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Press Releases by Claire Tippet
April 25, 2005
Claire
Tippet: Progress at Oulton Park
Cheltenham - Claire Tippet continued to make progress
in the VW Racing Cup this weekend at the second round, held
at Oulton Park, Cheshire.
The weekend started early for Claire as she travelled to
the Cheshire circuit on Friday morning to take part in a day
long testing session. The day was split into four sessions,
allowing Claire to increase her track time and concentrate
on car set up before the weekend's racing.
"This is the first time I have been able to take part
in a day long test" Claire said, "and it was so
beneficial. Unfortunately, I missed a large part of the first
session due to a fuel pump switch problem. The car had to
be hot-wired so that I could take part in the last few moments
of that session. The problem was soon fixed but it proved
what good worth testing is - that would have been an awful
problem to strike on the first instance of the actual race
weekend! The rest of the testing proved very fruitful and
I was able to match my Oulton Park best lap, in the 2min4secs,
from 2004."
Qualifying took place on Saturday morning and Claire was
very pleased with the handling of the car and the new steering
wheel position which they had worked on the day before. "The
steering wheel is now much closer to my body, a much improved
position" confirmed Claire. "Oulton Park is a much
more physical track in terms of the upper body than say Donington
where we had our opening race. 22nd on the grid is okay but
there's more to come!"
And there certainly was more to come as in Race One Claire
made a strong start and made her way up into 15th position
before an incident ahead caused the safety car to be brought
out, bunching the field back up. The incident left a large
amount of oil on the track which caught many people out.
"The track was extremely greasy and slippery" Claire
said afterwards, "and I did run wide after hitting a
patch but was able to keep the car on track though I lost
a few positions. This left me in a gap on my own until the
end of the race when I finished in 19th position."
However, a post race scruntineering of both Claire's MkI
and the MkI of Stuart Bliss concluded their flywheels were
below the required minimum weight. Claire's was 400g below
the 5kg allowance and the scrutineers confiscated the flywheels,
excluded Claire and Bliss from the first race results and
imposed a time penalty which would be enforced at the start
of the second race which saw them both start from the back
of the grid - though if Claire was to make it to the second
grid at all a new flywheel would need to be sourced - quickly!
It was a mercy dash as far as Somerset that ensured Claire
would be back on track. A 6kg flywheel from a diesel Golf
MkI was located and fitted, and it was all systems go again
for the second race.
Whilst starting at the back of the grid (effectively 30th)
may have seemed a bleak start, as soon as the lights went
out it was apparent that Claire was more fired up then ever!
She had a battle royale with Stuart Bliss and was soon up
to 16th place as out in front a melee caused the safety car
to be brought out allowing the field to close up. Once the
green flag was given it was back to real hammer and tongs
racing with Claire in the midst of superb tussle with Bliss
in the other MkI and two Beetles. Swapping places, side to
side racing, the battle went down to the last laps as Claire
made a strong move around the outside at the Hairpin to take
two of her rivals and fend them off to the chequered flag.
From the back of the grid Claire had impressively moved up
to finish 14th overall and to break her own best lap time
in the bargain, breaking the 2mins4sec barrier.
Claire's next race will see her north of the border as the
series heads to Knockhill, Scotland on 21st-22nd May when
it supports the prestigious British GT and F3 Championships.
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