It was the visit of the Fun Cup Championship to Oulton Park with the VW Beetle racers competing in round two of the 2017 endurance series at the Cheshire parkland track.
Defending champions Farquini Deott and Graham Roberts were on title-winning form again, taking their JPR-UVio car to a clear victory after a four-hour race and a huge 29-car grid.
Paul Turner charged off at the start for ECO Racing, but was hunted down by CCS Media’s Nigel Greensall, who took charge from lap five.
Turner was forced to pit early with a driveshaft problem, which left Jon Tomlinson chasing Greensall for Racelogic, with Andy Bicknell in contention too for DespatchBay.com.
Both Chris Hart (2Rent Dominos) and Sean Cooper (Track Focused) made up ground quickly.
With Tomlinson off at Knickerbrook, Hart had the lead from Cascades and was joined by Greensall and Cooper in a three-car break.
Into Old Hall, Greensall spun to avoid Turner as they lapped him, Hart hit the brakes and Cooper hit him.
The 2Rent Dominos car suffered a broken exhaust but Track Focused were out with a broken radiator.
As the race wore on, Deott/Roberts came to the fore, from an original eight-car train they were never headed from lap 52.
Victory was secured by 3.8 seconds with Team Trooper saving Anthony Reid until last, securing the runner-up spot from Henry Dawes.
“I expected more pressure at the end, but it was good to win on my home track,” said Roberts. “The safety car was cruel to us, each time we built a lead it got wiped out.”
Fun Cup Championship final result
1 JPR-UVio (Farquini Deott/Graham Roberts)); 2 PW Racing Team Trooper (Paul Wighton/Harry Mailer/Jake Rattenbury/Anthony Reid); 3 Track Torque 2Rent Dominos (Chris Hart/Henry Dawes); 4 Team Lane Roofing Evolution (Chris Weatherill/Rob Croydon); 5 ECO Racing (Paul Turner/Paul Abraham/Guy Wenham); 6 Trumans ((Colin Kingsnorth/Richard Webb/Julian Bricknell); 7 JPR on the Piste (Dominic Jackson/Graham Pattle/Mark Burton); 8 Team Viking (Mark Holme/Nick Nunn/Jim Hadfield); 9 Team Lane Roofing (Jordan Lane/Dan Gullick); 10 JPR (Mark Owen/David Clark/Kristian Rose)
