Round 4: Oulton Park, 5th July 2008

We arrived at Oulton Park on Friday for a full day test session, to check the car over and learn the track a bit. The test day was running the full International Circuit, as opposed to the Island circuit chosen for the Time Attack events. After a bit of tinkering with the suspension settings and a bodge job on the leaking transmission fluid the car seemed to be running well, and the weather held up for a full dry test session.

Saturday was not so dry. With it being a Time Attack only event we were allocated 30 minute sessions for the warm up, practice and qualifying. The warm up was wet and took a few casualties, but after remembering that the circuit was different from the day before and I had to turn earlier I seemed to be going well. I finished 2nd in the group, and 9th overall in the class. Great!

The practice session started off dry, but the rain came on after a red flag delay. Somehow (I'm still bewildered myself) I managed to get a better time in the wet than in the dry! Must be all the practice I get in the wet up in Bonnie Scotland! I cut my time by 6 seconds, finishing 5th in the group.

By the time of the qualifying the weather had cleared up and we were out on a dry track. The car was feeling good and I was out straight away trying to get some clear space. I got in a few clear laps and had a cool down. I then spent a few laps chasing down an impreza trying to get my times down. In hindsight it would have maybe been a good idea to go into the pits to get everything checked, but the red mist had fallen! By the end of the session the car did not want to stick to the track and on checking the tyres they were up to 38psi! Woops! Unfortunately I didn't make the cut for the final, finishing 26th overall, but had a great day trying. I think I'll be hoping for rain at the next event!

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