The 2008 Oulton Park Gold Cup, the most prestigious meeting to date for Historic FF2000, saw a mildly disappointing entry of twenty-one cars in the programme. This figure was further reduced when Jonathan Lucas suffered a big off on the first lap of the second session of Saturday testing, damaging the rear end of his Reynard quite badly, and giving his girlfriend a baptism of fire on her first visit to a motor race!

So it was that twenty cars ventured out for qualifying just before midday. Everyone was keeping a watchful eye on Neil Fowler – his speed in Historic FF1600 is well known, and he didn’t disappoint. After a pretty abortive test at Mallory on the previous Wednesday, where the flywheel fell off after about four laps, he was right on the pace from the outset. His first flying lap would have been good enough for second on the grid, but he went even quicker to secure pole on 1:48.034.

The top five were all driving Reynards, with Dale Spruce, Colin Wright, Peter Meyrick and Peter Denham filling the other places. Oliver Thorpe was sixth, ahead of impressive series debutant Luke Dimsdale in father Jonny’s Van Diemen. The ever-reliable Steve Gardiner was eighth, followed by Wil Arif (who raced in FF2000 before it became Historic!). The next few cars were further back than usual. Nigel Grant caused a red flag by ending up in the gravel due to a braking problem, Tom Mills was suffering from a down-on-power engine, and Iain was suffering from the foam in his fuel tank breaking up and clogging the carb.

15th was Antony Raine who was in the midst of a torrid weekend. Having arrived back from holiday on Saturday, he set off for Oulton on Sunday. Well into the journey, his tow car broke down. He was recovered back to his home near Bournemouth. He then drove to Reading to borrow another tow car, followed by a drive back to Bournemouth to pick up the trailer, and then a drive up to Oulton, arriving just in time on Monday morning.

With our race being the last on the programme, and the timetable running over twenty minutes late, there were many anxious glances upwards as the sky became ever threatening overhead. Thankfully, the few spots of rain in the assembly area didn’t develop into anything more serious, and the cars headed out onto the grid, watched by enthusiastic sponsor, Dan Rear of Armitstead Barnett Financial Services.

A clean start by everyone saw Neil Fowler head straight into a lead that was to remain his until the end of the race, thanks to a display of neat, precision driving. Neil was lapping consistently nearly two seconds a lap faster than the opposition, and his performance has certainly raised the bar for everybody else.

Behind Neil, a furious, but clean, battle raged between Peter Meyrick, Dale Spruce, Peter Denham, Colin Wright and Oliver Thorpe. Early in the race Peter M was informed of a ten second penalty for a jumped start, which resulted in an eventual eighth place finish. The other cars were nose to tail though, and Peter Denham pulled out a great passing manoeuvre to snatch second place from Dale on the last lap, proving that the “1970 Daily Express Star of Tomorrow” award was no fluke!

Colin Wright eventually finished sixth, after some do-or-die driving, and Luke Dimsdale was a very creditable seventh in the pre ’79 Van Diemen. Behind Luke, another fantastic battle ensued between Trevor Arkell, Nigel Grant, Tom Mills and Iain. Iain departed the scene after two laps when he hit the brake and throttle together, but Nigel and Tom had a real set-to, providing a great spectacle throughout the field.

Antony Raine’s miserable weekend was capped off by a steering problem, and Steve Gardiner suffered a broken ignition wire. John Taylor endured a repeat of the water pump belt loss he experienced in qualifying.

All in all, an extremely good race which gained some very favourable comments in Autosport. Behind Neil there was some great racing, but he has set a new benchmark to which everyone else needs to aspire…