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Oulton Park Gold Cup Jaguar XK Challenge 26th, 27th & 28th August 2006

Event Report by John Roberts

The final race of the XK Challenge Series 2006 – when Race Drivers leave their little Grey Cells at home!

Oulton Park in glorious Cheshire was the scene of a very eventful weekend. The first of the “Gold Cup” Events took place in 1954 when Stirling Moss driving a Maserati 250F was the inaugural winner of this most coveted title winning from the back of the grid. But now let’s talk about today’s Jaguar XK’s.

I arrived on Friday to set up camp next door to the JEC (Jaguar Enthusiast Club) Mobile Office, manned by our very own Terry Dye, our XK Race Coordinator.

On Saturday we had a very packed morning of Signing On, Scrutineering, final race preparation, two sessions of Testing and the Practice Qualifier all before 12:30 hrs. Now imagine that there were over 420 cars racing over the weekend. The words “Paddy’s Market” spring to mind.

Testing was slippery as it had been raining through the night and I was in the first Test Session. In fact I was first out for this Session, leading the Gold Cup for the weekend HA HA!! It was slippery, so I just acclimatised myself with the circuit once more, as I have only ever raced here once before and that was two years ago.

The second Test Session, was a little more risky, with a drying track and, like the curate’s egg “Good in parts”, I was going well and my lap times were falling until one of my now ex. friends dropped oil on the very fast Island Bend. I braked, too late, lost control and went across the grass, trying to pirouette as much as possible to scrub speed and avoid the Tyre Wall. It was not to be and I went backwards into the wall and damaged the rear wing and Tow Bar. So the little old girl is in need of some cosmetic surgery!!

My “Off” was not serious enough to stop me Qualifying, but I didn’t show any Scrutineer evidence of my “Walk through the Park”. However, my confidence was probably a little shaken and I qualified in 13th place. I consoled myself that there was a fantastic turnout of 26 cars in the race and that I shouldn’t be too disappointed. In addition I was still two seconds faster than two years ago.

So that was that for Saturday and I spent the rest of Saturday afternoon talking to enthusiasts, handing out MWS brochures and fielding questions on Jaguar XK’s performance, history and general Petrol-Head type discussions, as I can bore for Britain on the subject (according to my wife!)

Sunday started dry and bright and we were the first race of the day at 12:05. I mentioned above that it can be said that the last race of the Season Race Drivers can be a little crazy and we were not to be disappointed.

The good news was that we had a DRY race, the bad news was that, after a reasonably good start we were far too bunched-up for safety. We all managed to get round the first corner (Old Hall) then, on to Cascades where I was squeezed on to the grass, so I backed off a tad; up through the fast Island Bend, again I was squeezed onto the grass, but managed to hold station. THEN, came the Shell Oils Hairpin. Up ahead it was nothing less than crazy!! 4 cars, side by side would never get round and of course, no-one wanted to give an inch. My view of the carnage was that Graham Bull, Brian Arculus, Trevor Groom and Michael Quinn were tangled up and Brian had 2 wheels on the grass and trying to break hard. Brian lost control and collected Trevor and Michael. No-one was hurt, thank goodness, but there were some very seriously damaged, XK’s lying around waiting for a Break-Down truck and the race was RED FLAGGED!!

Luckily, I cleared the debris and we prepared to start the Race Part 2. I must say, I had a blistering start and, holding the inside line at Old Hall I was right behind Chris Keith-Lucas having despatched Mark Gibbon who had qualified in 11th position ahead of me. Coming out of Cascades, I got inside CKL and powered on up through Island and into the Hairpin. I then held station until the end of the race and finished 9th overall in this fore-shortened race and 4th in Class.

As I said, this is the last race of the XK Championship, but I have two more races in October and a Track Day at Goodwood on 1st November, but more about the Track Day in future Reports.

I now move forward to Snetterton on Saturday 7th October. This will be a 2 Driver Endurance Race where I will share my car with Chris Keith-Lucas in preparation for more Endurance Racing in 2007. So watch this space for further action and updates.

John

Action shot courtesy of Roger Gage, official JEC photographer
For more XK Jaguar Racing photos visit his web site at www.xkjaguar.co.uk