Oulton Park - Rounds 9 & 10
Testing did not go so well! – In the first session on the Friday testing, I ended up having quite a big crash due to another car running me wide going into Druids.
The damage was quite substantial, so we then ended up spending the rest of the test day fixing the car and finding out what was broken. By the end of the day we ended up changing all the rear suspension arms and the rear subframe, the suspension arms and the track rod end on the passengers front, both of the drive shafts, a buckled wheel, the steering rack got replaced and the front subframe had been moved out of place.
Qualifying – After not having any testing due to the crash in the first session and having done only 5 proper laps, I went out for quali not really sure what to expect.
The main concern was if the car was going to run right. The first couple of laps I spent making sure the car was okay and didn’t have any major issues. It wasn’t feeling 100% but I thought it was good enough to be able to put in a decent lap time.
A red flag around half way through the session meant an early finish even so by the end of qualifying we ended up P2 which I was really happy with considering the dramas on the Friday testing.
Race 1 – I managed to get a good start off the line keeping P2. Then with Clarke running wide in turn 3 opened the door for me to take the lead.
From then on it was a constant battle between myself and Clarke until the end of the race.
I managed to hold on and take the win. For me the ideal end to a really enjoyable race.
Another top step podium finish plus a few more points in the championship.
Race 2 – Unfortunately didn’t go our way. After a great qualifying and result in race 1, we had high hopes for race 2.
Unfortunately I ended up getting caught up in someone else’s incident on the run up to turn 4 which ultimately ruined our race. We did end up finishing but by that point I was many laps down so not the result we was hoping for after a strong start to the day.