Oulton is possibly the nearest we get in the UK to a true road course. Like the Brands Grand Prix circuit in the south it has lots of elevation changes, fast corners, slow corners, camber changes, in fact everything that real racers crave. It can also be cruel as there is little run off in certain areas, which we will unfortunately come to in a minute.
Our hosts were the Classic Sports Car Club for this one day meeting. It was good to see a decent grid of Ferraris and a full complement of Cartwrights – Nick, Jim and Ben; however we were missing David Tomlin (racing at Spa) and Wayne Marrs from the usual front runners.

In qualifying on a dry track it was no surprise to see Jim Cartwright top of the time sheets. Keeping him honest was Gary Culver, with Nicky Paul-Barron completing the top three. It was not all good news for the Cartwright family though, as Iron man Ben lost it in a big way at Druids and made a right old mess of Mr. Palmer's MSV barriers. Fortunately Ben was fine, his 328 less so.

Our already fairly late race start time was delayed, such that it was 4.32pm when "clutches were dropped and rear tyres lit". Actually this is not actually what happens very often, but "clutches were slightly slipped and cars left the line with the minimum of wheel spin" doesn't quite sound so exciting. The sun was out, and it was actually pretty warm.

Round the right hander at Old Hall the first four were as grid order, but leading up to Island bend Nigel Jenkins got up the inside of N.P-B into 3rd place and then held off Nicky's response into Shell Oils hairpin. Culver tried his upmost to hold onto Jim C but ultimately the boy simply had too much pace, and he gradually pulled away. In spite of mighty efforts all-round the first four positions were thereafter unchanged to the end.

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Entertainment was to be found elsewhere though. Ted Pearson was recovering from a poor start, as was Nick Cartwright. Ted made it from P11 on lap 1, to P7 at race end. Nick C was showing excellent form and progressed from P8 on lap 1 to P5 at the chequered flag, winning himself the Driver of the Day award in the process. As the race progressed the usual trio of Walker, Fisk and Everingham were having fun, with Walker on top until near the end when Peter Fisk got past into P8.

The podium of Jim C, Gary Culver and Nigel Jenkins was actually a fair reflection of the season as a whole. Add in the missing Tomlin and you have the fastest group of 2013.

So that's it for another year. There has been some great racing in 2013, some of the best ever seen in the long history of formula classic in fact. Like all classes of racing, keeping all within the regulations has been a challenge at times, and of course the 2013 control tyre has not been universally popular or easy to handle. Overall however this is still a great series which is enjoyed by all.

I know that our competitors would like to express their gratitude to John and Anne Swift for their hard work in making this all possible. Long may they wish to continue.

Click here for the TSL results.

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