dbRacing - Oulton Park Race Report October 11th 2003

Oulton Park Race Report October 11th 2003

Practice

With two complete days testing and a race meeting under my belt I prepared for a full days testing on the Friday at Oulton Park. The whole day consisted of trying different settings and evaluating what worked and what didn't. One thing that didn't work was the numerous red flags that came out during the saloon car sessions. There were quite significant speed differentials which probably contributed to the number of incidents. In the first incident a Porsche 935 went off while passing a mini at a damp Druids, later on Henry Firman was presented with a challenge when Adam Egar spun going down Cascades. Despite everyone's best efforts Henry collected Adam with the result that the day was over for Henry and it was time to go home for Adam as his T-bone 911 wasn't quite what he had ordered on the menu. Hopefully he will be out again for Donington next weekend.

From my perspective the test went well, and by mid afternoon I had a car which handled just the way I wanted it to. Sadly, I just didn't seem to be able to get a time anywhere near what I did last year with a best of 1:12.3, though I felt the cornering speeds were as high as they had ever been. Over dinner on the Friday night I was having a quiet little word with myself. The car was fine, the suspension was fine, maybe I just never strung all the good pieces together in one lap, or maybe the final piece of the equation needed to be tackled.... the driver.

Saturday morning came & the car passed through scruitineering without any problems including my new camera mount. Now I have no excuse for selective memory when I'm writing these race reports !. I decided to get down to the collecting area early to get an early slot, but not only were Brown & White already there, so was Rogers, Lambert and Coombs. That was before even a paddock announcement had been made. I took to the track behind Coombs, in front of Broster and Rothwell, and having had a serious word with myself decided to start putting in some quick laps immediately. As soon as I left the pit road I moved off line to the left to overtake Coombs. This didn't seem to be appreciated as he moved just quickly enough to the left to block me which resulted in me having to brake sharply while Colin Broster who had been testing the same day and had the same idea had to take avoiding action swerving to the right. With Broster past and Coombs now on the right side of the track I dived down the inside under braking and pulled away. Well, that was an eventful first 200 yards, but more was to come.

Dave Rothwell had been testing on the Friday too and he was clearly wanting to be on his way so I let him past and gave chase. With perhaps a little less confidence in the cold grip abilities of the Michelin tyres on a 924 (they generate less heat than a 911) I was a little more cautious than the Flintshire Boys but going down Cascades for the second time I decided that I would push quite hard on this lap. The three of us passed so many cars on that first lap that I lost count of who they were. Coming out of Fosters I accelerated hard and the car felt good going up Clay Hill. In 1989 I attended an early corporate driving day at Oulton Park and one of the driving instructors that day was E-type Jaguar and Oulton Park ace Malcolm Hamilton. Every time I go up Clay Hill I am reminded of the tip he gave me 14 years ago for the best line and I stuck to it. After the kink there was the double apex at Druids and I took the classic line turning from the left hand side of the track. As I turned in I could feel that the tyres were not gripping as well as they needed to and being in a high gear trying to carry too much momentum through the corner meant that I was about to have my first visit to the kitty litter of the season. It's funny how at these times I always manage to see the marshalls reactions. This time, as well as the rapid movement out of the way they also raised the yellow flags. When the car came to a halt I was at a 90 degree angle to the track facing to ward the barriers. That was the good news, even better I had spun all the way across the gravel trap to the end and was quite easily able to reverse back onto the track and continue the session. I kept off line and listened to the sound of about 20kg of gravel depositing itself on the track. Another 10 kg came out under braking for Lodge and by the time I had snaked my way down the pitwall all the gravel was gone and I could continue with qualifying.

Having played my joker for this round and having seen for myself the importance of grid position at Cadwell Park a few weeks ago I continued to push hard. I felt I was doing well when it took Mike Salmon in his class 1 968 about 3 laps to catch and pass me. Brown came through too and I hung onto his tail in a way I haven't been able to do all season. As the flag dropped I could see my pit board showed a 1:11.0 for the previous lap. An improvement of 1.4 seconds since yesterday was good progress, but was my final lap even quicker ?. Well according to the timekeepers, no, but according to Gill I had advanced another 0.2 seconds to post my fastest ever lap round Oulton Park. This was good enough for 8th overall and 3rd in class right behind Dave Rothwell and Richard Lambert for my best qualifying position of the year. At last !

Note to self..... have a word with yourself more often David.

The only niggling doubt was that whenever I went at full chat through Cascades there seemed to be a lack of power for the following corners. Taking it easy there paid off in overall lap time.

Race

I had almost forgotten what being able to see the front of a grid was like as we lined up after the green flag lap. The lights changed to green and I applied the power, but it was either too much throttle or the suspension changes we had made on Friday meant a reduction in traction from the rear. Either way I went rapidly backwards

Rogers got in front of me and Coombs was behind as we completed the first lap. Even though this was a long 30 minute race I decided I needed to move forwards now to stay with the leading group. Rogers had pulled away from me down the two straights towards Lodge and down the pit straight. I carried the speed through Old hall and caught him going down Cascades. We rounded Fosters and although he got the power down early I was able to catch up through Knickerbrook and even had to have a little dab on the brakes at the top of Clay Hill. Mark ran wide at Druids (ok I confess I chuckled to myself as he made the same mistake I did in practice) and I was able to pass him on the run down to Lodge corner. At this point Rodgers and Coombs were right behind me but over the next two laps I was able to pull out the length of the pit straight as a significant cushion and actually narrowed the gap to Rob Williams. I set myself up for a few really solid laps of pursuit to get with Williams, Rothwell and Lambert, but as I went down Cascades I felt an all too familiar misfire. Oh dear, what I pity I thought to myself. Well, something like that. I had seen this just a couple of times in testing the day before, but it disappeared very quickly. Would it disappear now. Now when it was important ?. not a chance ! The occasional intermittent problem had decided to make itself permanent. This left me with a car that wouldn't rev beyond 4000 rpm. With double points from the Joker at stake I knew pulling in was not an option so I decided to simply keep going with whatever momentum I could carry. The lap times dropped into the 1:17 range, even 1:19 sometimes. Even so, the lead I had pulled out in those first three laps took the pursuing group another 8 or 9 laps to catch me. I did put up a little bit of a fight, but at Oulton Park there is only so much you can do to prevent a car with about 50% more power than you overtaking.

In the end the race was red flagged at 22 minutes due to an incident between Richard Lambert and Dave Bennett. I ended up finishing 6th in class and was even still 10th on the road. My fastest lap was 1:12.2 which was faster than the next three cars in front of me and amongst the classified class 2 finishers only beaten by Rothwell and Williams. Talking after the race to ex Porsche / Lotus racer Jon Fletcher he suggested that even on lap one I seemed to be quick coming through Deer Leap but failed to gain speed as quickly as the other cars. Looking at the video afterwards confirmed this. If I hadn't had such a rotten season I could have felt disappointed or even cheated out of a certain 3rd place.

Latest news is that the fault seemed to lie with an internal connection on the lift pump in the petrol tank. Yes, that's another of those new parts I recently fitted that has failed. I'm beginning to think I should get my parts from a breakers yard, they seem more reliable !

I have been sent some photos from Darren Bell who was spectating at Oulton Park and supporting Dave Hughes in his Alfa 33. I have posted them on the 924 Carrera GT page.