Impressive Finish for Claire Tippet in VW
Cup at Oulton Park
25 April
2005
MSportUK.com Featured Driver, Claire
Tippet continued to make progress
in the VW Racing Cup this weekend at the second round, held at Oulton
Park,
Cheshire.
The weekend started early for Claire as she travelled to the Cheshire
circuit on Friday morning to take part in a day long testing session.
The day was split into four sessions, allowing Claire to increase her
track time and concentrate on car set up before the weekend's racing.
"This is the first time I have been able to take part in a day
long test" Claire said, "and it was so beneficial. Unfortunately,
I missed a large part of the first session due to a fuel pump switch
problem. The car had to be hot-wired so that I could take part in
the last few moments of that session. The problem was soon fixed but
it
proved what good worth testing is - that would have been an awful
problem to strike on the first instance of the actual race weekend!
The rest
of the testing proved very fruitful and I was able to match my Oulton
Park best lap, in the 2min4secs, from 2004."
Qualifying took place on Saturday morning and Claire was very pleased
with the handling of the car and the new steering wheel position
which they had worked on the day before. "The steering wheel is now
much closer to my body, a much improved position" confirmed Claire. "Oulton
Park is a much more physical track in terms of the upper body than
say Donington where we had our opening race. 22nd on the grid is okay
but there's more to come!"
And there certainly was more to come as in Race One Claire made a
strong start and made her way up into 15th position before an incident
ahead
caused the safety car to be brought out, bunching the field back
up. The incident left a large amount of oil on the track which caught
many
people out.
"The track was extremely greasy and slippery" Claire said afterwards, "and
I did run wide after hitting a patch but was able to keep the car on
track though I lost a few positions. This left me in a gap on my own
until the end of the race when I finished in 19th position."
However, a post race scruntineering of both Claire's MkI
and the MkI of Stuart Bliss concluded their flywheels were below the
required
minimum
weight. Claire's was 400g below the 5kg allowance and the scrutineers
confiscated the flywheels, excluded Claire and Bliss from the first
race results and imposed a time penalty which would be enforced
at the start of the second race which saw them both start from
the back
of the grid - though if Claire was to make it to the second grid
at all a new flywheel would need to be sourced - quickly!
It was a mercy dash as far as Somerset that ensured Claire would
be back on track. A 6kg flywheel from a diesel Golf MkI was located
and
fitted, and it was all systems go again for the second race.
Whilst starting at the back of the grid (effectively 30th) may
have seemed a bleak start, as soon as the lights went out it
was apparent
that Claire was more fired up then ever! She had a battle royale
with Stuart Bliss and was soon up to 16th place as out in front
a melee
caused the safety car to be brought out allowing the field
to close up. Once the green flag was given it was back to real
hammer
and
tongs racing with Claire in the midst of superb tussle with
Bliss in the
other MkI and two Beetles. Swapping places, side to side racing,
the battle went down to the last laps as Claire made a strong
move around
the outside at the Hairpin to take two of her rivals and fend
them off to the chequered flag. From the back of the grid Claire
had
impressively moved up to finish 14th overall and to break her
own best lap time
in the bargain, breaking the 2mins4sec barrier.
Claire's next race will see her north of the border as the
series heads to Knockhill, Scotland on 21st-22nd May when
it supports
the prestigious
British GT and F3 Championships.
See 2005 series calendar
for VW
Racing Cup
Related Story 25.04.2005 - Hollamby
Romps to Double VW Cup Win at Oulton Park
