Oulton Park – Practice makes Perfect

Charles Rainford continued his impressive pace in the wet from Brands Hatch at Oulton Park’s Wednesday testing. In the morning session Charles not only led the Pro Am class but topped the overall session some 2.5 seconds clear of the next Pro Am car. In the dry afternoon session the team continued to work on the setup finishing the session 4th in class for Fridays practice. On a sunny Friday morning Charles continued his fine form topping the Pro Am field and finished the session 8th overall on old tyres. Later in the day, after some small setup tweaks, the hot pace continued with an overall P6, 5 positions in front of the next Pro Am driver. Saturday continued to go to plan with Charles picking up a career high of 4th in qualifying with Aspin and Ratcliffe the next Pro Am drivers back in 12th and 13th. Later in the day Charles managed to hold onto 4th in the opening of Race 1 before a red flag interrupted proceedings after 5 laps. On the restart Charles managed to gain 2 positions to 2nd overall and defended well from Jewiss and Smalley behind. Unfortunately, 3 laps from the end Rainford let the two Pros through, crossing the line 4th with fastest lap, a pro am win and in the draw for reverse grid pole position. Charles lined up on the front row for Race 2 alongside Graham. A good start saw him hold position on the opening lap which he defended fantastically for all 15 laps bringing home all Pro Am points available on the weekend and his first overall podium position. There’s now a long break to go before Knockhill in July where we’ll look to continue this momentum