A tale of performance and maturity.....

The weather threw its worst at Oulton Park, Britcar, TMS and the drivers over the race weekend, storm Brian was threatening on the Friday test day but made its presence felt in force on Saturday race day....

The drivers had to cope with very difficult and changeable conditions, with rain, spray, dampness and occasional visibility depriving bursts of sunlight posing numerous challenges throughout both races......

Despite Edward Moore and Marmaduke Hall being the youngest (?) pairing on the impressive grid (Eddy was 17 in March ‘17 and Marmaduke just 16 in June ‘17), they displayed fantastic maturity and skill, bringing the Tockwith Ginetta G50 home in a very impressive 1st in class and 2nd overall in the 2nd Sprint Race, and - for the purposes of their Championship aspirations - 2nd in Class in the first race.

Playing to their strengths......

In Friday testing, Eddy and Marma coped very well with the conditions but were ever mindful that the weekend’s objective was to come away with championship reviving points following the disappointing DNFs at Donington.

Come race day, Eddy did a great job in qualifying, placing the Class 4 G50 in 8th overall, ahead of numerous Class 3 entries.

Eddy’s first stint went well, a great start as is his form, running as high as 7th overall and a solid 1st in Class. He came in for the driver change, commenting that “there’s no grip” but nevertheless, he’d put their G50 in a very strong position, out went Marmaduke intent on improving their lead in Class.

Marmaduke was straight into his stride, but due to a mix up in the pit stop, he’d been released too early, resulting in their stop being disallowed and then required to return to the pits to do it all again....another 150 second stop beckoned.....

To a team or drivers with less maturity and resolve, this could have led to any combination of reckless, race-ending or slackening pace on track, but arguably linked to the endurance karting that Eddy and Marmaduke have done together with TMS over years and hundreds of hours, Marmaduke was out again for a series of consistent and fast laps (two of his consecutive laps were only 2 thousandths of one second apart), netting fastest lap in class, bringing their G50 home in 13th overall and 2nd in Class only 1.871 seconds behind 1st in Class for the Championship despite the additional pit stop, whilst 4th in Class on track due to the additional invitation entries.

All to play for.....

The final race saw the weather worsen, with yet more rain and the resultant standing water, starting in 13th based on their first race finish.

Once again, Eddy started well, despite the minimal visibility in the spray, moving from 13th to 6th by lap 2. The driver change came and went without drama, Marmaduke settled into a steady rhythm, building on the lead that Eddy had secured in class and running a strong second overall in the Sprint Race, once again running at a fast and consistent pace, this time missing out on fastest lap in Class by a little over one-tenth of one second. That is where he stayed until the end of the Sprint Race, 2nd Overall, and 1st in Class, their Championship hopes revived and renewed in preparation for the last two rounds at Silverstone and Brands Hatch.

The team and drivers left Oulton taking comfort from their collective efforts, with their sense of commitment and endeavour intact and resolute for the rounds to come!

We were delighted to welcome our new sponsors Romero Insurance Brokers Ltd at Oulton, Karen and Neil Want making the trip over in the wet and wild conditions! Thank you! and as always, a huge thank you to all in the TMS team, and Trico for their continuing support.

Role on Silverstone and Brands!

Photos courtesy of Chris Valentine (with the exception of the less than perfect rendition on the podium.....he wouldn’t want to take any credit for that poor effort!)