Britcar Championship: Oulton Park. Cheshire. 10/11 October 2025.
It was a straightforward ninety minute race for Harry and the Barton Racing, red white and blue, BMW E36 (powered by Geoff Steel Racing), only made difficult by what has become an annoyingly regular forty second penalty, and the absence of the man himself. our close friend, and loyal supporter, Geoff Steel, who sadly died earlier in the week. So, as to be expected, things got off to a rather sombre start. At least we were promised a dry weekend.
Friday showed up a fault in the power-steering, which demonstrated the value of pre event testing, but apart from that, everything came together nicely during the afternoon with Harry posting some highly competing times. This satisfying level of consistency continued on Saturday with a fifth place grid slot, the BMW one of four cars posting times in the 1:43s.
Twenty-two cars made the start, with the two McLaren drivers in particular demonstrating plenty of unnecessary aggression during the opening laps. One, quite righty, later receiving a severe reprimand and penalty points. As ever, accidents, safety cars and prolonged yellows, got in the way of a good race, producing a final result based more on luck than judgement. Harry, after one and a half hours solo, in a car that never missed a beat, finished a well driven sixth, later amended to fifth place, proving that our old BMW still has plenty of life left in her.
