Ben Stone and Rob Wheldon arrived at Oulton Park for the second Praga Cup weekend, as Championship leaders in their RAW Motorsports Praga.
In the morning qualifying session it was Stone on track first. “It was a disaster as I flat spotted my tyres on the out lap. I was impatient trying to bring the temperature in on the slicks and kept locking up. Then it was a nightmare under braking with vibration, but I still got an OK time,” he explained.
Wheldon tookover for the second half and was able to secure fifth for the afternoons race.
“There was no grip left on the left-hand side so it was a struggle. The vibration was horrific but did what I could,” he added.
Team-mate Rod Goodman secured seventh on the grid, starting directly behind Wheldon.
“It was a fairly good session for me and I was happy with my set-up too,” he said.
As the field set off on their green flag there had already been cars stopped on track and others in the pitlane, so the race got underway behind the safety car initially.
When the green flag was waved after two laps, Scott Mittell was on the right heading into Old Hall Corner and Stefano Leaney on the left, with a sizeable gap down the middle. Wheldon moved into the to challenge for the lead, but was caught by Mittell. “I was alongside both cars and then Scott came across and it pushed me into Stefano, “said Wheldon.
Leaney was into the tyre wall, where he was then joined by Wheldon, after another touch with Mittell.
It was race over for the Wheldon/Stone duo, with Goodman having come through unscathed in third. As a solo driver Goodman was able to make his compulsory stop at any time in the race.
“I came in early to see if we could maximise the track space for me,” Goodman explained after pitting on lap seven.
He rejoined in sixth and retained the position for the duration, despite a late scare. “It was near the end and I went inside a backmarker at Druids and spun, but got away with it OK,” he admitted.
Sixth place was retained and now the team look forward to the next round of the Championship at Snetterton on May 14/15.