Championship heats up at Oulton Park
Following the previous thrilling rounds in Europe and the United States, the Porsche Club GB sim drivers turned their attention to Oulton Park Circuit for rounds 7 and 8 of the club championship sim racing series. Championship leader Ryan Parkins and PCGB guest Dave Cameron took the front row for round 7, recording the best times during the 25 minute qualifying session. There was also an impressive performance by Dan Bathie who qualified in third, with Charlie Oliver in fourth and championship challenger Austin Greatorex qualifying in fifth.
With iRacing putting pole sitter Parkins on the disadvantageous outside line, Cameron got the perfect start and took the lead into turn one. The rest of the field made a clean start behind, but moments later an incident towards the end of the first lap resulted in cars spinning and numerous mid-field collisions.
By lap 4 the race had settled, with Parkins back in the lead after Cameron suffered a technical glitch, dropping him to the back of the field. Dan Bathie was in second with Gavin Halls up to third. Parkins held on to take victory, with Bathie in second and Halls taking the final podium spot. Paul Riga crossed the line in fifth after a last lap incident with James Cummings, but it was Carl Sharkey who impressed the viewers. Despite being involved in the first lap incident, Sharkey took home sixth place after demonstrating a fantastic recovery drive.
Marc Bow was on pole for the reverse grid in race two with Angus Archer in second and Austin Greatorex in third. Round 8 was a carbon copy of round 7 with the front two trading places, followed again by a major incident unfolding behind. An unfortunate Championship point chaser Carl Sharkey was involved in the carnage. By lap five Austin Greatorex was in the lead with Angus Archer in second. An impressive drive by Dave Cameron had him move from seventh into third, with Marc Bow in fourth and Chris Bowie in fifth place.
Cameron got the better of Archer and took second, then he was soon on the back of Greatorex challenging for first, leaving the rest of the pack fighting for the third spot led by Archer. By lap ten Greatorex and Cameron had pulled away from the battle behind, Greatorex would succumb to the pressure moments later though, moving over to allow Cameron to take the lead.
The battle for third, fourth and fifth was not over by a long way, as several cars were involved in the chase and this is where the action was. After countless overtakes and drivers trading paint the fiercely contested racing resulted in positions changing on countless times. Several incidents in the battle finally settled down with Archer in third, Bow in fourth and Parkins in fifth, but on the lap final lap the drama once again commenced, Bow, Parkins and Bathie collided with each other, after challenging for fourth overall, sending all three cars spinning across the grass. All three managed to find their way back to the racetrack but it was Bathie who lost out, having to retire his car due to heavy damage. The race win went to Cameron who crossed the line thirteen seconds in front of Greatorex, with Archer in third. Fourth place was taken by Bow with Bowie in fifth and Mark Phillips rounding out the top six.
Ryan Parkins: “I was pushing hard in this one, I enjoyed the race it was good fun, I saw the cars slowing up on the first lap and thought why are they are braking? Then I saw the carnage and I just slammed the brakes on and I took a hit on the righthand side. Later on in the same lap I took a hit on the left hand side, I suppose it just shows how lucky I have been on the first opening rounds because I missed all the carnage in those rounds. I’m happy this race is done, I wouldn’t bring my real car to this track, I'm looking forward to the next rounds with wider tracks.”
Austin Greatorex: “Race one was fine until I spun on lap 1, I wasn’t sure if I’d had contact with another car but I found out after talking on the coms that I had just spun out by myself, the car was a complete right off so I had to pit, when I left the pits I knew that I was too far behind to catch anyone so I decided to park it up and wait for race two. I'm tired from just completing the Le mans 24 Hour so it was more of damage limitation for race 1. I just run my race and took an easy second in the second race.”
Dave Cameron: “I got lucky at the beginning in race two, I managed to squeeze through, just. After that it was just a matter of getting my head down and setting hot laps, thankfully the guys in the race made it really easy for me by getting out of the way. I love this series everyone has done a great job getting this of the ground.”