Wurr wins at Oulton. All to be decided at Thruxton.

Oulton Park - 5 October 1996

The seventh and penultimate round of the Morgan Motor Company Challenge was at Oulton Park on Saturday 5th October. Following a night of torrential rain and thunderstorms late morning practice was, thankfully, on a drying track in bright sunny conditions. For many of the 21 entrants this was their first experience of Oulton Park’s ‘long’ circuit, being 2.769 miles, although several drivers – and most of Class D – had spent Friday testing at the track. Simon McDermott’s testing was cut short by a broken axle but for the rest, practice times reflected their hard work of the previous day.

Watching the session from Deer Leap, the air was full of the sound of the big V8’s as they powered their way down the tree-lined straight to the right-hander at Lodge but after only four laps a cloud of dust and frantic yellow flags indicated a problem at Old Hall and it was quickly apparent that the car missing was that of Chris Springall. The accident had happened after the throttle stuck open at the end of the pit straight, the car going over the grass, riding up the armco and coming to rest almost vertical. The damage to the car was extensive: but to the relief of us all, Chris was uninjured. The session ended with Peter Garland taking pole just 0.15 secs ahead of Matthew Wurr. Grahame Walker was 6th fastest in spite of running on only 6 cylinders throughout. A suspected blown head gasket ruled Peter Horsman out and so the grid was down to 19 for the race which was the last of the day.

It was almost 5pm when the green lights came on for the start of the 10 lap race and Peter Garland took full advantage of his pole position to lead into the first corner. With the Class A championship in the balance, Matthew was not prepared to let him pull out any sort of lead and although Peter was still in front as they crossed the line for the first time Matthew was poised to execute an impressive, if daring, passing manoeuvre to lead out of Old Hall for the second time. Craig Jones was third, Malcolm Paul fourth and leading Class B, followed by Mike Fellows and Grahame Walker. Martin Kurrein was first of the Class D runners with James Patterson and Chris Acklam close in eighth and ninth. David Rushton was four places above his grid position followed by Chris Phillips, making up ground after a bad start, and the Class E leader Colin Treble. Simon Orebi-Gann had passed John Clarke and Mary Lindsay was ahead of Peter Sargeant, David James and Alan Biggar. Completing the field, in his newly acquired role of solitary Class C runner, was Jan Bulinski in his +4.

By lap 3 the race was settling down to a pattern of some drivers secure in their positions with others involved in close tussles. Mary was fending off the Class D car of Peter Sargeant and John Clarke was again ahead of Simon. Chris Acklam was giving James a hard time on the back straight only to have James open the gap again by the line. Meanwhile Grahame and Mike were enjoying a terrific battle in fifth and sixth places which was to last until shortly before the finish when Grahame fell back after attempting to pass Mike on the grass!

Up at the front the pace was fast and furious with Matthew barely keeping two car lengths between himself and Peter whose opportunity to pass came when Matthew missed a gear coming into Cascades. He was somehow able to keep in front, but the next few laps saw them neck and neck until by the midway point they came upon the backmarkers and Matthew was again in a position to open a small gap.

By the seventh lap, Peter Sargeant had finally passed Mary and Simon was advancing on Colin to take him on the following lap. Chris Phillips had moved up to 7th place while Craig was having his own race finding a better line at Knickerbrook and spinning dramatically on the penultimate lap!

Perhaps resigned to second place, Peter put in a flyer on the 9th to gain an extra point and keep his chances in the championship alive but he was not able to catch Matthew who went on to win one of the best battles for the lead we have seen for a long time.

Both Malcolm and Martin won their respective Classes and the pair go to Thruxton with the title within their grasp. Peter and Matthew will resolve Class A honours at the Hampshire circuit too, and both have an outside chance of the overall title. Class E went to Colin Treble and Jan Bulinski was the surprised recipient of the Class C trophy!