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Press Releases by Claire Tippet
July 19, 2004
Claire Tippet: On and Off Track Drama at Oulton Park
Cheltenham-based Claire Tippet had another successful outing in the VW-Cup
Championship at Oulton Park (Cheshire) on 17/18 July. Driving her Golf Gti
Mk1, Claire once again grasped two strong finishes, in this her debut year,
at a race weekend which saw high-level drama unfold both on and off the
track.
The Cheshire track was subjected to a weekend of poor weather, with heavy
rain battering the circuit throughout Saturday. During her Saturday morning
qualifying session, Claire did one lap and came straight back into the
pitlane with a faulty windscreen wiper, a vital component in the climate,
and with severe misting up on the inside of the windscreen. As it happened,
the session was stopped at this point, with the treacherous conditions
catching many a driver out and leading to a number of incidents. The break
allowed for repairs to the windscreen wiper and some anti-fog screen
treatment before the session was re-started and it was back out to brave the
elements.
"It went really well," Claire said. "I was sixth quickest on the first lap
out, the next lap was not so good, and then the session was stopped; so I
didn't get a chance to improve so was down to 19th on the grid, which I was
disappointed with."
For the race, held on Saturday afternoon, the rain managed to stay away,
though the circuit was still wet. "There was standing water," Claire reported
back, "but a dry line soon appeared. Even though my car was set up for the
wet, it wasn't too much of a hindrance. I matched my best Oulton Park time. I
had some good overtaking moves down Cascades and moved my way up to finish
14th."
The second race, held on Sunday afternoon, looked set to be dry, though with
the odd spit of rain in the atmosphere nerves were tense in the VW Cup
paddock. "The start was okay," said Claire, "but the turbos behind me easily
caught me by the first corner. I managed to outbreak one of the Polos on the
hairpin and then had a good duel with Jason Barlow in the Beetle."
But shockingly, as the race was in full flow, the red flags were deployed and
the race stopped as a helicopter crashed next to the track. The track was
cleared to allow the emergency services easy access to the stricken aircraft
which crashed just metres from the track. Miraculously, the pilot walked
away with minor injuries.
The race was not restarted, and the results were taken from the lap previous
to the red flag, lap six, which saw Claire in 12th place.
Claire now lies 20th in the championship (out of 30) with 16 points. Her
next race will be at Thruxton (Hampshire) on 29/30th August.
Claire is a feature driver for the Msport-UK.com website
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