Round 8 Oulton Park

Oulton Park round 8. I can't believe this is the end of season! 
​video here https://youtu.be/32dAZw5-H4w

The engine still wasn't pulling like it used to although the car was well balanced and all 3 of us like Oulton park and having won the first round here it was time for some luck like a pole position? Fat chance 14th in the draw, putting right in the trouble zone!

Andy had decided that the pro-shift needed to go for reliability reasons and he had fitted power steering to help his old arms or something! The big seat had gone and we had a Sparco sliding seat. To be honest there isn't a lot more you can change on one of these cars! It was going to be a learning experience! I have not driven sequential stick shift since 18 months ago in a the twin seater and only then for 2 practice sessions. Any way as a driver you need to be "adaptable" and heel and toe was getting there by the end of practice.

The team and I worked on pit stops with the new seat and gear change being in the way. It's important to get all the mechanics happy as well as yourself, pit stops can save big chunks of time so it was worth banging my knees, elbows and various other body parts to get everyone happy with the new sequence. 

Oulton was one of those races that went to plan. We started quite far back, but just kept making progress every stint, while others got over excited we kept pushing forward and staying out of trouble. By my second stint (the 5th stint of the race) I hit the front. I expect a few people said "where did they come from?". Given this was the last round and it was tight between 2Rent and UVio it was all to play for. 2Rent caught up and started to fight for the lead. I knew it could get silly and that 2Rent needed to win to have a shot at the championship, so having had a chat with Piers on the radio we decided to stay in second and push to get a gap. If we kept fighting we could let others catch up and then have a right bun fight on our hands. 

I would hand over to Marcus to finish the job, if there was only 2Rent to deal with it would be better. The team had setup the strategy so it was a no fuel stop for the last stop as well. I kept my concentration and pushed hard behind Chris Hart. I could have passed a couple of times but kept safe behind. On the pit stop the team were ace, it was probably our best pit stop ever and felt quick. This was proven as Marcus exited the pits in the lead.... Job done! So, proud of the team and the practice we put in.

Henry in the 2Rent car got lucky with some back markers which held up Marcus and had to go for the lead. He couldn't let Marcus get away. He had a go and they both out braked themselves on the damp track and went off, Henry spun and Marcus just cut the grass. It was all over then and another win racked up for Despatchbay. Only the now crowd new champions UVio had won twice this season, which shows how good the team could be. 

That put Despatchbay 7th in the championship 6 points behind 6th. We need all those other bad results to be top 5 to challenge the top teams though and that is tough!

Funcup write up