Kelly Rogers Racing
Round 6 saw the Mini Miglia's visit the very picturesque circuit at Oulton Park, with countryside views and quiet surroundings, the team were all in a buoyant mood.
Testing on Friday seemed to be a washout as the rain lashed down for most of the morning making parts of the circuit waterlogged. With a lot of hard work, the organisers were able to clear a lot of the standing water by mid afternoon so a few sessions were able to run. The forecast for the weekend was sunshine and showers so wet settings were just as important as dry settings. All the information had been gathered in the two short test sessions so the team packed away ready for the qualifying session on Saturday morning.
The usual 15 minute qualifying session started at 9.30am with a full sun in the sky, so trying to get a clear fast lap was going to be very difficult. Kelly was able to get 9 laps in the session with his best time putting him third quickest but he developed a problem with a slight under-steer in right-hand bends. The team soon found the problem, a very slow puncture to the near side front tyre, it had lost 8 PSI over the 15 minute session.
Kelly was happy with his grid position, 2nd row on the inside going into turn one (Old Hall Corner), the race scheduled start time was 14.20 so time to check over the cars and relax in the sunshine.
All the cars collected in the assembly area for the start of the race, a last quick visual check over the cars before going out on the track for the warm up lap.
The cars all lined up on the grid, the green flag was waved at the back, the lights went red and as they went out 16 cars raced down to the first corner. First into the corner was Baldwin, then Sollis and Kelly a very close third, the top 3 trying to settle down as they approached Cascades. As they crossed the line to start lap 2 Sollis had made the move on Baldwin for the lead and had made it stick. Kelly was now putting pressure on Baldwin for 2nd place and was surprised when Baldwin turned in early going into the chicane at Knickerbrook and hit the tyres. Kelly had to brake very hard to avoid hitting anything but managed to stay on the track and take 2nd place. With all the mayhem behind the leader, a gap had risen to about 1.5 seconds so Kelly had to push hard. Only a 12 lap race and a bit of work to do, Kelly was pushing the car very hard to close the gap on Sollis. Each lap saw the gap slowly come down until lap 10 when Kelly was in the wheel tracks of the leader, as they both came through Deer Leap Sollis missed a gear allowing Kelly to draw along side and try and take the outside line. Sollis quickly recovered and kept the line into Old Hall for the last lap. Kelly was looking for every opportunity to pass Sollis as the lap drew to a close, a last dash for the chequered flag but Sollis had enough power to keep Kelly 0.135 seconds behind him as they crossed the line.
Another 2nd place was a good result for Kelly and as always the racing was nail biting action all the way. Kelly is looking for his debut win this season, Round 7 is next at Snetterton and after their last visit (Round 3) hopefully the tables can be turned.
Round 6
Oulton Park
