Oulton Park – 13th August 2022 Race Report, Images and Results

Posted on: September 20th 2022 • Posted in: Race Results

Round 12 – Oulton Park

Race Report

The weekend of August the 13th promised to be one of the hottest of the year, and teams and drivers headed into it expecting 30-degree heat, with very little chance of cooling off. Top that off with the fact that it was to be the stage for the season’s only endurance race , and there were mixed feelings in the paddock. Some loved the challenge, and endurance racing as a whole, while others just hoped that they would see the chequered flag, and secure some strong points with one meeting left to go after this.

Qualifying

Qualifying saw Josh Law set a blistering time early on, clearing the rest of the field by nearly a second, but everyone would shimmy around into different spots for the first 4 or 5 circulations of the session. A huge number of drivers did their best times on their fifth lap – the tyres and the surface getting too hot from that point onwards for any improvements. Josh Law set a time of 1:40.635 on his fifth attempt, with Patrick Sherrington putting the MCR S2n that he was sharing with Clive Hayes, second on the grid, albeit nearly an entire second back.

Michael Gibbins and David Houghton would make up row two, with Tom Stoten and Richard Johnson on row three – the latter was a late improvement in the session, doing his best time on Lap 11! “The Barwells”, Tim Tudor, Roger Donnan and Steve Ough completed the Top 10 in the Duratecs. It was particularly heartwarming to see Roger up there as well after the fire at Thruxton and further issues during Friday testing at Oulton Park.

In the Pintos, it was Nick Hyett taking pole position in his Lola with a time of 1:48.874, followed by his father Ross Hyett. Trevor Welsh was next up making it a Lola one-two-three! Charlie Hyett in fourth completed row two. Mike Fry and Clive Steeper were next – the latter bring fresh new Tiga bodywork with him for this round. Marc Noaro was next up sharing the fourth row with Mike Dodd’s gleaming Tiga.

Race

We would have a rolling start for the endurance race, as if often the case with longer encounters, and as soon as the lights went out, it was Michael Gibbins and both drivers from the third row of the grid that lept into action, with Gibbins taking 2nd place from Hayes, then Tom Stoten and Richard Johnson going either side of David Houghton – Stoten had to back out into Turn 1, but Johnson held firm around the outside and got 4th spot.

He wouldn’t stop there either as he broke later than Clive Hayes into the Knickerbrook chicane on the first time of asking, and made it into an early podium position. Clive would drop back a few more places on the opening lap as Houghton, Tudor and Stoten came through. Steve Ough and Tony Barwell would provide further entertainment, swapping places and jostling through the next couple of corners.

As the Pintos completed their first lap it was looking very good for the Hyett family, as Nick lead Ross, and Charlie was trying to put pressure on Trevor Welsh, who got into a spin on the brakes at Old Hall Corner, and unfortunately was collected by Mike Fry. Marc Noaro also went off in avoidance. A real shame as the Pintos always provide great entertainment during these longer races.

At the very front, Josh Law made his intentions clear, setting fastest lap after fastest lap, opening the gap to Michael Gibbins, which was over 3 seconds at the end of the first few laps. There was a terrific quartet in the middle of the field as Barwell tried to hold off Mike Turner, John Iley and Ash Law. Two MCR S2ns took on a pair of the earlier MCR S2s. While cars did show their noses entering some of the corners, there were no major moves for position – potentially working together slightly to try and catch cars ahead.

Some of those cars ahead were Richard Johnson, David Houghton and Tom Stoten – the initial fight had caused the latter to close right up and get involved as they scrapped for the final podium position. It was interesting to see a mix of cars on track where some would require a driver swap and others wouldn’t – it kept commentators speculating on how the race would be affected by differing pace between drivers.

Another quartet had broken out in the Duratecs, as Roger Donnan had now caught up to Clive Hayes, Steve Ough and Peter Williams. Unfortunately, one of their usual sparring partners, John Owen, retired quite early on in the race – the heat had started to get to a number of the cars already. It had been noted over the weekend that some drivers were having to cut holes in their bodywork and find ways to direct air on to certain parts of the car for cooling, it was that hot.

It was still Nick Hyett leading the Pinto field ahead of Ross, but now, due to the earlier incidents, Charlie Hyett was 3rd, meaning that it was an all-Hyett podium lockout for the moment! If they could make it work until the end of the race it would be a historic result, not just in terms of Sports 2000 racing but UK motorsport in general!

Clive Steeper, Juergy Tobler, David Muse, Nick Bailey and Mike Dodd were all still running in the searing heat, keeping aside for the Duratecs but managing their own races so well as well. Juerg Tobler had been a great addition to the grid in his Royale – convinced to come and join in with the fun by fellow Royale driver Nick Bailey.

During some of the battling in the middle of the Duratec fights, Steve Ough would have a spin into the Shell Oils Hairpin. He managed to continue, but lost a lot of ground to the cars ahead. Meanwhile, Josh Law was continuing to extend his lead over Michael Gibbins, while the three cars behind remained line astern – Johnson leading Houghton and Stoten for the final podium position.

Unfortunately Ough’s fortune wouldn’t get much better – another spin into the gravel down at Cascades put pay to his race, and meant that the Safety Car would be required, just as the pit window had opened. There was a massive flurry of activity down in the pit lane, with David Houghton, Roger Donnan, Clive Hayes, Tony Barwell and a few others reacting quickly and coming in, hoping to catch others unaware. Josh Law and Richard Johnson stayed out at the front while Houghton and Stoten came in quickly, and eventually realised that they were going to lose a lot of time – the pit stops had to be at least two minutes in length, for fairness sake as some cars weren’t having to undertake a driver swap. Tom Stoten and Michael Gibbins had played a blinder and were nearly a minute clear of Josh Law when the Safety Car had come in!

The order at the end of Lap 15 was Stoten, Gibbins, Josh Law, Johnson, Ash Law, Houghton, Donnan, Sherrington (who had taken over from Hayes), Barwell and Tudor. In the Pintos, it was now Charlie Hyett leading Nick and Ross, maintaining the Hyett monopoly of the podium! Clive Steeper was next up with plenty of daylight back to Juerg Tobler, running in 5th position.

Michael Gibbins’ race would end only one lap later though, after coming into the pits with damage. After what had turned out to be a promising encounter for him, off the back of fixing some of the early-season gremlins, his bad luck in 2022 had struck again. He’ll certainly be fired up for the finale at Brands Hatch, to show that nothing has changed from 2020, where he so dominantly won the title.

This now promoted Josh Law into 2nd place in the race, which was still good enough for him to take the 2022 Overall Championship and Duratec Class A Championship. Taking drop scores into consideration, there wasn’t enough points remaining in the championship for anyone to overtake him. He would just need to keep it tidy to the end and get the job done.

Ash Law was running brilliantly in 4th position as well after the pit stops – while it hadn’t worked out for his brother, he had gained a massive amount of time on the drivers he was battling with before the Safety Car period. David Houghton and Patrick Sherrington were closing in quickly though, knowing that there was long enough of the race to gain an extra place each.

Another retirement joined the list at this point, as the beautiful yellow Shrike of David Muse entered the pit lane with smoke coming from the engine – the heat had become too much in the end for the P15 and it was the end of the line.

All the while, Houghton had managed to catch Ash Law in a few laps, and it seemed inevitable that he would make it through, followed by Sherrington about half a lap later, but Ash was playing a clever game, knowing he could still score good championship points based on his current place, so didn’t take any risks in defending too hard, and kept his head down. Charlie Hyett continued to lead the Pintos outright ahead of Nick and Ross Hyett, the gaps opening and closing slightly due to Duratec traffic, but they remained in flying formation.

There was speculation over whether Josh Law could catch up with race leader Tom Stoten before the end, as their lap times differed by as much as five seconds at points, but traffic caused a few slightly slower laps by Josh and he wouldn’t be able to make up the time. Then, to throw an extra spanner in the works, Josh was handed a 30-second post-race penalty for his pit stop being too short, so he’d need to ensure he was far enough clear of Johnson and Houghton by the time the chequered flag came out!

His brother Ash had now been overtaken by James Barwell, who was trying to catch up to his earlier sparring partners Houghton and Hayes (sharing with Sherrington), but had to keep his eyes forward because series Secretary Roger Donnan was right on his tail. The two would have a good scrap in the opening parts of the following lap, but ultimately Roger would get through, albeit temporarily.

Into the Brittens chicane, Roger snatched a break and lost the rear of the car. In avoidance, Ash took to the grass on the exit, but the bumpy nature of the surface caused the car to spin and both ended up facing in the wrong direction. Luckily nobody made contact with them on their way through, but it was a big shame to see them both lose so many places.

There was a further scary moment as Tom Stoten lapped the battling Tim Tudor and Peter Williams – they ended up three wide in the braking zone for the Knickerbrook chicane, and Tom just about squeezed through and Tim continued to hold his position in 8th overall. It was a credit to all three drivers, and the usual clean racing that we see in Sports 2000, that they all made it through without issue.

Tom Stoten emerged from Lodge once more to take a wonderful victory in the only endurance race of the season, while Josh Law’s second place behind him was enough to confirm himself as 2022 Locks4Vans Sports 2000 Champion! He managed to finish far enough ahead of Johnson, Houghton and Hayes & Sherrington to negate his 30-second penalty too. Unfortunately for Tom though, he would later be excluded from the results for a technical infringement which gave Law the victory and further cemented his championship crown.

Nick Hyett would eventually come across the line to win the Pinto race outright ahead of his father Ross, with Charlie Hyett ending up third, after he had a last-minute drive-through penalty with only one lap to go. It was still a monumental achievement by all three, locking out the podium and continuing to run first, second and third almost all race long. Clive Steeper was 4th ahead of Andrew Horsnell and Mike Dodd who shared the number 13 Tiga, with Juerg Tobler, Nick Bailey and the father & daughter duo of Peter Needham and Harriet Johnson completing the finishing cars.

The whole day had been great entertainment for spectators and a difficult one for drivers and cars – great attrition had hit the field with eight cars not making it to the end, but everyone deserves a pat on the back for the hard work they put in through very challenging conditions. It was a race that demonstrated just how exciting endurance racing can be with the pit stops shaking up the order, and reliability affecting some big hitters in the field.

Now that the Duratec A championship and overall top spot had been wrapped up, everyone’s attention will now swing to Duratec B, Duratec Derek Bell, and the respective Pinto Historic classes that all still need deciding at Brands Hatch on the 17th and 18th of September!

We’ll be on the Indy circuit too so almost-constant traffic will make it a very entertaining pair of races that will ultimately wrap up our 2022 campaign.

Many thanks to Chaz Draycott for these reports.

Results are available via the Results Page. Here