Oulton Park 2nd August 2008

I was beaten by the engine change! Well it was completed but a bit of inexperience meant it wasn't quite ready to go. Therefore James Levy let me use his similar car for Oulton.

Qualifing

A good grid of 17 cars urned up for the meeting. Qualifing was in the wet, which gave me three worries.

1. Never driven in the wet before



2. Never been to Oulton



3. Not my car.

After the dissapointment of Rockingham the last thing I wanted was another early exit so to say I drove slowly was an understatement. I just toured around and did my necassary laps, no heroics. This left me 12th on the grid.

Race 1

Fortunately it was dry! At the start I kept my position, slotting in behind Alan Jones and Dale Whiteman. The HGT was much faster than the Uno's in front, but I didn't want to take any risks. When a good opportunity presented itself I overtook them both.

By this time the cars in front had dissapeared up the road, so I pulled out a bit of a gap and settled into my postion, having a quiet second half of the race to finish 10th.

Race 2

Race 2 was a quiet one for most of it. I kept my place off the start and got into a rythmn. I was alone for the most part, but managed to catch Lee Melling during the second half of the race. I had an opportunity to pass by outbraked myself a little at turn 1 on the penultimate lap. The retirements of Sandro Proietti and Steve Twist promoted me to 8th, finishing a couple of seconds behind Melling.

So onto Mallory, back in the Sprint Blue Punto. It is a track where horsepower should make a difference so hopefully the HGT's will be strong.

The Greatest Racing Series in the UK!!

There are several reasons why the Fiat Racing Challenge is the best club racing series in the UK:

1) Cost - You can buy a car for as little as £1500.00 or build a shiny new Punto HGT for about £4000.00.

The yearly running costs will then be roughly as follows:

Entry Fees: £2500.00
Race Fuel: £400.00
Tyres: £650.00
Consumables: £750.00

Therefore the cost of a years racing, assuming you don't dent it too much, are only £4300.00. If you add a bit for unforseen items it will set you back around 5k. That is about the cheapest racing in the UK.

2) Class Structure - Simple. There isn't one. The person at the front is winning the race. All of the cars run in the same class, so the order on the track is the order of the race. ( A bit like Touring Cars!)

3) Speed - Do not be fooled by the Fiat badge. These are fast, lightweight cars running on slick racing tyres. On Fifth Gear VBH lapped Anglesey slower in a Carrera 4 than we do in a fiat Uno or Punto! You can spend an awful lot more money on your motor racing and go a lot slower.

Now I know you are itching to have a go, visit http://www.fiatracing.com/ and get involved!Cars available to buy or just to try, available to hire.

The Story So Far.........

This is the car I raced in the series in 2006 & 2007. It never let me down and I sold it for £1400.00. Not bad depreciation!

I am now racing the HGT pictured above, built with my own fair hand over the winter. It really is very easy to do, the modifications are limited and if I can do it, anyone can. I have very limited mechanical knowledge.

These are the 2008 results to date, not a great season so far:

Cadwell Park: DNF Engine Failure (Engine then rebuilt bt Northants Subaru)
Snetterton: Did not enter due to engine being rebuilt
Brands Hatch: 6th
Pembrey: 5th & 6th
Rockingham: DNF Engine Failure

Rather than have this one rebuilt we have sourced a second hand engine from Redline Racing which I am putting in myself with a little help. A new experience for me as I have never done this before!