2024 Milltek Sport Civic Cup – Round 7
Oulton Park Island – 8th June 2024
Reigning champion Max Edmundson regained the upper hand in a fascinating Milltek Sport Civic Cup title fight by defeating his more experienced team-mate Josh Files in round seven of the championship at Oulton Park.
Qualifying
Area Motorsport duo Max Edmundson and Josh Files picked up from where they left off at Snetterton last month as the pair set the pace on a drying Oulton Park Island circuit.
This time it was defending champion Edmundson who was back on top, securing his second pole position of the season with a time 0.1s faster than his illustrious team-mate Files, the multiple TCR champion.
The pair led a clean sweep for the six-car team as Sam Kirkpatrick and Liam McGill qualified on row two ahead of Lewis Kent and Alistair Camp, the leading driver of the FN2 model Civic.
One-time champion Camp reckoned that another minor tweak to the FN2’s technical spec – giving it the same final drive as the well-sorted EP3 – had brought their performance on par and that he had the underlying pace to match his team-mates, setting up an intriguing contest.
Continuing the grouping of team-mates, all three Ben Sharpe Racing regulars were next in line, with Spencer Stevenson going faster than Harvey Caton and Will Redford, who were separated by a mere 0.01s.
Pro Alloys Racing’s top man Alex Kite completed the top 10 ahead of Jordan Brennan (One Day Motorsport) and Owen Hillman (Pro Alloys).
On his first outing of the season, Dan MacDonald (BSR) managed a creditable 13th, ahead of Jack Ruddell (MJB Motorsport), Dan Petters (Team Petters Racing). Dave Marshall’s FN2 (DMR with KA Car Sales) rounded out the top 16 in a 25-car field.
OULTON PARK ISLAND QUALIFYING RESULT
Round 7 – Race Report
When it came to the race, Edmundson and Files put on a stunning display of driving on the limit with hard but fair racing.
Edmundson converted pole position into the race lead but a slight mistake at Lodge, the final corner of the first lap, let Files seize the advantage.
Thereafter, the young gun relentlessly harried the experienced international while the pair pulled away from their pursuers despite their battle.
Both were on the limit, their cars slewing under braking and visibly on the edge of adhesion. At the end of the third lap, Edmundson dived inside at Lodge but could not get his car turned quickly enough to prevent Files from cutting back underneath him to retake the lead.
But Files was under serious pressure and his brakes cried enough as he pulled the anchors for the Island hairpin on lap six. Resorting to the handbrake, he got the car stopped but ran wide – and Edmundson needed no second invitation to pass on the inside.
Three laps later there were clouds of tyre smoke as Files again had to pull the handbrake. This time he went even further up the road and dropped to seventh as a result.
Edmundson had victory sewn up but the race was cut slightly short with a red flag on the following lap. With the result decided on countback to the positions at the completion of lap eight, Files was promoted back into second, somewhat fortuitously as he admitted himself.
But there was no denying Edmundson had the upper hand as he claimed a fourth win in seven races and extended his points advantage over Files to 33 (with 40 awarded for a win).
Behind the lead pair, Kent jumped Kirkpatrick and McGill at the start. He was then gifted a buffer as the latter pair clashed at the Hislops chicance, delaying each other and the rest of the chasing pack.
In the melee, Stevenson opportunistically passed both McGill and Camp to run fourth.
With Kent struggling to extract the last few tenths from his car on a circuit that isn’t his favourite, the cars behind ate into that buffer. It soon became a four-car scrap for third between Kent, Kirkpatrick, Stevenson and Camp.
Camp snatched fifth from Stevenson at Lodge but then, three corners later, he ran too deep into the Island hairpin, unable to slow the car enough as he struggled to locate second gear.
Unfortunately, he clobbered into team-mate Kirkpatrick, knocking the Cumbrian into a costly spin and allowing Stevenson to pass both.
That gave Kent more breathing space in third, while Camp and McGill put the pressure on Stevenson. All four were then promoted by Files’s second big lock-up, only to lose out on countback with the red flag.
So Kent was classified third ahead of Stevenson, Camp and McGill. Redford got the better of team-mate Caton for seventh.
Kite and MacDonald completed the top 10, with Brennan a season’s best 11th and Wesley Swain (Pro Alloys FN2) a career best 12th.
OULTON PARK ISLAND ROUND SEVEN RESULT
Stevenson again took the honours in the Paul Winfield Trophy section for rookies and less experienced drivers, extending his lead over the absent Josh Bromley in the standings.
In the Goodyear Diamond Award, for drivers aged 40 and over, Mark Hughes (DMR with KA Car Sales) was first home in his FN2 ahead of the returning Trevor McConnell (McConnell Motorsport) and former TCR UK driver Garry Townsend (Pro Alloys) on his championship debut.
Unfortunately, the second race of the day, round eight of the championship, had to be postponed and will be rearranged for a future event after a medical emergency. All our thoughts are with those who affected.
Driver quotes
Round 7 winner, Max Edmundson
“I was watching the mirrors, I was overtaking, and we were still pulling away, so I was like: ‘We can do this the whole race then!’ But then obviously Josh had his problem.
“I was surprised I didn’t have any problems with my brakes, because I was sat so close to him the whole time. But even if I finished second I would have been really happy – that was really good racing. I really enjoyed it.”
Next time – Croft!
The 2024 Milltek Sport Civic Cup is back in action is back in action in less than 5 weeks time, on Saturday 13th July and Sunday 14th July where rounds 9 & 10 will take place at Croft in North Yorkshire.
Racing action will take place on the Saturday and Sunday with both days livestreamed on the official TCR UK YouTube channel.
You can now purchase tickets for the next event of the 2024 season, at Croft, from their website: https://croftcircuit.co.uk/racing/brscc-tcr
To find out more about the Milltek Sport Civic Cup visit https://civic-cup.co.uk/ for more info and how to get involved.
To find out more about the events on the 2024 Milltek Sport Civic Cup Calendar, visit https://civic-cup.co.uk/2024-season-calendar/ for more info.
