Qualifying

Fair weather and a crack-of-dawn qualifying session. I was up at six and finishing off the car. I wanted to test the high downforce nosecone as we had had problems fitting it since the rebuild after Pembrey. Wrong decision. The nosecone scraped on the ground at several fast corners. That sort of unbalance is usually fatal to the cars stability and so it proved. The primary result was that the back end was light and would step out in fast corners like Old Hall, Cascades and  Druids. Talk about over steer. I nearly came off three times, including at Druids where Chris Kahn had gone straight on into the trye wall in Alan Avery's Avalan.

My time of 100.784 was slower than last year. Worse than that, my pace was so poor that both Paul Freeman and Peter Clark overtook me in the Knickerbrook chicane, at the same time!

The Race
 

Warning: the editor-general has determined that reading these reports can be detrimental to the state-of-mind of other competitors. "The View from the Back" is a hybrid between, on one side, one driver's view of what happens in his 50 yards of track and, on the other side, the same driver's day dreams, all of that seen through The Mist. We apologise in advance for any errors which might inadvertently creep in. All corrections of fact and other input are respected and appreciated (see Paddock Chat for an example).

Another huge grid of 27 cars lined up at one o'clock. I was back to my low downforce nosecone and the handling was much better. I had a good view, as the enduring title of this column attests, of the massed start. The two Duoscan EBXs of Tim Colvill and Dave Madgwick went grass cutting at Old Hall on Lap 1 but got straight back onto the line without missing a beat.

On my second lap a car was slow through Cascades and throwing two others off line. I was therefore catching all three along Lakeside and got past one on the left before the Island Hairpin. For some reason he didn't see me and made a small turn left, maybe to avoid another car inside him. His front left wheel hit me amidships and on my right rear wheel. A racing incident. I continued round the hairpin and up the hill, but I could feel the vibrations of some damage. I pulled off at Knickerbrook to see not just a puncture but a twisted wheel rim and a fractured fibreglass side pod. Race over.

It was fun to see the rest of the race from an elevated marshals' post. Dan Eagling was ahead but could never really shake off Pete Richings and an ultra-fast Jim Lindley. All three looked very smooth through the chicane. Peter Clark looked as though he had car problems as Jim went past, and even Mike Evans was catching Peter by the end. Mick Taylor had a cracking spin under braking for the chicane and had to wait for the whole field to go through. And at the back Kevin Burnham got ahead of two others to lft himself off last place. Quite a spectacle. I am certain the spectators enjoy watching the K Sports races.

Short race for me and a short report. So lots of space for some photos from three previous meetings in 2002 provided by Steve Jones (01905 620914).

Statistics: Qualifying
 

Circuit	Oulton Park Island, 2.362 miles	Fastest test lap	no testing
Conditions	Dry 17°	Previous personal best	99.68 secs in Ian Megson Mallock 18BW 28th May 2001
Fastest qualifying lap	100.784 = 84.37 mph	Qualified in position	25 out of 28

Statistics: Race
 

Finishing position	Did Not Finish (1½ laps)	Number of cars at start	28
Average speed		Number of cars finished	25
Conditions	Dry 20°	Fastest race lap
Number of laps behind			Contact with another car at hairpin on Lap 2. Bent wheel, puncture, fractured side pod.

Paddock Chat

Chris Hart was racing, for the first time since I have been in K Sports. Pity his clutch pedal shod a retaining nut early in the race and we didn't see him doing his stuff.

Lots of talk about our two-race weekend in France in two weeks. Looking forward.

Championship table      Official race report