Oulton Park – 16 August 2025 Race Report, Images and Results

Posted on: August 26th 2025 • Posted in: Race Results

Round 7 – Oulton Park

SRCC Oulton Park U.S. Autoshow 16th August 2025

Report by Alan Jones

After a long lay off since June in the Sports 2000 Championship, 31 entries arrived at Oulton Park for the single endurance event off the year. The US Autoshow at Oulton Park is always a popular spectator event. With music, displays and grid walk it is a spectacle. As one person commented, ‘you can see more American cars here than you would in America’.

In the entry was Tom Stoten, having his first run of the year in the Gunn TS14. Harriet Johnson after a couple of delays, made her season debut in the Van Diemen RF02, sharing with Historic Racer and car preparer Jon Waggitt, who has previously co-driven with her dad Peter Needham.
Eight cars would be double driven, Adrian Ridge sharing with brother Wayne, James Barwell sharing with his father Tony. Harriet Johnson taking the family Van Diemen RF02 to share with Jon Waggitt meant that Peter would be sharing with son Josh. Bryn Tootell had Alistair Bell as his co-driver, and Steve Ough had his spanner man Louis Scholes sharing the cockpit duties. The University of Wales cars had Tim Tudor teamed with Martin Gibson, and John Iley had Jon Harmer having his first taste of Duratec racing. The comments being the amount of grip the modern cars delivered and how physically tiring they were to drive. With the 2025 Heatwave continuing the endurance race was going to be a true test of stamina.
Andrew Noble, (Scoobie) had swapped his mechanics overalls for driver’s overalls racing his Gunn TS7. Mike Turner was scheduled to return in his MCR S2N, but it only lasted 1 and a half laps in testing before the engine failed. The other entry ruled out after testing was the Tiga SC79 of Patrick Clifton which destroyed its gearbox. The Ridge brothers almost ruled themselves out of the race meeting with a big off during testing. But an all night repair job that included utilising some of the internal shelving of the transporter got the boys ready to qualify.
Tamzyn reported she was very busy on the Friday with her bar code listing as competitors chose this meeting to introduce some new tyres, with only one driver, surprisingly a Pinto runner getting close to his season limit.

Qualifying

Michael Gibbins made sure he headed the cars out to qualify, followed by Josh Law, David Houghton and Ben Cater. The MCR S2n resplendent in new bodywork following Andy’s painstaking rebuild following its Brands Hatch crash.
In the early laps of qualifying it was Michael Gibbins heading the timing sheets, with Ben Cater and Mackenzie Walker following him closely. Josh Law dialling his car in before giving himself the second spot behind Michael.
Nik Johnson’s dominance of the Historic Classes continued although it was Mike Fry who held the top spot for awhile trading times with Nik until the Lola was dialled in with Nik setting a time almost 3 seconds a lap faster than his rivals. Bryn Tootell was an early pit retirement when his gear lever snapped off. Paul Trayhurn only managed 4 laps retiring to the pits with a loose rear wheel.
The Ridge brothers trip to Oulton continued to be challenging when the locating bolt on the gear selection fell off leaving them stuck in 3rd gear. A number of competitors had their times deleted when they exceeded the track limits. It just shows how hard everyone was trying searching for that magic time. Ben Cater put his best lap in on lap 6. He felt he couldn’t better it, though he did try and proved himself correct.
When the session finished the surprise would be that Josh Law had qualified 6 th . David Houghton would be the man alongside Michael Gibbins looking to outbrake him into Old Hall. Mackenzie Walker is consistent at the front, hungry for that first win, alongside him would be Ben Cater, with Richard Johnson 5th alongside Josh Law. 7th was Ash Law just 6 tenths behind his brother completing a closely matched group of cars. Tim Tudor starting in 8th place in the first of the University of Wales cars a full second off the pace of Ash Law. 9th on the grid would be the Barwell’s with son James starting who had Roger Donnan completing the top 10 and heading the Derek Bell Class.
Andrew Noble in his Gunn TS7 was the leading Class B runner. Nik Johnson Lola T88/90 was at the head of the Historic grid with Simon Aldworth Lola T492 lining up alongside him. Simon having his first ever Rolling start. Simon was really pleased with his time having taken his time to bring in some new tyres before going for his flying laps. Mike Fry Tiga SC79 lining up alongside Marc Noaro to complete the second row. Marc had joked in the paddock about his normal driving partner Jon Harmer having abandoned him, to share the MCR with John Iley.

Race

It was a warm day and quite hot in the assembly area as the cars were brought through to take part in the race. It was even hotter under the Johnson’s awning when with minutes to go the gearbox on Richard’s car was still being worked on. After such a good qualifying session
there was a risk they would not make the start. With seconds to spare. Everything was put to together and the car assumed its position for the rolling start. Off the rolling start the front of the pack remained in grid order but Josh Law had managed to move up a place to be behind Ben Cater.
John Owen from 17 th on the grid was able to watch Josh Needham slice through the cars ahead to overtake five cars before Old Hall.
In the Historic classes, Nik Johnson and Simon Aldworth performed a text book rolling start, with Marc Noaro coming through in 3rd place and Nick Bailey slotting through into 4 th place catching Mike Fry and Clive Steeper by surprise. Lap 2 and Ben Cater was closing on Mackenzie Walker in front whilst behind him he had Josh Law, Richard Johnson Tim Tudor and Paul Trayhurn. At this point Ben started to notice some handling issues, through Island Bend and the following chicane. He was watching the mirror in case he had left a gap for Josh. Entering the chicane he saw a puff of smoke which he thought maybe the gearchange. Turning into Druids he saw the sheets of flame coming from the back of his car and he knew his race was over. He cut off the electrics to stop the fuel pumping anymore. Eyeing up the grass he realised he could make matters worse.
Parking on the tarmac he hopped out of his car and thankfully walked away. The race was brought to a halt with a Red Flag.
With Ben’s damaged car removed the race was restarted for 40 minutes. Unfortunately some cars had gone into the pits rather than parked up on the track. This created an extra penalty for them as they had to start from the pit lane and missed out on the green flag lap.
They would be starting the race with cold tyres and brakes. That line was headed by Mike Fry, from Nick Bailey, Clive Steeper Bryn Tootell, Nic Johnson, Simon Aldworth Wayne Ridge and Marc Noaro.
On the second start, Michael Gibbins again led away, with David Houghton second, Mackenzie Walker third Josh Law fourth, Richard Johnson fifth Tim Tudor sixth. Simon Aldworth’s race only lasted as far as Druids when the engine cut out with electrical fault. Coasting down to Lodge he headed for a pull off area from where he could be safely recovered. Lap 2 to 4 was covered by a safety car as Simon’s car was removed. Harriet Johnson after her long wait to race was sadly out too on the first lap. Water pump belt dislocated.
With the race restarted in the order of the first lap. The interest became the Historic race, Mike Fry leading from Clive Steeper, Nick Bailey and Nik Johnson. Having been frustrated in the pit lane he was a driver on a mission. Taking the lead of the Historic classes on lap 6, he had both Andrew Butler and Bryn Tootell in his sights as he climbed up the race order. Wayne Ridge brought the Gunn in to retire. Their weekend not getting any better. They had a cracked exhaust on the car and they decided it was time to call it a day. Lap 7 and the cars were into the Pit Window, the first car to stop being the Needham car, Josh handing over to Peter. On the following lap Tom Stoten retired. He had closed up onto the back of John Iley in the second University car. Unfortunately as he closed he got aero wash that removed the downforce from his front wings sending him off to explore the scenery from where he retired.
The pit stops were starting to create problems as penalties appeared for cars that had a short pit stop. Whilst the boards on the pit wall and the digital signal on the overhead gantry did display the penalty notices some found them difficult to read which resulted in some post race adjustment. On track David Houghton had been holding onto second place behind Michael Gibbins until a couple of lock ups at Lodge and Old Hall, gave Mackenzie Walker the opportunity to pass.
David was now holding station with all of the top 9 still to pit. Roger Donnan being the first to pit from 10 th place. Lap 11 David Houghton made his stop and then pushed hard at the restart. Michael Gibbins pitted on the following lap triggering Mackenzie and Josh to follow him in. James Barwell also pitted on this lap. David was able to pass them both with his hot out lap.
Michael concerned he may have made a short stop came back into the pit for a second stop to compensate for the early departure. Unfortunately, the officials did not agree and he still incurred a time penalty for the short stop. However on track Michael now led from David Houghton whose hot out lap had taken him past Mackenzie and given him and an advantage over Josh too.
With all the stops being completed on lap 15. Andrew Butler being the last but having led the race for two laps. On lap 16 the on track race order was now set. Michael Gibbins leading from David Houghton, Mackenzie Walker, Josh Law, Richard Johnson, Martin Gibson in the Tim Tudor University car, Ash Law, Paul Trayhurn, leading the Derek Bell class, Roger Donnan, Jon Harmer in the second University car of John Iley, Peter Williams, and John Owen leading Duratec Class B.
Marc Noaro led Mike Fry in the Historics Nik Johnson rapidly closing in on them. Nick Bailey retired after confessing to running out of fuel. He must have been trying too hard. Sadly Roger Donnan was classified as the Final non – finisher when he had misread a penalty board and came into the pits missing the Finish line. At the end of the race time penalties were awarded to, Michael Gibbins, John Owen, Josh Law and Clive Steeper.
With all of those adjustments the final result was a win for David Houghton, with Mackenzie Walker second and Josh Law third. After a fine drive Michael Gibbins was classified 6th. Paul Trayhurn was the winner of the Derek Bell Class. Andrew Noble rounded off his weekend as
a racing driver with a class win in Duratec B.
In the Historics Nic Johnson was the overall and Historic Class A winner. Second proving he what he can do without Jon Harmer was Marc Noaro Historic Class C winner. With 3rd place overall and 2nd in Class Historic Class C going to Mike Fry.

After their dreadful weekend on track, the Ridge brothers were awarded Driver of the Day for their enthusiasm and tenacity.

The next event on September 20th /21st takes the Championship to Donington the Grand Prix circuit and that demanding loop. We will be back to the normal two race sprint format with stop watches only required for the lap times.

Race Report by Alan Jones with especial thanks to all who contributed to this piece your personal insights are greatly appreciated.

Full results are available via the Results Page. Here

Race Images

Many thanks to Kevin Gibson of KJG Photograpy for these Images from the event. To view the full set or purchase copies visit https://www.kjgphotography.co.uk