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Debut LMA Euro Saloons race win for Richard Hawken
Richard Buckley wins but loses ground on Simon Taylor
The trip north to Oulton Park lost a few of the drivers, but still a decent grid of 19 cars made qualifying as the LMA Euro Saloons enters the latter part of the season and a return to regular racing after a
six week gap.
Qualifying
As befits Oulton Park's status as a fast track, qualifying was dominated by the Class A cars taking the first three places. Newcomer Mark Taylor put his ex-BTCC Honda
Accord on pole by three seconds, things were a lot closer behind with Tony Soper's newly rebuilt Alfa Romeo GTV just holding off Richard Hawken's recently acquired Nissan Primera by the slimmest of margins. Nigel
Ainge stirred things up in Class C by out-qualifying championship contender and Class C leader Richard Buckley's similar Honda Integra by 0.7 seconds, with Class B leader Nicky Leventis splitting them in his BMW M3.
A little further down the grid, championship leader Simon Taylor was in a group of five cars occupying 10th through 14th and separated by less than 2 seconds, suggesting the promise of some close and
interesting racing in the midfield.
Race
18 cars made the start of the race late in the afternoon, Chris Brogden's Fiat Uno suffering head gasket problems in the morning. Richard Hawken got the
drop on Tony Soper on the first lap and set about chasing Mark Taylor who was maintaining a steady 2-3 second lead. In Class B Nicky Leventis held a comfortable lead of 3-4 seconds from Jason Holmes (Rover 220
Coupe) and slowly extended this throughout the race. Nigel Ainge held off Richard Buckley for the first lap before Buckley got by, but the two remained no more than half a second apart until Ainge went off late in
the race handing the Class spoils to Buckley, but not before having set fastest lap and robbing Buckley of valuable points.
Mark Taylor pulled out after four laps with gearbox problems leaving Richard
Hawken free to take his debut Euro Saloons win, 10 seconds clear of Tony Soper.
John Hammersley romped to victory in Class D but spent most of the race being harried by the Proton Coupe of Phillip
Burton as they gradually pulled clear of Ian Collins' Proton and Simon Jackson's Vauxhall Nova. Jackson was having a storming race, heading Collins to the last 2 laps, a late attempt to regain the position ended
with a trip across the scenery losing some 7 seconds but posting another Class F win. Alex Schooledge (Vauxhall Vectra ST) had started from the back of the grid and struggled to make ground in the early stages of
the race, some excitement going off at Lodge didn't slow him down though, and he stormed through the last three laps gaining 6 places while doing so. Good to see the Vectra working well at last.
Simon
Taylor (Honda Civic) maintained his charge towards the championship with a comfortable win from Neil Threadgill (Renault Clio) in Class E, and with 240 points, extends his lead by two points from Richard Buckley
(232) with Jason Holmes (174) maintaining his grip on 3rd place.
Overall:
Winner: Richard Hawken (Nissan Primera), 2nd Tony Soper (Alfa Romeo GTV), 3rd Richard Buckley (Honda Integra), 4th Nicky
Leventis (BMW M3), 5th ZAK (MG ZR180), 6th Richard Perks (Honda Civic)
Class Winners:
Class A Hawken, Class B Leventis, Class C Buckley, Class D John Hammersley (MG ZR160), Class E Simon Taylor
(Honda Civic), Class F Simon Jackson (Vauxhall Nova)
Fastest lap: Mark Taylor 1:53.687 (85.24mph)
Report by Trevor Nicosia, Car 10
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