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Oulton Park 10th May 2008
The fifth round of the Porsche 924 Championship was run at the fabulous Oulton Park circuit set in the middle of rural Cheshire. Unusually the race was over the 2.7 mile International Circuit rather than the shorter Foster's version which has been the rule in recent years. The International circuit is longer, and has more corners, than almost any other circuit in the country. It's combination of blind brows and slow and very fast corners, makes it very challenging for any driver, and rewards circuit knowledge with dramatically reduced lap times. Matt Davies grew up less than 10 miles away.......
The circuit is hard on drivers and even harder on cars, with brakes getting a particularly hard work out over the course of a lap. Despite its overall length, the circuit doesn't have any straights long enough for a driver to relax and take stock, with braking points coming up rapidly as soon as the gear changes out of the corner before are done. All in all, on a hot day, both car and driver are likely to be overheating very quickly....and May 10th was a hot day in Cheshire!
Qualifying
With 2.7 miles to play with and just 16 cars on track, it should be possible for everyone to find some space to do their qualifying in, but initially Will Penrose, Alastair Kirkham and Matt Davies circulated with hardly an inch between them. Alastair and Matt both set their quickest times on lap 2 of the session, but Will quickly decided to leave them to it and dropped away to find some room on his own. This allowed him the space to set the fastest lap right at the end of the session, taking pole as he passed the chequered flag. Matt was second and Alastair third. Alastair's qualifying was made more entertaining for him by his foot rest coming adrift mid session and having to be kicked out of the way each time he wanted to use the clutch!
Further down the field Adam Croft was again impressively quick for someone carrying a novice cross and Alec Fraser figured well on his first outing of the season. Andrew Hannington was well pleased with ninth place from his first competitive session for 13 years.
Race
The day just kept getting hotter. By the time the cars were in the collecting area the temperature was more reminiscent of high summer and all the drivers were waving their doors in an effort to keep cockpit temperatures bearable.
As the lights went out the whole field got away well, more or less maintaining their qualifying positions through the first corner. The exception was Steve Brown who moved from sixth on the grid to fourth. Behind Steve, there was a lot of squabbling for position going on which allowed the first four, racing in line astern, to rapidly move away from the rest of the field over the opening lap. Their lead was dramatically increased when Richard Mowbray in fifth and Graham Heard in sixth tangled at Old Hall at the start of the second lap causing both to spin. Adam Croft and Paul Crawford following managed to avoid them but next around the corner was Andrew Hannington, who finding that the track was now completely blocked by still spinning cars was forced into a spin himself. Restarting dead last, he managed to fight his way back to ninth by the finish.
Richard was forced into retirement by bodywork fouling his rear wheel but Graham was able to continue eventually finishing in fifth. Richard parked his car in the infield at the bottom of Cascades, driving his car so far across the grass that more than one spectator was prompted to ask if he was taking a short cut!
Meanwhile the leaders, untroubled by what was behind them, fought it out down the hill to Cascades with Matt getting a better exit from Old Hall and passing Will on the inside. With the tyres in optimum condition Matt managed to squeeze out a lead of over a second by the middle of lap 4, but the very high track temperatures took their toll and the slides became more and more lurid as the grip disappeared. Will, who had obviously looked after his tyres better, retook the lead on lap 5.
On almost every lap Matt came out of Old Hall travelling faster than Will but having fallen for it once, Will didn't allow him the inside line down the hill again and Matt was forced to try the outside round Cascades. Eventually on lap 8 he made it stick and passed Will around the outside of Cascades, just about keeping it on the road at the exit of the corner. He was slow along Lakeside and the two ran side by side around the Shell Oil hair pin, Matt on the outside...which meant he had the inside line for the chicane which follows and at last made the pass stick properly.
On the last lap Matt and Will came up behind John Broadley and Alfred Piesinger who were involved in a close fight. Half way around Druids Matt had to stand on the brakes to avoid running into them and lost most of his momentum. In the run between Druids and Lodge both Matt and Will zig-zagged between John and Alfred with Will closing the gap rapidly. Matt managed to hold on to the line and take the win but Will could not have been closer. Afterwards, Will thought their bumpers might have been actually touching over the line. Matt won by 0.129 of a second!
There were close battles throughout the field. Steve Brown and Alastair Kirkham finished less than 2 seconds apart, as did Graham Heard, Matt Upchurch and Adam Croft. Alec Fraser and Martin Hall were locked together throughout and finished less than a second apart as did John Broadley and Alfred Piesinger. Vanessa Flegg acquitted herself brilliantly in her very first race with it being a real achievement to be only one lap down at the end of 20 minutes on this supremely challenging circuit.
Full race results here |
