OULTON PARK - 12th September 2009 - Rounds 9 & 10

Oulton Park jinx again

   This is my least favourite circuit and again it didn’t let me down. On Friday test day I went out in the first session to get used to the circuit and was watching the pit board each lap to see my lap times reducing. The car felt really good still with no real handling problems. As the tyres started to warm up I started to push a bit harder. On Lap 8 I braked very late going into Druids from 120mph but went a bit too deep into the bend which caused the car to understeer wide. The car went over the gravel which slowed the car to 80mph which I thought I had got away with it but then the car went onto the grassed which caused the car to spin around and I end up slamming backwards into the tyre wall. I quickly got out of the car and jumped over the tyre wall and then realised the amount of damage caused to the car. The practice session was stopped so that they could repair the tyre wall and take the car back to the pit lane on the back of the truck. I was instructed to go to the medical centre so that I had a check up after a pretty hard shunt. I had various test done and was released after being given the ok. Mark and Mike from MBR Racing were making a list of parts that were needed and they were soon on the phone to base in Bristol to see what spare parts were available. Luckily Dan (my technician from 2008) was having a day off and offered to bring all the parts needed and he was soon on the road to Crew from Bristol. We were all keeping our fingers crossed that he was going to be here in time for me to do another practice session. At 4.30 he arrived and it was too late, just typical of my luck at Oulton. All 3 of them were working hard to fit new and make new parts so that the car would be ready for qualifying the next day. My Dad and I decided to leave them to it and go back to the hotel and get something to eat and rest for the next day.

Qualifying

We were the first qualifying session out on a cold and damp circuit. I still had thoughts about the day before flashing through my mind which didn’t help. I knew that I wouldn’t have much time to build my confidence back up and it was a case of doing the best I could in 25 minutes. I was driving within the limit and finished 6th fastest for both races.

Race 1

On the warm up lap I warmed the rear tyres up really well but in doing that I overheated the clutch. When the lights went out I had a fantastic start but then the engine started to rev high in each gear and realised the clutch was slipping. It took a quarter of a lap for the clutch to start gripping and by that time I had lost a couple of places. I found myself in 8th place and it took me 3 laps to get back up to 5th but way off the leading cars. It was a case of driving to the finish and scoring points.

Race 2

After the bad start in race one I made sure I wasn’t going to make the same mistake again. I again made a good start and got up to 5th from my 6th position on the grid and for half of the race managed to keep the leading cars in site, but after a while they were just edging away from me and so again it was a lonely 5th but scored some solid points towards my Championship position.

The next 2 rounds are at Anglesey on September 26th and 27th