Oakfield Motorsport headed to Rockingham Motor Speedway this weekend in round 4 of the MINI CHALLENGE. Both the JCW class and the Cooper S classes attended this weekend’s race meeting, meaning Neil Newstead, Steve Cocker and Tim Porter attended in their respactive classes.
Oakfield Motorsport also supported Eurotech Racing’s Brett Smith in his JCW MINI, as the Eurotech Racing team were also racing in the BTCC at Croft that weekend.
Following disappointing results at Brands Hatch and Silverstone, Newstead put this behind him and was completely focused on the weekend ahead.
A dry Saturday morning began with qualifying, and it was clear that the preparation on the car following Silverstone had paid off as there was a significant improvement in the pace of the car. With a fastest lap time of 1:30.56 Newstead qualified eleventh, one of his best qualifying results of the season so far.
The team chose slightly different set ups on both JCW cars and Smith put in a lightning lap of 1:29.00 to take his first Pole position of the season.
In the Cooper S Class, Porter and Cocker were both struggling on their tyres and managed a third and fourth respectively.
JCW Race 1 of the weekend got underway late Saturday afternoon. Newstead drove a clean race to finish in the same position he started on the grid and Brett Smith, starting from the front had an eventful first race. Smith got a good start and led the race, ahead of Jono Brown and Nathan Harrison. Harrison found his way into second, only to lock up and hit Smith. This allowed Brown to take the lead, ahead of Harrison, now followed by Smith. Harrison was later penalised for the collision awarded Smith with a second place finish and 44 points.
Cooper S Race 1 saw Cocker start in fourth but he worked his way up and a mistake from Rob Austin put Cocker in second. Cocker struggled with handling but managed to take the lead and his third win this year in the MINI CHALLENGE. Porter too struggled with handing and finished on the podium in third, behind Scott Adam.
A bright Sunday morning saw Race 2 of the JCW class begin with the cars starting in their previous finishing positions. Newstead eleventh and Smith second. Newstead had a great start and battled his way into eighth place, until a mistake forced him onto the grass. Although a quick recovery, it was enough to drop down to 12th and he eventually crossed the line in thirteenth. Brett smith too struggled to hold off the close-following pack and dropped a few places but took one place back from Rob Smith to cross the line in fifth place.
Race 2 for the Cooper S cars saw Cocker again on Pole. Cocker missed a gear and gave the lead away to Scott Adam. Cocker quickly regained the position and missed another gear “I was having a nightmare with my gears,” said Cocker. “I have no idea why, perhaps I was concentrating too hard on other things and just kept missing them. It was my own fault.” Cocker took the place back until a red flag halted the race due to a Cooper class car hitting a barrier; this took the positions back one lap, giving the victory to Adam. Porter came in fifth, behind Scott Jeffs.
Race 3 on Sunday afternoon, the last race of the weekend was nothing short of eventful! Newstead got off to a fantastic start starting fifteenth on the grid and making his way up to eleventh on the first lap. It wasn’t long before the safety car was deployed following a collision between the leaders, Rob Smith and Brett Smith, leaving Brett in the gravel and Rob with radiator damage. With the two front runners out of the race, Newstead was up to ninth place. When the safety car in pulled in, Newstead approached the fastest section of the banking and while taking another position, suffered a spectacular blowout, resulting in a high speed spin and narrowly avoiding the unforgiving concrete wall.
“What a weekend, we may not have got all the results we had hoped for this but the performance of the car completely on point, credit to the Oakfield Motorsport team for getting the car to where it is now.” – Neil Newstead
The Cooper S final race was also packed with exciting racing. The positions were reversed from the previous race with Cocker started in sixth and Porter in third. Scott Jeffs led the race and Cocker suffered a poor start. Cocker fought back, passing Porter into second until both Cocker and Jeffs ran wide trying to out-brake each other in turn 2. Porter was quick to react and took both places. Porter was on form and built up a good lead to cross the line, taking his first ever race win.
“I’m dead chuffed with my first win,” said Porter. “I could see the two lads fighting ahead of me and wondered if something would happen, then one went wide and the other followed him, so I figured it’d be rude not to take the place!”