Minis galore at Oulton Park

Mini Festival, Oulton Park
Mini Festival, Oulton Park

Motorsport Vision Racing (MSVR) hosted the annual Mini Festival at Oulton Park.

Changeable weather made for difficult racing conditions causing numerous safety car periods and race stops.

Top of the bill was the JCW (John Cooper Racing) Mini Challenge, while there were also races for Mini Cooper Pro/Am, Mini Se7en, Mini Miglia and Open Mini Challenge.

Mini Festival, Oulton Park
Mini Festival at Oulton Park

For the first of two JCW races Max Bladen qualified fastest but was demoted to the second row of the grid for a previous misdemeanour.

This left Charlie Butler-Henderson on pole with Henry Neal alongside. Neal got the best start and led from Butler-Henderson and Rob Smith.

Bladen took second on lap two as Butler-Henderson dropped back. A fast-charging Brett Smith had climbed from sixth to second by lap five making the order Neal, Brett Smith and Bladon when the safety car was deployed.

As the clearing up was completed the rain came down making the track treacherous to the cars on slick tyres.

The order stayed the same for a further two laps when the race was stopped due the circuit being blocked at Clay Hill.

Bladen was given a ten-second penalty for a jump start giving second place to Brett Smith and third to Reece Barr. Bladon was classified ninth.

Race two saw George Sutton on pole from Reece Barr with Brett Smith and Henry Neal on row two.

At the end of lap one the order was Sutton from Barr and David Grady, who had come through from row three.

Lap three saw the safety car deployed yet again leaving four laps of close racing in which the order for the first three places did not change. The biggest scrap was for fourth place which eventually went to Brett Smith.

In other events there were race wins for Alfie Brown and Rupert Deeth in the Mini Miglia’s.

Darren Thomas and Charlie Budd took a win apiece in the Mini Se7ens. Fulvoi Mussi took two wins in the Mini Cooper Challenge and Ben Dimmack and Rob Austin took a win apiece in the Mini Open Challenge.

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