CSCC Tin Tops Oulton Park 6/10/2012
Loaded up the trailer and car Friday night after work and set off up to Oulton Park. I grew up on the Wirral and my parents still live there so it is a nice local race for them (25 miles) but I decided not to stay there the night before and to kip at the circuit. I arrived about 10:45 and paid a deposit for a garage - they were allocated to the tin tops for this race. I guess the CSCC rotate between the different series at circuits that have garages. Slept pretty well in the back of the volvo cuddled up next to my wet tyres and a trolley jack. It was tipping it down most of the night but the forcast was good for Saturday so had my fingers crossed for a dry day.
I'd done my wet track day and looked over Tony and Jay's youtube footage so I knew the circuit layout well enough and what gear to be in for what corner but I'd never driven it in the dry.
Got up at 7 ish and started unloading the car and my stuff. No prep work to do. Just needed to give the car a quick once over. It was sunny on and off by this point so I figured the track would dry out by my qualy session as we were third out at 9:40. But I was wrong about that and the track was still very damp at the start of the session. Lots of cars were going off and I only lasted until lap 3 before I joined them at the Brittens chicane. Rear end went a little as I turned in but corrected and it came back round the other way and off onto the grass. Kept the car running and carried on. Later that lap the safety car came out. I decided to do my usual mid qualy car checks at this point and came in to give the car a once over. My girlfriend was not at all happy about this as from where she was watching all she noticed was once the safety car came out she didn't see my car again so was panicing that I'd stacked it somewhere. By the time she'd got over to the pits I was back out behind the safety car. Safety car eventually went in and we started off again. I managed another spin this time at Druids, got the car going again and no damage done. Druids is under trees so is very greasy when wet. At this point I looked at my clock and realised I only had about 2 minutes of the session left and had not really managed a decent lap yet. I had 2 corners before the end of the lap at this point so positioned my self as best I could and started what was to be my final lap of the session.
The lap went well and a dry line was forming by this point. I ran wide and onto the grass at lodge the last corner and came over the brow of the dear leap hill to see the chequered flag. I very nearly lifted off but realised this was probably my best time so kept my foot planted to the line. Sure enough it was my best lap and I qualified 12th with a time of 2:19.284. I was well chuffed with that, especially on the direzzas which don't really like the damp.
Gave the car a quick once over and checked the tyre pressures ready for the race. I then realised I'd forgotten my pit board. We improvised with the card board backing of my niece's colouring book - she apparently wasn't very happy about this. But with that and a bit of duct tape we had a passible pit board.
The race was at 2:25. We all lined up in the assembly area. Then we moved out onto the track. I assume because of the length of the circuit the lap out of the pits was the green flag/warm up lap. I was on the outside of the grid in 12th position. The marshals lined us up on the grid. I decided at this point I'd wedge my electric window switches between the cage and the door so I could use them during the race if needed. I couldn't see the 1 min and 30 second boards but the lights came on eventually and then off again very quickly and we were off. I got a good reaction but really lit up my tyres so didn't get away very quickly. I stayed on the outside for the first corner and got bumped wide by a purple Alfa. It was only a gentle bump and no obvious damage from the drivers seat. He did give me a "sorry about that" kind of a wave that made me chuckle, but it meant I lost a lot of places and I guess it put me off for the next few corners. I also had the problem of never having driven the circuit in the dry so did not really have a feel for how fast I could go around the corners. Plus I'm really not aggressive enough for the first couple of laps. Something to work on for next year. So by the end of the first lap I was down in 23rd!
On the 3rd lap I started to reel cars back in. I was catching a BMW compact and it suddenly started steaming and I got a windscreen full of coolant. He then dropped off pretty quick.
Over the next couple of laps I reeled in the Alfa that bumped me at the start. He let me passed at the knickerbrook chicane. I then started catching the white and yellow focus. The pits opened and I saw my pit board telling me to come in. I was catching the focus nicely now but came into the pits anyway.
I released my belts, jumped out and my step Dad closed the door. But as he did so I realised the electric window switches had fallen down and were going to get crushed in the door. The switch was smashed and I just posted it back inside the door and we carried on with the pit stop. It was a really stupid mistake from me to put the switch in that position as it always falls down and gets in the way of the door. But apart from that the stop went well and we only lost about 10-15 seconds from the problem.
On the first lap out of the pits both my electric windows wound themselves all the way down and I had no way to get them back up. I thought I'd probably get black flagged for having the windows open and considered coming in the pits to sort it out, but I decided in the end to just wait for the black flag if it came. Luckily they didn't black flag me and I managed to finish the race with the windows down. It was nice and cool for a change
On lap 10 I came across the number 62 black 206 exiting the pits. I could see it was a bit slow and managed to get past with a bit of a do or die manoeuvre at Druids.
After that I could see I was catching the number 14 fiesta. As I came down cascades I saw he'd spun and was slowing slightly to avoid him when I spun as well. Looks like there was some oil down as next lap the oil flag was out. We both got going again, but not before I'd lost the place to the 206 that I had just taken. I was at least right on the fiesta now though.
I got a run on him approaching Knickerbrook chicane but I out braked myself missed the chicane and had to let him back past. The fiesta got away and left me in the clutches of the ktec clio. I was slow due dirty tyres and they got past easily when I went wide at the final corner.
After that the car didn't feel quite right. I really struggled to know what the problem was.
I think the DS2500 pads don't have as much feel as the DS3000s under heavy braking. This lead to me regularly out braking myself into the corners, especially at lodge the final corner. I didn't actually get any fade from the pads though, it just wasn't stopping as well.
Someone suggested having the windows opened my have affected the balance. Initially I though that was unlikely but I guess it would have had a small effect and what ever the problem was it was only small.
With my slightly reduced pace the number 10 clio was now reeling me in and I had lost touch with the fiesta and ktec clio.
I had also had an intermittent problem of the car going into 5th instead of 3rd on the down shift. I've never had this happen in the 8 years I've owned the car so I am wondering if the linkage has moved a bit during the race.
I guessed the number 10 clio would be on the same lap as me so it would be for position. Several times I ended up in 5th instead of third and also was slowed by some traffic so several times in the last couple of laps they were right on my bumper. But I managed to hold it together enough to keep them behind and finished only half a second ahead of them and also posted my fastest lap in the process. So much for my handling problem?
Was another great race. Lots of fun and a great circuit too. I definitely feel I need more track time there to master some of the corners.
Looking forward to next season.
Not sure what to do on the upgrade front. I'll probably keep my eyes open for some ITBs. I'll probably also look at shedding some weight as I have not done anything in that regard yet. The car must weight the same as standard as I expect the cage weights about the same as the interior that I removed. Polycarb windows and fibre glass boot and bonnet are also quite probable.
My front right wheel is knackered after the first corner incident apart from that there is just some minor scuffing.
There are loads of minor jobs that need doing too like tidying up wiring and the front running gear refresh.
I am also going to look at some sort of oil cooling as my oil temps have been in the high 130s during both races although the pressure has been fine.
MoT due next week.
