A podium finish to end the weekend at
Oulton Park was a great result for Team Aircool.
It’s really good as we plugged away at things during the weekend and the pace in the Leon wasn’t too bad on race day. We made up a few places in each race and then going into the third one, I just tried to keep my nose clean as it can be so easy to make a mistake and get involved in things that you don’t really want to get involved in. It was a tough day but it was so pleasing to come away with some good points, an Independent win and a second overall. I can’t really knock it to have ended the weekend with those results.
On Saturday,
Colin Turkington,
Mat Jackson and myself had all lost about half a second between the practice sessions due to the change in temperature, but there were some other guys who gained time as well. That was partly why we ended up P9 on the grid in qualifying. On race day however, it was the same for everyone. You have to be the quickest person on the circuit to win of course, but we were always there or thereabouts in terms of the lap times and it allowed us to get some good results from the weekend.
After decent results in the first two races, the reverse grid for the final race put us on the second row of the grid. I then found myself battling with Mat Jackson to try and get into a podium position and it was a challenge, as the
BMW is always strong.
It has strong engine performance and good straight-line speed and that is what we really lack with the Leon; aerodynamics and engine performance. It’s the reason why we struggled at
Snetterton and I have to admit that when I got past Mat, it was tough to keep him behind. You find yourself with one on the car ahead to try and find a way past, but then you also have an eye looking back to ensure that the chasing car can’t get through. You just can’t take your eye off the ball at all and you can’t afford to make a mistake – as Andy showed when I got past into second.
