Quick Delivery
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Round 4 race report from AIRTEC sponsored driver Matt Binstead
A well deserved win for Matt!
UK Time Attack Championship 2018
Round 4 – Oulton Park
After a very hectic gap between Round 3 & 4 with Pumaspeed making some pretty major repairs we finally felt the car could be more competitive and run faster than it had to date. Airtec Motorsport also making some lovely last minute parts for the car!
The Warm Up
It went smoothly, slow pace but just learning the track again and finding my flow within the track limits. The car was dialled in and I was feeling more than confident, we finished 1st in class which was a nice touch but I knew the real work was yet to come.
Practise
Again just finding my lines and trying to consistently hit those apex’s as well as more importantly drop those lap times, we saw them fall and fall whilst praying the good weather would hang around for the qualifying and final.
Qualifying
The heavens opened as soon as the tyres touched the tarmac…. a tsunami of water fell on the track and we debated swapping the tyres for flippers.
I personally hate driving in the wet but when racing in the U.K. this was always going to come around at some point. I struggled to work any heat into the tyres which made a few sideways entries into the corners creating some brown race suit moments, but I continued to push hard and search for any morsel of grip available and I managed to lead the group for most of the round. In the last few laps I managed to shave a further 2 seconds off my best wet lap time and securing 1st place in the qualifying for a maximum 5 points!
FINAL
With everything checked, the sun doing its bit and drying the track back out and a cheeky red bull to keep those all-important energy levels up, I strapped in, turned the tunes to max and queued for the final. As always I went hot out the gate for that all important banking lap and to make the most of the short stint we had. The lap times fell with every lap and I quickly reached the 1:39’s… after a quick tyre pressure check I went back out to try and crack the 1:38s as I knew the car had more in it… after a blisteringly quick 1:39.252 I came onto the main straight with a “bing” and a “brake fluid low” warning light…. Obviously this couldn’t be true as we topped it up before the outing but going into the Island Bend with no brake pedal proved that the car wasn’t lying and that it was time to test the handbrake out… a swift yank and some handy gearbox work helped me scrub enough speed off to just make the hairpin but at this point I knew the session was over for me… I pulled into Park Ferme and waited the last 3 minutes of the session anxiously hoping I had done enough to secure a win.
As the chequered flag waved, I saw Kenny B running over with a grin similar to a Cheshire cat and I knew I had it in the bag, we finished 1st in class with a 1.9 second lead and 3rd overall which was our best to date!
So overall an emotional roller coaster from start to finish but with a great ending and more importantly some big points to add to the championship we felt on cloud 9 and cannot wait to get to Pembury for Rounds 5 & 6!!!!
Big thanks to all our sponsors who make this possible and provide some of the best tuning parts on the market!
Photo credit Eat My Pixels.
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