Oulton Park – 13 June 2026 Race Report, Images and Results

Posted on: June 20th 2026 • Posted in: Race Results

Round 6 – Oulton Park

SRCC Oulton Park Enduro 13th June 2026

Report by Alan Jones

It was an all Duratec entry of 25 cars that took part in Round 6 of the Sports 2000 Championship. This is the one race of the year that brings in tactical pit stops and the added interest with some cars having a shared drive.
There were no new faces in the entry, but we did have Bryn Tootell and Alistair Bell making their first appearance of the year along with Rollo Tomasi. Ash Law would be sharing the University of Wales car with John Iley, with other shared drivers being Tim Tudor with Martin Gibson, Lee Gorst with Mark Fletcher and Steve Ough with Louis Scholes.
The Friday Test day on a partially damp track was a challenge. Particularly when deciding which tyres to use. Unlike Formula One there are no intermediate tyres available. The slicks work really well on a dry track and the Wet tyres give good grip in the wet but they are unsuitable for damp conditions.
James Barwell chanced slicks on the drying track and his decision looked to be a good one until he found himself with no grip and the inevitable off. There was damage to the rear bodywork and wing along with front bodywork. As always fellow competitors came to the rescue, Richard Johnson providing a wing and rear bodywork, which left James with some fibre glass repairs. Both University cars got through testing giving the students a night to relax.
Nik Johnson had a rear driveshaft shear, despite earlier fears of an all night repair. Tamsin was able to report all repaired by 10.00 p.m. with time for a beer before bed. Adrian Ridge experienced electrical problems and was on the floor replacing the alternator in the early evening.
Rollo Tomasi had his test session shortened by a broken throttle cable he had patched a repair which he hoped would work in qualifying.
Prior to Qualifying 4 of the competitors took part in the Saturday morning Open Practice session, with Adrian Ridge recording the 4th fastest time of the session and topping the Sports 2000 runners. A good start to the day. John Owen with new tyres and a new engine was gettimg the car set up for the later qualifying finishing 5th in the order and second of the Sports 2000.

Qualifying

The Cheshire parkland with its rises and falls makes a picturesque and complex circuit to master, as the competitors pushed to find their fastest lap many were finding the track limits during the qualifying session. Richard Johnson was the man who looked to be trying the hardest, despite having some lap times deleted for exceeding the limit, Richard ended qualifying second fastest to Michael Gibbins. David Houghton was third fastest within .011 second of Richard’s time, the top three covered by just 0.561 seconds. It looked like this would not be a walk in the park for Michael who has been in dominant form so far this season.
James Barwell qualified 4th fastest with Nik Johnson quickest of the Class B runners 5th with his Lola T88/90. Tim Tudor with Martin Gibson qualified 6th fastest, Ben Cater 7th, Tom Stoten in the Gunn TS14 8th. Heading the Derek Bell Class Paul Trayhurn in his Gunn TS11 qualified 9th, David Williams in the Van Diemen RF94 completed the top 10.
David having taken the weekend very seriously, with Friday evening spent with his team practising the Pit Stop. He was one of the runners that would need to refuel. Casual observers thought his helpers did a good enough job to qualify to assist at Le Mans next year.
Peter Williams had a qualifying session he would wish to forget but it did make for an interesting race having Peter starting from the back.

Race

The Sports 2000 Endurance race would be the only Rolling start of the Event, which was executed perfectly by all competitors. Michael Gibbins led the pack into Old Hall with Richard Johnson in second place and James Barwell in 3rd place. Others making progress on that first lap were Martin Gibson in the University of Wales car, moving into 5th position with Paul Trayhurn slotting into the 6th spot from 9th on the grid with Ben Cater following in 7th with Nik Johnson 8th.
For the opening 4 laps the order remained static aside from Peter Williams who was gradually moving up the order, whilst Adrian Ridge had a good dice with Rollo Tomasi. On lap 5 Tom Stoten came into the pits for a prolonged pit stop, before returning to the track on lap 10.
On lap 6 Matthew Harbot came into the pits following an incident with Steve Ough, returning to the race on lap 11. Steve Ough dropped out of the top 10 down to 18th
The first retirement came on lap 7 when Martin Gibson brought the University car back to the pits with a collapsed rear suspension the wishbone having sheared under breaking for Druids. This promoted Paul Trayhurn to 5th overall with the race order being Gibbins leading, Richard Johnson 2nd , James Barwell 3rd, David Houghton 4th, Paul Trayhurn 5th, Nik Johnson 6th, Ben Cater 7th,David Williams 8th, Peter Brouwer 9th Josh Needham completing the top 10. Josh having started 15th on the grid. In 15th was Peter Williams making good progress through the field.
Roger Donnan who had been enjoying an early dice with Andrew Noble slipped down the order to 13th on lap 9 to find himself dicing with Mike Turner. This dice was not to last long as going up Clay Hill Mike Turner’s front wishbone broke whilst in close company with Roger. Mike was able to keep control of the car and pull off safely to join the Marshals at Druids as a spectator.
A lap later John Iley retired the second University of Wales entry when his engine cut out.
Lap 13 was the trigger for the compulsory pit stops to start. With the midfield runners coming in whilst the top 4 continued to hold station counting down the laps. Ben Cater’s stop being to retire. Ben had been embroiled in a dice with Paul Trayhurn and Nik Johnson. He had attempted to pass Paul which left a gap open for Nik to pass him. Making a late move down the inside of Nik he was unsighted resulting in contact and damage to the bodywork that forced his retirement. Following his previous luck at Oulton Park. Ben was pleased to have had 20 minutes of racing with only minor damage to repair.
As the laps counted down the first of the top 4 runners to pit was David Houghton on lap 18, the following lap it was Michael Gibbins turn to come into stop. This placed Richard Johnson in the lead with a 2 second time advantage over James Barwell in second place. Richard and James both pitted together on lap 21 as did Peter Brouwer. Tom Stoten after an unhappy afternoon retired his Gunn TS14 to the pits. Roger Donnan after a spin at Island Bend that had him mentally counting the cost after a quick brush with the barrier retired on lap 21 with an electrical failure.
John Owen’s day proved to be disappointing. He was experiencing a lack of pace on Hilltop, which could have been an experiment with the gear ratios. His main issue was the car running hot, compounded by a grassy trip into the scenery at Old Hall. This had been preceded by a spin at Britten’s when distracted he had conducted a quick rotation before resuming racing. He was pleased with the pit stop with thanks to the team of Izzy and Karen on the Stop watch timing him to the second.
With all the pit stops completed there were 5 cars on the lead lap, Michael Gibbins leading, with Richard Johnson 2nd, James Barwell 3rd, David Houghton 4th Paul Trayhurn 5th Nik Johnson 6th.
On lap 26 Paul Trayhurn retired having led the Derek Bell Class for the race with a suspected alternaor failure.
After adjustments in the finishing order (due post race penalties), the result was a win for Michael Gibbins, Richard Johnson 2nd David Houghton 3rd, James Barwell 4th, Nik Johnson 5th and class B winner, Peter Brouwer 6th, who during the Pit stop window led the race for a lap, Josh Needham 7th, Andy Noble 8th Peter Williams 9th and Derek Bell Class Winner, 10th Steve Ough/Louis Scholes.
David Williams after all his pre race prep finished 13th. Having run as high as 6th in the race he experienced fuel pressure problems which he believed to be the fuel regulator. In the closing laps and had to limp the car home to finish.
Peter Williams, for his drive from the back of the grid was awarded Driver of the Day presented by club Chairman Nick Bates. The Championship resumes at Donington on 29th – 30th August. In the interim the competitors get to take a summer break at Mondello Park for two non-championship races on the 4th and 5th July.

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