Sharp Motorsport Podium at K-Tec Clio 182 Championship
Last weekend the team were at the picturesque Oulton park for the first round of the K-Tec Clio 182 Championship. This was the first time the championship had visited Oulton and although both drivers have experience at the circuit neither have raced there competitively. The team had a large amount of support from friends, family and sponsors with this being their home circuit and both drivers were keen to impress.
Qualifying was tricky conditions with intermittent rain shows making the circuit very slippy in places. Race one was held in extremely wet conditions, Arron had a bad start with the car jumping out of gear on the line which saw him drop down the field several Places. A determined and aggressive first lap saw him make up the lost positions and pass the line in 3rd Place. Scott had a better start from 8th on the grid and finished the opening lap in 4th place until a gear issue at Cascades saw him take a trip through the gravel trap. Later that lap the race was red flagged due to an incident for another competitor at the top of clay hill which damaged the barriers. This gave both drivers another bite at the apple at the re-start. The restart went well for both cars despite Scott nearly getting spun off at the hairpin. Arron finished in 3rd position, his best result to date in the Clio’s and Scott battled until the last corner making a last ditch move for 4th positon but was just beat by 2 tenths of a second over the line.
Race two saw track conditions improve and the introduction of the new reverse grid for the first time which placed Scott 6th and Arron 8th. A great start by both drivers saw Scott leading out of the first corner and Arron lying in 3rd position. Scott continued to lead for 3 laps but last year’s champion Patrick Fletcher was slowly catching him. A slight mistake running wide out of Old Hall gave Fletcher his chance to pounce getting a run on Scott down the Avenue, both cars went door to door in some close racing through Cascades down to the hairpin but inside advantage to fletcher saw him take the lead. With a lap left to go Scott couldn’t close the gap back up and brought the car home in 2nd place his best result to date. Arron’s race didn’t go to plan with a trip through the gravel on lap one caused damage to the gear selector and also an engine misfire saw him drop down the order.
The next race meeting is at Snetterton on 22nd/23rd April on the 300 circuit layout
