OULTON PARK - NEW HIRE CAR DEBUT

Saturday saw the race debut of Vanessa, Kutuka's new hire car.

A successful day's testing saw the laptimes fall as team Kutuka applied a base setup, and at day's end we'd ground the stock-engined E class down to a 2.04.7 lap, which we would have bettered had brain-fade not seen the crash test pilot park it backwards in the grit at Druids.

Race day dawned wet enough for a typical Kutuka celebration, tempered by the knowledge that the rear tyres were bald, but with Stewert on good rubber it looked likely that one of us would be showing the way round.  A slippery qualifying session saw Kutuka take 1st and 2nd of the XJS, Vanessa leading Eleanor to a front-row lockout.

Celebrations were marred by the flying saloons of Dorlin and Hill taking the overall front row in the damp conditions by a healthy margin, but with the track drying out fast in the afternoon, a dry race dawned.

A great start and some aggressive, clean racing, saw our resident Lyddall slice through to take the race win, whilst Vanessa got stuck into a lengthy dice with Coppock, Bye and Hill, coming in 4th after a fierce fight with Gail for the last podium slot.

Kutuka's cars took a clean sweep of the points, a full 17 for Lyddall in the V12 category, same again for Vanessa in class E, and a full tally for the Kutuka-prepped Comer machine in the roadgoing class.

Kutuka are a little surprised with Vanessa's speed, but we're not complaining. With some rear tyres and brakes that aren't warped, she'll be faster yet.

Vanessa will be back on track in a fortnight in the hands of a surprise guest driver at the awesome Cadwell circuit.