2022 BRSCC Mazda MX-5 SuperCup.
Round 5, Oulton Park International Circuit.
Oulton Park is one of the UK’s great circuits and it’s always worth the trip. All of the racing takes place on one day, so we had a 20 minute qualifying and two 30 minute races to fit in.
The qualifying session was slightly frustrating. It took me a while to find my groove, but it did come. I ended up sixth fastest, but only 0.036 off third. I felt I could’ve achieved that time, as my fastest lap had some traffic at the chicane.
There was plenty of rain between qualifying and race one, so tyres and set up were the talking points. It had stopped raining by the start, but the track was damp and would get faster as the race went on. We opted to set the car for drier conditions, but despite a good start it was clear a wetter set up was the way, as I lost too much ground early on. I was only a stones throw from the top five at the end, but it was too late to make progress.
Race two was dry and I had a good start again, but got boxed in and lost some places. I battled through to fifth and the top four were only a couple of seconds away but I wasn’t able to close up on them, so it was a bit of a lonely race.
Overall we had a tricky weekend, especially as our expectations had risen since the success at Brands Hatch. There is still more racing to come this season though, so plenty of chances to get more good results.
