Oulton Park 4hrs 2007

Qualifying :

Oulton Park in the heart of Cheshire was a beautiful place to spend last weekend at the four-hour round of the Uniroyal Fun Cup, the last of the 2007 season, which was contested by 33 cars.
It was clear the team was in reasonable shape for a good result. With Qualifying on Saturday, Pete was able to put in good time right at the end of the session on low fuel and race tyres which was 6th fastest. With the grid order drawn, the Cuisine de France / SPAR car would start 4th, our best grid draw of 2007.

The Race:

Oulton Park in the heart of Cheshire was a beautiful place to spend last weekend After an impressive start-line display, in which the lovely Uniroyal grid-girls were much in evidence, the race got underway with Pete making a good getaway, pulling alongside Eugene O'Brien around Old Hall and snatching the lead into Cascades, before relinquishing the position as O'Brien was able to drag past on the straight.

Pete pushed hard before handing over to Ian 40 minutes into the race. Ian then drove a good stint catching and passing the 2nd place Random car, despite out braking himself on one lap. Marc followed, keeping the comfortably in the top three and looking even better as the team took advantage of a safety car period to jump up the order handing over back to Pete, with the car just 1 second in the lead.

Marc said: "I had a great stint, brilliant fun and we really have a good technique in the pit, and it was great to be able get Pete back into the lead of the race ahead of O'Brien, Perry’s car
With resolutely defensive lines Pete held off O'Brien & the JPR 131 car driven by Frank Pelle, “who hit me so many times I was surprised he still had a radiator, never mind a front splitter!", for most of his stint. Finally O'Brien managed to get a nose up the inside on the run to Old Hall, but Pete immediately retaliated at Cascades but the car started to slide and he couldn’t prevent a spin.

We lost several places which made it tough for Marc, who did a great drive with really quick lap times, to get us back up to 3rd place in his stint, just behind the leaders again, before handing back over to Pete for the run to the flag and what looked like a sure podium position.

As Pete scorched out of the pit-lane, the JPR 131 car was completing its final pit-stop and was able to rejoin just ahead of Eugene O'Brien, leaving Pete in third position just 10 metres behind the two leaders.

Pete concludes the story: "Actually, running third at that point wasn't a bad place to be as it allowed the chance of an attack on the leaders in the last few laps, but what I didn't know was that there happened to be a car behind us (227 car of Croydon / Mardlin), two laps down, As we came down to Cascades, I turned in and they rammed the car into our left-side door, smashing us off the track and into the gravel trap”

With the 190 car in the gravel, the safety car was deployed and the tow-truck scrambled to pull the car clear. Pete was able to rejoin, minus several vital bits of bodywork, and circulate to the end, finishing in a very disappointing and un-rewarding 10th place at the flag.

"Ian and Marc drove faultlessly and I just feel bad I was in the car when we were torpedoed. There's not much we can do about it, but it ruined our race and prevented us from finishing the season as we started it, on the top of the podium Getting taken out is never pleasant, but getting taken out by a back-marker, trying to unlap himself defies belief”. Said a dejected Pete

Croft TV coverage dates and times

It's been tremendous season, with our first win at Croft and a great 2nd place at Mondello park and I would like to thank Abbey Motorsport and particularly Will and the boss Tony for their tireless efforts to keep us on track and very competitive.
TV Coverage for Brands hatch and Oulton Park will be advised shortly.