The British Automobile Racing Club took on a starring role at Oulton Park this past Saturday (July 6) as four championships produced high drama, wheel-to-wheel entertainment and plenty of enthralling talking points.
Organised and run by the Club’s North West Centre, the one-day meeting – which took place around the 2.692-mile International layout of the Cheshire venue – was expected to be packed with action from start-to-finish; and it duly delivered in challenging conditions.
Topping the bill was the latest two-hour instalment of the British Endurance Championship in association with Motorsport UK, which saw the PB Racing with JMH duo of Peter Erceg and Marcus Clutton maintain their 100% winning record.
Arriving at Oulton Park having claimed victory in the previous three events this season, the Audi GT3 duo cemented their status as the team to beat in the overall standings by firstly blasting their way to pole position in qualifying by more than five seconds.
Lining up on the front row of the grid, Erceg and Clutton wasted no time in underlining their front-running credentials by quickly establishing a lead at the front of the field. As the race progressed, their lead only grew and they ultimately went on to triumph by four laps.
While Erceg and Clutton comfortably reigned supreme, the battle for the remaining two spots on the podium had everyone captivated. Xentek Motorsport would have enough in hand to clinch second while the Porsche 992 Cup duo of Nick Hull and Richard Avery claimed third place.
Fireworks flew in the Britcar Trophy Championship as the Ginetta G56 GTA proved to be the car to beat, with Marco Anastasi and Seb Dubois enjoying a share of the spoils that were on offer across the day’s two 50-minute contests.
Stephen Fresle and Ben Green had paced the opposition to snare pole position in qualifying however they were unable to stop the Datum Motorsport duo of Anastasi and Maurizio Sciglio as they forced their way to the front and then set about duking it out for overall honours.
Remarkably there was less than a tenth of second separating the top two in the day’s second bout as Dubois held off the charging Dragon Sport Opel Astra of Rhys Lloyd and Harri Reynolds to score victory.
The North West Centre’s flagship category, the CNC Heads Sports/Saloon Car Championship, didn’t disappoint those that were in attendance either as a bumper entry list served up two very contrasting contests.
Race one proved to be one largely dominated by Stuart Pearson as he guided his AB Sabre to a commanding win of more than 11 seconds over Ben Roberts and Connor Modro, who filled the remaining spots on the podium.
Modro turned the tables on Roberts and Pearson in a shortened, red-flag affected race two a few hours later however as he blasted his Westfield Aero to victory lane by a little under two seconds.
Concluding proceedings at the picturesque track were two races from the Heroes of FF1600 Sprint Cup Series, which proved to be one of the leading lights at the Thruxton Historic meeting last month.
Richard Tarling maintained his race-winning form from Thruxton to tally a narrow victory in race one before Callum Grant, who had shadowed Tarling in the opener, then came to the fore to score victory in the finale.
To view the full classification of results from all sessions at Oulton Park, CLICK HERE.
