HSCC Oulton Park Gold Cup Historic Meeting

[Mark Shears]

Held over the Bank Holiday weekend at the end of August - Saturday 29th to Monday 31st August - this is always a super meeting and one which attracts a good entry of Morgans.

I received my Entry Form over the weekend and wondered who else is hoping to compete?

Cheers

Mark

[Jonathon Rushton]

Mark,

my completed entry form for the HSCC Historic Roadsports race at Oulton Park is winging its way back to the HSCC office as of this morning. As well, I've just sent off my entries for the BDC Silverstone TT race (saturday 8th August) and HSCC Mallory Park (Sunday 9th August). I guess I will most likely catch up with you at Silverstone but any thoughts about Mallory?

Jonathon

[RICHARD PLANT]

I am hoping to be there for Oulton but I will not go to Mallory.

See you all at BDC T/T Plus 4 race.

Richard

[Jonathon Rushton]

What a fabulous race weekend at Oulton Park. For you four cylinder Morgan +4 Jonnys' who missed out on all the fun of a bank holiday Friday jaunt up the M1 and M6 to Cheshire also missed out on a great weekend of motorsport, fun and games to boot....

With qualifying on Saturday and race day on Sunday there was plenty of time to wander the paddock, catch up with friends outside of the historic road sports series and actually watch some interesting motorsport without the time pressure of having to fit everything into one action packed day.

Qualifying on Saturday went pretty much without incident, no surpirses in Simon Crompton taking pole position in his AC Cobra with a time of 1:57.7. However, a better class of driver could be found further down the results sheet: 12th Jonathon (2:09.9); 25th Simon (2:18.4); and 27th Mark (2:20.3). A small amount of fettling immediately following qualifying and we were all ready and deserving of a beer and the road sports barbeque.

The barbeque on the Saturday evening was a huge success with HRS competitors mixing with formula ford/formula junior/guards racers. Clearly the HRS stand was 'the place to be'. Sunday morning arrived and it was clear that some HRS competitors were nursing some very sore heads (last man standing at 3am was the rumour). And so, it might go some way to explain why I forgot to fuel the +4 and had to do a shameful dash from the assembly area to the Sunoco pumps and back again just in time to hear the cry of "hats on".

Despite the constant prediction of foul weather the race was a dry one. All three +4s' missed the opening lap fender bender between Volvo and Lancia whilst trying to negotiate Cascades, unsuccessfully. There was never a dull moment for the three musketeers as the twenty minute race unfolded. Each +4 driver had his own battle Simon and Mark were swapping places on a regular basis whilst trying to hunt down an errant MG Midget. Looking at the lap times it is most likely that a futher lap would have seen the MG hunted down and despatched to the lower orders.

My own race was a game of cat and mouse between myself and Colin Sharpe in his TR5. Having got the jump on him off the start he squeezed past at Island bend at about half race distance. The place was recovered on the same lap with a bit of late braking into the Knickerbrook chicane [-o<, but it was only a temporary respite as he managed to get past (again at Island) and this time make it stick to the end of the race.

The final running order was:-
11th Jonathon (2:09.3)
20th Mark (2:13.3)
21st Simon (2:15.3)

All in all a grand time was had. And as for sure the rain did eventually turn up, just in time for my road drive home. I think I might order a trailer for Christmas!


thanks for reading


Jonathon

[John Clarke]

Shame the TR4/5 got past - it's about time that someone beat it. Still, great result for all.

We were dodging rain and cool winds in Pembrokeshire ....... Oulton sounds positively barmy in contrast.

[Jon Baines]

Hi Everyone,

I've uploaded the video that came from the camera that I put on Mark Shears' car at the Oulton Park Gold Cup that I know Simon and Mark were very interested to see what the footage is like. The video can be viewed at http://www.vimeo.com/morganchallenge.

Cheers
Jonathan Baines

[Jon Baines]

Hi Everyone,

Video sorted for some reason when I uploaded the video it made it private and for no one else to see it, bloody websites, anyway I've fixed the problem and it is now working.


http://www.vimeo.com/morganchallenge
Cheers
Jonathan

[Mark Shears]

Great footage Jonathan! As you can see Simon got me motivated in the race after my rather lack lustre practice!

Cheers

Mark

[Jon Baines]

Hi Everyone,

I've just finished uploading pictures from the Techniques Trophy and from the Oulton Park Gold Cup. You can view them at http://www.pbase.com/speedmog

Cheers
Jonathan Baines