Finally, we’re back racing at Oulton Park. I came here first in 2004, in my first season and I’ve been waiting to come back ever since as it’s a truly great circuit. However, as it’s been so long it seemed sensible to do some testing. So, I signed up, as did lots of other RGBers, for the testing that was running on the Friday afternoon before the race day on Saturday. (You might wonder about the odd dates; I think it’s a result of yet more noise problems at circuits like this. After all, it’s only been there since 1948 so you can understand how people who move 5 miles away in 2005 are going to be surprised and dismayed to find the distant whine of racing cars disturbing their peace.)
The photo here is nicked from Buzz’s photo site. Buzz is supposed to race with us but has had such a bad run of luck that he licking his wounds at the moment. I think he might have said that he’s planning on getting out at Mallory though.
Testing
So, we travelled up the dreadful A14/M6 route yet again, made slightly more acceptable by the bizarrely empty M6 Toll, so as to get there before the claimed curfew at 11pm. It turned out that the gates were still open after that, but it wasn’t a problem as we got there at about 10:30pm.
The problem was, though, the weather forecast which can only be said to be absolutely dreadful. This seemed rather odd on Friday evening as the skies were completely clear with lots of stars visible due to the relative lack of light pollution. The only thing disturbing the peace was a rather alarming pong. Anthea started shoving the bins away from us before I pointed out that it was clearly coming from nearby fields where some farmer had been out spreading smelly stuff. I wonder if they get complaints from the new locals too?
Back in 2004 my FL had been 2:02.68 which looked liable to fall this weekend, although not if the weather was poor.
So, come Friday morning and I got up at a sensible time, not having to get the car prepped before lunchtime. However, as predicted it was raining. In fact it was absolutely pissing down. Oh well, at least we’d booked a garage.
There were just three sessions during the afternoon, as is often the case the sessions were really curtailed by the Saxmax boys and girls getting their own sessions. (They’re 14-17 year olds and aren’t allowed out on the circuit with us big boys. Problem is, that means they use up rather a lot of the available time.) The whole sessions were really controlled by the weather which was, respectively, awful, not quite so awful and pestilential. I’m surprised that they allowed us out really as the circuit was just a mass of puddles, rivers and lakes. Mind you, I could have stayed in the dry…
To give you an idea of what it was like, here’s about a lap from the 3rd session, mostly behind Steve. Note what happens as Steve goes around Old Hall, it’s more like a log flume than a race circuit. So, my FLs in the sessions were: 2:34.78, 2:30.31 and 2:34.36. To be honest I could have gone quicker than that, but I seem to have lost my mojo when it comes to wet circuit racing. What’s more, bending the car would have been silly.
One thing that’s worth commenting of from this day, though, is that the gearbox seemed to be working, although I can hardly be said to be stressing it in these conditions.
Race day
There was always a slight chance that it was going to stop raining. However, it didn’t and we woke up on Saturday morning to very grey skies. However, it was a little lighter, so you never knew.
After a bit of pre-scrutineering prep a miracle happened and it stopped raining. It was still all dark and lowering but it wasn’t actually chucking down which was a relief. Out on the track for qualifying though and, if anything, it was harder to drive than on the test day. At least that had been honestly wet, it was now wet and very, very, slippery. I had a rather torrid time, taking a trip across the Druids gravel and suffering a monster lock up into Lodge where I was really sure I’d put it in the kitty litter again. Worse, with a very long lap and there being two races I needed two decent laptimes.
As it was, I managed a couple of laps in the 1:23.1 region. This got me to a magnificent 14th on the grid in each race; 9th and 10th in class. Oh well, hopefully I could make a couple of decent starts.
The first race came around at 1345 and, amazingly, the sun was out. So I, along with the rest of the paddock, went back to dry settings and got out onto the circuit. I made a half decent start but I was really too far down the grid to get into the real action. I was right behind Andy and he made a heroic job of keeping me back round Old Hall and down the hill to Cascades. I then missed a gear (here we go again) up the hills from the Britton’s chicane and Doug and Henry got past me. Then, to add insult to injury, the lead fell out of the Palm and I didn’t have any instrumentation. Sigh, that meant I was going to have to start gear counting which I’ve never been very good at.
Essentially, that was it. Andy put up a stout defence and I didn’t get past him. To be honest I didn’t even get that close to him until he made an error into Knickerbrook on the last lap. Luckily for him he managed to recover it just in time.
That was all a bit disappointing, although the FL was 1:57.78 which isn’t too shabby. I must admit that I wasn’t, though, really on it and my race craft seems to have disappeared; although it wasn’t too obvious before. I finished way down the field. I don’t know where as the result seem to be mysteriously missing this vital information.
Hopefully, I’d make amends in race 2. It had stayed dry, although always threatening to chuck it down, and we lined up around 1630. On the grid they kept us hanging around for ages with no clear indication why. However, after a while the sequence started up again and we got going.
Well, I say “we” in the sense of “they” because I stalled. Something I’ve never done before on the grid although I suppose it had to happen eventually. That meant I got away dead last. Around Old Hall and down the hill, though, I was starting to get back in touch, at least with the back of the pack. However, here it became obvious why they’d held us so long. Later on we found out that Tony Carpenter’s engine had let go on the out lap, dumping all of its oil on the track. The marshalls had been rather over zealous in covering it with cement dust because we went through a dust storm. There was a point where I couldn’t really see beyond the end of the bonnet.
After that I concentrated on trying to get up the field. However, I then caught up Bob. Yet again, my race craft seemed to have deserted me. I spent ages and ages trying to get past him. The problem is, he’s quite good at covering the line into bends and the power of the ‘busa allows him to drag away after a corner. I did, eventually, though manage to get past him at the inside into Cascades. I’m not totally sure why he let me get away with it but still. There were a couple of places where I know I was way quicker than Bob (at Island in particular) and once past I’d have been able to get away. However, it was the last lap anyway and poor Bob made a dog’s breakfast of Druids with a spin that I saw in my mirror.
One problem was that a problem was becoming apparent with the car in that it was doing something odd in the last few laps. I still don’t know what. It was sort of juddering, which might just be a misfire, or it could be lack of fuel. Even worse it could be the diff letting go. To be honest I did feel that it was something to do with the tranmission but that might just be because I’m currently sensitive to gearboxy things.
So, I finished that race in a truly miserable 17th (10th) place and with that the season is nearly over. There’s but a single race left at Mallory and that’s in 5 week’s time. Thoughts, though, are turning to what happens next year. I’ve been thinking about this a lot but I haven’t come to any conclusions yet. I’ll write something about it in a while.