Oulton Park 2024

The final race meeting of the HITEK Alfa Romeo Championship for the 2024 season took place at the Oulton Park International circuit on Saturday 21^st September.

A late flurry of entries resulted in 15 cars scheduled to line up on the grid, but we lost two of these in testing the day before the event. Lee Penn had a scary off as his throttle stuck open just after Hilltop resulting in suspension breakages that he wasn’t able to fix at the circuit, and Steve Deeks’ 4C broke a drive shaft. The Alfa Workshop team had found some extra engine power earlier in the week but it seemed that the standard driveshaft was unable to cope with this, resulting in a DNS. As has been the case recently we were joined on the grid by an Allcomers entry of 9 cars together with an additional 17 Clio cars for the qualifying session.

The weather forecast was predicting possible thunderstorms later in the day but as our qualifying slot arrived at 10.10 it was overcast and chilly but dry, with some weak sunshine just breaking through the cloud cover. The session had barely begun when there was a red flag – Ed Robinson was in the barriers at Druids. He had lost 4^th gear in testing and was relying on 3^rd and 5^th – a difficult task at Oulton where 4^th gear is critical – and tried to go through the double apex corner in 5^th on his out lap, resulting in the 156 understeering off and hitting the barrier some 50 metres from the exit. It looked worrying but happily a mangled nearside front wing was the only damage and Ed himself was deemed perfectly OK after a precautionary check at the medical centre. That ended his qualifying session but he was able to qualify during the lunch break by completing the requisite 3 laps behind the safety car.

The session resumed but ended prematurely after an Allcomer Porsche was in the barriers at Dentons. The quicker cars had managed to complete 6 laps and the rest had to make do with only 5. It was difficult to get in a clear lap with 38 cars on the circuit but Jamie Thwaites set the Alfa pole with a time of 1:50.841 on his final lap, only a second off the outright Alfa lap record held by Barry McMahon. If he could get a clear lap during the race the record certainly looked under threat. Champion elect Toby Broome was second quickest, impressing as always in the Revs Italia Power Trophy class 147 GTA and finding a way through the traffic to set a time of 1:57.648 again on his final lap, well inside the Power Trophy class lap record. The ever improving Jack Berry was 4/10ths further back in the Alfa Workshop MiTO 404 with a time of 1:58.006 as he continued to familiarise himself with the circuit’s many challenges.

Paul Plant was 4^th in the Bianco Giulietta 1.4T with a time of 2.01.615 just ahead of Dave Messenger’s 156 GTA (2:02.067) and Andy Page’s Modified class 116 Giulietta (2:02.660), the closely grouped trio potentially heralding a very close race. Stacey Dennis wasn’t far behind in her Giulietta either, surviving a spin at Hilltop and the deletion of 3 of her 5 laps for track limits violations to record a best time of 2:03.487. However, one of her deleted laps was over 3 seconds quicker than that, indicating that she could well be in the mix with the 3 just ahead of her.

Bianco had completed a rebuild of Mark Skeggs’s GTV earlier in the week but it seemed that all was not well with the car. He did get down to a best time of 2:06.044 but he and the car were clearly capable of much quicker laps than that when it was running correctly. He returned to the paddock with very low oil pressure and would be unable to take the start of the race much to his dismay after making the long trip up to Cheshire.

Nathan Bignell was next on his first visit to Oulton, recording a lap in 2:07.192 but with more circuit time under his belt he would clearly be setting quicker times later in the day all being well. Richard Ford was having to deal with a long list of problems with his GT and was just hoping that the car would get through the day in one piece to maintain his top 3 position in the championship as he looked forward to a rebuild and reconfiguration of the car over the winter. A time of 2:10.507 was not representative of his capabilities but at least the car was still running reasonably smoothly. Thomas Laudage had again made the trip over from Germany to tackle another UK circuit with us in his lovely 4C and was very impressed with the track layout. A best time of 2:11.188 was the result.

The final driver in the lap charts was the enthusiastic James Powell in his 147 Twin Spark Cup car, strikingly presented in its black and orange livery. He was having only his second ever race meeting and his first visit to the circuit. He wasn’t happy with his performance but 2:12.073 was very respectable and he has already shown his considerable potential to be highly competitive as he gains experience – one to watch for sure next season. Twin Spark Cup class leader Edward Robinson would line up at the back of the grid after his mishap early in the session and aiming to make amends with a competitive performance notwithstanding his gearbox problem.

RACE 1

The weather was fine as we gathered in the assembly area at 1.20 for our first race. Mark Skeggs was missing due to his GTV’s lack of oil pressure but otherwise all were ready to go. As the red lights went out, 3 cars were a little slow away. Jamie Thwaites at the front of the Alfa field had to back off momentarily as John Cutmore’s Spire pulled in front of him to block any overtaking manoeuvre but quickly recovered to go through Old Hall in the Alfa lead behind 3 Allcomers. A little further back Jack Berry had been expecting a green flag lap, not having realised that the out lap had already been the green flag lap, and was slow away initially. He very quickly realised and got on the throttle but lost a place to Andy Page who made a lightning start in his Giulietta 116 from several grid slots further back. Jack briefly lost a further place as Paul Plant went down the inside of him at Cascades but Jack quickly recovered the place at Lakeside with the superior power of the MiTO.

At the rear of the field Twin Spark Cup class leader Ed Robinson was also slow away and, continuing his misfortunes on the day, he disappointingly had to pull off the circuit at Island into retirement, his gear linkage having fallen apart. Further round the lap Paul Plant and Dave Messenger were almost side by side disputing 4^th place approaching Druids; Paul was on the outside and got sideways in the first phase of the double apex corner and slid off into the gravel. Although the rear nearside corner of the Giulietta did make contact with the barrier it was fortunately not a major impact and he was able to rejoin albeit last of all.

Jack Berry meanwhile was pressing Andy Page hard for 3rd place. Andy was driving superbly and held off the more powerful car for half a lap before Jack made the pass just after Hilltop on the downhill straight approaching the Hislops/Knickerbrook chicane and set off after the flying Toby Broome up ahead. He caught Toby on lap 3 and passed him on the inside to take 2^nd place overall as Toby locked a brake entering Hislops. Andy Page meanwhile coasted into the pitlane at the end of lap 5 with a gearbox full of neutrals, bringing a fine drive to a disappointingly premature end.

15 months previously we had all cheered as Barry McMahon broke the outright Alfa lap record and the 1m50s barrier at Oulton for the first ever time in his 156 with a great time of 1:49.50. Jamie Thwaites was second that day but there was no holding him this time. He broke Barry’s lap record on lap 3 with a time of 1:48.509, then broke it 4 more times on his way to a sensational new lap record of 1:47.882 as he claimed a dominant overall and Modified class victory, lapping the whole field apart from Jack Berry who escaped the same fate by a whisker. It was a mightily impressive drive and all the single seaters ahead of him in the early stages fell by the wayside apart from Cutmore’s Spire.

Having recovered from his slow start and passed those who were quicker away at the start Jack Berry took a fine second place in the MiTO and his in car camera footage clearly demonstrated how well he is driving in his first season of racing: all the right racing lines, clean overtakes, and consistently quick lap times around the 1:55s/1:56s; added to which he has really been enjoying his racing which is, after all, what it’s all about. Toby Broome was untouchable in 3^rd overall with some 40 seconds in hand over his Power Trophy class rivals. He was second to James Ford in the Twin Spark Cup at Croft but since then has swept all before him and he took another superb class win here beating Stacey Dennis’s lap record by 4 seconds in the process with a best time of 1:58.255.

Further back the race was lit up by a great dice for 4^th overall between Dave Messenger and Stacey Dennis, which the 750 MC live stream cameras focused on extensively. Dave had the edge on some parts of the circuit and Stacey on others and though Stacey managed to get alongside a couple of times she wasn’t quite able to make the pass. Try as he might Dave could not shake her off but defended superbly to take the place by 3/10ths at the chequered flag. It was a close clean battle that was a credit to both drivers and to the Championship.

Richard Ford and Nathan Bignell were next. Nathan had been some 3 seconds quicker than Richard in qualifying and made the better start in the race but Richard was intent on overcoming his car problems with a strong drive and he did just that. He caught and passed Nathan on lap 2 and was able thereafter to pull steadily away from the 33. He then held the gap to Stacey and Dave ahead to around 9 or 10 seconds. He couldn’t reduce it but neither could they increase it and Richard was 8 seconds a lap quicker than he had been in qualifying (!). It was an excellent effort in the circumstances and worthy of his high placing in the championship. Nathan meanwhile has had an excellent first season of racing. The current specification of the 33 may have limitations compared to some of its class rivals but Nathan has shown the ability to get the best out of it and it will be interesting to see how he progresses next year – a very promising debut season!

After his first lap indiscretion Paul Plant had a mountain to climb to catch the rest of the field. At the end of lap 1 the gap to Richard Ford was 12 seconds and Thomas Laudage’s 4C and sole remaining Twin Spark Cup runner James Powell’s 147 were 9 and 5 seconds ahead respectively. He caught and passed James on lap 2 and Thomas on lap 3 but the gap from Paul to Nathan ahead was 10 seconds. By the end of the race Paul had whittled that down to 4 seconds but he was lapping at around the same pace as Dave, Stacey and Richard and was unable to make any further progress. It has been a great pleasure to welcome Thomas Laudage to the Championship this season, making the long trip over from Germany to Brands and again here at Oulton Park. He is a remarkable character, his 4C is gorgeous and though he has not featured at the sharp end of the field he has enjoyed himself immensely and we sincerely hope that we will see him again next year. The same applies to James Powell. He made an excellent debut at Brands and again performed very well here despite the lack of competitors in his class. His enthusiasm and commitment is very obvious and it is already clear that he has driving talent to match it so we look forward to his reappearance next season.

Race 1 Results

Race 2

That was the race that wasn’t as a violent thunderstorm arrived and a lightning strike took out the start line gantry, light panels, CCTV and intermittently the radio contact between marshals and officials. As a result the MSUK Steward deemed it unsafe to continue and abandoned the meeting. We left the circuit in deluges of precipitation…

Andy Robinson