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A View From The Driver's Seat: Oulton Park Diary

By Dave Newsham / MJP Media | 12 June 2013

Dave Newsham reviews the events of Oulton Park and looks forward to Croft.

On the grid at Oulton Park

We had been busy testing in the break before Oulton Park and we seemed to have made improvements to our Speedworks Toyota Avensis, however it appears most teams had been testing and they were all saying they've improved their cars, so maybe our great team work was to just stand still. Even so, we arrived at Oulton Park in buoyant mood and looking forward to measuring our progress against the other top teams who had much bigger budgets.

Free practice 1 was a messy session where we had a misfire on the car. New coil packs were fitted which rectified the fault but then we were foiled by two red flag incidents. We didn't really get going, however I was pleased to end the session in P7, just behind Matt Neal's works Honda. Free practice 2 started with us bedding in new brakes after which we worked on short runs trying different suspension settings. A run on new tyres at the end of the session would see us finish P7 again and once again just behind Matt, however this time we were so much closer to P1 in terms of lap time.

For qualifying we only had two runs on new tyres planned. The first run was disappointing as I was only able to manage 11th as there was too much under-steer in the car. The genius that is my engineer Alan got busy with the rear suspension, adjusting the damping and other settings and then I was back on track to see if we could improve. That we did as I shot up to P4 and stayed there until the end of the session. Top placed Independents Trophy driver and one tenth of a second from a front row start - I was well pleased!

Meeting the fans during the pit lane walk-about

In race 1 a solid start was enough to maintain position which I was comfortably holding for five laps. Then, however, under-steer started to come in and I was struggling to hang on to Gordon Shedden. Then with a good move, Andrew Jordan passed me into Lodge. As soon as he passed me I was struggling to see through the smoke and oil coming from the back of his car. That affects your concentration as you don't know how much of that oil is being deposited onto the track and your front tyres. Whilst working this out, Colin Turkington passed me and immediately started to pull clear. I was struggling. The grip of my front tyres was falling away at an alarming rate. I was a sitting duck for both Matt Neal and Mat Jackson. I finished in eighth place with a huge gap behind me.

We had a completely new set-up on the car from testing which made the car faster, however we hadn't had a chance to do a race run with it. It was now clear that this set-up was great for qualifying but needed tweaking for race 2. Tweaks completed, again making a great start I would complete lap one where I started in eighth. This was a bit of a lonely race as I didn't quite have the speed to challenge Mat Jackson ahead but was comfortable holding off Adam Morgan. With three laps to go I could see up ahead that Sam Tordoff was being passed and bunching the pack up. I pushed hard to get onto the back of Mat so that I could take advantage of any overtaking / incidents. This worked well as Mat and Sam made contact and through I went into sixth place.

A new set-up made the Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Avensis faster

For race 3 changes were made to the car and the soft tyres were fitted. I haven't managed more than four racing laps on the soft tyres so far this year so this was a venture into the unknown. Making a good start from my fifth place grid slot, I got alongside Dan Welch into turn one, however he kept the outside line which put me on the outside for Cascades, a fast downhill corner. I tried to cut in behind, however a BMW came in fast pushing me wide and almost off the track. I had to slow the car which allowed a gaggle of cars past me. One minute I was in fourth place, next tenth! On lap 2 I was right on the back of Plato when his car burst into flames. I could see and feel the flames. Needless to say he pulled to one side and I was up to ninth. On lap 4, exiting Old Hall corner, Gordon Shedden was trying to pass a car on the right. I was carrying much more speed and as I went down the left of him for the pass he swerved violently left, hitting me and sending me onto the grass at 120mph. I could see the Armco barriers coming towards me but I was able to quickly slide the car right just missing it and coming to rest on the grass. Not sure if my car was damaged I started her up, crawled to the track and I was under way again. The car felt OK, however now last and 24 seconds behind the leaders, I kept on going to get some valuable data for the soft tyres more than anything else.

The car was feeling great, the best it had done all weekend. I could see the leaders at one part of the circuit and noticed I was actually quicker than them. Up ahead I could see I was catching the back of the pack too. I started to pass the back markers and some casualties on the way too. The car, despite being on the soft tyres, was still flying at the end of the race and despite me passing slower cars I finished the race 24 seconds behind race winner Andrew Jordan. What could have been!! Again! A phone call from an apologetic Gordon was little comfort - he just didn't see me. That's racing I guess!

I can hardly wait for Croft on June 22nd and 23rd. If we keep on making this kind of progress we will surely be winning races soon. All that is left to say is thanks to our fabulous sponsors, a great team effort from Speedworks Motorsport and to you guys, the loyal fans of the BTCC.

Dave #17

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