Race One
Dino qualified in 4th position behind all the Tollbar boys. It was his first time to experience the tricky circuit at Oulton, and he was eager to get as much practice in as possible. Unfortunately, only 20 laps of practise was possible due to a few red flags being used and a couple of changes made to his car. He was still upbeat though, and was ready for the challenge ahead. However, this turned out to be a tough race, as he found that the engine didn’t feel at its best from the start.
Quote from Dino: “I did my normal start but for some reason the engine didn’t pick up any revs. I was losing a lot of ground fast and by the end of lap one, went from 4th to 9th! People were overtaking me on the exit of the corners. On lap three, I ran over a bump which broke the sump in the engine. This put me into retirement. It’s unlucky, but maybe it’s a good thing because I think the engine had past it’s sell-by-date anyway.”
Race Two
With his brand new engine, Dino knew he was up against it as a new unit is tight, and effectively a lot slower than a normal run-in engine. But he had a good start and it was clear that the new engine was a great improvement on the last one. He held his position in 4th place, and started to mount an attack on 3rd. He lost a bit of time on lap four, and fell back to 5th. However, he managed to get himself back into 4th position and claw back some more valuable points for the championship.
Quote from Dino: “We’ve been rather unlucky recently. I guess everyone has to have their fair share. I’ve learnt a lot over the past two races though. I’ve become a lot stronger - both mentally and physically. I know it’s very close at the top of the championship, but I’m not going to let that distract me. My job is to go out and win and, with a new engine, I feel fully confident that I can perform well in the remaining rounds of the championship”