Under a crystal clear blue sky, Oulton Park in the heart of Cheshire was a beautiful place to spend last weekend, whether or not you had the good fortune to be racing in the final four-hour round of the Uniroyal FunCup.
The Oulton Park race track twists and undulates through tree-lined parkland before curving out along the shores of a lake with a series of high speed curves to test the brave, before returning to a sequence of tight, technical chicanes. With a short test on Friday afternoon, in which Ian took the driving duties, it was clear the Cuisine de France was in reasonable shape for a good result, the greatest concern being a slight lack of top-end power from the engine, despite the best efforts of the team on the dyno.
With Qualifying bright and early on Saturday, Pete and Marc had their first taste of the car in perfect conditions (which is less than can be said for Peter himself who had been suffering with a nasty virus all week). "The car felt ok, not particularly unbalanced, but somehow just not competitive over a lap. It wasn't until we switched to the race tyres that it all came together" Pete commented.
Despite rather too much understeer, Pete was able to put in a time of 2:05.81 right at the end of the session which was good enough for 6th fastest. However, with the grid order drawn from a hat (or helmet!), the 190 car would start 4th, just behind the 221 car of O'Brien and Ritter.
It was decided that Pete would take the start, to try to build up a lead over the pack in the early stages, before handing over to Ian. After an impressive start-line display, in which the Uniroyal grid-girls were much in evidence, the race got underway at 2pm. Pete made his customary rapid getaway, pulling alongside 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 following straight. "I knew at that point it was going to be a tough afternoon. The engine wasn't quite able to hold the other cars at bay along the straights so we had to drive pretty hard to compensate."
A frantic first stint followed, with Pete losing a couple of places as the car jumped out of gear at the Foulston Chicane. Some bold moves at Knickerbrook and Cascades saw the car return to second place, Pete pushing hard before handing over to Ian 45 minutes into the race. Ian then drove faultlessly, as did Marc who followed, keeping the comfortably in the top five, and looking even better as the team took advantage of a safety car period to jump up the order with the handover back to Pete. "We really have a good technique in the pit, and it was great to be able to lead the race ahead of O'Brien, who was surprisingly fair, and the 131 car (driven by Frank Pelle), who hit me so many times I was surprised he still had radiator, never mind a front splitter!"
The 131 car was eventually penalised with a stop-go penalty for bad driving. With resolutely defensive lines, Pete was able to hold the lead for most of his stint, before O'Brien managed to get a nose up the inside on the run to Old Hall. "I recalled last year when he pushed me off there and let him have the corner, but then I was able to stick it back up the inside at Cascades when he left the door open. Unfortunately though, as he turned in and I turned to avoid him, the back of the car started to slide and whilst I almost got away with it, I couldn't prevent the spin. We lost several places which made it tough for Marc, who did a great job to get us back up to third place in his stint".
Ian kindly offered Pete the final stint, and as Marc's pit-stop approached, it was clear that with a 20 second driver change, the team was in with a chance of out-right victory! The stop was duly executed in double-quick time, and Pete scorched out of the pit-lane (observing the pit-lane speed limit of course!) just ahead of O'Brien in the 221 car! However, with momentum on his side, O'Brien was able to slingshot past along the Avenue before Cascades. As the duo charged around the lap, the 131 car was completing its final pit-stop and was able to rejoin just ahead of O'Brien, leaving Pete in third position despite setting the team's fastest lap of 2:05.659!
"Actually, running third at that point wasn't a bad place to be. We were nose to tail with the two leaders, watching them scrap. I'd made my mind up at that point to follow and take advantage of any slip ups they made. I was looking at my watch and thinking I'd launch an attack about ten minutes before the end. The car was running well and I knew we had enough pace to get the job done. What I didn't know was that there happened to be a car behind us (227 car of Croydon and Mardlin), two laps down, whose driver had left his brain in the pit. As we came down to Cascades, I turned in and this idiot just rammed his car into our left-side door, smashing us off the track and into the gravel trap. At least I had time to give him the appropriate gesture as I was travelling backwards in front of him, although if he didn't see our car, he certainly didn't see that..."
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 tenth place at the flag.
"We had a strategy to stay out of trouble, to avoid risky moves and it really was paying off," Pete said afterwards. "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. I have to say up until that point, we were really punching above the car's weight, hanging onto much faster cars and taking advantage of other's mistakes. Getting taken out is never pleasant, but getting taken out by a back-marker defies belief. Still, it's been tremendous fun this season, and I have to thank Ian, Marc and Richard for the invitation to join them, and to Abbey Motorsport for their tireless efforts to keep us on track".
