Oulton Park 4hrs 2008
Qualifying :
35 car tested for this last race of 2008, with one car failing to start after being completed gutted by a fire in Friday testing.
Marc Connell went out first as only Richard Connell & Peter Cate had tested on Friday. He handed over to Richard who set our fastest lap (11th). We put Pete out last to try and get our best lap time, but he had a brief off which damaged the splitter, stopping any chance of improvement. It all meant for nothing though as usual, as the grid is drawn by lottery and we drew 9th place.
The Race:
Pete would take the first stint and after a great start, he slotted in to 5th place before getting up to 3rd by lap 3, setting the team's fastest lap (he was our only driver to get a dry stint) at 2:04.7.
Then the rain started to fall, but Pete was able briefly lead the race for a few laps, before coming in for the first pit stop, but then delayed by having to replace a broken splitter & handing over to Richard for the second stint. Richard did a great job to maintain the pace in the very tricky conditions, holding fifth place before Marc took the wheel. Unfortunately, for Marc, much of his stint was run behind the safety car, as the rain had resulted in many shunts.
Pete duly returned to the fray, taking advantage of the dangerous but stable conditions to find grip in unusual points on the circuit. However he then suffered another off which damaged a splitter and then got a puncture after a collision with an errant car, before handing over to Richard now back in 9th after further delays in the pit stop to make more repairs.
In his final quick but error free stint Richard managed to get the car up to 6th place before handing over for the final stint to Pete. Pete took over and was immediately up to 5th place as we had jumped a couple of cars by not fueling for the last pit stop…a good result looked on the cards!
Peter took the Cuisine de France/ SPAR car quickly up to fourth place with just fifteen minutes to go, & with the lead cars scrapping, there was a chance of a podium finish. He completes the tale:
"I was pushing hard, no doubt, and as the line dried, the speeds through the corners increased. I found through Island Bend that the car was on the rev limit in fourth and so I decided to take fifth gear next time around, which is normal for dry conditions. This was a mistake and as I took the corner it ran slightly wide onto the wet, spun backwards at speed along the grass, with the rear end just caught the barrier and damaging the rear suspension."
Summary:
Peter had set the 4th fastest lap of the race early on. This lap was over 2 second faster than the fastest lap of the eventual winners (Honeywell). It just goes to prove what we all know about endurance racing………to finish 1st, first you have to finish”
Pete’s longer report of the race can be seen on his website
Thank you
Thanks to Will & Tony at Abbey Motorsport for all their help this year...and once again thanks to our own crew, Marvin in the garage & Mike Head who ran out pit wall aided on this occasion by Emma James, who has just started the Motorsport Engineering degree Course at Oxford Brookes Uni (the same course Richard did at Brookes).
Finally, a warm thank you to all our sponsors for 2008 & we hope you will be back with us in 2009 for another action packed season with Connell Racing...
SPAR
Cuisine de France
Coca Cola
Pensworth Diary
VK Vodka Kick
Pyramid Presentations
Volvic (Danone)
Branston Beans (Premier Foods)
Stalite Signs
Flair Shop fitters
Gregory Distribution
Bank Machine