Oulton Park 30 July 2011
We attended a track day at Silverstone on 19 July with the Tipo. Owner Rich Ellingham wanted to try it out on the full Silverstone GP circuit and was going well despite reporting wheel bearing noise straight away. By the end of the day he was also reporting that the brake discs were warped - these were the ventilated discs with separate bells fitted in time for our last race. Rich came back with the view "my car is knackered", so we won't be racing it again this year.
From our perspective, we are now concentrating on 2012.
Round seven of the 2011 BRSCC Euro Saloon and Sports Car Championship as we enter the second half of the season was held on the full International circuit at Oulton Park.
Qualifying:
Qualifying came to an abrupt halt on the opening lap as Nick Boon's Honda Civic launched itself into the barriers bringing out a red flag. With 17 cars remaining at the restart, and a 2.7 mile circuit, it was a lot easier to get in a clear lap.
Nick Williamson (Escort Cosworth) got the best of a large and varied Class A entry, narrowly eclipsing the existing Euro Saloons lap record, and 1.4 seconds clear of Brett Winstanley (Porsche Turbo) with Doug Ellword (Marcos Mantis) as far back again in 3rd place. Richard Hawken's team had done sterling work in getting the Nissan Primera rebuilt after the off at Pembrey just 4 weeks ago, but he still missed Class B pole by 2 seconds with Ilsa Cox (Seat Leon) taking the honours.
Ian Craig (BMW M3) took a comfortable Class C pole and 7th overall, while Class D was bolstered by the Vauxhall Vectra Challenge cars, David Hinde narrowly taking pole from Class leader Andy Jordan (Renault Clio). Boon's early demise left Simon Jackson (MG ZR) as the only Class E runner to qualify.
Race:
A storming first lap saw Williamson build up a 5 second lead over Barry Squibb (Mitsubishi Evo), with Ellwood just holding off Winstanley for 3rd place. Winstanley moved up to third on lap 2 but now Williamson's gap back to Squibb was 7.8 seconds, by lap 3 it was up to 8.7 as Williamson looked a sure bet for an easy win. On lap 4 Winstanley moved up to 2nd and showed that he could run at a faster pace than the leader, the gap was now coming lap by almost a second a lap. At the end, Winstanley ran out of laps, Williamson taking the win by 1 second after losing almost 3 seconds on the final lap as Winstanley posted the fastest lap of the race. Squibb and Ellwood had been running in close company throughout the race, but the gap remained constant around 0.7 seconds as Squibb came home 3rd.
Cox and Hawken enjoyed a race long battle for Class B, Hawken finally get past Cox on lap 7 after which he raced to 5th overall and class win, while Cox fell back to 7th, some 5 seconds adrift, the pair being split by the Class A Audi of Jan van Nierop.
Ian Craig carried on his qualifying form to take an easy Class C win from Nick Hayes (Seat Leon) with Mark Todd (Seat Leon) finishing 3rd in class, a lap down after a spin. The two Vectras of Hinde and Craig Odams were battling hard, with Hinde narrowly holding off his opponent until suffering CV joint failure and handing the Class D win to Odams, with Andy Jordan a long way back in 2nd place, and best Clio.
Check out the current points
standing.
Send comments to: webmaster@nyssaracing.com
