Oulton park was probably my favourite circuit in the UK when i was a regular trackday junkie, but i had never raced there before, something i was really looking forward to! Something i wasn't so sure about was the engine i had just fitted to the car. It all fired up fine in the garage after fitting, but it needed a good ragging to check everything was in order before the race. I managed to squeeze in a test session in on friday as i was working up in Liverpool, and apart from a short trip to the gravel, everything seemed in order and the engine and box felt strong. We had to remove the under tray to rake out the the 10kg of gravel i had collected and while there gave the the car a check over of the car which again showed no problems.
So with the car tucked up under its own awning, now fitted on the otherside of the bus to the human rain shield, we headed off for a RGB social at a local restaurant i booked. The Alvanley Arms nearby was excellent, great service and very good food, definitely better than our usual BBQ road kill. After returning to the paddock i had the pleasure of tasting (well necking about 3/4 of a bottle) of John Cutmores dads home brew cider, this ensured a late night and a fuzzy head in the morning!!
Friday had been wet, but saturday was forecast to be dry, and although the circuit was still damp for the first few practice sessions, by the time we were out there was a good dry line. As we were queueing up for qualifying Paul Rogers came over to tell Dan and I not to wait for him that Derek to go out (they were in front of us in the queue) as they were going to wait for 2 minutes before heading out onto track to ensure a clear road. I decided to do the same, hoping that i could try and tag onto the of them for as long as possible. As it turns out they soon disappeared off into the distance, but the result of waiting for clear track meant that i had a virtually uninterrupted practice session. This also meant i qualified 2nd in class for race 1 and 1st in class for race 2, result!!!
I had a good start to both races, but then a catalogue of driving errors ruined both my races, culminating in spinning in both races on the last lap! I know i can drive fast enough to be competitive, but a mixture of racing inexperience, red mist and plain driving mistakes keep letting me down. Hopefully as time goes by i can minimise these and get the win i hanker after!!!!
To finish the day, and season, i got awarded driver of the day, but for all the wrong reasons, nothing to do with good driving, but just because its entertaining to watch as i am now almost expected to go spinning off the circuit at somepoint!! All in all another great day of racing, if a little frustrating.
Race 1:
Race 2:
Pictures from the day:
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