The biggest ever Historic FF2000 field gathered at Oulton Park on the Bank Holiday weekend for our second outing at the prestigious Gold Cup meeting. Thirty-one cars (just one short of the circuit maximum) were entered, but sadly, John Wilson was unable to make it, having hurt his back in a powerboat race. Alan Gape and Derek Watling (back in his Royale RP27) were also no-shows in qualifying, Alan’s engine having run its bearings whilst being warmed up, and Derek with a lack of oil pressure. Derek had managed to do the CF3 qualifying, though, and with the problem fixed, was given dispensation by the Clerk of the Course to start from the back of the grid.

So it was then, that in very unpredictable weather conditions (which were to persist throughout the day) the remaining twenty-eight cars took to the circuit for qualifying in predominantly dry conditions. It was a familiar story at the front, with Neil Fowler setting the pace, getting ever quicker as the conditions improved, and setting a 1:47.851 benchmark on his last lap. 0.9s behind Neil was Tom Mills who, with Nigel Grant were the only non-Reynards in the top ten. In third was welcome returnee, Dale Spruce, showing that he is able to get straight back onto the pace after very little running this year. James Murray was next up, still running on the tyres that were on his Reynard when he bought it from Rod Stead. Scott Temple was fifth in his very smart black Reynard, but was suffering from handling problems.

In sixth was another immaculate car, the Reynard of the ever-consistent Colin Wright. Nigel Grant was next, with his Delta now liveried in the CP Hydraulics colours it carried when new. It was slightly surprising to see former race winner Russell Love back in eighth place, but he has not yet had much seat time in his new Reynard. In ninth was another Neil Fowler Motorsport driver, David Wild, followed by Peter Denham, who had been feeling unwell all weekend.

In eleventh overall, and heading the three-strong Pre ’79 field was Antony Raine in his faithful Merlyn, followed by Andrew Storer’s very smart Pukka Pies Royale RP27. Next up were Iain Rowley’s Delta and the RP30 of veteran Wil Arif. Mark Pierce ran well again, but his session was curtailed by a wing-bending visit to the tyre wall. Luckily, Colin Thorpe was able to lend him a spare wing from their RP27 for the race. James Ledamun’s Crosslé (now rebodied in orange) was next, followed by the second Pre’ 79 car, the Van Diemen of Luke Dimsdale. Luke was sharing the car with dad Jonny who was running it in the CF3 race, and both were suffering from a lack of power.

Derek Smith continued the improvement he showed at Mallory to be eighteenth, and was followed by Stuart Boyer, who felt that his recent brake problems had been cured by a change of pad material. Jan Langdon and Adrian Desoutter were next, followed by the final Pre ’79 car, the Dulon of David Clark, another driver who is improving with every outing. The Deltas of John de Ritter and Stuart Olley were next, followed by the three Supervee cars, in the order John Bowles, Jon Randall and Martyn Donn. The Supervees are gradually closing in on the FF2000s, and it will be good to see some of them mixing it in the future. In last place was Historic FF2000 treasurer, John Taylor, who suffered a broken gear linkage on his first lap, but was also given dispensation by the Clerk to start from the back.

Rain threatened again in the assembly area, just as it had in ’08, but fortunately we were in for a dry race. When the lights went out, both Tom Mills and Neil Fowler made good starts, and were very close going into Old Hall. Sadly, Tom’s race was destined to end very soon, as he missed his braking and skated off into the gravel. This incident caused a bit of a delay amongst the following cars, and Neil emerged up Deer Leap with a huge 3.3s lead. Behind Neil, Dale Spruce, Colin Wright, Scott Temple and James Murray took up the chase, with a small gap to Russell Love and Nigel Grant, followed by the rest. Somewhere, on the first lap, Jan Langdon dropped to the back of the field, a position he stayed in until retiring after three laps. Stuart Boyer had driven a storming first lap, and found himself on the tail of Iain, his sparring partner from Mallory, and they began another close but fair battle which ended in the same way, with Stuart passing Iain on lap four, and holding the position to the end. Adrian Desoutter was another to drop back in the early laps, but climbed back to fifteenth at the end.

At the front, Neil kept serenely on his way to another victory, but was troubled by a strange vibration towards the end. Behind Neil, Dale held second place throughout, but behind him a good scrap ensued between Colin Wright and Scott Temple. They circulated in close company for several laps until Scott just managed to get by under braking for Old Hall. James Murray’s place at the front was short-lived when he retired with clutch problems after five laps. Andrew Storer used a brand new set of tyres to good effect by finishing five places above his qualifying position. Peter Denham had a good first lap, and made up a number of places, and finished in close company with David Wild.

Winner of class B was Luke Dimsdale. Antony Raine, who has been the pacesetter for the last two seasons, made a very rare error, and found himself beached at the side of the circuit with a bent rear wishbone. This incident brought out the safety car for two laps, although time was kindly added on to the race, which actually ran for nearly twenty-three minutes. In third place in class B was David Clark. He had been running in sixteenth, but a problem (spin?) on the last lap dropped him down to twenty-second at the end.

Behind the class B victor, John de Ritter had a troublefree run ahead of the “Equipe Olley” cars, Stuart’s Delta, and John Taylor’s RP27. Luckily, they both behaved themselves, otherwise there could have been a very frosty atmosphere in the pub after their dash home to Surrey! The three Supervees were next, with John Bowles again finishing in front in the oldest of the three cars. Jon Randall’s attractive Lola was second, with Martyn Donn’s Supernova a bit further back. Martyn was a good 1.5s quicker than the other two, but a grassy moment at Lodge put him to the back of the trio.

Of the other retirements, I have to confess I don’t know why James Ledamun and Mark Pierce retired (we really need a proper race reporter!). Derek Watling had put in a very good drive to climb from twenty-ninth place to seventeenth, only to succumb to carburettor problems after nine laps.

Our largest ever field performed magnificently. There have been many favourable comments about the quality of the racing, the high standard of presentation of the cars and the growing grid sizes. There was a bit of a sense that Oulton 2009 was when Historic FF2000 finally came of age. Our entry for Brands looks strong, so hopefully we will finish the season on a high and justify our efforts to get a top-quality calendar for 2010.