A warm sunny day greeted the Aston Martin Owners Club (AMOC) for their annual visit to Oulton Park in Cheshire.
On the four-wheel action programme were races for the Jack Fairman Cup, AMOC Intermarque Championship, Equipe Pre ’63 and GTS, Welsh Sports and Saloon Car Championship and AMOC GT Challenge.
Top of the bill was the AMOC GT Challenge, a 50-minute race for cars with one or two drivers and a compulsory pit stop.
Fourteen cars lined up for the rolling start. In pole position was Wayne Marrs in his Ferrari 430 Challenge with Tony Jones next to him in a similar car.
On the second row was the Smith/Moulton-Smith BMW E36 M3 with the quickest of the Aston’s alongside, the McKinley/Hill GT4.
At the start Marrs took the lead from Jones, Moulton-Smith and the McKinley/Hill Aston. Mike Newbold in his Ginetta G55 passed the Aston on lap two to take fourth.
The first three cars then pulled away, Marrs finishing up third after a mistake, leaving Jones in the lead from Moulton-Smith.
A lap later Marrs was back into second and was the first to pit after 19 minutes, rejoining 13th.
Next to pit was Moulton-Smith to hand over to Smith and then Jones four laps later. Newbold was the last of the front runners to pit and that left the order, with ten minutes to go, Jones, Newbold, Marrs.
Marrs stopped on circuit and Newbold was given a drive-through penalty for a short pit stop but managed to hold on to second place. This let Smith into third so the order at the flag was Jones, Newbold, Smith.
The highest-placed Aston Martin was the McKinley/Hill GT4 in fourth.
Elsewhere on the programme, Declan Jones won the Jack Fairman Cup, Robert Hollyman won the Intermarque Championship race.
In the Equipe races there were wins for Martyn Corfield (Pre ’63) and Tom Smith (GTS). Patrick Smythe and Mark Jones-Cunniffe took a win apiece in the Welsh Sports and Saloons.
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