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Oulton park is just too far to go as a spectator is you live in Southampton, so I helped a friend fit a video mounting to his 1930's Aston Martin Ulster instead (after he had taken me for a spin in it).
Anyway, back to the races, Gordon Macmillan takes up the story again.
A beautiful bright sunny day for round three at Oulton Park. The conditions were near perfect, bright sunshine to warm the track with a chilly wind to cool the air.
Craig Shepherd was the guy to watch in qualifying, he was attacking the track with careless abandon for the corners! Some laps he completed without leaving the track, some he didn't, but he managed to put in a scorcher to take pole.
The B race was a six-car tussle that was initially headed by Mark Alden, but being the gentleman he is, he let the others through. Kevin Hatch coming out the eventual victor from Charles Cozens.
The A race began with the longest wait from red to green in living Stock Hatch memory, as a result many people started to move early, then stop, only to be caught out by the lights. Craig and Pete Morgan both made good starts and led from the start. By the end of the second lap Tony Scarlett had made up for a bad start and moved up to third with Andy Burgess and Gordon Macmillan fourth and fifth. As the race progressed it was clear that Andy was struggling with his Swift, eventually succumbing to Gordon's pressure to let him through to fourth. Andy defended hard for the rest of the race to hold on for fifth with Glenn Stokes coming sixth.
I must also make special mention of the unsung star of this meeting. Not beaten by the fact that the 106 he bought from me was destroyed at Mallory Park, Paul Sheehan was at Oulton with a new car, which was still being built by the time it was scrutineered. To cut a long story short, a fuel pump failed preventing qualification, and then an electrical fault of some kind prevented a race, but I am sure we will see this car again at Brands, proving that Mr Sheehan is a worthy contender for the broadest shoulders in Stock Hatch award, taking all that the sport has to throw at him, and still coming back undaunted.
See you all in a couple of weeks at Brands.
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