dbRacing - Oulton Park Race Report June 8th 2002

Oulton Park Race Report, June 8th 2002

Practice

Testing at Oulton Park took place on the Friday. There was a minor clash with the England vs Argentina game as the first session was scheduled to start just after half time, but I took to the track for the full of three 25 minute sessions. The car had just had a gearbox rebuild, and Dave Sunderland had warned that the gearbox would need running in and 4th and 5th would be " a bit notchy". He wasn't kidding, it took me from the pit lane exit to the run up Clay Hill to get the car into 4th gear !. The remainder of that session was spent keeping out of peoples way as I wore in the new synchro rings etc. For the second session gearbox I focussed on getting the lines right but was unhappy with the handling of the car and adjusted the front shock absorber settings, though my lap times were as quick as last season. The third session was good fun as the changed suspension settings allowed me to improve my lap times by over a second to the 1:11.2 mark. I was happy with that, confident that in the practice session in the morning I would get down into the 1:10s, which was what would be needed for a good grid position

I looked out of the window on Saturday morning to find it had been raining overnight. Worse still, the morning was cool and with quite high humidity in the air the track was not going to dry very quickly, especially at Druids where the trees overhang the track and greasy plant residue drips onto the track. The time and money spent testing the previous day was not going to be much help this morning ! Tony Brown and Ian White were anxious to be out on track, or to psychologically affect other drivers as they moved their cars into line for the practice session 20 minutes before we were even called !

We took to the still wet track and it looked like the track would by drying towards the end of our session so I spent the first three laps just making sure I qualified and finding how much grip was available. This was an interesting experience as each corner was different and some parts of the track remained wet while dry lines appeared elsewhere. With each lap the times dropped but each time I tried to get a clear lap I was baulked, first by Ian White and then later by Rob Williams returning to the championship in a freshly prepared white 911SC. I dropped back a couple of times to try and get a clear lap but each time some incident caused the lap to have to be aborted. I waited for Tony Brown who was not far behind me and set off to follow him as we climbed clay Hill for a quick lap, hoping that he would clear the track a little for me. Even this did not work. Williams let Brown through but his reduced speed was just enough to make sure that I could not get past him before Lodge. Never mind, the track in front was clear and just about dry so I now was the time to get my quick lap in.......except that as Tony Brown crossed the line the chequered flag came out and that was the end of my session. My best time was set two laps from the end, while every other competitor had one more (dry) lap to get their quickest time in so I qualified a disappointing 8th behind Clapham and White.

Race

Oulton Park is quite a narrow track, but it actually widens for the first corner at Old Hall which can be interesting for spectators as they say. The circuit had dried out completely and the sun was shining when the marshals advised that the starting lights had failed and the Union flag would be used to start the race. All very patriotic in the week that the Queen celebrated her golden jubilee. I was conscious that some of the fast starting class 2 cars of Smyth and Harrison were close behind and as the flag dropped I got a good start, lost no places, and just managed to keep ahead of Stephen Smyth. The first lap was close and I managed to create sufficient track space behind me to make a successful attempt to get past White into 7th place and completed the lap with my nearside rear wheel completely locked on the entrance to Lodge. As we swept down The Avenue Colin Broster and Ian White gave each other a little kiss on the exit of Fosters and took to the grass. That gave me the opportunity to power past Williams up Clay Hill and into 6th place. By this time the 5th place car of Mike Clapham was about 70 metres down the road and I set about catching him. For the next 3 laps I closed the gap but lost time when Patrick Pearce, who had gone off at the exit of Druids came back on circuit fishtailing all over the track. I decided where to go and flashed past him at close to 100 mph with about 4 inches to spare. Patrick was kind enough to come up to me after the race and thank me for avoiding him.

It would have been a most interesting race to the finish, but unfortunately a yellow flag incident at Druids meant that the gap between Clapham in 4th, myself, Pearce and White was virtually eliminated at a stroke. Patrick was charging hard and I kept him behind for a few laps but eventually he found a way past, all the while my defensive driving had allowed Clapham to get away and White to catch me. With Pearce past I wanted to pull away from White, but the car had lost some power and we were both lapping at the same speed and I had to continue driving defensively. On the last but one lap I exited Lodge and failed to engage 3rd gear. At the fourth time of asking the car decided to let me have third gear back by which time White was past and that is how the race finished with me in 7th place. I was hoping for a better result than this, but the newness of the gearbox caused problems. On the brighter side however I did make it into the 1:10 second area and my pace at the start of the race was right up there with the leaders, further emphasising the importance of qualification and the start.

Postscript

Three cars were taken away for post eligibility scrutineering. One car, Tony Browns', was found in breach of regulations so he was excluded from the results and I was elevated to 6th place.