We only had 6 days to turn the car around from the MSVT SuperCup race at Silverstone, which you can read about HERE, we were back up North for the MSV Trackday Championship at Oulton Park in Cheshire.

Below is the layout of Oulton Park:

We were also racing in the EnduroKA 5 Hour race. With Adam in the USA, I had to step up to manage the team and logistics of getting the cars from Kent to Cheshire ready for Friday Testing. Mark was off at the Truck Show at Donington, but Ollie was back. Pete was in again and Ryan as well. We also had Freddie back with us. So 5 drivers and 2 cars. With only 5 hours, we had a few strategy scenarios where it could work!
We had decided not to rebuild the 63 car that had been upside down at Snetterton. It finished 4th in that race, so we knew it was not going to be off the pace.

TDC Qualifying

An early start and packed timetable meant we were out at 9am, right after the Trackday Trophy. It had forecast rain, which until we headed to the assembly area seemed to be holding off, but the heavens opened as we waited for their session to finish.
Luckily we had gone for a wet setup anyway, so there were no last minute changes required, and I was confident the car would be OK in the tricky conditions.
Despite getting to the assembly area early, there were still a few cars in front ready to go, and track position at Oulton, especially in the wet, is key.
I did a couple of flying laps, and was not happy at all, I knew I was nowhere near the pace, and the car was difficult to drive, even in a straight line with all the standing water around. I came back into the pits and asked the guys to soften the car off even more.
Immediately when I went out the car felt better. I knocked 2s off my time immediately, then another 2 the next lap, the lap after that was another 2s, so we were up to P2 behind Helsop / Roberts in a Class C Civic EP3. They had been on the money right away with a 1:18.879, at the time over 4s quicker than just about everyone else.
I crossed the line with less than a minute left of the session, so I know it would be my last lap and chance to get to the top of the timing sheets, where we have been for every TDC race this season. I pushed hard and was significantly up on my time at every corner, but it was still going to be tight as I was over 1s off the time Mark and Matt Higginson set on their last lap, a 2:18.256. Despite a Z3 coming off at Hislops and a bit of traffic to navigate, I maintained my delta and finished with a 2:16.796, 2.3s quicker than I had gone before, and on pole by 1.46s. That put my pole record at 4/4 for the TDC this year!

Most cars did their best laps at the end of the session, showing that the track was improving as well as the knowledge of where the grip was (or wasn't!), which is why the 2:18.879 of the Civic, so early in the session was pretty impressive. At that time it was bucketing it down and I was concentrating on keeping it on the track rather than setting a quick time!

It took 5 laps for anyone to beat the time, and the Higginson brothers were on pole for 25 seconds before I did my final lap, talk about leaving it to the last minute!

The Pole Lap is shown below

TDC Race

It is always good to start at the front, but as we lined up for the Green Flag Lap, I noticed I was sat in a nice wet patch, so getting off the line was going to be tricky!

The full race video is below. I've done a quick rundown of what went on during the race as well, for those that want to have a bit of a read! Apologies for the intermittent commentary, no idea why!

As predicted I had a terrible start, too much wheel spin in 1st and 2nd. The two Civics got off really well and I was immediately down in 3rd. I had a battle on my hands!
The Civics, with much less torque, came out of the corners much quicker than I could, every time I went near the throttle it dragged me left or right.
Even though we were battling pretty hard, we had still managed to pull over a 3s gap to Alf Hyde in the Clio back in 4th. On lap 2 I made a lunge towards the Higginson car into Hislops, forcing a mistake from them, sending the car over the grass. This allowed the other Civic to break away, but then a Safety car was deployed after the Wright Porsche was stuck in the gravel.
At the restart, I was caught a bit off guard so the Heslop/Roberts Civic made a break again, their car carrying way more speed on corner exit than I could. I should have followed their lines but in the heat of the battle I was hanging on for dear life!
Into Lodge on the next lap, the car would not go into 3rd gear, so I lost loads of time and the place back to Higginson. I had more work to do!
It was a close battle for the full lap then into Turn 1, Higginson braked very early so I dove around the outside and made the move stick. As I braked for Hislops again, I was too far to the left and outbraked myself for the grip available. I considered going through the runoff, but that can suffer time penalties post race, so I decided to get back on the track and complete the full circuit.
I was still over 10s away from the Civic in front, and not catching, all I could hope for was a slower pit stop and the 2nd driver to take a while to get in the groove in the tricky conditions. I left it as late as possible to dive into the pits for my mandatory 2 minute stop.

In wanting to avoid the harsh 1 lap penalty for a short stop, I played it safe with a 2:02.135. A lap later the Civic came in and did a 2:11.592, so I had gained nearly 9s from their long stop.
As I made it around turn 1 after my outlap, I could see the Civic at Cascades, so knew I was much closer than I had been before the pit stops. I just needed to keep it clean. Higginson had not, straight after their drive change, they had out-braked themselves into Shell and buried itself into the barrier. It was a shame as they were doing so well!
I closed in before the chicane but couldn't make a move. We were nose to tail for the rest of the lap and I was only 0.3s behind across the line. We were then held up massively by traffic at Island Bend. Towards Lodge the Civic defended and I switched it back and got across the line 0.2s in front.
So with pole position and the race lead seemingly sorted, I just needed to get the fastest lap. In clear air I pushed hard knocking big chunks out of my previous best, but 3 car lengths away from the finish line, the race was red flagged due to a car flipping at turn 1. This was as per the previous lap (so my 2:12.13, the quickest of the race does not show).

However they counted back another lap, which was back to where I was 0.3s behind, demoting me to 2nd overall and 1st in Class B. Not ideal, but the Civic was a deserved winner.

The Civic was significantly quicker during the first phase of the race which made all the difference. If they had not had such a slow pit stop, I don't think I would have caught them at all, even at full race distance.

The P2 gave us 34 points out of a total of 37 available. This means we are still at the top of the table with 109 points. Taking into account dropped scores so far, we are 27 points ahead of Apple Car Centre and 22 points clear of G&M Motorsport. With 2 rounds to go, we have 74 points available. It could be anyone's championship!

Thanks to Paul, Toby, Tom and James for their help this weekend on the car, it is a team effort for sure!

EnduroKA Qualifying

Qualifying in the KAs was sat between the Quali and Race for the TDC, so it was a little hectic for me. Luckily Ryan was still around and helped the guys get everything prepared. My plan was to just do the minimum of 3 laps in one of the cars when it suited, and let the other guys get plenty of seat time.
Ollie went first in 63, and Pete in 36. Ollie seemed to be struggling early on, pitted for some checks then went back out. Pete put in a great lap on his 7th go round, putting us comfortably on Pole until Al Most Racers got it back 4 laps later.
Freddie jumped in the 63 car and on his first flier jumped to the top of the timing, using all his knowledge from the TDC qualifying session earlier.
Ryan was out in 36 and a little off the pace for his first laps around Oulton in a KA since our victory in 2020, so Pete jumped back into the car as we had been relegated to 3rd by the 33 car again.
We were already well in front, but as we called Freddie in he was 0.8s up on his lap time, so stayed out for another lap. This meant it was VERY tight for me to get my 3 laps in, but I just about managed it.
So that was that, a Pole Position and P3, not too bad!

Freddie and Pete were right on the Money, me, Ollie and Ryan needed to dig a bit deeper to keep our times consistent.

Qualifying Laps

You can see it was dominated by Al Most Racers for most of the session until Freddie found some pace.

Qualifying Lap History

Another twist to the weekend's plot was the withdrawal of car 33, which give us a front row lockout!

The start went pretty well for Freddie, maintaining the lead. Pete was bullied into the chicane and pushed down to 4th. He managed to get back to 3rd, but Freddie in 63 and Track Focused were battling hard and pulling away. A few slight mistakes from Pete dropped us back by 47 seconds at the 1 hour mark, but we were over 1 minute in front of 4th place.

1 Hour Down

With the 2:10 driving time limit in our minds, and no safety car in sight, Tom, Tony and Jay were getting anxious about bringing the guys in for our first of 3 mandatory driver changes. I said to hold off until the last minute.
With ~1:45 gone, our prayers were answered and the safety car was deployed. 36 came in straight away and Ryan jumped in to start his stint. 63 was a lap later and I jumped in for what should have been up to 2 hours. This meant by the 2 hour mark, we were a lap ahead of 2nd - 4th, and 2 laps ahead of everyone else in 63. What a result! 36 was also in 3rd, only 7s behind the Track Focused guys.

2 Hours Down

As I went round behind the safety car, and I saw the extent of the damage to the barrier, I decided to come back in and get Ollie into the car. This meant we had done 2 of the 3 driver changes without losing a lap in 63.
The only issue with me doing that strategy, and sharing 2 cars, I could not do the same for 36 as I had to rest for 1 hour between stints. So in 3 hours of racing, I had done 3 laps, all behind the safety car!
This strategy had put us back on the same lap as 36, 22s ahead, but then we had a full lap to our nearest competitor. Ollie put in a solid stint, we were consistently lapping as quick or quicker than everyone behind.

3 Hours Down

We were getting close to the 2:10 limit again, and the garage was getting tense. There was talk again of bringing the guys in, but I said we needed to stretch it as much as possible. It did mean my driving time was reduced, but I wanted the winning strategy, not the most seat time. Again luck was on our side, and with Ryan ~1:50 into his stint, and Ollie ~1:40 into his, the safety car was out again.
This time we did a similar strategy with the 36 car. Pete went for a lap while we refuelled the 63 car and sent Freddie back out for the final time.
Pete did a quick lap catching the back of the pack, then came in to hand over to me and a quick splash of fuel. Then I was out for some laps, hopefully at full pace when the safety car came in! We were still 1 lap apart but Freddie was just behind on the track.

4 Hours Down

In the end, we finished P1 in the 63 car (yes, the one that was upside down at Snetterton!) and P2 in the 36, 2 laps ahead of everyone else. We were going to try for a Le Mans finish across the line, but the waved the flag ~5 minutes early, so that messed that plan up!

Race Result

Pit Analysis

Our total stop time in 63 was 6:13, the shortest of anyone in the race, a testament to the guys in the pits! 36's time of 7:16 was 4th shortest from what I could see. We lost a lot of our time in that car on track and us missing getting out in front of the safety in the 2nd pit stop for that car, which is why we were still a lap down at the end.

The fastest lap changed hands on a regular basis along the way, with Freddie, Pete and Me holding it at some point. I held it for just over 1 minute right at the end before Track Focused pipped me by 0.3s.

Fastest Lap History

No Vlog for this weekend, Ryan was too busy driving!

Big thanks to all the guys, Dave for running round like an absolute nutter getting the spares and truck ready then donning the fireproof suit to be chief refueller, Jay for sorting both cars before the race and during, Tony for getting stuck in with anything that needed doing (including bringing all the chocolate bars) and James for helping with the pit stops as well. A real team effort, the race was won in the pits!

Photos courtesy of MSV.