Cadwell Park 1-2 Sept 2012 -- Our First WIN!!

Finally we got our first race win yesterday. It was a long time coming and although not a classic race finish, still fully deserved by Luke.

Race winning car Cadwell Park 2012

After the race at Oulton Park, Ewen (our engine man) rebuilt the unit and brought the car down to Cadwell Park for this weekend. We did the run-in during Saturday's qualifying and lined up at the back of the grid for the 1st race.


Luke had a fantastic start and caught the leader after 1 lap. He just got trough to the lead when the car shut down so he had to pull over and ending any chance of winning the championship. On getting the car back to the pits we found the distributor plug had come off! Simple but terminal.

Sunday qualifying we were on P1 until the last lap when Nigel (Davers) did a last-gasp lap and beat us by 0.005 of a second (5 thousandths). Great disapointment we didn't get pole however, based on that difference we knew we had a great chance of a win. Luke was happy with the car so we elected to stay on our grooved tyres as opposed to slicks (which might have given us another second a lap) and kept the set-up the same.

Luke lined up next to Nigel, the lights went out and by the first bend, Luke was in the lead. And that was it, he just pulled away setting fastest lap after fastest lap. With one lap to go, Adrian Heath (in our group) had a massive shunt into the pit-wall and the race was red flagged. Luke didn't have the pleasure of crossing the finish line and take the flag, the race ended in parc ferme, Thankfully Adrian was just shaken up and is probably a bit sore this morning.

The weekend for us was a big success, especially Luke and his driving. He is now the only driver this year to beat Nigel on the track in a straight wheel-to-wheel race and in a car that has less power, no wings or slicks.

In addition to his first win, Luke won the beginners award with the prize of four free race entries next year. It all helps. A fantastic result all round for his first season in open wheel racing.

Still 2 races to complete the season with the final race at Silverstone, a big one with 80 entries.