Circuit:	Oulton Park
Date:	July 12th 2008
Championship:	Caterham Roadsports A Championship 2008

QUALIFYING

Once again, it seems I was destined to have a bad qualifying session. My car was set up for a dry run, having the stiffer front anti roll bar fitted and I arrived too late to change the bar or even remove it, prior to scrutineering and then we were more or less straight into the qualifying session. It was raining at the start of the quail session, quite hard at first but then the rain changed to drizzle. Nevertheless, the track was very greasy and when I went out, I was struggling to find grip at half the pace of other cars. Felt horrible. With the right set up I’m normally quite confident in the wet. This time my car just wanted to face the wrong way all the time so I had to be very gentle with the right foot.

I qualified towards the back, with only Richard Boughton (car no. 21), Stephen Mansell, (car no.5) and Simon Roche (car no. 18) behind me, but 29 cars in front of me. I wasn’t worried though and quite enjoy starting at the back. There’s plenty of time in a 30 min race to start to work forwards.

I was however regretting having still not had the time to set the car up properly again, since hitting the wall at Castle Combe in May. Almost certainly the car’s camber had been affected.

RACE 1

At the start, I was happy to not get caught up in a first corner “melee” and eased down to Old Hall, allowing Steve Mansell and then Richard Boughton to drift by.

I tucked in behind them and waited for my time. To my surprise, at only the 3^rd corner of the race, the very fast sweeping left called Island Bend, just before the Shell Oils banked hairpin, I saw one of the championship front runners, Lewis Hopkins (car no 11), go off at some speed towards the gravel trap and tyre barrier, along with Michael Steadman (car no. 22). Mike certainly hit the tyre barrier at some speed, Lewis looked as though he had just bogged down in the gravel. More were certainly to follow them later in the race !

In the run between the first chicane and Knickerbrook chicane, I was right on Steve Mansell’s tail, ready to pounce. As we headed down to Knickerbrook, I moved to the right to take the inside line but wasn’t sure Steve had seen me and certainly didn’t want to be put out on the first lap by having him turn in on me, albeit unwittingly. So I backed off and let him through in front of me. But I stayed glued to his tail and as we chased up the hill towards Druids, I moved to his right to take the inside line and simply outbraked him at Druids itself for the place. So I had clawed back one of the two places I gave up on the start, plus gained another two places by default with the cars going off at Island bend.

Going into the chicane on the 2^nd lap, JJ O’Malley (car no. 68) and Julian Draper (car no 12) had a coming together that would see JJ out of the race and Julian limping on for just a lap before retiring. Julian would later be penalised for the move.

I was now right on the back of my team-mate, Richard Boughton as we again headed towards the double apexed Druids corner, under the trees. Although I had the inside line again, I let Richard take it as again I wasn’t sure he knew I was on the inside and wanted to avoid him turning into me and putting me out of the race.

Chris Legg (car no. 10) was just in front of Richard and as we crossed the start line for the start of lap three, less than a second separated the three of us and they were definitely my “targets”. On the run up to the Shell Oils hairpin, I noticed another car, Toby Dicker (car no. 75) in the same gravel trap as Lewis and Mike.

My chance to take Richard came on lap four as we raced down towards the Knickerbrook chicane. Richard left room for me to go to his right, which meant I had the inside line for the corner and all I would need to do is outbrake him to edge my nose in front and claim the corner, which I did, just tucking in on the back of Chris Legg. A few seconds later, I was able to get cleanly by Chris, yet again on the inside of Druids.

I could see my next “targets” of Kevin Begley (car no. 6) and Darren Laverty (car no. 29) just a couple of seconds ahead. A lap or two later I noticed yet another driver,  Peter Wharton (car no. 15), had joined the others in the Shell Oils hairpin gravel trap, although was positioned quite precariously on the apex as you turn into the corner. It looked as though he had gone through the gravel trap and into the tyre barrier. Four cars were now in the same gravel trap !

I was on the back of Kevin’s car as we exited Knickerbrook and was able to pull alongside him as we chased up the hill towards Druids. I had the inside line, kept my right foot buried and was able to nip round the corner ahead of him and take the place. Yet another place at Druids ! This was turning out to be my best corner !

As we crossed the line for the start of lap 6, I had a block of four cars, Mark Bowles (car no. 66), Darren Laverty, Jason Crow (car no. 85) and Paul Latimer (car no. 87) about a second or two ahead of me and they were next on my radar screen. Coming down the hill from Old Hall to Cascades, I was able to get right up behind Darren and stuck with him at full chat in the run up to Island. He moved to the left of Paul Latimer with Mark Bowles immediately ahead of them to the left of Jason Crow. Hower, as we went round Island 2x2 at full chat, I saw brake lights come on ahead of me and I lifted to react.

That proved my downfall, as the car put a rear wheel on the grass and then immediately turned 180’ and I was heading backwards across the grass straight to the gravel trap. I noticed Jason just ahead of me had span in unison with me and was doing almost the identical thing ! I learned a few minutes later that the guys already in the gravel trap were bracing themselves, expecting their now stationery and abandoned cars, smashed into. Somehow both Jason and I missed them, with me coming to a stop in one car’s length as soon as I hit the gravel, inches off the back of Toby’s car.

Shame there were no cameras around, as six cars in one gravel trap must have looked quite a sight. However we all had an excellent grandstand view of the rest of the race, from the safety of being between the tyre barriers.

I was annoyed with myself though for that silly mistake of lifting, as I felt I had been making steady progress through the early stages of the race and would have been confident of making up another few places, had I finished.

Hey ho, that’s racing. As they say, if only …………………..

RACE 2

For race 2, as I didn’t finish the first race, I would again be starting towards the back, 27^th on the grid, alongside Pete Wharton and with Toby Dicker and Julian Draper just behind me, Simon Roche and Jason Crow just ahead. I was happy with that.

I knew 2006 Academy Champion, Lewis Hopkins, would be on a mission though, lining up as he was on the very back row. The price for going off at only the third corner in the first race. In the event, he came by me after just a few seconds, down the straight before Island bend. On lap three, team-mate Roelant de Waard (car no 62) went wide going into Island bend, putting all four wheels on the grass but managed to recover and get back on the track. I chased him hard for two or three laps and had some enjoyable racing with him.

My first overtake was other team-mate Richard Boughton, then Steve Mansell, both on lap two. On lap four I then passed Rich Moore (car no. 86) and Andrew Walton (car no. 49) had also had a problem.

I passed Jonathan Ramsay (car no. 14) on lap 6, then Mark Bowles (car no. 66) on lap 7. Paul Wilson (car no 32) in the meantime had started well in 7^th place but was slipping down the field. He soon became my next “target” and I passed him on lap 9, running out of Old Hall. Several laps of good racing followed with no change in position for me. I then started to “wind in” Paul Stourton (car no. 76), passing him on the penultimate lap, for him to then come back at me again. I was disappointed though, when, on the last lap and running up towards literally the last corner before the finish line, as I started to attack Paul down the nearside for the place, he edged his car towards mine, causing me to lift temporarily to avoid us colliding or me hitting the Armco protecting the tree that juts out into the circuit. That lift enabled Paul to get away and 2 other cars to come by me, including Mark Bowles who pipped me over the line by 1/100^th of a second. It was particularly frustrating to lose three places on the finish line in that way but Paul was unrepentant when I spoke to him in the paddock afterwards. He said he thought he’d “given me just enough room so as not to kill me” !!  xxxxxxxxxxxxx !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We’re still pals though !

So 10 places or so made up in the first race before I went off and 7 places made up in the second race. Considering qualifying had put me on the backfoot to begin with, I was quite pleased with the day’s work.