The spectacular three-dimensional challenge of Oulton Park was the setting for the second AMOC Racing meeting of the season on Saturday 10 May. Despite ever-changing weather conditions, the second of five meetings in 2014 organised by Aston Club Racing was a great success with an incident-free day of racing and some entertaining action across a wonderful diversity of cars.

First to the grid was a strong field for the HRDC Allstars race and the weather showed its intent for the afternoon by delivering a heavy rain shower as the cars completed their green flag lap. But the slippery track failed to unseat invitation racer Mark Halstead who powered his Lotus Elan into a lead he would never relinquish. The early chase of Halstead centred on the MGBs of Andrew Bentley and Mark Richardson, but as the track dried Jeremy Cooke tigered through to make it an Elan one-two with the car he’d bought only a week earlier.

Just as at Silverstone, Darren McWhirter was the class of the AMOC 50s Sports/Vredestein JEC Jaguar XK Challenge field with his glorious Tojeiro Jaguar from the Moray Motor Museum. However, an inspired Phil Bennett (Lister Jaguar) offered a determined pursuit while John Burton was the best of the XK pack in third overall with his XK120.

An absorbing contest raged for much of the HRDC Touring Greats race as Richard Butterfield’s Jaguar Mk1 fought a mighty battle with the Austin A40 of Mark Daniell. Often side-by-side, this was a real crowd-pleaser as the nimble A40 harried the powerful Jaguar. After the pit stops, Butterfield had a little breathing space, but there was a late twist to the race. Butterfield was shown the black and white flag as a warning over track limits and mistook it for a black flag. He drove into the pits and then rejoined, gifting victory to Daniel

Changing track conditions presented a real challenge for drivers in the 45-minute Innes Ireland Cup but an assured performance from Peter Snowdon, who went solo in Matt Le Breton’s lightweight Jaguar E-type, secured a commanding victory. Robert Bremner gave early chase before retiring his overheating AC Cobra, which promoted the Lotus Elan of Jeremy Cooke/Mike Dowd to second from the fabulous Aston Martin DP214 recreation of Robert Rawe/Stephen Archer.

Clive Morley celebrated his love of the Oulton Park circuit with victory in the Pre-War Team Challenge at the wheel of his mighty Bentley 3/4.5 and had a clear run to victory once the early challenge from Tom McWhirter’s Jaguar SS100 faded with a time consuming spin at Hislop’s. Already carrying a 10-second penalty for a false start, McWhirter eventually finished sixth as Austrian Peter Dubsky (Aston Martin 15/98) made his journey from Austria worthwhile with second place after a great tussle with the Riley Special of Durward Lawson.

For the second "Equipe"GTS event running, there was disappointment for Brian White when his Triumph TR4 retired from the lead. White had a commanding lead, when an electrical fault stopped the car with three laps to run. Instead, for the second time in a month, Peter Foster swept ahead to take the flag in his TR4 from the similar car of Richard McKoen as David Reed claimed a hard-won third in his Aston Martin DB2.

The final race of the afternoon was the 45-minute AMOC Intermarque Championship round and it proved an absorbing contest as ever-increasing rain prompted a race of changing fortunes. Chris Scragg set the early pace in his mighty Aston Martin V8, he came under attack from Robert Rawe in his DB4 Lightweight. As the pit window opened and the rain increased Wayne Marrs battled into contention in his Ferrari 355 Challenge.

Of the leading runners, only Marrs elected to change tyres during his pit-stop and it cost him a full minute as Robert Hollyman (Porsche 964) took the lead. Scragg rejoined to head the chase of Hollyman but coming up fast was the Ferrari 355 Challenge of Tim Mogridge, who was reveling in the conditions. Hollyman was powerless to defend as Mogridge swept ahead and Marrs soon followed through to second but could not close the gap on his Ferrari rival. Scragg did well to take third in the conditions but had the Porsche 911 of Tim Bates close behind as they both edged Hollyman back to fifth.

With a safe and competitive afternoon of racing in front of a healthy crowd, it was another successful event for Aston Club Racing despite best efforts of the British weather.