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Saturday 1st.April - Oulton Park (Fosters) - 1st Race of 2006: |
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The weather forecast had certainly
got it right. One minuet it was dry and almost sunny, the next, classic
April showers! As we got closer and closer to our qualifying session, the
weather took a turn for the worse and we decided we’d have to qualify on
wets. Needless to say, just as we were going out on track, the sun finally came through. The circuit still started off damp and slippery but it soon dried out and wets were going to prove to be the wrong choice. It was quite frustrating as the tyres began to melt quite quickly and I knew my lap times would be well behind yesterdays’ testing. The end result was a best time of 1min 12.6secs, 6th on the grid and a ruined set of tyres. An unfortunate start to the day but at least we had the race to look forward to. In fact, the weather perked up nicely and by the time we were on circuit to race it was dry and the sun was trying to shine. Marc Hockin in the Griff’ got off to a good start, keeping in front of me and going past me and Hugh Marshall who was slow to get off the line. Marc was driving well and even with Hugh’s vast experience it took him over six laps to get past him. Now it was my turn. I knew from our testing times that I was a good 2 secs quicker but Marc kept firmly to his line and I was struggling to get by him despite going quicker. It was becoming really frustrating, as I knew I could be going a lot faster if I could get past. I tried all sorts of manoeuvres changing position on the pit straight three times on one occasion only to be blocked each time. Unfortunately, due to my lack of experience and race craft I couldn’t get past. I need to learn to be more aggressive on the track. This was a good learning experience despite being most frustrating, especially as my fastest time ended up being 1.5 secs slower than yesterday, which I felt sure I could improve upon.
This race had excellent TV coverage
on the Race and Rally UK show, the highlights can be viewed on this link: |
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