GT Cup - Round 2 - Oulton Park
14th May 2011
The picturesque Cheshire circuit hosted Round 2 of the Championship but with the Sunday ban, it was going to be a hectic day. Being our home circuit, we had to pull out all the stops to ensure a successful day and with the other 2 X-Bows racing at Snetterton over the same weekend, Peter and the boys were stretched to the limit to get 4 cars ready.
Qualifying took place on a damp track which always equalises things and Benjamin, in brilliant form, took full advantage to qualify 5th overall and collected pole for Class 2. Colin, running in a freshly built engine took 3rd behind the Morgan of Tom Andrew.
Race 1
The drying track enabled the Morgan to get all it's power down and managed to get past Benjamin and start pulling out a lead. Uncharacteristicly, the green X-Bow's lap times did not reflect it's true pace and was falling back into the clutches of the #15 ABG Porsche which soon passed it. The cause of the problem was traced to "balooning" tyres and Ben retired the car on lap 13. The Morgan, in the meantime was also experiencing it's own issues with failing fuel pressure. This allowed Colin to pull Tom in and pass him with 2 laps to run to take the Class win. The icing on the cake was fastest lap for the yellow Porsche.
Race 2
The format of qualifying times setting grid positions meant that Benjamin was on Row 2 for the second race. An incident at Old hall involving a Marcos brought out the safety car on lap 3 which allowed the field to bunch up. Ben, with no tyre issues, was holding off the Morgan comfortably but Colin was not complying with Government Health warnings with a smoking Porsche but still holding on to 3rd in Class 2 until the last lap when he finally stopped. So a comfortable Class win for Ben and replicating his qualifying form to finish 5th overall.
So a great start to the weekend for Team ABG with 2 Class wins and a fastest lap.
Some images from the day from the lense of Mick Herring.
