him for second place. Mailer then set his sights on Andy Bickell and the leading of the race, finally making the pass on lap 78 out of Old Hall. This left the race finely poised at the final round of pitstops.

After the stops Jake Rattenbury led for Team Trooper, with Graham Roberts pressing very hard in the UVio car. The two leaders eventually touched, allowing Henry Dawes and a charging Marcus Clutton to close. In successive laps, Clutton went from third to first place and then opening up a lead, taking a well deserved win for DespatchBay.com. The JPR UVio pairing of Farquini Deott and Graham Roberts took second at the flag, and with it the championship crown. The final step of the podium went to Track Torque 2Rent Dominos, driven by Chris Hart and Henry Dawes.

In the support races, Joshua Smith took victory in both races for the Avon Tyres Northern Formula Ford 1600 Championship on the final weekend of the championship. In the F1000 championship, Michael Watton took an unchallenged victory in race one. In race 2, Robert Sayell took the win following a retirement for Watton. Victory in the final rounds of the Electrovape.co.uk XR Challenge went to Justin Roberts in race one and Greg Speight in race 2.

Full results can be found here.