Oulton Park - 2010

27 March - National Championship
Round One
Oulton Park

Race wins for Ross Marshall and John Jon Higgins and overall victory on the day for JJ with Lee Fitzpatrick second on the day. Burnett drivers were fastest all day with Ross setting the pace in qualifying and then JJ and Lee taking fastest laps in the three races. Darren Gaulton will be delighted with 10th place in the standings.

The points here are provisional as the writer does not know at this stage which cars are non championship registered (there being no official information on the Legends website yet).

Steve McCall's report:

After such a hard run up to testing at Knockhill two weeks ago it felt like we had never been away from racing - its been such a non stop time since we stopped racing - preparing all the cars from the bottom up and making them all look brand new for the start of the 2010 season. So, after testing at Knockhill (to iron out any teething problems) we loaded up four cars to get to Oulton Park

On the way down we had a slight problem with my hard working bus and had to be recovered to the services to empty it bus while my guys went back home to get transport for me to get my team to Oulton. It was five in the morning when everything was finally ready to go and none of my team had stopped since Thursday morning. So I must say a big thanks to all my team including John Marshall for all their help and others like welder Bob who sorted out some bits back home for my guys to get back and sort it all out and Willy with the low loader - what a life saver he was so it was loaded again and off to Oulton.

We got there in time to get Lee out to shake his car down in the test session. Ross was out testing as well and then it was off to bed for some much needed sleep for everyone before the racing on Saturday. The team don't really pay any attention to the familiarisation session times (or so they say) but Ross was quickest of all the entire field (and bear in mind he does not have as much experience of the place as the others). Lee was second with John Jon third and Darren 19th in his new;y rebuilt car.

Race 1 saw great start from all the drivers with Ross really getting to grips with National Championship action and showing just why he is the Scottish Champion. A great drive as he got away in front with Lawrence Davey and John Jon chasing. If there had not been a safety car then the others would not have caught up and put him under pressure. Nonetheless he held on to win from JJ and Lawrence. Lee had a bad start but then had a great drive which underlined his status as current National Champion going from last to 8th place. Great drive. Darren upheld team honour as well with a superb 7th place.

In the second race there was the great sight of ex champion John Mickel with our own multi Champ JJ at the front with Mickel's old team mate and JJ's current one, Lee, all engaged in action.

Sure you could never have planned that and what a start they all had with JJ 1st and Lee at the back in 2nd but the drives from Ross and Darren were good too as they were both in middee of such a hard pack with Ross coming in behind Stephen Treherne in 6th place and Darren dicing hard with Mickel, Simon Belcher and the returning Chris Bell.

The final threw up a mixed grid as usual and it did look like tears - Ross did not get further than lap one when he was hit so hard from the rear, wrecking his chance of earning a podium on the first round Steven Treherne worked the traffic so well and made great use of his time in the front so I am sure he was upset when the safety car was called out for the 2nd time in the meeting. He made great use of that and what a drive he had and a well deserved win. It was a great finish for us with Lee second and JJ third. Darren was 14th which was great considering there was a thirty strong entry. It looks like it is going to be a great year once again and a hard fought championship.

Thanks to everyone supporting Burnettmotorsport for all your help on such a hard weekend's racing - thank you all what a great team I have. And of course Lez keeping it all together back at home.

Pos	Driver	R1	R2	R3	Score
1	5 - John 'Jon' Higgins	2	1	3	555
2	12 - Stephen Treherne	4	5	1	510
3	1 - Lee Fitzpatrick	8	2	2	490
4	19 - Lawrence Davey	3	3	7	470
5	95 - Niki Meredith	6	4	5	450
6	11 - Simon Belcher	5	7	10	380
7	3 - Ross Marshall	1	6	0	345
8	4 - John Mickel	23	8	4	290
9	55 - Ben Power	9	10	12	290
10	2 - Darren Gaulton	7	11	14	280
11	69 - Gerard McCosh	11	12	13	240
12	33 - Chris Bell	13	9	16	220
13	32 - Peter Morton	0	13	6	215
14	14 - Paul Musselle	10	18	11	210
15	66 - Steve Whitelegg	12	19	9	200
16	8 - Nick Brace	15	0	8	175
17	49 - Dave Ward	14	16	15	150
18	71 - Alasdair Thom	16	15	18	110
19	96 - Paul O'Brien	17	14	19	100
20	43 - Mick Mercer	20	17	17	70
21	15 - Paul Simmons	18	21	20	40
22	54 - Nick Power	24	27	23	30
23	52 - Gareth Martin	19	24	0	25
24	29 - Nathan Anthony	21	25	0	25
25	39 - Jess Gwynne	22	26	0	25
26	24 - Colin Powell	0	22	22	25
27	7 - Dean Brace	0	20	24	25
28	53 - Dominic Spurr	0	23	0	20
29	59 - Paul Mansell	0		21	15

Oulton Pics...

Report by Peter Scherer

The Burnett duo of Ross Marshall and John Jon Higgins both secured heat wins at Oulton in the opening rounds of this years championship, but in the final Stephen Treherne pulled out all the stops to take a fairly dominant victory.

In the charge to Old Hall at the start of heat one Dave Ward was leaving little room, but Ross Marshall still managed to squeeze through on the inside to lead onto the Avenue. "There was just enough room as Dave was holding the line, but I got a good exit," said Marshall

Peter Morton slotted into second on the opening lap from Stephen Whitelegg, with Ward down to fourth and under pressure from Paul Musselle and Lawrence Davey. As the lead grew Davey and Whitelegg were nose to tail, which allowed Morton to hold onto second, but Higgins was closing.

A couple of laps behind the safety car closed it all up, but from the green Marshall had it all covered. "I really didn't want that safety car as it allowed Lawrence to hassle me," he added. It was Whitelegg that lost out, as Davey was inches off Morton onto the Avenue, as Higgins sat and waited in fourth.

The pressure told on Morton as he crashed out, but Marshall marched on regardless to take the win. Higgins shadowed Davey for a couple of laps before claiming second at Old Hall with two laps remaining. "I wasn't fastest but it will do to start with," said Higgins. "I was lucky as I lost power on the slowing down lap," added Davey.

Battling for fourth behind Stephen Treherne had worked his way to the head of a four car battle and headed home Simon Belcher, Niki Meredith and Darren Gaulton. "I got in front of the squabble but the top three weren't slow and I couldn't make any impression," said Treherne.

But possibly the drive of the race had come from reigning champion Lee Fitzpatrick. "The electrics just went dead on me. I hit the master switch a couple of times and it started," he explained after battling back to eighth at the finish, just behind team mate Darren Gaulton. Ben Power and Paul Musselle completed the top ten.

Higgins started the second heat from pole, with Fitzpatrick right behind him. They wasted no time in working as a formidable pairing to ease themselves clear of the chasing Davey.

Fitzpatrick had his first spell in front out of Old Hall on lap four, but Davey and Treherne both closed up too, with Meredith not far behind. But within a lap Higgins was in control again and continued in formation to the flag, with victory by 0.101secs over Fitzpatrick. "Thankfully I was in front at the end but there was nothing between the two of us," said Higgins. "It's a numbers game I had a bad start but soon made up and it kept us away. Having a quick team mate has its uses," Fitzpatrick added.

Davey had to fight to the finish to hold onto third, "that was a great fight though," he reckoned. Meredith just pipped Treherne for fourth , "my car was quick and I should have been third. I got Lawrence once, but then he got away," said Treherne

Marshall had to fight off a determined Belcher to retain sixth. "The top group just got away too much and I had my hands full with Simon," said Marshall. John Mickel, returnee Chris Bell and Ben Power completed the top ten.

With a 30 car grid it was all to play for in the final. Mick Mercer lined up on pole with Nick Brace alongside and it was brace that led the field way, from Morton.

Marshall was a first lap casualty after a clash with Nathan Anthony at Fosters. As Brace and Morton continued to head the field, Whitelegg, Mickel, Treherne and Musselle formed the chasing group.

It was all change on lap five when Treherne suddenly shot past all his rivals in one move at Old Hall, to emerge as the new leader. "They were scrapping so I hung out wide and didn't expect to get all three places," he explained. The lead grew to be decisive as the intensity of the scrap behind played into his hands.

Fitzpatrick and Higgins had both worked their way to challenge for the podium in what became a six way fight for second. Morton gradually slipped down the order after initially fending off Mickel, but Fitzpatrick and Davey both successfully carved their way through. With a couple of laps remaining Fitzpatrick was clear, "I was closing too slowly Treherne's gap was just too much," he said.

Higgins battled ahead of Davey with three laps remaining, before a penultimate lap sort out at Fosters delayed both Davey and Meredith. Mickel emerged to take fourth from the recovering Meredith, with Morton just holding off Davey for sixth on the line. Brace, Whitelegg and Belcher completed the top ten.