Being born just ten minutes down the road from Oulton Park, this was certainly a homecoming for Ciceley Motorsport driver Tom Oliphant in the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship. A weekend of highs and lows was ultimately what the Mercedes-Benz pilot had to endure.
Following a strong practice pace, Tom was hopeful of translating this into a good qualifying performance to make his life on Sunday easier. Duly hauling his Mercedes around the Cheshire circuit, Tom managed to qualify in tenth place and his second top ten grid position of the season.
Despite losing a couple places in the first race, a strong drive in twelth position would have been a good performance for the twenty-seven year old. However, on the final lap an opportunity for eleventh was possible at the expense of Brett Smith. But, the Mercedes was hit going around the outside of Druids and slid wide onto the grass. Tom recovered to finish twentieth.
Despite the disappointment, Tom channeled this into a great performance in the second race where he worked his way through the field picking off positions lap after lap. Crossing the line in thirteenth place, Tom scored his third points scoring finish of the season. Hopes were high for the final race of the day.
Race three ended as soon as it had begun for Oliphant. Contact with the Volkswagen of Mike Bushell and the MG of Rory Butcher pitched his Mercedes into the pit-wall and instant retirement with no hope of making the restart. A pure racing incident due to the nature of the Oulton Park circuit saw Tom pointless for the second race of the day.
Commenting after the weekend. Tom said, “It’s been a mixed weekend that started with a really positive day on Saturday, where we had great pace in the car from the off.
“It was fantastic to qualify in the top ten once again and to have a better qualifying record than my team-mate at this stage is a welcome surprise.”
In regards to his first race. Tom remarked, “In hindsight I should have settled for twelfth in the opening race, but I’m a racing driver and I went for the opportunity that was there. Sadly I got unnecessarily tapped into a spin and fell back to twentieth, which put us on the backfoot for the next two races.”
A disappointing race three was commented on too, “I got an okay start off the line and was side-by-side with Rory Butcher, but sadly the driver behind decided to go for a gap that wasn’t there, hit us and eventually end the race of four drivers.
“It’s really disappointing to have had our weekend ended in the pitwall through no fault of my own.”
Despite this. Tom still looks forward to Croft next up on the calendar, “We move onto Croft next though, which will be a baptism of fire as I haven’t driven the car there before.
“It’s a circuit that suits rear-wheel drive cars so it will be tough for us, but I’m confident that I can get up to speed quickly and be in the mix for the top ten once again.”
