OPEN SEASON FOR OSS WITH HEALTHY YEAR AHEAD
Will the sight of Mike Jenvey (#35) heading the field re-occur again this season? – Photo: Miranda Young
It’s a bumper grid for the opening round of the Excool OSS Championship at the BRSCC Silverstone Race Day on 8th May 2016. All 2015 Class Winners return, with the reigning Champion Jenvey taking on the challenge with a spruced up Class B Jenvey-Gunn TS6.
Class A, for cars over 2000cc, sees the debut of a rotary engined Juno in the hands of Couper, alongside the Jades of lap record holder Cole, Bowkett, Lewis and rookie Hawkes. Fearns and Spencer will continue their big engined Radical SR8 battle.
It’s Class B (1501cc – 2000cc) that took the honours in 2015 and 2016 looks to be as varied as it is as likely to be competitive. Expect Jenvey to be challenged by the Williams/Sanders pairing, fresh from their podium win in VdeV at Le Mans; the switch to the Juno from the VdeV Ligier is unlikely to make much difference to this racing pair. New to the mix this year is Scotland’s Mitchell and his Ligier. The B class Jenvey – Juno – Ligier battle is anticipated to be one of the best, and that’s before taking any other class or driver into account. Lackford in a Radical PR6 joins OSS and celebrates his 45th year of continuous racing, having done so over the years alongside Marshall who is now on his 56th year, once again in the Bowlby Mk2. Ball’s upgraded Nemesis is likely to give a good show and the new joiners of Harris racing another Nemesis, Baker in a turbo’d Clubsport and Gillman in a Prosport, bring welcome fresh competition in this class.
Josh Smith was overall champion in 2014 and his class C (1301cc-1500cc) Radical PR6 has been overhauled with the aim of achieving another title win. He’s up against Graham Hill, the 2015 class winner and Smart, Class D title holder who uprated to a Prosport 1400 from his Clubsport 1100 after it was stolen – then found… Another Prosport in the hands of Child, Scanlon, from Ireland, in an SR3 RS, and rookie Dale also in an SR3 RS, complete this all Radical class.
In Class E (up to 1000cc) Wilkes will be going for a hat-trick seeking his 3rd class title and he’s up against Prendergast who has a Class D title who is out in a new car in E, the Contour. Harmer is debuting the Revelation LF-1, a new car destined to be in production in 2017, providing that OSS and the open regulations is a perfect format for bringing sports racing cars to market as this is the second consecutive year this has been done – last year it was the Aquila Synergy.
Invitation Class is new. Competitors racing in this class are not eligible for points or prizes. The Aquila Synergys have their own series and race for their own Aquila Synergy Cup. 17 year old Suenson is back over from Denmark to defend his title (2015 this was E Class). Hill & Watson are looking to keep ahead of the student team of Steward & Tam.
The Excool OSS Opener kicks off with 28 cars on the grid, of 15 different types, with drivers aged from 17 to 73, from 5 different countries! The best thing of all is the championship starts the season with every class completely competitive – there are at least two drivers/cars that can win each class. That makes for a really exciting, competitive and fair championship.
Sarah Fraser
