The final two championship rounds are already upon us. Oulton Park is quite possibly my favourite UK circuit and we'll be using the full International layout for the first time. The parkland setting looks glorious in the August sunshine but I wouldn't have minded at least one wet race this year!
Sharing a pit garage with Mike Dugdale, who is keen to get out early for qualifying, means that I ended up first in the queue at the end of the pitlane. Rob Smith, the new champion, is behind me. The last time this happened, he followed me around Castle Combe and pipped me to pole by less than a tenth. As the session gets underway I nail it from the off and try to shake Rob off for some isolated laps. The loud clunking from the rear end is a little unnerving for the first few corners before I realise that I've left my son's pushchair in the boot! Putting that to one side and knowing that my tyres will be at their best on lap 2 or 3, getting up to speed quickly is important. I can't lose Rob but nor does he come past me, despite appearing to be a little quicker. Ultimately he goes a tenth quicker to clinch another pole but second is good enough for me and guarantees a front row start in both races.
So I'm in pole position for race one, starting alongside Clio Cup champion Ben Winrow. The red lights seem to stay on for ages and I let the revs creep up too high which hinders my start. This allows Ben to sneak round the outside of me at the first corner and make it stick. Saves me worrying about a dive up the inside but I'm gutted. I chase as hard as I can, occasionally being able to get alongside him, but never enough to make a pass or force an error. Things get very interesting on the last lap when Ben makes a couple of mistakes as the tyres go off and I close right up on the approach to Druids just as the red flags come out! Despite losing out to the new boy it was a very enjoyable race and taking fastest lap is some consolation.
Starting from the other side of the track for race two, I have the more familiar Rob Smith alongside me. I try to make the same move on Rob as Ben made on me but I'm forced to back out of it and settle for second. Again. Much in the same way as race one, I give Rob as hard a time as possible. This time I also have Ben Winrow behind me but never enough to cause a worry. Yet again, I'm able to close right up on Rob once the tyres go off, at which point we were both consistently outperforming our qualifying times!
Two great races to end the season and more than enough to secure second place in the championship. It's been a great season :-)
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