Oulton Park Race Report

Added: 5th April 2010

Saturday 27th March saw the opening round of the UK CPC Legends Championship take place at Oulton Park, and with 30 cars lining up on the grid it was certain to be an entertaining day for both drivers and spectators. Among the 30 strong were three Irish drivers, Niki Meredith from Dublin in car 95, Paul O’Brien from Kildare in car 96 and Gareth Martin from Northern Ireland in car 52.

The starting grid for Heat 1 was randomly selected by a draw, with Samsport Racing’s Niki Meredith drawing 12th on the grid. Gareth and Paul, as they are contesting the Rookie Championship started behind the main championship contenders and drew 24th and 29th respectively. These are then reversed for Heat 2, giving Niki a starting place of 9th on the grid for Heat 2 and Paul and Gareth starting positions of 22nd and 27th.


In Heat 1, all three Irish got off to flying starts but Niki was unlucky to be hit from behind and sent into a 360 spin onto the grass before recovering to finish in 6th place. Paul and Gareth avoided all the mayhem and had excellent drives with Paul finishing 17th and Gareth, who was only in his second ever car race, finishing 19th

Results from Heat 1:
1st Ross Marshall
2nd John Jon Higgins
3rd Lawrence Davey


In Heat 2, Niki finished 4th, only 0.03 seconds behind 3rd place finisher Lawrence Davey. Paul finished 14th from 22nd on the grid and Gareth finished 24th.
Results from Heat 2:
1st John Jon Higgins
2nd Lee Fitzpatrick
3rd Lawrence Davey


The accumulation of points from the results of Heat 1 and 2 and a reversed grid for the final made for some spectacular racing with the frequent frontrunners starting the race from the back of the field. Unfortunately Gareth was unable to start the final as his car had developed a nasty noise from the rear of the car a suspected differential failure.

Niki began in 14th place, finishing 5th after a fraught battle for third place with John Jon Higgins, John Mickel, Peter Morton and Lawrence Davey, John Jon eventually making a break from the other four and John, Niki, Peter and Lawrence being covered by 0.75 of a second at the line. Paul starting 28th and finished 19th and winning the Rookie class.

Results from Final:
1st Stephen Treherne
2nd Lee Fitzpatrick
3rd John Jon Higgins



Top 10 Championship Standings after Round One:
Pos. Driver Name (Team) - Points
1 - John Jon Higgins (Burnett Motorsport) - 555
2 - Stephen Treherne (Handy Motorsport/KÄRCHER) - 510
3 - Lee Fitzpatrick (Burnett Motorsport) - 490
4 - Lawrence Davey (getanewvan.com/Smart Motorsport) - 470
5 - Niki Meredith (Samsport Racing) - 450
6 - Simon Belcher (Handy Motorsport/KARCHER) - 380
7 - Ross Marshall (Burnett Motorsport) - 345
8 - Darren Gaulton (charlessaundersfoodservice.co.uk) - 290
8 - Ben Power (Driver) - 290
8 - John Mickel (RS Capp/MTS/Mickel Motorsport) - 290

Round One will be shown on Eurosport (Sky 410) on Sunday 11th April at 6.30pm, and also on Motors TV (Sky 413) on Friday 16th April at 7.00pm.

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