DRIVERS from Warrington and Lymm excelled during Bank Holiday Monday racing at Oulton Park’s Gold Cup.

Mark Jones from Warrington, who was racing a recently purchased ex-British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) Renault Laguna in the Super Touring Car Trophy races against some really good drivers, was in excellent form.

Having qualified in sixth place for the start, he was up to third by the end of the first lap. As he gained confidence in the car’s handling on the damp track conditions, he started pulling away from the cars behind but did not have speed to challenge the two leaders.

Jones held on to third place by the flag and had the added bonus of getting the race’s fastest lap at over 87 mph, especially pleasing when the winner of the race was John Cleland, a former BTCC Championship winner.

Lymm’s Phil Nelson was racing his Historic Formula Ford in the Classic Racing Car Championship and started from 15th place.

The start was slightly chaotic due to a car on the second row stopping – after moving only a few feet and everybody swerving to avoid him – but this seemed to have worked to Nelson’s benefit and he had risen to 13th position by the end of the first lap.

Over the next few laps there was a bit of place swapping with other cars but Jones ended the race in 13th place and third in class.

He said: “An excellent result – bring on the next race.”

Another Lymm driver, Stuart Baird, was racing a Merlyn Mk 11A in the Historic Formula Ford race and had qualified in an excellent fifth place out of 29 starters for the main race.

An initial good start saw him safely through the first corner but he then span the car before the lap had ended and came through the start line in 20th place. With the bit between his teeth, Baird now started to fight his way back up towards the front and by the final lap was up to 11th place.