Round 4 - Oulton Park - 24 July 2010
OULTON PARK RACE REPORT
Hughes and Firth master Oulton variables.
Warren Hughes and Jody Firth proved strong winners at the SPEED series 3-hour enduro at Oulton Park, Cheshire on Saturday, the WFR backed pair driving Bryce Wilson’s quick Ligier to victory by nearly 80 seconds. Second was the Rob Garofall/ Barry Gates RLR machine ahead of that team’s second car in the hands of Belgium ice rink mogul Christophe Burrick and young British hot-shoe, James Rigby.
A disappointing small grid had been assembled for this event with many regular runners on holiday, tied up with the Silverstone Classic and other overseas events. The race numbers were further reduced during Friday testing when the Accurate Racing Ligier of Mohsin Rashid and Adrian Medeiros shed a rear wheel going into Old Hall Corner at the end of the pit straight and smote the barriers heavily. The chassis was too badly damaged for this weekend but the team expect to be ready for the Silverstone Le Mans Series support event in September and will probably take the opportunity to build various upgrades into the car at the same time.
This meant that just 7 cars were scrutineered on Saturday morning including the Jota Sport entry of Sam Hancock and Simon Dolan, the works run Norma of Jean-Lou Rihon and Nick Padmore and two Class C cars, the SR3 of Sean Mellors and Gary Ramsdale and the Prosport version for Graham Hill. Class C cars would run their 90-minute race whilst the remainder would run the full three hours.
A sunny morning was clouding over by noon and sure enough just as the Formula palmer Audi cars went to the grid for the race before ours the heavens opened and wets had to be hurriedly fitted. The rain had stopped but the circuit was not totally dry for the SPEED cars and more rain was distinctly possible. Most went to the grid on slicks and those on wets worried as to how long they would last.
From the green light at the end of the rolling start lap Warren Hughes threw the Ligier into the corners and crept away from the rest with every lap. The second on the grid Jota Ligier being driven by Simon Dolan was closing on third place after a poor start but he went off, across the gravel and into the tyre barrier. He managed to get the car back to the pits but after initial hopes that it could be repaired in half an hour, the damage including broken suspension mounts and drive shaft ruled the car out after just 20 minutes of racing.
Hughes pitted after about 90 minutes, took on fuel and handed a useful lead to Firth, the team expecting to run to the finish. Garofall handed over to Gates and just after the weather played another black card, the back side of the circuit under much heavier rain than the pit straight. Rigby came in early to hand over to Burrick and take on wets, whilst everybody else also changed to the safer tyre. Within minutes the rain had stopped and this meant another change before the finish. Graham Hill won the Class C race with Mellors/Ramsdale second although they ran out of gas on the last lap resulting in a Safety Car period whilst the Radical was recovered. Jean-Lou Rihon’s Norma has had an electrical problem restarting after a pit stop but Nick Padmore was taking time out of everyone but far too far off the positions to be effective in the results.
The race ran out in the dry with the Hughes/Firth car comfortably ahead and Gates/Garofall concentrating to keep the gap to Burrick/Rigby balanced. Rihon/Padmore took the final CN place.
SPEED promoter Stuart McCrudden advised that an MSA inspection of Donington was scheduled for early August when a decision would be made as to whether that track or another could offer another venue prior to the planned season closing with the Silverstone LMS event in September.
