2005 Race results
Sports/Saloon Car Championship
Round 1, Oulton Park, 9th April 2005
For some the new season arrived a little too early, with engines not ready and cars still awaiting parts. The result was a 15 car entry to do battle over the Island circuit at Oulton Park in this years opening championship round.
Ian Hall set a scorching pace in qualifying, taking pole in his Darrian T98GTR by 1.853s over Michael Blomfield’s Ford Sierra RS500. "Everything seemed Ok, but I did detect a slight misfire towards the end, so I came in. I still did my fastest time ever around here though," said Hall.
Blomfield’s Sierra having had a new red paint job over the winter, was nursing scars from a clash during testing with an errant Radical. "It split an oil cooler and damaged a rear wheel when he put me off the track at Deer Leap," he explained. Heading the second row was Ric Wood’s ex DTM Opel Astra, with Robert Pritchard’s newly built Caterham Vauxhall alongside. "It was first time out with the new chassis and it felt good," he said.
Fellow Caterham driver Kevin Cryer was next up, "I rebuilt it over the winter too, but it wasn’t any quicker," he commented. Making his debut in the championship with the ex Mark Davies Renault Clio, was former XR2 Champion Richard Casey. "I made a good start to my campaign by spinning at Knickerbrook on the out lap. I just put a wheel on the grass, but they seem to have a mind of their own," he claimed
Reigning Champion Duncan Aukland had his usual trouble free run in his faithful Rover 3500SE. "I have got a new gearbox, I’ve got brakes and it’s going well so far," he reckoned. Nick Pakes was the best of the Banks Europa squad and although he had no specific problems, he did have one concern. "Third gear was crunching a bit, so I felt it was on the way out." Europa’s Richard Winter was just behind, sharing row five with Graham Taylor’s Westfield SE. "The rear set-up was a bit soft for my first try on slick tyres, the mudguards were touching," he said.
Phil Hall moved up in power with a new Banks Europa. "It’s about 30bhp more and a transverse engine. It’s quite a bit different than Babe 1, stiffer and more of a challenge. So it will take some time to come to terms with," he said.
Jeremy Coates enjoyed a "good session," until his Rover SD1 found some oil. Back after a years absence Shane Crumpler brought out his recently completed Nissan Sunny Gti-R. "I managed to do a track day with it, but it’s taken 12 months to sort out the engine," he reckoned.
With his own car not ready, Mark Primett borrowed Phil Hall’s older Banks Europa but struggled with a sump plug leak. Completing the grid was Alan Collinson’s Rover SD1which struggled with a misfire. "I hadn’t tested so I am trying to re-map the engine before the race," he said.
The Race
With a damp track and patchy rain forecast, Blomfield decided to withdraw, leaving 14 cars to line up on the grid. But there were further dramas when Taylor was pushed into the pitlane with Wood there too after the green flag lap.
From the greenlight Ian Hall led the slick shod Pritchard into Old Hall, with Casey slotting into third. After a poor get away Aukland regained his lost places to hold fourth by Cascades, closely followed by Phil Hall, who jinked his way through the grid from 11th to hold an early fifth.
As Pakes started to push Hall for fifth over Deer Leap he had a sideways moment, while behind him Winter, Crumpler, Cryer, Coates, Primett and Collinson followed, before Wood and Taylor who had both started from the pitlane.
Pritchard continued to harass Hall for the lead, as the Darrian made the most of its wet tyres in the early laps. Both Casey and Aukland started to slip into fairly solitary races for third and fourth, while Pakes ousted Phil Hall for fifth, leaving his rival at the head of a five-car train with Crumpler in particular poised to challenge.
Crumpler had just battled into fifth when he had a suspected engine blow on the third lap. "It was either the oil filter or sandwich plate, but it put oil all over the car, and fortunately it wasn’t the engine" he explained. In the chaos Cryer made it past Hall, with both Winter and Coates running nose to tail and next in the queue.
Ric Wood also called it a day and retired to the pits. "We had new slicks on and it wasn’t suited to the conditions. It would have been stupid to have stayed out and damaged the car," he said. But at the front Pritchard finally started to give best to Hall after a twitch as he crested Deer Leap for the fourth time. "It was a handful around Deer Leap in particular. It seemed to be the wettest part. Pushing hard there was risky but exhilarating," he declared.
Winter worked his way past Hall into seventh on lap four and continued to close on Cryer, while Coates began to shadow Hall too. Everything had begun to look relatively settled until lap 11 when Pritchard suddenly reeled in the leader and almost sneaked inside as they arrived at Lodge. Hall responded and pulled out a gap once more, taking victory by almost 1 ½ seconds. "I nearly had a few trips onto the International circuit, it was a nightmare stopping at the hairpin. But it ran OK otherwise," said Hall.
"I was lucky with my tyre choice as there was a good dry line early on," confirmed second place Pritchard. Having finished third on his debut Casey wished for greater things. >I wished it had thrown it down and we could have done even better. My front tyres had had it by the end though,> he said.
Aukland completed his all too familiar lonely race in fourth, >apart from getting off the line it was fine,> he said. Pakes and Cryer completed the top six, with Winter settling for a class win in seventh, over Phil Hall. >I dropped back from chasing Kevin for financial reasons, saving the car and the tyres as I was leading the class,> said Winter. Cryer felt he went for the wrong tyres at the start, >it should have been slicks,> he reckoned. >I really enjoyed getting sideways, but don’t want to get so close again,> said Pakes.
Phil Hall battled to fend off Coates for much of the race to retain eighth. He has to be alongside to get past me, etiquette says," he pointed out. "We just missed each other at Lodge but he closed the gap a few times," replied Coates.
Collinson nursed his Rover home for 10th, while Taylor managed the whole race in top gear to complete the finishers. "I tried for second and third at the hairpin, but it wouldn’t have it," he said.
The only other retirement was Mark Primett, who included a broken clutch cable and misfire as two of the many problems he had.
RESULTS
1 Ian Hall (Darrian T98 GTR) 13 laps in 21m48.554s (79.61mph)
2 Robert Pritchard (Caterham Vauxhall) 21m49.997s
3 Richard Casey (Renault Clio)
4 Duncan Aukland (Rover 3500SE)
5 Nick Pakes (Banks Europa)
6 Kevin Cryer (Caterham Seven)
7 Richard Winter (Banks Europa)
8 Phil Hall (Banks Europa)
9 Jeremy Coates (Rover SD1)
10 Alan Collinson (Rover SD1)
11 Graham Taylor (Westfield SE).
Fastest lap: Ian Hall 1m35.561s (83.85mph).
Class A: 1 I.Hall; no other finishers.
Class B: 1 Pritchard; 2 Cryer; 3 Taylor; no other starters.
Class C: no finishers.
Class D: 1 Aukland; 2 Coates; 3 Collinson; no other finishers.
Class E: 1 Casey; 2 Pakes; no other starters.
Class F: 1 Winter; 2 P.Hall; no other starters.