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Our second trip this season to Oulton Park, this time we were going to drive on the shorter Fosters circuit
All photos courtesy of James Roberts.
Qualifying
Overnight rain had left the track wet, but as fourth session of the morning there was a good chance of a drying track for the LMA Euro Saloon & Sports Car
drivers, and so it turned out, although grip levels were inconsistent around the circuit.
Yet another full entry of 30 cars set out for a hastily called session minus, John Hammersley who
found the ex-Simon Blanckley Honda Accord had a similar aversion to mornings as his regular steed. Mal Davison was the class of the field heading the times by over 1.5 seconds from Nick Williamson's
four wheel drive Escort Cosworth, and only a second short of his dry track times here last season. Once again Steven Taylor's Lotus Exige was right in the mix in 4th place and heading Class B but
Simon Taylor just 7/10ths behind in his Class D Honda Civic was surely the star of the session.
Ian Craig (BMW M3) headed a large Class C contingent from the Rover Tomcats of Dan Crossley
and David Roberts while winner of every Class E race this season, Simon Jackson was plainly going to have his work cut out to make up 5 seconds on
Mark Hammersley's Ford Fiesta. Bad luck award for the day went to Jason Newman whose new Peugeot engine lasted only 5 laps, not a good way to celebrate his 21st birthday!
 Race 1
The rain came down over lunch and the race was most definitely a wet one. Even with two green flag laps the conditions seemed to catch many drivers off guard with four cars falling off
on the racing first lap – two were unable to resume – setting the scene for the race. Nick Williamson got away first but Mal Davison was climbing all over the Escort's rear bumper and just managed
to get past on lap 5 as the race was red flagged, so medical assistance could be sent to Nigel Woodbridge who had crashed on lap 1. Thankfully Nigel seems to be OK
With a long (more than 30 minutes) wait for the restart, two of the Super Tourers were wheeled off the grid unable to restart, so we lost Alvin Powell and Derek Hale. Mal got the better of Nick this time but his
lead only lasted one lap when Nick got by and held on to win the shortened race by just 3/10th from Mal. Steven Taylor took 3rd and Class B win, in the Exige, while John Hammersley had got up to 4th place
after starting at the back, once the Accord had finally started. Simon Taylor kept up his perfect record by winning Class D in 5th place with Class D driver Jim Mepham taking 6th in the Renault Megane.
 Derek Kelly-Cooper came through to win
Class C in his Vauxhall Vectra, pole man Ian Craig falling well behind to 5th in class in the wet conditions, while Mark Hammersley took Class E honours ending Simon Jackson's 100% win record.
Race 2
The big question for race 2 was what tyres to run. The track appeared to be drying, but the rain kept drizzling and there were bad weather warnings about heavier rain approaching from the south.
The two Ford Mondeos of Alvin Powell and Bernard Hogarth chose to race on slicks as did Class C leader Stephen Pearcy, while everyone else went with wets, which subsequently
turned out to be a bad call, as the track was drier than in qualifying in the morning.
With Steven Taylor pulling out on the formation lap, Mal Davison got away first from John Hammersley,
but Hammersley got back through to lead for a couple of laps before Mal finally made the position stick, Mal going on to win by 6 seconds. Hammersley was slowed after a couple of "offs", one at Lodge
passing a lower class car, and another when getting tangled with Bernard Hogarth. This allowed Alvin Powell to come through from the back to take 2nd with Bernard bringing the other Mondeo home in 4th.
 The Class B win went to Douglas
Ellwood whose Marcos Mantis was enjoying the dryer conditions. All change in Class C with Angus Dawe (BMW M3) winning narrowly from Stephen Pearcy (Rover 220Gti) while the biggest
surprise came in Class D. Simon Taylor lost 4 places on the last lap to narrowly lose (for the first time this season) to Andrew Neal's Honda Integra. In Class E Mark Hammersley again proved too
fast for Simon Jackson.
Mal Davison played his joker in race 2 and now moves up to second overall, 40 points behind Simon Taylor – but with one score to drop at the end of the season the gap could be
down to just 22 points so its still all to play for in the remaining three races.
Result:
Race 1: Winner: Nick Williamson (Ford Escort Cosworth), 2nd Mal Davison (Noble M400), 3rd Steven
Taylor (Lotus Exige), 4th John Hammersley (Honda Accord), 5th Simon Taylor (Honda Civic Type R), 6th Jim Mepham (Renault Megane Coupe), 7th Douglas Ellwood (Marcos Mantis), 8th Derek Kelly-Cooper (Vauxhall Vectra)
Class Winners: Class A Williamson, Class B Steven Taylor, Class C Derek Kelly-Cooper, Class D Simon Taylor, Class E Mark Hammersley (Ford Fiesta)
Fastest lap: Williamson 1:12.987 (81.878mph)
Race 2: Winner: Mal Davison (Noble M400), 2nd Alvin Powell (Ford Mondeo), 3rd John Hammersley (Honda Accord), 4th Bernard Hogarth (Ford Mondeo) 5th Angus Dawe (BMW M3), 6th Stephen Pearcy
(Rover 220GTi), 7th Andrew Neal (Honda Integra), 8th Simon Taylor (Honda Civic Type R)
Class Winners: Class A Mal Davison, Class B Douglas Ellwood (Marcos Mantis), Class C Dawe, Class
D Andrew Neal, Class E Mark Hammersley (Ford Fiesta)
Fastest lap: Alvin Powell 1:07.549 (88.469 mph)
Next race: Brands Hatch 9th September
With support from Mark Fish Motorsport and Alpha Composites
Report by Trevor Nicosia, Car 10 ( www.nyssaracing.com )
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