Another successful season was completed at a sunny Oulton
Park in late September, with Ian Wilson following in father Garry's
footsteps as the new Champion. But it was the end of an era as Ace Vehicle
Deliveries bowed out as sponsors after six enjoyable years. Once again the
bulk of the rounds were at the championship's home base of Oulton Park,
with two rounds each at Croft, Cadwell Park and Anglesey and a single late
season visit to Mallory Park.
Michael Blomfield's Sierra RS500 came on top of overall wins with five
to Tony Sugden's four, while Mark Campbell, Chris Griffiths and Iain
Gorrie secured one apiece. Most of the action for the overall championship
honours came from the lower capacity classes, with Ian Wilson's Europa
proving outstandingly reliable and pushed all the way to the title by Mark Primetts's Europa and Chris Griffiths Davrian.
Oulton Park on Good Friday saw Blomfield take victory in the opening
round, despite being beaten off the blocks by Simon's Allaway and Knighton
in their respective Wildcat Esprit and Stratos. Knighton was set for
second until his engine failed on the last lap, and with Allaway out
earlier with brake failure, Campbell clinched the place, with Nick
Cresswell's Mazda 323F close behind. A saturated Cadwell Park hosted round
two and Blomfield decided to leave his mighty Sierra in the truck.
Sugden's seasonal debut brought his Skoda a comfortable victory after Phil
Barak's Elan and Duncan Aukland's Rover had led momentarily. Barak had to
vacate second place with a gearbox breakage, leaving Cresswell to clinch
the runner-up spot from Ian Wilson.
A second visit to Oulton brought Blomfield's second win, aided by
Sugden's absence once more. Jean-Francois Bihl managed to make his Ultima
work, and despite being left on the grid at the start, he had secured
second from Allaway before the end of the third lap. Rounds four and five
were the traditional Croft double-header, with victory on both days once
again falling to Blomfield's Sierra. In the first Sugden's Skoda had set
the pace until a turbo failure left Blomfield with a solo run to the flag.
Allaway eventually clinched second after a great scrap with Campbell's
Elan, but in Sunday's race the Esprit blew its engine having already given
best to Campbell. Blomfield lapped the whole field in the second race,
while Mark Primett mirrored his Saturday performance by following Campbell
home on this occasion for third overall.
Back to Cadwell Park for round six and another easy win for Blomfield,
but the race was highlighted by a great battle for second as Iain Gorrie
pipped fellow Darrian racer Ian Hall on the final lap. With most of the
regular frontrunners giving the Anglesey double-header a miss, Chris
Griffiths and Iain Gorrie snatched the opportunity to share the victory
spoils. There was a new man on the top of the podium for round nine at
Mallory too, when Mark Campbell mastered the wet conditions in his nimble
Elan, to head home Sugden, while Richard Winter showed the promise of his
supercharged Europa to head Blomfield for third. Despite being September,
the Oulton Park double-header was Tony Sugden's first appearance of the
season at the circuit, and he crowned it with a double victory on an
incident packed day. Blomfield bagged a brace of seconds and Ric Wood's
Holden Commodore performed similarly in third.
With the final round once again at Oulton Park, only Mark Primett had a
mathematical chance of pipping Ian Wilson for the title. Sugden took his
fourth win of the year as Blomfield was sidelined on the second lap, when
his Sierra broke its diff. Mike Newton's Marcos finally clinched second
after fending off the determined Campbell, but the title was Wilson's as
Primett broke a front upright and failed to make the finish.
Blomfield won the class A title, with Sugden his only serious rival in
second. James Aukland's spectacularly driven Capri was third and having
used the year to develop his new Banks Europa, Richard Winter took fourth.
Simon Allaway's season ended with his Croft engine blow-up and
Jean-Francois Bihl ended a terrible season when his Ultima blew up at
Mallory.
Class B went to Mark Campbell, whose Elan only failed to finish once
from eight starts. Phil Barak lost the middle part of the season after
mechanical problems at Croft sent him home early, but his Elan was still
second in the class. Patrick Smyth joined the championship for the last
three rounds, which took his ex Richard Ward Elan ahead of Nick Cresswell
in the final standings, the Mazda man absent from the last round after
damage sustained in the penultimate one.
With Martin Brockhouse's Skoda absent for the second half of the year,
Iain Gorrie's Darrian ran almost challenged in class C. David Owen's Mini
therefore picked up second spot from Brockhouse at the final round. Mark
Primett's Europa had headed class D (i) all year but a disastrous finale
not only lost him a shot at the overall title, but handed the class and
verall runner-up spot to Duncan Aukland's Rover. Ralph Underwood's Rover
was third but never to be seen again after being destroyed in the side of
Cresswell's Mazda at Oulton, and Nigel Vaulkhard's Classic Lotus Cortina
fourth.
Class D (ii) was rarely contested but when it was it was the domain of
Ric Wood's Holden. Ian Wilson had waited a long time to beat Chris
Griffiths in class E but he finally did it at Cadwell and never looked
back. Griffiths can probably take some pride that his pressure helped
Wilson to the title, leaving himself to take second in class and third
overall. Garry Wilson's Elan proved evermore reliable to finish third in
class and Nick Pakes pace increased as the season wore on to secure
fourth.
Most of this years drivers have vowed to return next year, some with
interesting new cars and so watch this space.
Two Championship Points tables have been prepared; one for the overall
Championship, and the other arranged in Classes.