Round 2 - Oulton Park 28^th May

Weather man said it’d be cloudy all day with a breeze & he was right, bringing track & air temperature down, making it not the most perfect conditions but better than last time we were at Oulton.

Qualifying

With the usual plan of action, a few steady laps & then a couple of quick ones, Bob went out with the grid on the Island circuit & qualified 5^th.

As Bob came in he explained that the different chassis that we were running wasn’t feeling right & that the brake pads were too hard.  When we got back to the paddock, we had a look in the engine & found that it was running a little dry, so changed the jetting to hopefully sort that issue, but unfortunately we didn’t have any different brake pads, so had to get around the issue the old fashioned way … just bed them in !!

Race 1

We were called for the 1^st race really early, so sat on the dummy grid for nearly 30 mins before they said start your engines.  As we did & Bob jumped in, the engine spluttered & stopped.  So he jumped out, we tried to restart it but it wasn’t firing up.

With the grid about to move off to the rolling lap, we moved the kart out of the way & quickly tried to diagnose what the issue was …….. & with the help of a fellow competitor’s helper, we realised one of the ignition leads had come loose, so quickly made a temporary repair, started the engine & got Bob on his way.  However, due to him missing the rolling lap, he had to wait in the pit lane until all the karts had started & gone passed before he was allowed on the circuit.

When I got to the pit lane, Championship leader Lee Plain was just pulled in with an engine problem, but a marshal went over & told him to report to race control due to overtaking the pacecar to get back into the pits to fix his engine in time to start the race ….. so his race was over before it started.

As the karts came around to complete the 1^st lap Charles Morris had the lead from Pete Masson & then finally Bob several seconds back trying to catch up.  Tony Bury unfortunately pulled off due to an engine issue as well.

I’d like to say that there was more action on the track, but there wasn’t, positions stayed the same throughout the race, Charles took the flag from Pete in 2^nd & Bob in 3^rd.

Race 2

As the lights went out, Lee was the man on the move from the back of the grid, overtaking Bob going into the 1^st corner & setting his sights on the rest of the pack, by the time they came back around to start the 2^nd lap Lee had the lead from Charles, Pete, Tony & Bob.  Charles unfortunately had stopped out on track somewhere, handing a nice lead to Lee.  Pete & Tony were having a good race & as they came around to complete lap 6, it was Tony who had the 2^nd place from Pete, followed by Bob.  Tony managed to pull a slight gap from Pete who was falling back towards Bob, but the time ran out & Lee took the win from Tony in 2^nd, Pete in 3^rd & Bob in 4^th.

So with the trophies awarded on points from both races, Pete won the overall 1^st place, Bob took 2^nd & Lee took 3^rd.  This meeting was also the O plate cup, which is awarded on the win of the 2^nd last race, therefore Lee won this for the 2^nd year running.

We now have a nice break before the GP in July, yet again the championship will be decided on the last round, so we will be looking at ways to improve BPV Racing & go for the converted championship win.