‘When The mini-Green Hell bites’
Round 2 of the BRITCAR Endurance Championship came around fast for the Army Sports Car Racing team. Oulton Park, also known as the ‘mini-Green Hell’ due to it’s likeness to the famous Nurburgring in Germany, is not a circuit to be taken lightly, as this report will tell!
The Friday saw the team testing, a chance to get the car dialed in and see what lap times could be achieved. A lap time of 1:43.00 was the fastest of anyone during testing which sent the team into Saturdays race day with confidence, albeit with some work to do on the Friday evening. The racing clutch required some adjustment which meant an evening of removing to gearbox to access it to make the required changes, but the skill of the mechanics had this done in no time!
Onto Saturday’s qualifying, it was SSgt Will Ashmore’s job to put in a fast lap time within this 10-minute session. His first flying lap was an impressive 1:43.43, but the team we’re expecting to be able to drop into the 1:42’s. However, one of the rear wheels was starting to work itself loose, making the back end of the car a little unstable to put it lightly! Unfortunately, Will span on his second and third flying laps, before finally retiring the car before the end of the session to allow the pit crew to diagnose the issue. Still, despite this, the team qualified P6 overall, a good position to work from!
With only a few hours between qualifying and the first race the team had their work cut out to ensure the car was ready to go. Once again, SSgt Will Ashmore started the race, and within a few hectic opening laps had gained a couple of positions to be third in class and was gaining on the Mclaren 570S GT4 of FormEvo Racing. Attempting to use all of the track to maintain the pace, Will uncharacteristically dipped a rear wheel on the grass while entering Knickerbrooks corner, which sent him into a big oversteer, taking him momentarily onto the grass. Managing to gather it up, Will got back on track, frustrated with his mistake and dropping down to 7th position.
It was from there that it became a weekend to forget, as Will made the same mistake at the same corner again, however this time was unable to gather up the oversteer, ending up backwards and beached in the gravel.
After being pulled out, Will was able to carry on with the race before pitting and handing the car over to LCpl Josh Gilding, who took on the middle stint of the race. A solid stint from Josh, however with the car now full of gravel it was effecting the ABS systems making the car difficult to drive, Josh managed to maintain the pace but a spin also dropped the team down the order some more.
Josh came in for the second pit stop, with the pit crew refuelling the car and Cfn Jon Candler taking the reins for the final stint. By this point the ABS had completely failed, making braking incredibly unstable, Jon also had a spin at Shell Oils corner, getting beached in the gravel and damaging the front bumper.
Defeated but not giving up, Jon pitted to allow the team to make some quick repairs to the car, before going on to finish the race. With some of the other teams also having problems and having to retire from the race early, the team still crossed the line in P9 in class, scoring 15 valuable championship points to keep them 4th in class in the championship.
The team are looking forward to Round 3 at the end of May at Spa Francorchamps, Belgium. A team favourite, it’s set to be a big one!
