Oulton Park Rd2 Monday MRO

Having had a successful weekend thus far at Donington 19-20/4/03. Brett and myself re-loaded up the van at Donington, and headed off to Oulton Park and Rd2. Our progress up to Oulton was seriously hampered, not so much by the closure of a couple of junctions of the M6, but by my No1 supporter Pat. Sorry Pat, but you are a master of holding up slow vehicles with that clever technique of driving really slow on the approach of any slight incline, before putting your foot down and leaving your pursuing slow vehicles cursing you!!!!

Anyway, when we did finally arrive at the dry but cold Cheshire circuit, Brett started to get the awning out and unload. I have to say at this point, that, at last he has mastered the art of getting the awning sides on, and setting up in record time. Excellent! Having had the 'luxury' of eating in the motorway services! I was left to be content with sticking on my newly acquired stickers for the bike. With the bike having been running on top form the previous two days, the only alteration was to change the gearing, although I was relying on practice to confirm the settings.

Practice

Upon awakening, I was greeted by the sound of rain. The sky was grey, the wind cold, and altogether it looked like a wet practice if not qualifying and race. After negotiating scrutineering, I found myself walking about 3miles in order to sign on. It was absolutely throwing it down, and without the use of a paddock bike, I couldn't believe where I had to go to sign on, one thing Oulton, sort it out!

So practice was wet, and with wet tyres fitted I circulated the Oulton Park circuit. For all of you who aren't aware, Oulton now has a new chicane, which has not been put in with much acclaim, but it has been put in to try and help the safety at the track. 'Knickerbrook' used to be a very fast fourth gear (On production Aprilia) right-hander that precedes 'Clay Hill'. The new chicane, is situated approximately 50metres before that old corner, with a right left chicane which then picks up the old track with a slight right kink.

Practice came and went way to quickly, in fact I'm not sure how many laps we had, but I reckon it may have only been three for me. However with the conditions less than perfect, I hadn't really learned anything like gearing or set-up, but I had seen the new chicane.

Qualifying

If practice was over a bit quick, then I have no idea what happened with qualifying. When the timesheet came out, I could only thank my lucky stars that I was on the second row, because if I'm totally honest, I hadn't got one 'quick' lap in. I couldn't believe it when I crossed the line to find the chequered flag was out, and the red flags pulled us off the circuit rapidly. As it turned out, I believe Lee Finney had dumped his Honda at 'Hill Top' and brought the quick end. I had spent the first couple of laps just settling in to the conditions and re-acclimatising myself with the bike and wet tyres. As best as I can remember, with the start of lap three, brought my first attempted 'quick' lap. Everything was going ok until I ran up too some traffic running on a lot slower laps. I negotiated through as best as I could, but knowing I had lost a bit of time on this lap, I just tried to carry the speed onto the next lap. In the end, as I said, I never got a lap that I was anything like happy with, and was therefor fortunate to end up in sixth, and on the second row. I've got to say, congratulations to Mark Welch though on his first pole position!

Race

No sooner had qualifying ended, the sun came out. Our race was race3 on the schedule, so the big question was Wets, Intermediate's or gamble with Slicks. The decision was obviously going to be left until the last minute, to enable us as much time as possible to make the right decision. When the time came, we went with the safe option of Wets. The track was drying rapidly, but it was sure to be wet around the back in the wooded section. Once in the collecting area, roughly 70% of the field were wearing Wets, with the next 20% on intermediates and the remainder gone for the Slick tyre option. If you had slicks fitted and could stay on a reasonable pace until midway, I felt you had to be in a good position to win, but it was all about whether you could stay on.

Once we were let out onto the warm-up lap. I have got too say my heart sank with how dry a fair percentage of the track was. This was going to be tough! When the lights went to green, I got away pretty well. 'Old Hall Corner' the first turn was going to be dodgy on the opening lap due to the amount of water that collects on the inside of the turn. Knowing this, and being stuck on the outside of turn 1, I had my eyes on the bikes on my inside, as I really didn't want to get skittled. I can't remember exactly what happened, but someone had a moment on my inside, they may have even gone down. The result was that I was stuck out on the kerb/grass. I didn't really lose any places as far as I can remember, but Lee Dickinson came screaming past as I tried to regain speed. Lee had come from a long way back on the grid, but fair play as he was on a mission to the front, and I wanted through with him!

My memory isn't clear as to the full details, but I'll do my best to get the facts as right as possible! Once out onto the first lap I was in fourth or fifth, I remember Chris Sansome, Lee Dickinson and possibly either Ian Higson or Mark Welch in front of me. Starting the second lap, I could see Lee heading for the front, and I had to go through with him. It wasn't long before I got up to third behind Chris with Lee just having taken the lead. As Lee started to break away, I made my move and jumped up to second, I can't remember where I made the pass but it had stuck and with the track drying I felt it was time to settle down and refrain from ruining my tyres anymore.

With approximately five laps completed, I was comfortable with the pace and felt that although Lee was maybe a couple of seconds in front, I felt I could close the gap when the time came if the pace remained the same. One thing that wasn't going unnoticed was that my pit-board was showing +0, meaning someone was sitting on my back wheel. I was soon to find out as I braked for 'Knickerbrook'. The funny thing was that this lap in particular, I was late on the brakes into 'Knickerbrook'. So late, that I couldn't believe it when I caught something out of the corner of my eye, just as I was about to tip my bike in. I don't know whether it was the bike I saw or the sound of fibreglass against tarmac I heard first, but either way I had to sit the bike up and miss the turn in point to avoid being taken out.

In the split second I sat the bike up, I looked for a gap as to where to go in these treacherous conditions. I knew I was going to be on the grass heading for the tyre wall at the chicane, but I thought I had seen a gap. After a second, longer glance there was no gap and I had to get the bike stopped on the grass or crash. To my relief and amazement, I pretty much got it stopped with just a glance off the tyre wall. After a few seconds of stamping on the gear lever to try and select something lower than fourth, I headed back across the grass and onto the tarmac. Now I was angry, and the 'Red Mist' was down!

With the rear wheel scrabbling for grip every time I so much as breathed on the throttle, I was on a mission. In something like this order, the target list read, Mark Welch, Mark Garside and Chris Sansome, again. I passed Mark Welch around the outside at 'Island Bend' on the next lap, then a lap later passed Mark Garside on the brakes into 'Knickerbrook', and then a corner later picked off Chris on the flick left to right exiting 'Knickerbrook'. Within three laps I was back in second, all be-it with a rear tyre that was seriously over heating and over worked. With three or four laps left all I had to do was hang on.

There's no peace for the wicked, and wasn't any for me either. Having done all that hard work, I now had picked up the attentions of Andy Sawford. The next two laps were pretty manic. Andy must have passed me a minimum of twice a lap with me responding back on the very next corner. I had too, as I never had the grip or the speed out of my under geared Yam too buy me some time and pass him later. All I could do was hope that he made a mistake or got bored. It was a long shot, and after two laps of battling hard, his extra speed finally got the better of me, and with a front tyre that now felt like jelly, I felt I had to back off and finish third rather than in the 'kitty litter'.

So third it was, a good result, but I was disappointed as midway through I was in a position to battle for the win. Both Lee and Andy were running a different type of wet tyre that apparently is for drying conditions, so there tyre choice was right, but I never had that in my armoury anyway. After three successful days of racing, it was time to head home, fortunately without being held up (Pat). Thanks too everybody who helped us out over the weekend and came and supported us.

Qualifying

1	Mark Welch	Honda	2:04.52
2	Chris Sansome	Honda	2:05.37
3	Alex Hutchinson	Yam	2:06.29
4	Ian Higson	Honda	2:06.37
5	Mark Garside	Honda	2:07.24
6	Phill Desborough	Yam	2:07.29

Race

1	Lee Dickinson	Honda	23:14.56
2	Andrew Sawford	Honda	23:25.79
3	Phill Desborough	Yam	23:27.97
4	Chris Sansome	Honda	23:35.88
5	Mark Garside	Honda	23:38.32
6	Mark Welch	Honda	23:38.83