CARNAGE IN THE PARK
Torrential rain causes pile up at Oulton Park
There was carnage at Oulton Park yesterday as the British GT Championship took to the track only to be dumped on by torrential rain ten minutes into the race. A particularly full field of cars was tiptoeing around a track still damp from an earlier shower when a cloudburst resulted in instant flooding and chaos on track.
On the sixth lap Saleens 8 and 9 both piroutted on the standing water, one car careering into the other and then both cars were collected by the Viper of Steve Watson. Marshals had clambered over the barriers to assist the drivers and appeared to be caught up in the melee although we hear that noone suffered any serious injuries in the horrific incident.
Also wiped out was the Rollcentre Tuscan R driven my Simon Pullan. Cruising in a straight line, the water sent him wildly off course resulting in a huge impact. The rollcage did its job (getting bent in the impact) and Pullan survived uninjured. Other cars to suffer minor impacts included the Eclipse Tuscan R, Mullen/Simonsen Ferrari 360 and the PK Sport car of Piers Maserati.
It was almost an hour and a half before the debris could be cleared and the track declared safe once again. Fourteen cars took the re-start on a wet track and it was the Lister Storm of Mike Jordan that then hit trouble with a spin at Druids that cost two laps before Jordan could rejoin.
In the closing stages, the TVR got ever closer to the lead Saleen, but the margin of victory was still close to ten seconds. "That was a tough race for everyone," said Erdos. "It was horrendous in the rain," he added.
Into a fine third in GT came the Steven Brady/Neil Cunningham Ultima, which caught and passed the Chrysler Viper of Peter Cook late in the race.
In the GTO category the remaining cars did the business and it was the PK Sport 911GT3-RS of Piers Masarati and Robin Liddell that took the victory after a fierce battle with the similar car of Steve ORourke/Tim Sugden.
"To be honest, I had no idea where we were, but I realised that Tim was struggling with his wet tyres," said an elated Liddell. "That was a really unbelievable race," added Masarati.
John Hartshorne and Piers Johnson turned in a fine drive to claim third in GTO in their TVR Tuscan R, while David and Godfrey Jones worked their Porsche ahead of the David Leslie/Tommy Rustad Ferrari late in the race to take fourth in GTO.
It wasn't a good day for the GT teams - taking your car home in bin bags isn't the idea.
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