Ciceley Motorsport endured a tough time at Oulton Park on the weekend of 11th June, with an incident in race one firing Adam Morgan into the barriers as his team-mate George Gamble made the best of his weekend, racing at Oulton for the first time since 2019.
After Adam’s win at Thruxton, the team arrived at Oulton Park in an optimistic mood and worked hard on the set-up of the BMWs and improved the cars across the two free practice sessions ready for qualifying. Adam had a very strong qualifying session, described by Chief Engineer Steve Farrell as, “One of his best sessions: consistent and full of controlled aggression.” Fourth was Adam’s reward while George was 13th, admitting to being less confident here than at other circuits but eager to make progress in race one.
The opening race of the day, in front of a huge trackside crowd and a massive television audience on the ITV main channel, began with Adam fighting hard to get his tyres up to operating temperature. “It takes about three laps before they become warm enough so those first few laps were always going to be a challenge.” Adam ran fifth in the opening laps, waiting for the Goodyear rubber to switch on and enable him to make a move, but leaving Lodge Corner on lap four, Adam was turned sideways by Gordon Shedden’s Honda Civic and as Shedden kept his foot in, he span Adam’s BMW into the barriers. The hit broke a front and rear upright, putting Adam out of the race and dropping him to the rear of the grid for race two. “Shedden just turned me around,” said Adam. “He was never alongside me and once he hit me, there was nothing I could do to save it because he kept pushing.” Shedden was docked three places for the incident, but it didn’t save Adam’s day.
George, stated “Made a poor start. I bogged down a bit because the rear tyres were a bit hot and I lost places, but was fighting back as best I could. The trouble here is that it’s narrow and I got stuck in traffic and just couldn’t make progress. The car felt fast but I never had the space to pass people.” George came home a frustrated 18th.
Adam was one of the stars of race two as he drove an outstanding race coming from 29th on the grid to 16th place at the end. “The pace was really good,” said Adam, “and we should have been up at the front. I had a strong pace but it was tough to overtake.” Adam’s 13-place gain underlined his commitment.
George had another tough race, getting roughed up early on after a clash with Ollie Jackson’s Ford Focus and picking up damage, resulting in another 18th place, while worse was to come after contact caused a suspension failure in race three and forced retirement.
Adam, from 16th on the grid for the final race, was on a mission and blasted up to eighth place, once more proving his creativity in overtaking and salvaging points after a disappointing day.
“There’s no doubt that we should have done better and that collision in race one really set us back,” said Adam, “but the biggest positive is how well the car went all weekend and, while this has been a knock on the championship, I’ll bounce back hunting for race wins.”
Ciceley Motorsport’s Commercial Director Ash Gallagher said: “This is one of those weekends that you want to forget, but when you look at the positives, there are quite a few. The car was good all weekend, fast and strong, and the team worked flat out to sort out the various bits of damage on both Adam and George’s cars after a difficult couple of races and were still able to give them a competitive package. Adam’s race was outstanding once again and George treated this weekend as a learning one and gained experience, but I am sure will come back stronger at Croft. Our guests enjoyed a great day out at Oulton Park and rode the emotions with us, cheering Adam home eighth after being at the back for the second race.”
Adam now lies eighth in the championship and second in the Independents’ standings, while Ciceley Motorsport is sixth in the BTCC Teams championship and second in the Independent Teams’ competition. George is second in the Jack Sears Trophy for drivers who hadn’t scored an outright podium before the opening race of the year
