Oulton Park 12th October 2013

Transcription

BRSCC Formula Ford 1600 – Race Report 09: Issued 31st October, 2013
Northern Championship: Rounds 14 & 15
Venue: Oulton Park (International Circuit)
Date: 12th October 2013
Words & Editing: Dave Williams
Pictures: www.bournephoto.co.uk
(Copyright Bourne Photographic)
Introduction
After the BRSCC’s Avon Tyres National FF1600 Championship reached a thrilling
conclusion at Anglesey a fortnight earlier the Northern contenders completed 2013 in
no less dramatic fashion on Oulton Park’s superb 2.692 mile International Circuit in
mid-October.
The crowns for both major classes – Post89 and Pre90 – were still up for grabs with
a number of drivers in contention for each. Plenty of action unfolded before the
champions were decided!
Adding to the titles on offer was the inaugural Wallpaper Central Autumn Trophy
which would be awarded to the competitors who recorded the best finishing positions
in each category during the course of the double header meeting.
FORMAT OF THE DAY
Session
Classes
Start Time
Duration (mins)
Post89
08:54
20
Pre90
08:30
20
Post89
11:19
20
Pre90
10:43
20
Post89
13:04
20
Pre90
12:30
20
Qualifying
Race 1
(Grid: Fastest Qualifying Lap)
Race 2
(Grid: Results of Race 1)
1|P age
Post89 Qualifying
David McArthur took pole with an impressive 1m 48.3 secs lap time
After the previous round at Anglesey, American Skylar Robinson led the Northenrn
points standings but he was absent from this meeting providing the opportunity for
either David McArthur or Martin Short to scoop the title if they secured good finishes
during the races.
They certainly made the best possible start to the day by setting the first and second
fastest qualifying times. McArthur was really on form as he took pole with a final lap
of 1m 48.3 secs – his last 5 circuits
were all well into the ‘48s. Short also
showed plenty of pace and was 6
hundredths away from getting below
1m 49 secs.
Two more drivers delighted with their
performances were David’s brother,
Tom, and Ian Parkington. T.
McArthur’s best lap was just a tenth
from Short’s while Parkington missed
Tom Hodgson retired from qualifying with a dead
engine. All would be fine for the races
2|P age
out from joining him on the second row by half a second (that spot went to Stuart
Jones). Both qualified roughly 2 secs faster than they had done for the opening
round of the season back in April.
Parkington shared the third row with Nigel Dolan. Behind these pair would line up
Steve Chapman and Tom Hodgson. The latter was only able to complete 3 laps after
the wiring for the ignition switch became dislodged and cut out the engine.
Class E front-runner, Graham Leggett, expected to be making the step up to Post89
at this meeting but was absent having crashed and badly damaged his car during
Friday’s test day.
Stuart Jones (30) and Ian Parkington
(50) qualified fourth and fifth
3|P age
Pre90 Qualifying
J
amie Jardine was the fastest Pre90 qualifier but only by a fraction of a second
There was 0.261 secs between the 3 title protagonists at the sharp end of the Pre90
grid after they all recorded laps to be
proud of.
Jamie Jardine was pleased to dip into
the 1 minute 49s to claim pole. Chris
Hodgen would line up alongside him
having missed out on beating the 1
4|P age
John Murphy’s session was hampered by a
misfire triggered by him hitting a kerb
minute 50 barrier by 0.086 secs. Jaap Blijleven felt he was really starting to get to
grips with the nuances of the tricky Oulton Park track and was “very happy” with how
things had gone. A changed of shock absorbers which UCLAN Racing team
manager, Nick Johnson, had recommended proved to be successful.
Wayne Poole made the trip up from Gloucestershire and qualified fourth while John
Murphy believed he could have been closer to pole had it not been for a misfire
which had been triggered by hitting a kerb too hard. The Liverpudlian had to be
content with fifth on the grid next to
Chris Stones.
Another Murphy – the one called David
– would line-up directly behind his
namesake in seventh after he had
agreed to team up with Mario Sarchet
during practice. The plan was for the
pair to keep swapping place so they
could learn from the lines each other
took but Mario never moved over until
A sheared wheelnut frustrated Andrew Thomas
the end of the session. Possibly as he
benefitted from Mario’s slip-stream D. Murphy was one place ahead on the grid.
Will Alterman has found great speed during the course of the season. His best lap
(aside from the one that was disqualified for exceeding track limits) was 2 seconds
faster than his qualifying time back in April and was good enough for ninth in the
race 1 starting line-up.
Alterman beat the final man in the Top Ten; the unfortunate Andrew Thomas who
had a wheelstud shear on his first flying lap. When the UCLAN driver pitted to have
the resulting vibration checked over his crew told him the bad news that his session
was over.
5|P age
Post89 Race 1
Team Tactics: David McArthur (15) and Martin Short (7) worked
together to open a gap to the pack
On the front row the two MedinaSport cars of poleman David McArthur and Martin
Short had a plan: They would avoid racing each other in the opening laps so they
could build up an advantage over the rest of the pack.
6|P age
As Short made the best start, it was he who led the way as their strategy unfolded.
After 2 or 3 laps McArthur was ready to make his move although he didn’t want to do
anything hasty and risk taking out his team mate. It was lap 5 before a clear
opportunity arose when he managed to get an excellent run out of Cascades and
was ahead of the blue Van Diemen by the time they reached Island Bend.
Martin Short offered the following summary of the first part of the race: “We were
both aware of what we needed to do
to wrap up our respective
championships and as such I think
we both drove very sensible races. It
was clear after a couple of laps that
David was quicker (as he had been
all day) so it made no sense to start
driving defensively as this would only
hold us both up.”
Third placed Tom McArthur completed the first
ever MedinaSport 1-2-3
In seventh was Steve Chapman
Once the passing manoeuvre had
taken place McArthur put his head
down to open up a gap and then both
drivers settled into a rhythm that saw
them cruise to the finish. There was
one final piece of excitement to take
place in the lead battle when, on the
penultimate lap, Short had problems
with a downchange approaching
Hislops and had to use the escape road.
Once he had fended off the early attentions of Stuart Jones, Tom McArthur cruised
home to third. To everyone’s delight this was the first time that MedinaSport drivers
had ever occupied all 3 places on the podium.
Ian Parkington followed Jones home in fifth as Tom Hodgson made progress after
his problems in qualifying to work his way up to sixth despite his steering wheel
breaking the first time he rounded Island Bend. This gave him serious difficulties,
especially when changing gear.
Steve Chapman recorded a seventh place finish following Nigel Dolan’s self imposed
delay at the top of Deer Leap when he accidentally switched off the ignition when
adjusting the brake bias.
7|P age
8|P age
Pre90 Race 1
High Speed Train: Jaap Blijleven leads from Chris Hodgen (7), Jamie
Jardine (0) and Wayne Poole (81)
From third on the grid Jaap Blijleven made a terrific getaway and led into the first
corner. As he was unable to break away from Chris Hodgen he decided to take a
defensive line at the critical sections of the track. This bunched the pack up and for
lap after lap the first four – Blijleven, Hodgen, Jamie Jardine and Wayne Poole –
were covered by less than 3 quarters of a second in a thrilling display of Formula
Ford racing.
Matters came to ahead as the lap counter clicked over from 5 to 6 when Blijleven
made poor exits from Lodge and Old Hall Corners. This allowed Hodgen to draw
alongside down The Avenue. The pair then attempted to take Cascades side by side
but this resulted in a “racing incident” during which contact was made and both found
themselves on the grass. Poole and Jardine zoomed into first and second while John
Murphy also took advantage of the situation and took third. Blijleven recovered to
rejoin behind Murphy but it took Hodgen a little longer to get back into the swing of
things – he was sixth at the end of the lap with Chris Stones in fifth. By that time,
Jardine had got a better exit from Brittens and had taken the lead from Poole.
There was more shuffling of the order a couple of tours later. Jaap had reeled in
Murphy and had a big lunge at taking third. Both visited the gravel trap at Cascades
but were able to return to the tarmac albeit with damaged cars. Post-race, Blijleven
visited Murphy to apologise for his rash manoeuvre – he rued not being more patient
9|P age
especially as John knew he was going for the championship and wouldn’t have
defended too hard.
Mario Sarchet (8) and Andrew Thomas (38) chase
down John Murphy
Murphy only just made the race
having had to track down his misfire
from qualifying. He would have
more work to do before the next
race as his suspension was
damaged in the clash with the lowflying Dutchman... and even more
repairs were going to be required
two laps later!
Murphy’s handling problems enabled Andrew Thomas and Mario Sarchet to reel him
in. The tenth time he tackled Old Hall, Thomas ploughed into the back of the white
Reynard. Again the irrepressible Murphy recovered from the spin to continue but
Thomas’ UCLAN car was embedded in the tyre-wall. On his return to the paddock
Andrew told his crew that John had braked far earlier than he expected (this may
have been related to his handling problems).
While all this was going on, Jardine and Poole were busy swapping positions. Both
had the Champion of Oulton title at the forefront of their minds. Jamie knew he had
to go for the win while in the closing stages Wayne had decided to protect his points
total by settling for second. It did not go to plan as Poole’s right front upright failed as
he exited Brittens on the last lap. He was gutted to see Jardine take a crucial win
unchallenged but consoled himself with the thought that it would have been a
“messy” affair if the failure had occurred at Island Bend.
The misfortunes that befell John Murphy and Poole enabled Hodgen to move up to
second which was enough for him to seal the Northern Championship.
Third-placed finisher Stones had enjoyed watching all the antics unfolding ahead of
him. He had made a great start which saw him immediately get ahead of John
Murphy although Chris lost the
position at Knickerbrook.
David Murphy was another to
have an eventful race. He battled
early on with Mario Sarchet but
the latter pulled away to ultimately
finish fourth. D. Murphy then had
Midfield battle: David Billington (32) leads Patrick
10 | P a g e
Humphreys (76) and Ian Wood (51)
an enjoyable dice with Will Alterman. By the last lap they had been joined by Jaap
Blijleven and John Murphy at the
end of their incident filled races.
With a trio of cars trying to deprive
him of fifth D. Murphy deliberately
took the final apex of the Hislops
complex slower than usual to back
everyone up then blasted away
from the chicane to lead home
Blijleven, Alterman and J. Murphy.
Having backed everyone up exiting Hislops, David
Murphy (89) leads the charge for fifth through
Druids on the last lap
Malcolm Cooper displayed a great
improvement in his Oulton Park
form after Barry Linley helped him
to sort out the corner weights on his Swift and removed the rear anti-rollbar two
weeks earlier at Anglesey. A lighter anti-rollbar for this meeting further improved the
handling of the blue car. He finished ninth after fighting it out with the two Johns –
Swift and Wilkinson. Mr Swift suffered a broken exhaust with a lap and a half to go
which meant he lost places to Class E winner Ian Wood, Patrick Humphreys and
David Billington.
Behind Trevor Morgan, the final two runners – Mike Mullins and Don Boyack –
fought it out as hard as anyone else. Mullins was slow in a straight line due to a
misfire while handling problems gave Boyack difficulties in the twisty stuff meaning
both were evenly matched over the
course of an entire lap. Mullins
came out on top after his adversary
had a late race spin.
A suspected tyre valve failure had
seen Brian Young go straight on
through the gravel trap at Cascades
on lap 2. He managed to extricate
himself and drove back to the pits
to retire on the remaining 3 tyres
that had air in them.
Even at the back of the pack there was plenty of
action as Don Boyack (88) and Mike Mullins (26)
enjoyed a fine dice
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Post89 Race 2
Martin Short finished the season with a win
Things were looking good for David McArthur to take his second win of the day when
he made his best start of the year and built up a 3 second lead over Martin Short in
the first 6 laps. David then almost threw it all away when he clouted a kerb at
Brittens. This put his tracking out of kilter which gave him braking and handling
problems... and the car was slow in a straight line to boot!
Short soon closed in as the man infront was now lapping much slower than
previously and moved ahead round the outside at Lodge around three quarter
distance to win both the race and the Champion of Oulton title.
Nonetheless, finishing runner-up was enough for McArthur to be crowned the Post89
Northern Formula Ford Champion and he also took home the Wallpaper Central
Autumn Trophy for this class. It might have been very different if his brother Tom had
not spun at Hislops on lap 2. He had made a great start and was within a second of
the leader so would have probably overtaken David after he had sustained damage
to his car.
13 | P a g e
Tom McArthur passes Ian Parkington during his recovery drive
Tom fell down to last place but quickly fought his way up the order and just missed
out on depriving Stuart Jones of the final place on the podium.
Ian Parkington was classified fifth while, behind him, Nigel Dolan and Tom Hodgson
thoroughly enjoyed their battle. Hodgson had been as high as fourth early on before
he outbraked himself at Hislops. Dolan then passed him at Lodge before Hodgson
got back ahead a few tours later. Dramatically, Dolan sealed sixth by going round the
outside at the final corner.
Steve Chapman completed the finishers.
Nigel Dolan (8) leads Tom Hodgson (42) and Steve Chapman (45)
14 | P a g e
Pre90 Race 2
With smoke from the start-line incident still hanging over the circuit,
Chris Hodgen (7) coasts into retirement as the rest of the pack
bunches up behind Chris Stones’ damaged car (42)
The start of this race continued in the vein of the one that was staged before lunch –
ie there was plenty of drama.
Chris Stones made another demon start and, after the high attrition rate earlier in the
day had seen him finish on the podium, this time he was making his rapid getaway
from third on the grid therefore he found himself between the front row starters
(Jamie Jardine and Chris Hodgen) as soon as the red lights had gone out.
At this point the two men that started in first and second, who were running neck and
neck, began to edge closer together. Stones lifted off to avoid getting trapped in an
15 | P a g e
inadvertent pincer movement but,
unfortunately, this back-out strategy
was implemented too late and
Hodgen’s right rear wheel was
launched over his left front.
Hodgen coasted to a halt on the
outside of the first corner while
Stones was able to make it back to
the pits to retire.
Having avoided the first lap mayhem Jaap
Blijleven (43) and Jamie Jardine (0) contested
the victory
While Jaap Blijleven managed to
dodge the colliding Chrises (he had
made a great start from sixth on the grid to find himself second behind Jardine)
everyone else was delayed by the incident and charged down The Avenue in an
angry swarm.
The swarm was quickly broken up however when John Murphy went for a gap that
appeared on the inside at Cascades. With the inside wheels on the kerb his car
became unsettled causing the backend to go walkabout and slide into Mario
Sarchet’s vehicle. The pack scattered as the white and the blue Reynards spun onto
the grass on the outside of the corner – Andrew Thomas lost his nose in the chaos.
Sarchet’s car was too badly damaged for him to continue and he watched the rest of
the action from behind the barriers with the marshals. John Wilkinson joined him a
lap later after he had locked up and sped across the Cascades’ gravel trap. A punt
just after the start had broken off the rear anti-roll and the silencer. The rear body
work and one rear view mirror had also been damaged. John had lost control of his
ill-handling car that was making funny noises and decided to call it a day. As it was
Wilkinson’s first DNF of the season he wasn’t too down-hearted.
John Wilkinson (2) holds off Ian Wood (51) and Trevor Morgan (52) but
his race would come to an untimely end
16 | P a g e
The next time through Sarchet and
Wilkinson watched Blijleven sling-shot
down Lakeside Straight and take the
lead from Jardine on the inside at
Island Bend. He couldn’t get away
though so a couple of circuits later at
Old Hall, Jamie was back ahead with a
dive down the inside and enroute to a
David Murphy (89) and Will Alterman (68)
victory which earned him the Pre90
renewed their battle from earlier in the day
Champion of Oulton title plus the
Wallpaper Central Autumn Trophy for this class.
Blijleven has thoroughly enjoyed his season with UCLAN Racing. Having finished
runner-up in both the Northern and Champion of Oulton points standings he intends
to return and go one better next season.
Wayne Poole had targeted the Champion of Oulton crown as a goal for 2013 but
missed out after his mechanical failure near the end of the first race of the day. By
the time his car had been repaired the second grid had already been unleashed and
he gave everyone else a head-start of over a minute before he was able to join the
track.
With so many front-runners falling by the wayside, when David Murphy and Will
Alterman renewed their antics from earlier they were contesting the final place on the
podium. D. Murphy was ahead in the opening laps but was well aware that their dice
was slowing the pair of them. As he could see the recovering John Murphy closing in
he decided to concentrate on putting in some faster lap times. This meant he didn’t
resist too much when Alterman made a pass at Old Hall.
J
ohn Murphy (3): During the two races he had “...more hits than the Beatles!”
17 | P a g e
J. Murphy failed to make any further
inroads as, just like in the morning,
he was steering a battle-scarred
Reynard. The first lap shenanigans
had buckled his rear wheel by a good
50mm causing the car to pull and
vibrate. Having been hit 3 times in 2
races – “More hits than The Beatles!”
John would later quip – his grandchild
threw up when he returned to the pits
to round off a less than perfect day.
UCLAN graduate Brian Young (19) goes wheel to
wheel with a car fielded by the current crop of
UCLAN students as driven by Andrew Thomas
Alterman held off both Murphy’s to
finish on the podium for the first time since he began competing some 7 seasons ago
but heartbreakingly he was disqualified in the scrutineering bay. His mechanic had
made a genuine mistake by enlarging the inlet ports on the engine when the rules
state that only the exhaust ports can have this modification made.
D. Murphy who raced against him all day was certain there was no performance
advantage but to his great credit Alterman sportingly accepted the decision. He
explained, “I play things 100% straight so the disqualification is right. I am sending
the engine off for a rebuild and thorough check. I will be back fighting for podiums
next season!”
The exclusion moved everyone up a place and rewarded Murphies David and John
with reluctant third and fourth classifications. The former found a crack in his chassis
in the build up to this meeting and will be busy making repairs over the winter.
Following the recent technical gains he has made, Malcolm Cooper recorded a well
deserved fifth and hopes to complete the package by upgrading his tired engine in
the near future.
Ian Wood had closed in during the latter stages and was only 0.2 secs away at the
finish. Wood was the only Class E
finisher after John Swift retired to the
pits on lap 4. Having replaced the
broken section of his exhaust and
replaced a plug lead after race 1, Swift
had terminal exhaust failure this time
around when a fracture occurred very
David Billington (32) was lucky to make the
close to his engine block. The entire
finish as he ran out of fuel on the slowing down
lap
18 | P a g e
exhaust system ended the 2013 season in the skip!
As a graduate of the UCLAN Motorsport Engineering course, Brian Young (now with
4 fully inflated tyres after the BMTR team checked his car over) thoroughly enjoyed
racing against a recovering Andrew Thomas in the UCLAN Racing Reynard. Young
was seventh on the TSL results sheet, half a second ahead of Thomas.
Having been late to join in the fun, Wayne Poole worked his way up to tenth on the
road (ninth following Alterman’s exclusion) ahead of Patrick Humphreys.
David Billington completely lap 1 in sixth but a couple of spins at Hislops dropped
him down the order. He was listed twelfth in the final standings behind Trevor
Morgan but Billington was lucky to finish at all as his team had accidentally shortfuelled him. He ran out of juice on the slowing down lap next to the lake!
Mike Mullins and Don Boyack once again hotly disputed the final places. The
outcome was similar to earlier in the day as the unfortunate Boyack had another spin
due to his handling difficulties.
19 | P a g e
Galleries
Contact [email protected] for high res versions of all images in this report
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Don’t forget: Rounds 6 & 7 of the Star of Anglesey on 1st December. Incorporating
the Moose and Bernard Baxter Trophy races.
Contact: Liz Goodrich. Tel: 01732 783144. Email: [email protected]
BRSCC Formula Ford 1600 2013
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Oulton Park 12th October 2013

Transcription

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