VSCC Oulton Park - 19th May 2018

Formula Vintage – Round 2 – Oulton Park

Oulton Park Circuit is one of the most picturesque and technically challenging motor racing circuits in the UK. 2018 saw the Vintage Sports Car Club once again run on the full International configuration of the circuit, with laps reaching 2.69 miles. Races for all Pre-war cars featured, alongside invited guest grids such as Historic Ferraris, F3 500s and The Morgan Challenge.

Four of our Three Wheeler Club members competed, all in 2 Speeder Super Aeros. We have photos from Dennis Rushton and words from Sue Darbyshire.

Another great write-up from Sue Darbyshire:

The weather was stunning and the track was beautiful. Four Morgans took part, Sue’s blue racer, Iain Stewart running on petrol as a sports car together with Simon Edwards, and an all too rare sighting of Dave Say with his racer.

Iain and Simon were in the two ‘set 3′ sports car races. Iain finished 9th overall in the first one and Simon 12th and Simon won the up to 1100cc class. In the second one Iain improved to 5th overall with a faster lap time of 2.23.58, a very good time for a petrol car, and Simon was 8th overall and once again first in class.

Sue did a short handicap race which she started from the back and need at least half a lap more to win! She finished 5th with the leaders in sight with a best lap of 2.17.40.

The final race was a scratch with Sue and Dave Say competing. The opposition included Julian Grimwade’s Norris Special and Tony Lees’ Cognac both of which had already won races earlier in the day and Sue was pleased to finish 4th overall with her best lap of the day at 2.17.00. Dave also finished the race although he developed a misfire on the last lap. However the temperature and general conditions may have contributed to that and he declared himself pleased with the day.

And another take on the day from Iain Stewart:

I was entered into two races at VSCC Oulton Park.  After the practice session – I was approached by Jo Blakeney Edwards asking if I had a welding machine. I had only just bought a tiny welding machine from my local supermarket, two days earlier. She needed a broken wing support welded up on her Frazer Nash. I had just finished welding it as Christopher Mann turned up with two broken wing supports for his Alpha Monza. There then followed a couple of Riley welding repairs, an Austin 7 thrust bearing ass’y and a Morgan inlet manifold. I repaired a total of 6 cars with this tiny welding machine.

 
In thanks, one of the cars I repaired won the race. Another finished ahead of me and a third one accidentally pushed me onto the grass at 85 mph. Having spent quite a lot of time on the grass, I eventually finished 9th (& 3rd vintage) out of 28 starters. The second race was much better with only a couple of minor grass cutting excursions. Finishing 5th (& 2nd vintage).
 
The car had not really been running at its best all day. Some metallic debris was discovered when changing the oil next day. Investigations on-going.