Oulton Park Race 3rd May 1999

Talk about the highs and lows of motorsport!! I didn’t think that things could deteriorate from our abysmal test session last Wednesday at the Cheshire Track – how wrong could I be.....?

Two new turbos for the Saturday test session and everything for the first few laps seemed fine. The engine was pulling properly and the balance on the new 14 inch tyres felt reasonably good. This was the one for disaster number 1.

As I exited Knickerbrook I noticed a strange smell in the car which I put down to exhaust fumes from the AMR McLaren which had just passed me. Wrong again! As I climbed Clay Hill under full throttle, powershifting into 5^th I noticed some very large flames in my rear view mirror. The whole of the rear end was alight and I immediately killed the electrics and pulled over to what I thought was a manned marshall’s post. Wrong once more.

I hit the extinguisher button and nothing happened. Things were not looking good. I dived out of the car and couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw the marshalls stationed at other posts standing there watching. I screamed and waved my arms frantically and one started at last to come towards me. He was not coming quickly enough for my liking however, so I dived back in the car (call me stupid but I did not want to see my beautiful car go up in a ball of fire) and tried to get the extinguisher to work. No joy. The marshall finally arrived but I was so infuriated I grabbed the extinguisher from him and put out the fire myself. The car looked in a very sorry state. I thought the weekend was over already.

Still sizzling.....

After assessing the damage however there looked to be a faint hope. My quick action with the ignition cut off had saved the engine, which astonished me. We phoned Fabian Roock at Le Mans and he said he had the parts we needed to rebuild. And so the battle against time commenced … Hans (Rob’s Dad) set off for Le Mans and the mechanics set about the bodywork and engine.

To say they all did a fantastic job would be an understatement. They worked practically non- stop to prepare the car for the extra session put on for those drivers returning from pre-qualifying at Le Mans.

Before Practice.....

The car looked as good as new but our lack of time meant that she was not set up quite as she should be. The set-up for the Roock car is absolutely critical particularly for the brakes and to say that she handled like a pig would be another understatement!

We can rebuild her......

Rob did 3 laps and I tried to do my 3. Unfortunately the next disaster was not far away. Exiting Island bend in 5^th gear and approaching Shell I dabbed the brakes on the bumps and before I knew I was in a spin. I clipped the tyre wall and ripped the front off the car. I had the distinct feeling I was not going to be popular on my return to the pits…

The next race against time started as we had just four hours to prepare the car for the race. We knew that we had no chance for a podium now. All we wanted to do was finish and get some points.

Before that we needed an oil cooler and track-rod arm. I was dispatched to retrieve my road car, which was going to be cannibalised. It just kept getting better...........!!

As I was on my way out who should be coming the other way? Nigel Barratt in his beautiful silver 911 GT2 road car … Nigel very kindly leant the parts to our team and with 5 minutes to go we were ready!

Nigel's road car lending a helping hand!

Unfortunately we had no time to set the car up so we had to guess, and it was without doubt one of the most terrifying drives I have experienced. Give me 4.00am in the rain at Le Mans or the 6.00 am "into the sun" stint at Daytona anytime. The car felt awful and I was not convinced we would be able to finish.Even Rob looked shell-shocked as he climbed out after his stint!!

But we finished. A lowly 5^th at least put some points in the bank.

Thanks to all the crew in Rob, Hans, Roly, Pete, A J, Shaun and Andy and of course Nigel for the loan of some parts.

Not the car's normal triumphant return but in the circumstances...

I don’t know what it is about Oulton but I hope that we will be a bit more fortunate in our next outing ………. and of course many thanks to my friend Malcolm, the esteemed editor of Sportscarworld for so daintily reminding me of my comments after a disastrous test session last week!! Thanks MC.....NOT!

Last Updated: 21 September 2001