Well after first race that had to be renamed the Sideways Challenge at Donington due to the extreme wet, slippery and dark conditions, it was time for the long trek upto Oulton Park, Cheshire for a double header :D Race numbers 2 & 3.

It was to be a glorious sunny day filled with great anticipation, as I had never even seen the circuit in the flesh before. And bl00dy hell 12 laps of qualifying do not lend you enough to understand or even remember the blind apexes, or exit points on this little Nurburgring.

I qualified 11th, on the Fosters circuit with a time of 1:13.9 a second and half from pole, not to bad I thought especially as another novice was only a half second ahead of me, and he’d done 100laps practice the day before :D .!!. The other novices were way back in the field. So I was pretty happy, especially as I hadn’t smashed the car up, yet.!!. There were a few close ones, believe me.

I think the trick with Oulton in confidence with your car and guts, or is that just plain stupidity :rolleyes:. There are two flat out sections where you approach 115/120mph and you have to flick through a kink, then while still unstable from the kink, wack the brakes change to 4th and power on through. That imbalance you experience put the willy’s up me, especially as there is no, (I mean no much better than the Ring) run-off. Just a bit of grass, sometimesa bit of gravel and WHAM a nice tyre wall. How the BTCC gets to race here is beyond me. Its dangerous :D

RACE 1

The lights went green and I was off, fantastic start, no wheel spin just a surge of acceleration as I head for the inside line and began to brake for the first corner, Old Hall.
http://upload.turbosport.co.uk/gallery3/2002418123649833675.jpg

The chap in front locked up and held me back a bit as he let a couple of cars go around him. I was right under his bumper and made a move to get past to his right when the dirt bag moved over on me and pushed me onto the grass.

http://upload.turbosport.co.uk/gallery3/2002418123738527767.jpg

It was bad enough he let two cars through on the corner, and at Dono he really slammed the door in my face at Redgate, but now he was pushing me onto the green slippery carpet, b4$stard images/smilies/mad.gif I eased off and pulled in behind him in, still in 11th place. Down through the very tricky Cascades then right and up the hill under the bridge and slamming through the gears towards Druids. I made a play for 10th, when my favourite chap in front pulled over on me. I was hard on the brakes as I had quite a turn of speed and slotted in behind him again images/smilies/mad.gif Through Druids around the tight and hilly Lodge Corner and back down the pit straight. Phew first lap completed. I checked my mirrors and noticed a second gap behind so I could relax a bit.

The start of a race is amazing. The nervousness of that first corner really makes your body pump, but the exhilaration getting through then being able to fight for places is flipping intoxicating, and numbing all at once. I don’t remember a single sound for that first lap, just Mr. AX in front. Unfortunately he managed to get past the guy in front of him on the pit straight, so I had a nice green XR2 to play with who was slowing me down, as the AX was fast disappearing in front :( and to make matters worse I had somebody breathing down my neck due to the hold up.

On lap 3 I was up the XR2’s bumper up the hill under the bridge where I made an eyes closed attempt to pass going into Druids :eek:.

http://upload.turbosport.co.uk/gallery3/2002418123839747554.jpg

http://upload.turbosport.co.uk/gallery3/2002418123839727012.jpg

Man that was scary, the car was back end out all around Druids. I just clung on for dear life with the throttle floored :eek:

Now I had clear track and began to pursue AX boy who was about 8seconds ahead by now, a lot huh??

I gained on the AX but could not catch him, even though I did close the gap to about 5secs at one point.

I finished 9th after taking another car towards the end of the race at Druids once again, hehehehe LOL :D

Oh yeah my lap time tumbled to 1:12.5 :D which could of had me on pole for race 1 :)


RACE 2

Not a good race.

Now your gonna laugh, trust me. I was 9th on the grid after race1.

The lights went green and we were off, well everyone else was :rolleyes: I sat there bashing the steering wheel and screaming nasty, nasty words to myself as I selected 3rd instead of first, now you can laugh :D LOL :D finished???? Good.

Heres a piccie with the field screaming pass me :(

http://upload.turbosport.co.uk/gallery3/2002418124055161327.jpg . http://upload.turbosport.co.uk/gallery3/2002418124055140784.jpg

By the first corner I was down to something worse than 17th, and flipping mad. Nothing was getting in my way, and believe me I was pushing like a crazy person.

http://upload.turbosport.co.uk/gallery3/2002420123720442562.jpg

I was up to 11th by the end of lap 5, as you can see I wasn’t taking any prisoners, when I got stuck behind this pile of $hite metro Gti which was smoking really badly, oil just spuing out its tailpipe.

http://upload.turbosport.co.uk/gallery3/2002420123720484336.jpg


This guy blocked and blocked, he even nearly caused us to crash as he moved off the racing line right in front of me as I was making a pass. Look how close I was :eek:
http://upload.turbosport.co.uk/gallery3/2002420123720326390.jpg

So I tried everything to get passed. The most annoying thing is that I was so much quicker than him. I would back off then zoom up behind to hopefully force him to make a mistake, but no he just drove around the inside of the track, what a b4$tard, but I suppose that’s racing, although not sportsman like.

Check out the snaps below, I had to brake pretty hard to avoid this guy nearly spinning out, how he held it I don’t know.

http://upload.turbosport.co.uk/gallery3/200242012404384411.jpg .
http://upload.turbosport.co.uk/gallery3/200242012404426185.jpg .
http://upload.turbosport.co.uk/gallery3/200242012404268239.jpg .
http://upload.turbosport.co.uk/gallery3/200242012404289547.jpg .
http://upload.turbosport.co.uk/gallery3/200242012404228553.jpg .
http://upload.turbosport.co.uk/gallery3/200242012404671254.jpg .
http://upload.turbosport.co.uk/gallery3/200242012404605.jpg

The last shot I had to dive right to avoid him as he obviously wasn’t fully in control yet. Quite a pendulum effect huh??

So my second race of the day was not good, except that I beat my lap time again by half a second and managed to finish without a scrape. :) :D :)

Once again huge thanks to my Frog, she must be my sixth gear as I just couldn’t do without her efforts and hard work, and to Andy Timmins for coming along and getting grubby once again. Thanks :D Chappers :D

http://upload.turbosport.co.uk/gallery3/2002420124239694774.jpg


Until Brands Hatch on the 28th April for Race number 4 :D


M :cool:




[Edited by MRK - 4/22/2002 12:59:30 PM]

..cracking write up again Mark :cool: awesome in car piccies too :D
See ya in a coupla weeks mate

Excellent stuff Mark.

You even managed a photo of the pit crew during one of our rare ;) moments of relaxation.

Any chance of being able to upload some video clips as well?

I'm starting to look forward to these race reports, how sad am i :). I used to do rallycross Mrk and next time the idiot tries to put you on the grass just hold your line, he's the one who's going off. All this blocking does not sound very sporting, whats the point of weaving in 15th place :(. Is the Nova having the tank slapper the same guy who was sideways at Donno? . Like the in car camera, I bet thats great to watch when you get home, so keep doing the write ups and may see you at a Raceday some time.

Really enjoyed both of your reports.Do the rules allow a Ben Hurr style sword on the end of your hub to get rid of annoying metros?;)

Well done Mark, were all proud of you matey!

Seems as though your doing better than expected apart from taking off from the line ;)

Gotta admit a great guy who has weird taste in women (Je le Taxi) ;) who certainly is up and coming. Hope to see you in a single seat or maybe even BTCC one day.

Good luck for the next one.

Harj...

Hey thanks Chappers.

Sasman no worries I’m not taking any prisoners anymore. If they get in my way then ‘bump’ off they go. And yes the tank slapper was the same guy at Dono, what is he on :rolleyes:

Plus Skiddusmarkus nice idea with the swords, and theres nothing in the rules about those either :D.


Touring cars here we come :D Well Brands Hatch this Sunday (28th) first.


M :cool:

Sorry I can't make it this time.

Best of luck for the race this weekend, not that you need it.

Just remember its 1st 2nd 3rd not 3rd 1st 2nd ;)

See you next Friday.

Andy

Best of luck for this weekend!!!!

Looks like your getting stuck in. :D

You can fill me in properly over a beer in Nurburg. :D

Say hi to the Frog too. :D

see you guys soon.

Mark, wish id known about Oulton its virtually on my doorstep, well sort of.

Nice report.

I know you won't read this before tomorrow but good luck mate, you can tell me about it and have a beer at Ring.

WELL, WHAT HAPPENED THEN :)

Hey Sasman, not a good, by all accounts.

I'll stick up the brief report soon, do you know how to put video up?? E-mail me please if you do.


M

Sorry I suck on a PC, except4 games :)Ask in general sum1 will know. Is the car still in one piece.