24th / 25th Aug. 2003.

Page 2.       An article by Richard Frisk  taking a nostalgic trip down memory lane.

Two laps of Oulton Park racing circuit

  Lap one

  30 second board just up, sweaty hands in gloves, really hot in full race gear, but select first gear and wait for the red lights.

  Red lights on, one second, two seconds, three seconds, hold revs at 5000rpm, four seconds, five se…………red lights out - go, go, go. Too much wheelspin, up to 7800rpm in first, snatch second, into third and lift off for Old Hall right- hander.

 A modified sprite starting from way down the grid pushes past on the

inside;better give way as it’s the first lap of the race. Push right up behind MGB as he oversteers round the bend.

  Accelerate through Old Hall and down towards Denton’s. Swing quickly from left hand side of the track to the blind crest at Denton’s to get over on the right hand side for Cascades. The MGB fluffs the exit of Old Hall, so make up another place down the hill. Hold it late on the brakes for this left-hander with adverse camber and wait until after the bump before turning in and accelerating through the bend drifting over to the rumble strips on the exit.

Cascades. In wide, miss the bump, out fast.

 Check mirrors, oil pressure and temperature and foot to the floor on the long drag up to Shell corner. Slight lift at Shell and cut across to the left side before braking down into third for Esso corner. Esso is a banked 180-degree hairpin, but the car still understeers like crazy through there before we snatch top briefly before the chicane. Quick change down again into Foulston’s chicane, keeping in tight left after the first bend before throwing the car right over the kerbs and out towards Hilltop. Up into fourth and glance at the gauges again before dropping down to Knickerbrook, the fastest bend on the circuit.

Foulston's chicane - That MGB is still there.

Catching up on another Sprite and tuck onto his right rear corner past the short circuit entry from Fosters. Come alongside as the Sprite lifts early before we brake late but lightly into Knickerbrook. Turn in by the rumble strips and drift round the bend with a huge grin as the other Sprite looses 5 car lengths as he chickens out round “The Big-One”. 

Drag up Clay Hill and under the Dunlop Bridge, but it feels like we are climbingEverest, as the hill is deceptively steep.

   Cut across to the left for the entry to Druids and keep in top gear through the double apex left-hander drifting wide on exit under the Bailey Bridge on towards Lodge Corner.

  Mirrors, gauges and check position again as we approach Lodge almost on the circuit edge out towards the left hand side. Brake early for Lodge as the exit is blind over the crest and the drop into Deer Leap is always steeper than it was last time round! Whoops, slight wobble round Lodge before staying in the middle of the track as a modified MBG blasts past using his slicks to best advantage.

  7500rpm in top down the start-finish straight before hard on the anchors into Old Hall again.

  Whew! Lap one of a ten-lap race and straight onto lap two. The occasion was a support race at the Oulton Park Gold Cup meeting for road-going and modified MG's and Austin Healey Sprites at Oulton Park, 1990. I was driving my Mk 4, 1293cc Sprite, MNH 723, a quick car in road-going trim with a couple of class lap records to her name.

  Lap Two

  Turn the clock forward thirteen years, August 25^th 2003, same circuit, different car. Today’s mount was my Austin Healey 100/6, RAF 735 and this time accompanied by my “navigator,” son Will, aged 12. The occasion was the 50^th celebration meeting of the Oulton Park Gold cup and a bunch of classic cars, whose drivers had queued up for over an hour for the privilege, had the chance to drive the circuit at a leisurely pace. There would be strict marshalling and no more then 30mph. Will was really excited as this was his first venture onto a real racing circuit with the exception of the Granturissmo Playstation game (this is the game that Jacques Villenueve used to learn the European GP circuits)

  Out on to the circuit sandwiched between a British Racing Green 1950’s Rover tourer and a pink AC Cobra – just as colourful as the previous lap thirteen years previous.

  We were tightly bunched up and really crawling along; 30mph on such a wide 

  We crept around the circuit in full view of the crowd taking the same racing lines as before, but without any of the drifting or close encounters – shame, but horses for courses I guess.

Will was really enjoying the trip and I could see the marvel in his eyes as we  went through places like Denton’s which is a very quick flick over to the right hand side of the 

Following a Rover Tourer down the Start / Finish straight.

course but taken blind, at full throttle (during racing of course) – not for the faint-hearted at all. Get Denton’s right and you almost fly into Cascades, but get the wrong line and you will easily loose a second on the lap time as you’ll be in the wrong place for the tough left-hander that follows.

 All the Oulton Park features were still there including the bump at Cascades and the oil drips on the starting grid from years of leaking sumps and crankcase breathers (maybe some was even my own from 1990!) One surprise, which I suppose reflects the change in times, was the old Dunlop Bridge at Clay Hill; this is now the Yokohama Bridge showing where most of the racing tyre development is now taking place. 

Driving at such low speeds gives you time to look around and even enjoy the scenery. The crowds seemed to

Yokohama Bridge from the 110/6. ( Did not manage to get past the Rover.)

like the classic interlude which gave their eyes something different to look at and their ears a rest from the open exhaust of some of the historic F1 contenders from earlier practice sessions.

  All too quickly the lap was over and time to exit the circuit via the Bailey Bridge access road. Back onto the Northern Centre stand and display for the rest of the day.

  So there are two different laps of the same racing circuit taken thirteen years apart by the same driver. Different cars and different circumstances – both great fun and extremely enjoyable.

  Now then, how much does a roll cage for a 100/6 cost I wonder ?