MB Motorsport accelerated by Blue Square put on a commanding battle on Sunday at Oulton Park, picking up a handful of strong points finishes and victory in the Manufacturers championship at the Cheshire circuit.
Another cloudy and overcast sky set the scene for the day’s racing with Jake Hill starting the first race of the day from P7 on the grid followed by Ollie Jackson in P17.
The championship’s resident fast starter, Ollie wasted little time in ascending the order - climbing a mammoth seven places on the opening lap alone. By the end of lap one, Jake and Ollie were line astern for the Motorbase Performance-run squad in P9 and P10, chomping at the bit to move further through the field.
Unfortunately, a five-second time penalty for Ollie hampered his chances but the pair continued to run inside the top ten until the red flag was shown on lap seven, following a heavy multi-car accident at the final corner.
After a lengthy delay to clear the track, both Jake and Ollie took the restart, with the latter dropped to the lower end of the order as a result of his penalty. Not one to hang about, Ollie once again made a lightning start to move up four places into P12 with Jake just ahead in P8 - the final result at the end of the morning’s running.
Following a lengthy delay to the start of race two, both Jake and Ollie made superb starts once again, climbing to P4 and P8 respectively on the first lap. Jake began to challenge for the podium places from there on but Ollie was unfortunately collected in an incident at Island hairpin, ending his race prematurely.
Nestled in the battle between the top five, Jake held off a stern charge from Shedden and then Moffatt behind all whilst keeping his eye on the podium battle just ahead. A valiant effort from the 26-year-old saw him hold on to claim P4 at the chequered flag and more valuable points in the championship.
The final race of the day soon approached with Jake starting the race from P6 on the grid following the reverse-grid draw and Ollie down in P26 after his earlier retirement. As the field made its way through Old Hall and down to Cascades, a chain of events led to another multi-car accident further down the order, with Ollie performing admirably to avoid the carnage as much as possible. After a second red flag stoppage in three races, the race restarted with yet more drama as reigning champion Ash Sutton found himself spun round on the exit of Old Hall - forcing Jake to take avoiding action and thus dropping him to P8.
A tidy move on the Toyota of Rory Butcher put Jake back into P7 and in hot pursuit of the leading six ahead of him. By lap four, Jake was hounding the Honda of Dan Rowbottom for sixth place - closing up to the Civic and running bumper-to-bumper but biding his time. Further back, Ollie was able to keep himself out of trouble to run in P19, up seven places from his original starting position of P26.
As the race drew on, the red flag was once again shown for a heavy crash between Butcher and Boardley. With the result declared, Jake held a firm defence against a late push Turkington behind whilst Ollie rounded out the day in P17 - climbing an excellent ten places from his starting position.
After today’s results, an overall victory in the Manufacturers Championship, the team occupy second in the Manufacturers table and sixth in the Teams championship. In the drivers, Jake holds fourth place and Ollie places 18th. The championship now heads north of the border to Knockhill with the Scottish circuit playing host to rounds 13, 14 and 15 of the calendar.
Ollie Jackson - #48 MB Motorsport accelerated by Blue Square:
“Today was another case of what might’ve been. We showed we had the pace once again as we moved up the order in race one but the luck just wasn’t there to be collected in races two and three, sending our day off course. I can be confident heading to Knockhill that we can have a better performance there. Thanks as always to the team, they did a superb job repairing the car in time for race three.”
Jake Hill - #24 MB Motorsport accelerated by Blue Square:
“Overall, I’m happy with how the day went. We scored decent points in all three races and looked strong throughout. Ultimately, the podium was our aim and we had a good chance to get there in race three but I had to step on the anchors to avoid Sutton at the start. We head to Knockhill with lots to look forward to, I absolutely love it there and can’t wait to see more fans lining the edge of the track.”
Mark Blundell - Sporting Director, MB Motorsport accelerated by Blue Square:“
Well done to the team for a solid, points-scoring performance today. It was one of those days where simply finishing the race was a job well done so we can be pleased with four points finishes from six results. We’re improving every race and there’s plenty to look forward to on our return to Scotland in a couple of weeks time. As always, a huge thank you to Motorbase Performance for their efforts this weekend.”
