Shepherd Dominates Oulton Park, Moves Closer to Second Straight IROC Championship

Little Budworth, UK — The fourth round of the YYR IROC Racing Series brought the field to the challenging Oulton Park Circuit International for the European road course leg of the five-race schedule. Entering the night, defending champion J R Shepherd held an eight-point advantage over his closest rival, Chris Hammett. With 15 top-tier drivers competing in equally prepared Cadillac Touring Sedan V Series cars, the starting grid was set by reversing the championship standings, putting Shepherd at the very back of the field and giving him a significant challenge if he wanted to protect his points lead.

The green flag immediately unleashed a scramble through Oulton Park’s collection of twists, turns, kinks and bumps. Shepherd and Hammett wasted no time slicing through traffic, with Shepherd climbing to fourth and Hammett settling into third by the end of the opening lap. Shepherd quickly went after Hammett and completed the pass for third before setting his sights on the leaders, David Shreve and Chris Worrell. By the third lap of the 40-lap race, Shepherd had dispatched both drivers to take control of the race.

The early laps also brought a steady stream of attrition and technical mistakes. Ken Allen gained six positions before a heavy encounter with the curbs caused significant damage and eventually ended his race. The championship picture then shifted dramatically when Hammett, running second, clipped a curb and spun. The incident damaged his left-front suspension and resulted in a race-ending DNF, removing Shepherd’s most immediate championship threat and allowing the leader to stretch his advantage beyond 20 seconds.

The mandatory pit cycle for fuel and tires arrived around Lap 18. David Shreve attempted to gain an advantage with an early stop, but Chris Worrell produced a quicker pit service, spending just 27.2 seconds in his stall compared with Shreve’s 28.5 seconds. Worrell emerged in effective second place, while Shreve’s afternoon took another turn for the worse when he spun across the track and was struck by Roger Hurley. Shreve was eventually disqualified after reaching the 13x incident limit.

From there, Shepherd’s performance became a demonstration in controlled domination. He began lapping the field, picking off competitors including Greg McDaniel, Scott Negus and Jerry Issacs. Issacs’ night ended after a hard impact with an inner barrier left his “Darth Vader” machine limping on three wheels. With only five laps remaining, Worrell’s challenge for second disappeared when he “blinked away” from the session after reaching his own incident limit, leaving Josh Robinson in position to inherit the runner-up spot.

J R Shepherd crossed the finish line to complete a remarkable performance, leading 38 of the 40 laps and ultimately lapping every other car in the field. Despite describing the Cadillac as a “handful,” Shepherd credited his success to attacking aggressively on cold tires early while avoiding the dangerous tire barriers scattered around the chicanes. Josh Robinson turned a strategy built around survival and attrition into a career-best second-place finish, while Roger Hurley battled through the final laps with a damaged car to secure third. Scott Negus and Greg McDaniel rounded out the only five drivers to finish the race. The dominant victory puts Shepherd firmly on course for a second consecutive IROC championship with only the season finale remaining.