The Historic Sports Car Club’s annual Oulton Park Gold Cup delivered three days of fabulous historic racing as the three dimensional Cheshire track celebrated 70 years (July 28-30).
Alongside a wide array of historic categories, three grids from the HSCC played an important part in the race weekend. Stand out performances came from two rising stars of historic racing as both Samuel Harrison and Horatio Fitz-Simon scored weekend double wins.
The competitors in the HSCC Historic Formula 3 Championship were racing for the Jackie Stewart Cup, in celebration of Stewart being the first Formula 3 champion in the UK in 1964.
With two more wins to bring his season tally up to eight from eight, young Harrison continued his dominance of the Historic F3 season in the Speedsport Brabham BT21B. Harrison ran out a convincing winner on Saturday to tighten his grip on this year’s championship. Behind him, a fantastic three way battle raged for second place as cousins Jeremy and Jason Timms locked horns with local racer Peter de la Roche.
After some fine wheel to wheel racing, Jason Timms dropped out of contention with a spin at Old Hall and on the very last lap de la Roche worked his Alexis ahead of Jeremy Timms by just 15 hundredths of a second. Such was their advantage over the rest of the field that Jason Timms was able to restart after the spin and still claim fourth place before Andy Jarvis arrived in his March 703. Just behind Jarvis, European visitors Francois Derossi and Christoph Widmer battled mightily for sixth and finished half a second apart.
On Sunday, Harrison did it again for win number eight as Jeremy and Jason Timms rounded out the podium after de la Roche retired the Alexis. Jarvis, Derossi and Widmer were closely matched in the contest for fourth place.
The HSCC Historic Touring Car Championship grid contested two races on Saturday for the John Whitmore Trophy which included guest classes for cars from the Historic and 70s Road Sports series. It was Historic Road Sports racer Kevin Kivlochan who made the overall pace in his stunning Shelby Cobra to win both races in impressive style.
Behind Kivlochan a mighty battle of Lotus Cortinas raged through the 20 minute race and it was Michael Cullen who got the nod by just three hundredths of a second from Rod McGovern and David Dickinson. Behind the Cortinas, Harry Barton and Steve Platts were the best of the rest but Platts had to race his Singer Chamois hard to fend off Peter de la Roche in the family Mini Cooper.
Later on Saturday, Kivlochan stroked the Cobra home for another win and it was Dickinson who was able to escape for second from David McGuire and Victor Cullen. Harry Barton and Steve Platts once more headed the rest.
Two Historic Formula Junior races ran for the Jim Clark Trophy in honour of the former Gold Cup winner and from a bumper grid it was Fitz-Simon who took an important double win in his bid for the championship title.
The opening race on Saturday started as a mighty battle between Fitz-Simon (Lotus 22) and Sam Wilson in his Lotus 20. It was a great contest until Wilson had a problem on the fifth lap with his throttle sticking open and had to retire. Clive Richards then led the chase of Fitz-Simon but dropped away as the race progressed into a secure second before Phillipp Buhofer and Nick Fennell had a battle of Lotus 27s for the final podium position. Alex Morton was the best of the front-engined cars in a strong tenth overall in his Condor S2.
On Sunday, the rain arrived before the second race but Fitz-Simon was able to complete a double as Wilson chased hard. Richards joined them on the podium as Tim Child headed Adrian Russell to round out an all-Lotus top five. Morton was again the best of the front-engined cars.