McCaughan strikes back against Romanek at Oulton in FF1600 battle

Photo: Ida Wood

Brandon McCaughan struck back against Oldfield Motorsport team-mate Lucas Romanek to win the second BRSCC National Formula Ford 1600 race at Oulton Park, after Romanek won race one.

Romanek made a strong start from pole, while Team Dolan’s Morgan Quinn pressured McCaughan for second. The top two ended the opening lap 0.228 seconds apart, and there was a similar gap after lap two while Ammonite Motorsport’s Elliott Budzinski set the fastest lap in fourth having picked up a tow from Quinn.

McCaughan then claimed the fastest lap to close in on the lead, but Romanek resisted the pressure despite the pair going side-by-side at the end of lap five – which marked a change of position for third as Budzinski passed Quinn.

The lead changed hands next time by, then Romanek nosed back ahead before McCaughan passed once more. There was never more than 0.2s between them until the final lap when McCaughan took the chequered flag 0.374s ahead.

Budzinski came under late pressure from Dolan’s Chris Middlehurst, who had missed race one and therefore started from the back for race two. He was seventh within a lap, made it up to sixth on the next lap and soon got himself to the front of a train of cars that were chasing Budzinski and Quinn.

Middlehurst cleared Quinn on lap eight of 11, and was already on the tail of Budzinski when he made his move. It proved harder to pass the Ammonite driver though, and he chased him across the line at the finish.

Quinn was just behind them, then there was a gap to the next goup of cars running nose-to-tail, with Ammonite’s Nolan Allaer taking sixth ahead of Kevin Mills Racing’s Lucas Blakeley who had – like Middlehurst – had to charge up the order after a tricky race one.

Tom Nippers and David McArthur both ended their races in the pitlane, with their teams getting under the bodywork of their cars to examine them before determining they could not continue in the race.

Race result (11 laps)