Charles Rainford put LKQ Euro Car Parts Racing with WSR on the fifth row of the grid in a red-hot qualifying British Touring Car Championship qualifying session at Oulton Park on Saturday.
The Brands Hatch race winner, who is racing at the Cheshire circuit for the first time in his BTCC career, snuck into the all-important Q2 positions with his final flying lap of Q1 aboard his BMW 330i M Sport; his best effort of the weekend so far.
He improved by another three tenths of a second in Q2; the Sussex racer’s best effort enough for ninth place on the grid as air temperatures reached 25 degrees Celsius.
Reigning champion Jake Hill was unfortunate to miss a spot in Q2 by just one place. The Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport driver locked a front wheel at Cascades on his final flying lap, losing time and starting 13th.
Daryl DeLeon was the fastest WSR driver in afternoon practice and the Jack Sears Trophy leader converted that into 16th on the grid, two places ahead of Aiden Moffat in the second LKQ Euro Car Parts Racing with WSR BMW, who lost his best Q1 effort for marginally exceeding track limits.
The first of Sunday’s three races is due to start at 1220.
Jake Hill, Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport: “It’s been a hot qualifying session and a tricky one for myself and my team-mates. As a team we have a lack of pace at the moment. It’s a shame because we all feel like we deserve better, but it is what it is. We just have to roll with it and do the best we can. Onto tomorrow…”
Charles Rainford, LKQ Euro Car Parts Racing: “It was a tricky session with a bit of rain, a bit of dry and a lot of humidity, so the track dried very quickly. We call that ‘confidence rain’. I was happy to make it into Q2 as the quickest BMW driver, but I was hoping for more heading into the weekend. We’re missing something from the car. The boys and I will work hard overnight to have a better race car. I think we’ll look after the tyres well so we’ll go and get it tomorrow…”
Aiden Moffat, LKQ Euro Car Parts Racing: “It was not a good qualifying. I did a lap that would have put me through to Q2 with Charles, but I had a slight slide with the rear at Turn One and was literally a centimetre over the kerb and got pinged for track limits! It’s been a hard day. We came here thinking it would be a rear-wheel-drive track, but it hasn’t worked out that way and we’re further back than we’d like to be, which is disappointing. Another hard Sunday incoming…”
Daryl DeLeon, WSR: “It was a bit greasy at the start of FP2 so it was good to get a sense for the changing tack conditions, but generally it’s been dry. We did a lot of running on the hard and soft tyres with a mind on tomorrow. I feel good in the BMW, but we’ll need to make a few balance changes for tomorrow, see where we are and try to move up the order.”
Dick Bennetts, Team Principal, said: “It’s been a tough day and we’re finding it hard to extract pace from the BMW that can help it to match the leading front-wheel-drive cars here. We tend to race better than we qualify and we’re expecting another warm day tomorrow plus probably some rain too. How everybody looks after the soft tyre in high temperatures will be key and in that situation I think we can use our experience and the BMW’s balance to help all four drivers move up the order.”
