Suffering from jet lag having only
arrived back from the USA 48 hours before the race and annoyingly having
picked up some flu bug on the flight home, we made our way slowly up to
Oulton Park on the Friday evening. The weather was abysmal, with
torrential rain for just about the whole of the 5 hour journey. Despite
feeling a little under the weather myself, I was really looking forward
to the race. Whilst I was hoping it might be dry for race day, it didn't
bother me too much, I was happy to tackle whatever the conditions were
and to make the most of them.
With me leading the Class A Championship by 19 points, I had to make
sure that I finished the race to be certain of winning, however, I was
determined to finish this years' Challenge off on a high note and so was
ready to give it my all with an aim of finishing on the podium. We had a
great entry for this race, with three extra cars out for the first time
in Class A, Fred Tong in his brand spanking new Sagaris which Tim Hood
had just finished building for him 2 weeks ago, Darren Smith in the ex
Ben Samuelson race Tuscan and John Reid (our race co-ordinator) in his
race Tuscan. So with 17 of us on the grid the race was set to be
potentially the best of the year so far and certainly the most
competitive this Series.
Overnight the dreadful weather continued, although it had at least
stopped raining by morning the track was very damp indeed. We were
second out to qualify at 9.10 a.m. and once again we had to decide which
tyres to use. With the rain having ceased and the conditions quite
windy, we decided to go on slicks but knew it would be slippy out there.
Tim, Fred and I agreed to go in convoy to try and get our times up
quickly. Good plan but as the track was even more slippery than we'd
thought it would be, Tim pulled away from Fred quite quickly. I was
being held up a little too so decided to go past Fred and just see how
the grip felt. Not good at all was the answer and it was a little
unnerving to see a number of cars in the barriers rather too quickly.
The session was plagued with yellow flags until a Tasmin then hit the
barrier a bit hard leaving bits all over the circuit and we were red
flagged for the mess to be cleared up. With 5 mins left of the session,
we needed to put in a decent time. I qualified in 4th place with a time
of 2mins 11.3 secs, just 2 secs off the second placed driver who was out
there on intermediate tyres. Although this was a slow time, given the
conditions and on slick tyres, it wasn't too bad at all. If the track
dries out by the time of our race, this should bode well.
Sure enough, the weather continued to be dry and quite windy which was
helping the surface to dry out. There wouldn't be a lot of rubber put
down though, so whilst the grip would be hugely better than this
morning, it still wouldn't be brilliant. We lined up on the grid after
the green flag lap, red lights held for the full 5 seconds, lights out
and away. I really wanted a good start and gave it a fair amount of of
right foot as we pulled off the line. A bit of wheelspin, hang on, keep
the revs going and into to second gear quickly. I could see the number
41 Tuscan behind me trying to close up, I was having none of that and
with a pretty good start (possibly my best start this year) I pulled
across and took the line going past the third placed car in the process.
Just the Griff' of Marc Hockin to get past now and then after pole man
and race leader Tim Hood.
By the exit of turn one, I was right up the back of Marc and positioned
myself to get past him on the exit of Cascades, the very next bend,
which leads onto the quite long straight of Lakeside. Perfect, straight
past him on the inside and back across to take a decent line through the
fast but difficult left handed Island bend. Through the banked hairpin
of Shell Oils and I'd made a good start, putting a reasonable amount of
track between me and the third placed car already. By the end of lap
one, Tim had pulled a fair way ahead and I hadn't realised that Andy
Holden in the number 6 Tuscan had made up so much ground. As I exited
Old Hall suddenly Andy was trying to pull along side me on the inside. I
tried to pull across to stop him but too late, he'd got along side me
just as we were about to enter Cascades and I felt I had to give way to
him but was determined to stick with him and see if I could pull the
place back. I managed to stay in touch with him for a couple of laps
until we caught up the back markers. There were two Tasmins ahead of me
as we approached the difficult kink that leads onto Hill Top and down
the straight to the Knickerbrook chicane. I had to wait until we'd
exited the kink as there's no room for three cars there, suddenly as I
pulled out to go past up Hill Top, the number 55 Tasmin pulled straight
out in front of me, I had to brake hard to avoid hitting the back of
him, worse yet he couldn't get past the other Tasmin and despite the
blue flags being waived vigorously at him, blocked me the whole way down
the straight and then braked so hard for the hairpin, I nearly hit him
again, before he finally pulled out of the way on the exit. By now I'd
lost 4 secs or more and Andy was nowhere to be seen. I was a long way
ahead of the next placed driver and so basically my race was over, other
than ensuring I stayed on the black stuff and finished.
It's not easy racing yourself, you want to keep your times going well
and are mentally pushing yourself on but at the same time you're very
conscious of the fact that you just need to finish, and in my case for
this race a finish (podium at that) would mean a certain overall Class A
victory for the Season. Then suddenly with my mind not fully on the job
in hand, I realised I'd overcooked my approach to the chicane and locked
up the brakes, no huge worries though as there was nothing around me, it
simply worsened my lap time quite dramatically (by 10 secs in fact) and
it meant that the third placed car was now suddenly only 3.5 secs behind
me! I needed to
get a move on as I could just see him in my rear view mirror. By the ned
of the next lap he'd disappeared again and it was only at the end of the
race that I found out his throttle cable had stuck and he had to pull
up. It may have been a more exciting end to the race than I had planed
and certainly taught me a lesson to keep on going as you never know what
may happen until you've crossed that line for the chequered flag. In
fact that message was brought home again when I'd pulled up into the
awning and discovered that unknown to me, Tim's front splitter had come
loose and he'd had to pull out of the race. I was in fact in second
place. What a result and with a respectable best time of 1 min 50.8 secs
I'd cut my PB by around 3 secs as well. I would've liked to have got
down to the 1 min 49 sec area but you can't everything and there's
always next time at Oulton to make sure I achieve that.
My thanks to the whole Team for their amazing support throughout the
2006 TVR Challenge, I really couldn't have done it without them. Also,
to Andy at APM Automotive in Hampshire for building me such a reliable
engine. Although I never won a Class A race, I was extremely consistent,
finishing every race I started and quite often in the top 3 places. The
old cliché says "to come first in a race, you first have to finish" -
well, we've certainly proven that this year and are over the moon to be
Class A Champions!
Roll on next year... |
