Martin wins safety car disrupted Oulton Park race two

Will Martin won a safety car disrupted second race at Oulton Park as James Hedley extended his Gientta Junior championship lead.

The field only managed two laps of racing as a pair of incidents called for two safety car periods. After a number of disruptions throughout the day, the race was time limited, and the clock ticked to zero while the safety car was leading the field.

Though most of the race was spent behind the safety car, Martin was still forced to defend his position in the brief green flag periods.

The first attack came from Hedley, who made a strong start and pulled alongside Martin as they approached the first corner. Martin held onto the position and Hedley dropped behind Lorcan Hanafin, who had jumped past Casper Stevenson at the start.

After the first safety car – brought out when four cars ran off on the opening lap – Martin and Hanafin pulled away from Hedley. The two ran side by side, but Hanafin was forced onto the grass and dropped back to fourth.

Only a few moments later, the safety car was brought out again, this time to clear Freddie Tomlinson’s car after the Douglas Motorsport driver ran into the barriers at the same corner.

Racing could not resume and Martin came through to take a third consecutive victory. Hedley took second, extending his championship lead over Zak O’Sullivan to 95 points.

James Taylor, who had been third in the standings heading to Oulton Park drops back to sixth after a difficult weekend for the Richardson Racing driver. Taylor was one of the four drivers who ran off on the opening lap, along with Frankie Taylor, Will Rochford and Daniel Gale. The double DNF drops him behind third and fourth place finishers Stevenson and Hanafin.

Joel Pearson managed to climb up to fifth after starting ninth on the grid. The Elite Motorsport driver avoided the opening lap drama to pass Ethan Hawkey, Tom Emson, and O’Sullivan before the first safety car was called. On the restart, he passed Josh Rattican to take fifth, but the race was neutralised again before he could make up any more positions.

O’Sullivan finished sevenths, ahead of Theo Edgerton and Gus Burton.

Hawkey rounded out the top 10.

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