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Oulton Park Race 7th May |
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you’d told me last week that I would achieve a second place around
Oulton I may well have considered it.........
Problems during testing, a compromised race setup, our power
disadvantage and my Oulton jinx weighed heavily on the negative side!!
However the manner in which we lost left us feeling
a little disgruntled. The
official test at my ‘home’ circuit was unfortunately straight after
the race at Donington. No
real chance to do the normal pre-race check-ups but it was the same for
everyone. For us however it meant that a differential problem spotted
after 5 laps would mean no more running for the day.
Bearing in mind that we only ran ½ lap last year before an input
shaft went, we were robbed of some vital set-up information.
We
had no choice therefore but to approximate our best set-up for
qualifying and the race. The
TVR and Viper had been impressive in testing, their horsepower advantage
really showing out of the slower corners.
Mike and I knew we were up against it here and indeed had to
settle for third place on the grid.
I needed some seat time around what is a very technical circuit
and managed to do a low 1.37, a ½ second off Mike’s time, and nearly
2 seconds under the lap record. Race
day was bathed in glorious sunshine but delays in other races meant that
we nearly ran our night race a bit too early in the season! We
eventually rolled out on to the grid and I had the unfortunate task of
having to bed in some front pads over the opening laps.
The Viper had another amazing start (is Rob colour blind I ask?)
and disappeared way before the lights changed.
I slotted in third behind the TVR and followed them around the
opening lap conscious of my ‘new’ brakes.
I
dropped back from the leading pair at first but stabilised the gap at
about 6 seconds once my tyres and brakes were in.
I was disappointed not to run the same pace as I had managed in
qualifying but was determined to give Mike every opportunity to get
ahead of the Viper. They
pitted a lap earlier than us leaving the TVR to stretch ahead. We had been allocated the first pit garage so locating
neutral was going to be my priority as I tried to make my “in” lap
as clean as possible. We
had practiced the driver change at length and it worked well for us
putting us ahead of the Viper as we moved into the second half of the
race. Harvey harried
Mike everywhere, his superior horsepower out of the slower corners I
knew would be giving my partner a major headache.
Trailing body damage to the left rear was testament in the end to how the Viper made its move – a subject for the Stewards of the Meeting afterwards. That left us in third which is where we remained until the safety car was required for an incident at Cascades (involving, funnily enough, a certain Viper.......) After
the restart the Viper was right on the tail of BV-R in the Speed 12 and
moved into first position the lap after.
Mike had unfortunately been caught behind some slower cars during
the pace car laps and had to hold back from overtaking before the start/finish
line.
He
however was also after second place and hounded the TVR, getting past on
the penultimate lap. Second
place was what it was going to be.
As I said at the beginning if you had offered it to me last week
I may well have been tempted….. A steward’s meeting decided the incident was a racing accident despite a place being made up. We now have a car to repair before Croft where it is likely to be another close race …. It apparently should make good TV though!.......What is my wife doing?????
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