Oulton Park 21st of April 2001

Circuit guide

For an excellent Oulton guide from Ten Tenths Motorsport click here.

Race diary:

Firstly, the statement most likely to get you a smack in the teeth after a while in motorsport is 'Well, that's racing!' - AAAAAAarrrrrggghhhh!!!! ;) Only kidding, but you're almost guaranteed that anything mechanical will behave in entirely unexpected ways as soon as it goes near a racing circuit. Well, you do thrash it to within an inch of its life I suppose but that's no exscuse :)

Anyway, to cut a really long story not quite so long, as you may have seen in my build diary I had to use a bog standard engine for Oulton Park as my race engine was still in bits after Burton Power had neglected to inform me, despite having waited 8 days, that the head/conrod/flywheel bolts I had ordered weren't in fact in stock - Arse! - tm CJ ;) So, I wasn't expecting any great results but it gave me the opportunity for some more race experience and I'd never been round Oulton - well, except for a load of TOCA2 practice! The biggest concern was over qualifying. Oulton Park has a maximum grid of 30 cars so we needed an entry number of 42 or more for 2 grids. Only 35 made it to the circuit so the first 30 would qualify and the rest would get a refund less 40 quid :( A long way to go for 15 minutes of qualifying let alone 100 odd quid in diesel and accomodation! Knowing I was well down on power compared to the rest I just hoped everything ran smoothly and I could pull a decent time out of the bag. So, after a late flight back from Germany on Friday on business, I hurried home to load the truck, pick up Martin and my brother to make the slog to Oulton. As it happened, it only took about 3 hours to get there. We'd booked into the Tall Trees B&B (bargain at 40 quid for the three of us in one room - 3 seperate beds I hasten to add!) near the circuit. It was quite amusing to see that it's near the village of Dutton! I wonder if everyone who lives there drives a Phaeton, Malaga or suchlike :) So after a quick pint we hit the sack in readiness for the morning. Once again, the Locosts got the early scrutineering slot at 8:00am so an early start was on the cards.

We awoke to...no... it can't be true... SUNSHINE AND BLUE SKIES!!!! Whatever next? A quick brekkie and we got going. The circuit was about 15 mins from the B&B so we rocked up to the paddock in plenty of time. By now we'd got a good routine going where I knew where I needed to be for signing on and drivers briefing and Marty and my brother (to be known as the 'crew') prepping the car for scrutineering. Well, I got signed on, picked up the series sponsors stickers and made my way back to the car to find both of the 'crew' had buggered off! Still, the car fired up so I drove down to the scrute's bay to find myself at the head of the cue.

Once again, scrutineering was a breeze although, I have to say that the car only came in for a cursory examination. The scrutes seemed more interested in wether or not we'd affixed the sponsors stickers to the car than anything else! I'd left these in the truck so legged it back up and collected them before an embarrasing hold-up for everyone behind me. The crew sauntered over (to become a habit this ;) but redeemed themselves with a supply of coffee and bacon butties. So, scrutineering done, I had enough time to get to the first-timers meeting with the Clerk of the circuit and still get back to the car in time for qualifying.

As I mentioned earlier, conditions were great. The circuit was still a bit damp, it was still early afterall and the sun had not fully risen to dry it out, but it was beautifully clear and bright. I dropped the tyre pressures a bit and we fiddled with the engine timing and checked the inlet manifold flange. It's a real pain to get this right without having any load on the engine but I hadn't had time to rolling-road it so we went with what we 'thought' was right. Oil pressure was good and water temp. was stable so everything was nice and moist. I was ready for the off. As usual, we gathered in the assembly area where the usual mirror tweaking took place (they still end up spinning round though!) and before long we were let out. For me it was the usual drill of 3 laps at a steady pace to qualify and then try and put a decent time in. The first couple of laps were uneventful as I felt my way around the circuit (the medium length one which sees you turning left at Fosters down to the 1st hairpin, then back to rejoin at Knickerbrook) but the engine was, well, shite! It had absolutely knob-all power and was stuttering like a b'stard between 3 and 4 thousand revs. I'd make up time under braking (all that wet weather practice has proved invaluable) but would lose it and then some coming out of the corner! I lost count of the cars which simply out-dragged me :( Very depressing. Then the car just started coughing and spluttering and was only running on 3 cylinders!!! I knew I HAD to put in a reasonable ime in order to qualify so next time round I dived into the pits and waved frantically at the 'crew', holding 3 fingers up to indicate that I was running on 3 only. So, they both saunter over as if we had all the time in the world whilst I went spastic in the cockpit!!! It turns out that they thought I was holding up 3 fingers to say I'd done 3 laps and had come in. We must work on our communication signals!!! I shouted the problem at them and they got the bonnet off (once Martin had put his fag out after the Marshall had pointed out the fire risk!) and had a quick poke around. First problem was that the throttle linkage was falling apart which explained why I was getting my foot halfway to the floor before anything happened and one of the HT leads had worked it's way loose which caused the mis-fire. These fixed, I carried on down the pit-lane to find the throttle was now jammed open!! In my panic I just caught site of the red light at the end of the wall but couldn't help but to sail past, I now had no way of knowing wether it was safe to leave the pit or not and with the Marshalls all behind me I just looked as far down the start straight as possible and gingerly came out on the far right of the track (off-line at Old Hall) and carried on. I thought that a precautionary trip to the Clerk after qualifying wouldn't go amiss! So, foot to the floor I wheezed my way round to the end of the session. Back in the paddock we found both an oil and slight fuel leak but these were soon fixed and I legged it to see the Clerk. I explained what happened and he was absolutely fine about it, he seemed more concerned about my ability to continue the day! Nice bloke ;) So now it was time for a coffee whilst I waited impatiently for the results.

So when they did it wasn't good news :( I'd qualified 33rd which put me outside of the grid for the race. Several of the qualifiers had not completed the session due to mechanical failure, crashing etc. so I decided to hang around and see wether I'd make it onto the grid through drop-out. As time went on and I nosed around the paddock, it became increasingly clear that the entire grid would be ready :(( A bit despondent we decided to load up the trailer, stay to watch the Locost race and then go home. Not happy.

That is until Mark Benton (another non-qualifier) rushed over to tell me to 'get that bloody car off the trailer'! Mark had had a word with Race Admin who were trying to juggle things about so we could get a race! The 750 Trophy boys had a small grid and were putting in similar qualifying time - a spark of hope! OK, we wouldn't get official placing in the Locost race but we WOULD get championship points for finishing not forgetting a signature on my race licence. Official confirmation couldn't happen until after the 750 Trophy competitors had agreed to letting us race with them. Being the gentlemen that they are they agreed - a big thank you chaps! So, duly warned about their handling 'quirks' in the briefing, we got ourselves a race!

It was bizarre to watch the Locost race from the side of the circuit especially as I knew we were going out later on! The action was as close as ever with Darryl Beckwith controlling the race like a pro. It was a long outing for these boys - 12 laps. This saw the demise of several competitors Darryl being one of them with a busted gearbox - he must have been gutted, still, 'that's racing' - AAAAAArrrrrgggggghhhhhhh!!!!! Dominic O'Donnell was putting in an excellent performance after qualifying 8th, but soggy engine mounts resulted in a broken distributor cap where it had smacked the chassis rail so it was game over for him too. Glenn Boyer (you know, that funny bloke - that's funny as in makes me laugh Glenn ;) also had problems. A knacked piston would be my diagnosis as the increased crankcase pressure had blown his breather tube out. Still, a good race was had by almost all with few incidents. Results below.

Race over and everyone back into the paddock I did the rounds of congratulation and commiseration, actually make that commiseration for all the guys I usually hang out with. Maybe my luck is rubbing off on them? As some of them packed up we watched the stock car, sorry, make that stock hatch banger, I mean stock hatch racing ;) Before getting ready for my outing. Before long the time had arrived to get the car to the assembly area. Final checks were completed (we advanced the ignition timing a touch and sorted the leaks) and we were ready to go. The organisers had decided to grid us up according to our qualifying times which was great as we were right in the middle of the action with 3 of the Locost, Mark Benton, Janet Sherry and myself almost together. The 5min, 1 min, 30 sed and 5 second boards appeared in rapid succession and the red lights came on. Before we start I should say that I had spent some time getting the clutch pedal position just right. Confident in this I sat with my foot just below the 'bite' and anticipated the greens. I got it just right and was off to a flier. I had intended to try to filter up between Mark and Janet to get a good line into Old Hall, my plan was thwarted by two of the 750 Trophy boys. I got a better start than them but had to back off to avoid twatting them - something I did NOT want to do especially in light of the generosity they had shown in letting them race apart from the fact that they looked as if parts weren't exactly available at the local Halfords if you know what I mean!! So in backing off both Janet and Mark got past. We stayed together through Fosters and I hald back for an outbraking manouver at the hairpin. I had no chance of out-powering them on the straight so this was the only way to go. So 5 cars tried to fit into space for one and I managed to get the outside line to slip past Mark, this is place on the circuit where my car was at it's worst with absolutely bog-all power to take me out of the hairpin and up the hill. I'd get a better line which would put me past a car but it would then pull past uphill - very frustrating and resulted in a lot of steering wheel banging from me! Lap by lap it was nip-and-tuck all the way, I managed to get past both the trophy boys only to get stuck behind Janey Sherry who made here Locost VERY wide making passing a nightmare. Almost swapping paint through Old Hall and into Fosters I just couldn't overtake with no power, I outbraked her into the hairpin (again), got round but she'd just bugger off past me up the hill - aarrrgghhh!!! On the last lap I tried again and had the same problem only this time, on of the Trophy boys had seen my tactic and held back a bit allowing him to carry more corner speed through the hairpin which lost me a place - damn. Before I knew it the race was over. All at once I was frustrated, elated and wanted to carry on for another 6 laps!! Still, the chequered flag came down and I'd finished another race. 10th overall, 3rd Locost over the line, 2 championship points and another signature. All in all, a bloody enjoyable day out!

Qualifying

Race results