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First ever LMA win for Ilsa Cox
Class wins for Tim Evans, Ilsa Cox, Nick Hayes, Ian Craig and Brett Walter
Brett Walter is confirmed as 2009 LMA Euro Saloon and Sports Car champion
with two rounds remaining
Round seven of the 2009 LMA Euro Saloon and Sports Car Championship took place on the International circuit at Oulton Park.
Qualifying:
Joss Ronchetti (Talbot Sunbeam Lotus)
was the star of qualifying placing his Class C car on pole by 1.2 seconds from the nearest competitor, the Class A Mitsubishi Evo of Simon Deaton. Gary Furst (Mitsubishi Evo) was third on the grid, another second
further back with the two Class B Seat Leon Cupras of Ilsa Cox and Andrew Morrison taking 4th and 5th places though Cox was almost 1.5 seconds faster than Morrison. Championship leader Brett Walter again qualified
his Renault Clio on the Class E pole, but was also up in 8th place overall, 6 places and 3.5 seconds clear of second in Class E, Stewart Calder. Ian Craig (BMW M3) narrowly beat Lee Reynolds (Citroen Saxo) to the
Class D pole and 10th overall. Late in qualifying, Tim Evans broke a driveshaft on his Subaru Impreza. A call to Scooby Clinic (preparers of his and Andy Harvey's car) resulted in the team arriving at the circuit
and repairing the car with just minutes to spare before the race.
Race:
An amazing first lap from Joss Ronchetti saw him cross the line a full six seconds clear of second placed Ilsa Cox, Cox in
turn being over a second clear of the Class A heavyweights Simon Deaton, Tim Evans, Gary Furst and Charlie Jackson (Ford Escort Cosworth). On lap 2 Deaton pulled into the pits and out of the race as Ronchetti eked
out another 0.6 seconds from Cox. Three laps in and the returning Simon Jackson (MG ZR) suffered a major engine blow up leaving a hole in his block and an oil slick on the entry to the chicane. Luckily no-one went
off although lap times slowed for a while.
Up front, Ronchetti was holding his lead around the 6 to 7 seconds mark, but was lapping 5 or 6 seconds slower than his qualifying pace. Morrison was moving
forwards, up into 4th place by lap 5, while Andy Harvey (Subaru Impreza) who had started from the back of the grid was just 5/1000ths behind him and would take over 4th place just past the line. Harvey was now
chasing after third place Tim Evans and lapping up to 2 seconds quicker while in pursuit, finally closing up on lap 10. But the big news on lap 10 was Ronchetti pulling into the pits with differential problems and
letting Ilsa Cox turn a 5 second deficit the previous lap into a 3 second lead over the battling Subarus of Evans and Harvey. With just one lap to go, Cox extended her lead to take her first LMA race win by 3.7
seconds from Evans who just held off Harvey to take his first class win of the season, good reward for the sterling work put in by Scooby Clinic to get him into the race.
Brett Walter had a comfortable win in
Class E, but Jim Mepham (Renault Megane) and Matt Walton (Renault Clio) were trading places in the fight for second in class, Mepham eventually triumphing by less than a quarter of a second! With Ronchetti's demise,
Nick Hayes (Seat Leon) took his third consecutive Class C win, while Ian Craig had an easy Class D win once his main competitor Lee Reynolds (Citroen Saxo) pulled out on lap 3.
With two rounds still to go,
and Peter Challis not competing at Oulton Park, Brett Walter's points total of 250 cannot be caught so he is the 2009 LMA Euro Saloon and Sports Car champion. Walter has also amassed an unassailable lead (232 to
132) in the Mark Fish Motorsport Clio Cup Challenge which he also wins for 2009. And finally, Renault look uncatchable in the MSE-Performance.com cup for manufacturers with 814 points to second placed Ford on 418
and third placed Seat on 416.
Race Result:
Winner: 1st Ilsa Cox (Seat Leon Cupra), 2nd Tim Evans (Subaru Impreza), 3rd Andy Harvey (Subaru Impreza), 4th Andrew Morrison (Seat Leon Cupra), 5th
Gary Furst (Mitsubishi Evo), 6th Charlie Jackson (Ford Escort Cosworth), 7th Brett Walter (Renault Clio), 8th Nick Hayes (Seat Leon)
Class Winners: Class A Evans, Class B Cox, Class C Hayes, Class D Ian
Craig (BMW M3), Class E Brett Walter
Fastest lap: Andy Harvey (Subaru Impreza) 1:52.046 (86.49mph)
Next race: Lydden Hill 3-4 October 2009
With support from :
Mark Fish Motorsport, MSE-Performance.com & LMA Perfomance
Report by Trevor Nicosia, Car 10 ( www.nyssaracing.com )
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