Well, I had never driven Oulton Park in the flesh before. I did love it on the Junior Saloon Car Championship eSeries, but driving a track for real is always different, so I was seriously looking forward to testing on Friday and the paid practice session on Saturday.
 |
| Picture Credit Stuart Hill |
Testing allowed us a generous 2 hours on track in four sessions and practice in the morning as an additional 15 minutes.
Apart from never having driven the track before, the other unique point of this round was that it was all crammed into Saturday for practice, quali and two races.
So let's look at qualifying - up to now I had never been able to qualify in the top 10, but for the these two races I qualified 8th and 9th respectively. Not pole, but the best I have ever managed.
In the first race I had a terrible start dropping 6 places to 14th, but then I managed to fight back to 11th place. Due to disqualifications I was promoted to 8th place, finishing off where I started, but this result is still unofficial due to ongoing judicial and technical investigations.
Race 2 was literally under a dark cloud as a heavy storm hit the track not long before we went out. For the start of race the rain had stopped but the track was still slippery and it duly set in again as we lined up for a restart after a red flag. I didn't have a particularly good start again. Better than in the first race, but I still dropped to 12th. Before I could make up places the safety car was deployed. After a couple of laps the safety car went back in, only to be replaced with a red flag within a lap. This concluded the race. Mixed emotions - last year I would have been celebrating a 12th place, but given race time, I know I could have done better. Either way, it is what it is.
Overall the best finish of the season yet, but I know I can do even better!
Comments
Post a Comment