Oulton Park 2019 Race Report!

tumblr inline pqyymgQTFrtppaj

tumblr inline pqyymgQTFrtppaj

Hi everyone,

So a couple of weeks ago we had our first race weekend of 2019 over the Easter Weekend, we were supporting the British GT championship so it was our biggest meeting of the year.

It was certainly great to be back in the car although it certainly felt a little alien for the first 20 min session as I had only done one test over the winter period but at the end of the Friday test I was reasonable happy as I was around 5 seconds quicker than last year although I did have a big moment when going down the back straight, we were out with the Ginetta’s in our test sessions and we were massively quicker so I pulled out to overtake one and he obviously didn’t see me and puled out to overtake the car in front of him which nearly put me on the grass as I tried to avoid a big accident, all good fun though.

Race Day.

Class of 2019

image

So this ended up being a day of highs a lows which I guess is normal for me, I went into qualifying reasonably happy with the day before pace but due to the unusually hot weather our tyre pressures inflated a fair bit for qualifying and it was a totally different car to drive, it really felt like I was driving on ice, I had never experienced this before so wasn’t sure what was going on, I didn’t know if it was me or the car so in the end I was pretty relieved when we found out the reason why I was 5 seconds slower than the day before. This actually turned out to be a good learning exercise though and also showed that I could drive the car nearer it’s limit as watching the video back you could see I was on the edge so now I just need to drive like that but at higher speeds, easier said than done though.

image

So anyway we qualified plum last due to this issue but I actually had 2 races I was happy with, I hung on to the pack and was having a fun race with the guy in front and to be fair I’m never going to be able to compete with the guys at the front so as long as I am racing someone then I’m very happy although I felt if qualy had gone smoother I would have qualified more in the mid pack which would have made for 2 very different races.

The biggest issue I need to work on is getting on the pace earlier, it turned out that my quickest lap of the race was the very last lap of race 2 so basically the last lap of the whole weekend and in the races I take a few laps to get to my ultimate pace so I really need to work on this so as the lights go green I’m bang on it, again easier said than done, I’ve got some testing coming up soon though where we are going to focus on this mainly.

Anyway a reasonably good start to the year, a fair bit quicker than the same race last year and I didn’t get lapped which to be fair was actually a good achievement for me as I think I got lapped at every race by the front runners last year.

image

The next race is at Cadwell Park in a couple of weeks, this was probably my toughest race weekend last year, I loved the track and it’s surroundings, it really is a beautiful place but I really struggled with my ultimate pace, unfortunately I won’t have tested here since last year but hopefully all the things I have learned over the last 12 months will help make it a more solid weekend, time will tell I guess.

I’m actually getting my helmet painted at the moment so that will be ready for Cadwell which will obviously make me faster 🙂

Cheers,

Paul.

Here is my 2nd fastest lap of the weekend, unfortunately the file got corrupted for my fastest lap, it was only .3 quicker though.

image
image
image
image
image
image
image
image
image
image

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *