Oulton Park 11th May 2002

A warm sunny day at the lovely Oulton Park race circuit greeted Nik yesterday. The circuit is undulating and has a few blind apex bends, which are very fast. It was his first visit to this race track and we were a bit unsure of set-up and gear ratio etc. Practise was to restricted 12 laps on Friday due to overheating, which we think now was just a faulty PI dash as after removing the under tray as a precaution, the temperatures remained below 75F which seemed too much of a drop from the previous 104F after two laps!

Official practise was cut short due to an off (more later), and he did remarkably well to finish second on the grid. Nik was unhappy with the rear grip probably due to taking off the undertray, and lack of balance into the fast bends so we reduced the bump setting and also fitted new pads to the rear brakes.

The race was a mixed affair; Nik got into the lead off the start but ran wide on the first bend due to the rear brakes not working properly, my fault for changing the pads I suppose. On the second lap on the same corner he span twice and rejoined the race in sixth place and quickly closed up to the leading group. Mark Jackson had a huge accident and so the race was red flagged. Mark is OK but his car is a mess with only the tub and engine escaping damage.

The race was restarted from original grid order and after a shaky start the race became one of great excitement with the lead changing time and time again and Nik going from as high as first to as low as fifth. Rupert Russell set the fastest lap of the day in his Van Diemen before running wide and spinning at Lodge corner. Rupert slowed the then second man Colin Roger who was having a great race and Jonathon Loader and Nik then diced for the lead. Jonathon passed and was re-passed by Nik and a final effort from him secured his second win of the year with Nik a close second.

We came away feeling rather fortunate as we didn't get the best out of the car and we were happy to get some points in the bag.

We look forward to Castle Combe , Jonathon Loader will be quick there and also Rupert Russell. I believe we can get a much better set up for that race so we are working on that after we have had a couple of weeks off to do some real work!

Other News.

Mike Turner continues his run of bad luck, now he has persistent throttle sticking that he cannot find a cure for. He says he is happy with the handling of the car but fed up with the engine problems and hassle.

Graham Rowans car was damaged by his team principle on his first lap out testing the car. After a rebuild with parts sent by emergency carrier from Van Diemen on Friday night, Graham only managed a few laps in each race due mainly to a similar throttle problem. Both of these cars were fitted with engines from the same source.

David Houghton is once again a happy runner, he continues to make good progress and his Searl engine is performing well. David gained time in every session and if he keeps this up he will get more track time and move up the grid.

Duratec news is not good. We tested the new engine at Snetterton last Thursday and it ran fine. We took the car to Oulton and in the practise session it ran OK but I felt it was down on power. We checked the fuel consumption and it was doing over 15mpg, which seems odd. In the race it was quick for two laps and then slowed a little. All readings seemed all right so I carried on. On the sixth lap it expired… back to Scholar…more to follow.

The positive bit on this is the fact that I had my first real drive in a Van Diemen and I loved it, the car is really solid and gives good feedback. I expect to get the engine sorted soon and will be out at Castle Combe if possible.