CAFÉ RACER 76: BRSCC MAZDA MX-5 SUPERCUP ; Oulton Park ; Henderson tightens his grip on the 2015 SuperCup title....

A month after the frantic racing at Cadwell Park the BRSCC MX5 SuperCup rolled on to the Oulton Park meeting which would take place as always on the International layout of the Cheshire circuit. In the run up to the meeting the weather forecast deteriorated, with the dreaded “two blobs” of rain indicated on the BBC weather app for the majority of the one day meeting. Fortunately these predictions are not always correct…

Practice

Having rained overnight the circuit was definitely wet as the drivers headed out for a very early 8.30am start, the busy one day meeting meaning that with 4 sessions for the SuperCup drivers they were first out on track. With a wall of spray being kicked up into Old Hall corner many drivers perhaps felt caution in these conditions for the first session of the day was the way to go and times built slowly throughout the session. Having acquired Chris Dawkins car after the Cadwell meeting, James Blake-Baldwin’s first action was to find the tyre wall and sustain minor damage to his new car. But that didn’t stop him continuing on and setting fastest times for the majority of the session. It wasn’t until the final lap that championship leader Alan Henderson topped the times with a 2:13.2 lap time, much slower that the pace expected if the circuit were dry.

Qualifying

With only short break after practice decisions on whether to go for a wet or dry set up had to be made quickly and with no rain in the air and the temperature rising most drivers gambled on it drying out. Once on track it was clear that some sections remained damp while a dry line had appeared around the majority of the circuit so lap times again got quicker as the session progressed. Blake Baldwin set the early place until on lap 4 Henderson became the only driver to dip below the 2:01 mark and this was the way it stayed, Henderson going quicker again late in the session to take a dominant pole. It was Cadwell race winner Liam Murphy who pipped Blake Baldwin to 2nd fastest but still 0.8 of a second behind pole. John Davies took his best qualifying result of the season in 4th while Charlie Charmin was also right on the pace in only his second SuperCup meeting qualifying in 8th. Lap times were close, with only 1.2 seconds covering 2nd to 11th on the grid, setting up as usual for some very close racing later in the day.

Race 1

Following on from the last race at the Cadwell meeting several drivers had Blue Book imposed grid penalties to serve, demoting Murphy to 6th , JJ Clements to 11th and Jonathan Greensmith to 15th. The weather had improved and the sun shone with no sign of the predicted rain… perfect conditions for racing.

The front row was Henderson and Blake-Baldwin and as the race got underway it was Henderson who made the better start, leading into the first corner. Behind it was Goddard who slipped into third ahead of Davies as several further back in the pack scrabbled across the grass on the exit of the first turn.

From there on the front two were in a class of their own stretching away a significant lead over the first lap as the cars behind fought for position. It was Davies however who came over the line in 3rd followed by Nield and then Goddard, the group having gone into the Knickerbrook chicane three abreast earlier in the lap. On lap two it was all change as Blake Baldwin took the lead from Henderson while a spin for Nield left Davies fending off Goddard and now Murphy for 3rd.

The racing at the front was superb, Henderson running bumper to bumper all the way round the lap behind Blake Baldwin for several laps until finally retaking the lead on lap 5. By now the front two were 10 seconds clear of the chasing pack and its was a straight fight for the win but despite Blake-Baldwins best efforts he couldn’t find a way past a defensive Henderson who took the chequered flag just over 1 second in front. Fastest lap went to Henderson set on the final lap of the race.

The battle for third was another thriller with Murphy, Clements and Greensmith all recovering superbly from their grid penalties to begin pressurising Davies for third place. The racing was close but fair and in the last few laps it was Davies who just had enough pace to keep Muphy at bay for the last step on the podium.

Further back and no-one was left without a good fight newcomer Will Picken enjoying a superb race with the ever improving Carl Garnett and returning Paul Sheard Autos Driver Justin Newnam – Justin’s in-car footage is available on YouTube and is well worth a watch! With only a single DNF resulting from Charlie Charmans unfortunate off at island bend (causing only minor damage) the first race at Oulton was a return to the clean close racing the drivers expect in the MX5 SuperCup.

Race 2

The sun shone again and the temperature was up as the cars lined up for race 2 of the day following another only short break. Lining up in finishing order of race one (no penalties!) it was again Henderson who lead the way into the first turn this time Davies challenged for 2nd but had the door firmly shut by BlakeBaldwin.

Once again the front two cars streaked away in a race of their own while the battle for third was a huge pack of cars circulating as one. Davies hung onto 3rd as the cars arrived 3 abreast into cascades then on lap 4 it was Greensmith pressurising Davies for third having moved ahead of Murphy. One lap later and a brake issue for Davies caused him to lose control at Island bend in a race ending copy of Charmans incident earlier in the day.

Out front the race was frantic once again with Blake-Baldwin hitting the front on lap 3 but unable to stay there as a late braking move into the Knickerbrook chicane saw Henderson slide back in front on lap 6. The next time round and Blake-Baldwin tried to repeat the same move but was too far back and forced both drivers down the run off escape and to cut the chicane, fortunately with enough in hand to re-join without pressure from the chasing pack. From there on Blake-Baldwins challenge faded as Henderson put in successive laps at record pace to take a second win by over 3 seconds.

For third it was Greensmith who was hanging on, showing his experience to hold off former race winners Murphy and Clements to a take his first proper podium of the season. Other notable drives came from James Aspinall who ran right on the front running pace and Charlie Charman who recovered from the back to take 11th. It was a tough weekend for Richard Wiklen who was dogged by mechanical issues with little time to remedy them between sessions despite which he did a great job bringing the car home in both races.

Hendersons new lap record of 2:00.20 is impressive and his lead in the championship is further extended after Oulton but with James Blake-Baldwin clearly happy with his new car Henderson will not have it easy for the rest of the season. Overall the pace of all drivers was much quicker than 2014 and shows just what a high quality field there is in the MX5 SuperCup.