MUCH TO ENJOY
AS EQUIPE VISIT
OULTON PARK

As ever, our annual visit to Oulton Park provided some great and memorable racing.

We all hope you enjoyed it as much as we did and headed home happy! We had close battles and worthy winners with plenty going on down the order in pretty much every race and even had the Cheshire sun shining down on us for much of the day.

Equipe Sports Prototypes
The Equipe Sports Prototypes started the day’s race action, Mike Jenvey continuing his fine form in his Jenvey-Gunn with pole, the Spire of local driver, Joe Lock sharing the front row. Jenvey made the best start, Lock slotting in behind and these two already had a gap at the end of lap one, Clint Newman third in his Praga T1.

Lock was pushing hard but Jenvey had the pace to ease away lap by lap, as Newman came under pressure from the Revolution 500 EVO of Alastair Boulton, Max Windheuser in turn closing on that pair. Boulton claimed third down the inside into Old Hall as they started lap five, Newman holding off Windheuser’s Norma four laps later as they went side-by-side down the pit straight.

Windheuser decisively claimed fourth on lap 12 and set off after Boulton, within half a second of him at the end and having to settle for fourth. At the front, a brief shower caused Jenvey to back off, but he was soon back on the pace and headed Lock home.

Race two was late in the afternoon and again Jenvey got away well, Lock down the order and retiring on lap two. Jenvey was able to pull away, while behind we had a resumption of the race one battle, Boulton second with Windheuser behind and Newman next up.

Jenvey was never threatened out the front but for the next three the gaps altered as the race progressed, Boulton under pressure from Windheuser, who would then slip back and have to hold off Newman. Jenvey took the win,  while Windheuser got past Boulton heading into lap 13 only for Boulton’s Revolution to go off at the Shell Hairpin, WIndheuser thus second and Newman rounding off the podium.

Equipe 70s with Equipe Sports Racing Cars
The Equipe 70s and Equipe Sports Car fields shared the grid for their races, the 70s field lining up in front of the sports cars, and it proved an intriguing 40-minute race with some good battles. Steve Dance has been on fine from recently in his Ford Capri RS3100 and led the field away, The Porsche 911 RS of Tim Bates working hard to stay with him in the opening laps and Rob Cull’s Ford Escort RS1800 third.

Dance pulled away as the early laps progressed, Bates and Cull running second and third, while Andrew Cahill had his Escort in fourth but was working hard to hold off the Morgan Plus 8 of Andrew Wenman.

Next up on the road was the lead Equipe Sports Car battle, Joel Hopwood’s Chevron B8 just ahead of the B6 started by Nick Thompson.

Dance made his pitstop at the end of his tenth lap, Bates in a lap later and Cull in turn putting from the lead one lap after him. A slick stop put Cull right back with Bates, and the Escort moved into second with a great move round the outside at the Shell hairpin in lap 15.

Thompson had pitted the Chevron B6 on lap nine to hand over to Sean McLurg, who then led the category and was right amongst the 70s cars, working hard late on to try to find a way past Cahill.

Dance stayed clear to take 70s honours with Cull second, though he never manged to quite shake of Bates who was right with him in the final laps. McLurg brought the Chevron he shared with Thompson home fifth to claim the Equipe Sports Racing Car win, Hopwood second having got past Wenman’s Morgan.

Equipe GTS
It was an all TVR Grantura front row for the Equipe GTS race, Cull leading away only to pit his TVR a lap later, Brian Caudwell in turn slowing and pitting his similar Grantura on lap two. That put the Elva Courier of Jonathan Abecassis into the lead, Simon Cripps second and first of a host of quick MGBs in the top ten.

Abecassis seized his chance and eased away from the field, Cripps best of the rest from Babak Farsian and John Hughes, though the Caudwell TVR had rejoined and was on a charge up the order. Once the pitstop window opened Abecassis came in at the end of his twelfth lap, only to pull off at Knicker Brook almost immediately after rejoining, elevating Cripps to the race lead, John Caudwell, now in the TVR Grantura, running third with Farsian second.

Farsian closed on the leader and was within a second on the final lap but Cripps had enough in hand to take the win, Caudwell bringing the TVR shared with his brother home third after overcoming their early delay.

Equipe Libre
The Equipe Libre filled closed out the day with their 40-minute race, John Caudwell on pole in his Cobra, John Tordoff alongside in his Elan. The power of the Cobra saw Caudwell lead off the line with Tordoff second, Andrew Cahill coming round third at the end of the opening lap in his Elan, the Healey of Bruce Montgomery and fellow Elan racer Joel Hopwood right with him.

Caudwell was flying in the Cobra, rapidly opening a big gap over Tordoff, while behind Linley got past Montgomery on lap three and was looking for a way past Cahill. Tordoff made his stop at the end of lap nine, Caudwell staying out for another two laps and being followed in by Cahill, Linley and Montgomery.

Caudwell had rejoined with a good advantage over the rest and extended it to claim the Equipe Libre win. The battle for second was a highlight, Linley leapfrogging Cahill in the pits thanks to a quick stop, and the pair reeled in Tordoff as the race progressed, Linley having to retire but Cahill taking second from Tordoff down the inside into Old Hall with three laps to go.