Another Win at Oulton Park

Qualified – P2 – 2:06.337
Results – WIN + Fastest Lap and New Lap Record 2:05.336

I arrived Friday morning for testing at a wet and soggy Oulton Park. Having only ever completed 4 laps for my ARDS testing in Aug 2010 and completing a 25 minute track day session, I was pretty much having to learn the circuit again. Feeling very disappointed that it was raining I took testing in the wet slowly. Luckily after lunch the track did dry up and we managed 1 dry session before it rained again for the final session. Leaving Oulton on Friday night I was not feeling particularly confident and there was only myself and 1 other driver on the grid that had never raced there before.

Saturday morning come and the sun was shining and the smile on my face was beaming. Having had very limited running in the wet, I decided to get behind an experienced racer Andrew Outterside for qualifying. We had a great battle and Graeme Smith the 3 time champion also entered the fight. I could not believe that I had qualified 2nd with a time that was faster than the current lap record. That made it 5 races in succession that I had started on the front row.

The weather remained sunny and bright for the race. I managed to have one of my best starts of the season and seemed pretty even with Justin Cox from pole position. Suddenly out of nowhere came a very fast starting James Russell from the 3rd row. James, Justin and myself battle around for the first lap. I managed to get past James on the inside of Island bend and continued to work hard to catch up with Justin. I lined up Justin on the inside of Druids. Getting a faster run out of the corner, Justin slipstreamed past me into Lodge Corner. This time I got a faster exit and past him on the pit straight. With the first lap completed, myself, Justin and Graeme continued to swap places. On lap 4 I got into the lead and managed to work hard to pull out a gap from second place. Putting in qualifying style laps I managed to achieve a new lap record on lap 5 to extend my lead. Every lap after that was under the old lap record and I managed to go faster still on lap 8, posting a new club record of 2:05.336 beating the previous record by 1.3 seconds and achieving this without a tow. A race win was recorded with an 8 second lead.

Classic Caterham Podium – Graeme Smith (2nd), Amanda Black (1st), Justin Cox (3rd)

Having put the car on the trailer to go home, a friend on mine noticed that the rear right brake cylinder was leaking. The decision was made to change it ready for Spa. Many thanks to Mike, Michelle and James for their help.

TSL Timesheet

Race Video to follow. Watch this space!