Pace unrewarded for AmDTuning at Oulton Park BTCC Event

The Cobra Sport team enjoyed attending another exciting weekend of racing when the British Touring Car Championship headed to Oulton Park in Cheshire this weekend. 

The AmDTuning.com BTCC team were left with a feeling of what could have been after missing the opportunity to continue their points scoring form from the previous round at Thruxton. Oulton Park is a notoriously difficult track to overtake making qualifying well highly important.

Despite producing one of his most competitive qualifying laps of the season at just 1.2 seconds away from pole, the highly competitive nature of the British Touring Car Championships meant that Ollie Jackson started in 26th place on the grid in the Audi S3 Saloon for the first race of the day. Ollie would end the opening race in the same position he started, with damage to the front of his car from contact on track not helping his chances of progressing up the order towards the end.

Race two however would see Ollie able to work his way forwards through the field as he stayed out of trouble; lapping quickly and consistently to take the chequered flag in 20^th place and leave him well placed to push for a points scoring finish in race three.

Running on the softer compound Dunlop tyre, Ollie was able to make up three places on the opening lap but his chances of adding to his Thruxton score would end on lap three when the bonnet on the Audi suddenly flew up across the windscreen, a legacy of contact earlier on that had broken the pins holding the bonnet in place.

Forced into the pits to allow the team to tape the bonnet down, Ollie returned to action at the back of the field just ahead of the leaders but having allowed the factory Hondas of Matt Neal and Gordon Shedden through, he was then able to produce some of his quickest laps of the weekend as he followed the leaders to the finish, with his pace being a match for a number of drivers inside the top ten.

“Race three was a case of what might have been with the pace we had showed, and it's a shame we weren't in that position earlier in the weekend", Ollie said.

“Qualifying where we did, it was always going to be difficult on race day given how tough it is to overtake around Oulton Park but by the end of race two, we were in a position where it looked like points were possible".

"The strides forwards we have taken this weekend aren't reflected in the end results and we still have work to do, but there are positives to take out of the weekend as we head for Croft and the last meeting before the summer break".

Team boss Shaun Hollamby shared in Ollie's disappointment at the missed opportunity to score points but vowed that the team would come back stronger.

“The final race showed the kind of pace that we have in the car and that is something we have to look to build on through the remainder of the season", he said.

“Even though it is hard to pass at Oulton Park when you qualify in the pack, there were definitely points to be had this weekend so it's a little frustrating that we come away from the weekend without any to our name".

Throughout the weekend we once again had a full range of Cobra Sport Hoodies and Official AmDTuning team wear available for sale from the Motorsport Photography stall. Our merchandise range will be available at all of the BTCC races this year and look forward to seeing the caps, t-shirts and hoodies in the crowd at Croft in 2 weeks time.

Photo credit: Jakob Ebrey Photography & Marc Waller