Record Crowd for Oulton Park British F3/GT

13 July 2003

A crowd of 14,000 fans packed into Oulton Park on Sunday (13 July) to see the latest instalment in the British F3 and British GT Championship seasons. The biggest F3/GT crowd to date at the Cheshire track basked in glorious sunshine and witnessed action-packed racing throughout the afternoon.

Supported by excellent promotional work by the staff at the Oulton Park circuit, the crowd built on the success of the previous two F3/GT meetings and demonstrated the popularity of the venue that celebrates its 50th anniversary this year.

One man who went home very happy on Sunday evening was Alan van der Merwe, who scored a double victory to extend his advantage in the British F3 Championship gripped by AVON Tyres. Before the weekend Van der Merwe had mixed feelings about the Cheshire track. "I do like the circuit, but I've never gone well here before," he admitted. Two days later, it was all smiles for the Carlin Motorsport ace after a pair of stunning victories. "Now I love Oulton Park, I wish we could race here every weekend," he joked after his second win.

However, it was also a good weekend for the top British racers in F3 as Adam Carroll, Jamie Green and Danny Watts all claimed podium finishes. In the Scholarship class, Indian ace Karun Chandhok strengthened his title bid with a brace of wins.

The British GT race provided a second win of the season for Piers Johnson and Shane Lynch in the Eclipse Motorsport TVR T400R, which was a hugely popular result for the Blackpool-based manufacturer. While the Mosler MT900R of Martin Short/Tom Herridge battled home second in the hot conditions, the similar car of Shaun Balfe/Jamie Derbyshire went out with a broken throttle cable. In the GT Cup class, Patrick Pearce and Matt Griffin maintained their superb campaign with another victory.

Throughout the support programme there was plenty of close racing and four races were won and lost by barely a second. Both rounds of the Holiday Inn SEAT Cupra Championship were decided by just a second as Robert Huff and Gordon Shedden shared the wins, but the closest finish of the day came in the Dunlop Mini Miglia Challenge. Category veteran Bill Sollis, in his 20th year of Mini racing, beat Kelly Rogers to the line by less than a tenth of a second! Carlube TVR Tuscan Challenge wins went to season-long rivals David Mason and Lee Caroline, while Andrew Deviny again bagged the Dunlop Mini Se7en spoils.

Some of Oulton Park's earlier days were gloriously re-created in the BRDC Historic Sports Car Championship in which the Lister Knobbly of Nick Linney beat the Jaguar D Type of sportscar ace Win Percy by barely a second. Finally, a gaggle of rising stars contested a round of the BRDC Single Seater Championship with victory going to Rei Yamaguchi.

The F3/GT action will resume at Rockingham on 2/3 August, when the chance for fans to see the action free courtesy of SEAT promises another packed crowd.

See series calendar for British GT Championship

Related Story 04.07.2003 - British F3/GT Action at Oulton Park