ROUNDS 15 & 16 – ELF Renault Clio Cup
Oulton Park, Cheshire, July 26th/27th 2008

Dreaded Dave’s Oulton Park Nightmare

With a sunny weekend forecast at their local circuit Oulton Park, both the Team Gladman drivers - father and son duo, Jonathan and David Shepherd were fired-up for action at the glorious Cheshire venue.
One of the most challenging tracks on the calendar, Oulton Park with its mixture of fast corners, chicanes and undulating straights, tests the drivers’ skills to the limit and the lack of run-off areas, also tests the drivers’ commitment to the limit.

Fridays test day soon brought both drivers back down to earth as neither could find the groove and post a quick lap time, despite running a set-up developed from Snetterton. It was only after studying post test day data, that the drivers and the team spotted a few corners where time was being lost.

Consequently, Saturday mornings qualifying saw David improve by over a second a lap from his testing pace and secure 15th place on the grid with Jonathan still struggling with the car at the rear of the grid.
The first race of the weekend on Saturday afternoon was blessed with sunshine and as the drivers sat sweltering in their cars on the grid, both managed good starts as the lights went out. David instantly passed two cars on the row ahead and had made three places by the first corner, only to find himself forced to the outside down through ‘Cascades’ and turning into the fast left hand corner, David was hit by Aaron Smith in car 10 and forced into a spin landing in the gravel.

Jonathan meanwhile after a good launch from the line, also gained a few places, but on entering the hairpin, tangled with another car, knocking his steering out of alignment, leaving him with severe understeer for the rest of the race, but still managed to finished in 19th position gaining a couple of points in the process.

Meanwhile David after jumping out of his stranded car, jumped back in to be towed out of the gravel, then under marshals instructions, rejoined at the back of the safety car train and resumed racing with the rest of the grid, only to be black flagged after a few laps for breaking the rules.

A frustrated David said afterwards, “I did what the marshals said, but I did think it was wrong at the time, so wasn’t surprised to see the black flag a few laps later. I’m more annoyed at Smith for forcing me off, as I had made a mega start and was looking good for a top ten finish”.

After the race both Jonathan and David were called to the Clerk of the Course and ended up being reprimanded by a very disgruntled official as apparently David re-passed his father in a jointly orchestrated move under a yellow flag after rejoining the race. Neither driver was penalised and both felt that the incident whilst obviously an offence did have an amusing side to it as they told the team afterwards - its not often both drivers involved in an incident are trying to stress the other’s innocence!

Race two on Sunday afternoon saw the temperatures soar even higher than Saturday’s race and David was looking for some good fortune after the previous day’s disaster, but alas it was not to be. After making another great start and closing right up onto the top ten, he was caught up in a melee of cars all trying to avoid a spinning Clio ahead and unfortunately was unable to avoid both a heavy frontal impact into the errant Clio and the ignominy of a further car piling heavily into his rear, causing a huge amount of damage to his ‘Birchall’ liveried Clio.

Luckily David climbed out of the car unhurt, but shaken and frustrated and the safety car was instantly deployed as the marshals set about clearing up the debris and moving several damaged cars. Jonathan managed to avoid the wreckage and drove to the chequered flag in 18th place bagging a few more points along the way.

After the race David’s Clio was dropped back at the awning by the recovery truck and it then became apparent just what a big accident it had been, with the car damaged on every corner and the engine and gearbox also broken. Looking like a complete write-off the team now have a great deal of work to do prior to the next race at Silverstone at the end of August.

You can watch the ELF Renault Clio Cup live on ITV Four and further coverage on Motorsport UK, check programme listings for times.

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