Adam wins two out of two at Oulton Park

Jonathan Adam (Total Control Racing) completed the perfect weekend at Oulton Park in Rounds 13 and 14 of the 2008 SEAT Cupra Championship, recording two wins and two fastest laps. His resurgence looked to be well on track during qualifying where the reigning Champion made short work of setting unbeatable pole position times, and he made sure that those efforts paid off with two convincing victories. Robert Lawson (Bardon/JHR) is the man Adam is trying to catch though and with two 2nd place finishes behind Adam, the current Championship leader did a great job of damage limitation. Lawson will still be heading to Knockhill with a decent lead in the standings, but Adam's pace looked untouchable at Oulton Park so trying to beat him at his home circuit looks like an incredible task.

Round 13, which unusually took place on the Saturday, had been a lot about the start. Lawson sat alongside Adam on the front row, but a poor launch saw both Andrew Herron (Brian Herron Plant/JHR) and Martin Byford (AB Glass/Z Speed Racing) go around him to tuck in behind Adam after the first corner. By the end of the first lap though Lawson was back into 3rd at the expense of Herron and had Byford in his sights. Biding his time Lawson was finally able to capitalise on a Byford mistake at the Island Bend hairpin to go back into 2nd place, but Adam was too far ahead to catch by this point, the Yorkshire driver having to settle for the second step on the podium. Carl Breeze (Blue Chip/Welch Motorsport) was another driver who had a poor start and despite a valiant fight back he couldn't get further back than 7th , despite Jamie Ackers (Total Control Racing) dropping from 6th to 10th , which gave a serious dent to his title ambitions. Jeremy Gumbley (Millionpixeldriver.com/Welch Motorsport) certainly had more to celebrate though, taking an easy 5th place behind Herron, which was a feat he repeated in the next race.

With a nights rest between the two races, Round 14 was the chance for those who made poor starts in Round 13 to make amends. And as the lights went out all 14 drivers got away well, Lawson looking like he may challenge Adam into the first corner but with only a narrow track it was Adam who pushed through first. Heading down towards Cascades though and Herron was sent sideways into a spin, the ensuing avoidance of those behind resulting in both Steve Mitchell (JP Motorsport) and David Green (Daniels Motorsport) having their races ended early. Herron managed to keep going but had his work cut out from the back of the pack, especially considering the gap Adam had already made at the front.

A familiar sight at the front soon developed with Adam leading from Lawson who was ahead of Byford, and Daniel Welch (Marriott/Welch Motorsport) in 4th . Behind them though David Nye (Daniels Motorsport) then Gumbley were battling for 5th and young James Appleby (Hardinge Machine Tools) was doing a sterling effort of holding off a hard charging yet slightly damaged Breeze. Mixed fortunes followed though as Nye started losing pace allowing Gumbley to take him while Appleby lost gear selection for half a lap allowing the rest of the field to pass him. Despite making a place up though Breeze went wide at Lodge on the last lap to let Daniel Rowbottom (DRM M-sport) through into 6th which was a further blow to the driver who started the weekend 2nd in the Championship.

Martin Byford: "It was a step forward this weekend from Snetterton. It was a step forward with the car and I think it was a step forward with myself. But we need another step forward to be competitive with Lawson and Adam."

James Appleby: "A couple of times in the second race Breeze was right on me but had Rowbottom right behind him. So there was no way he was going to pass me. It was cracking before that second race, but that wrecked the whole thing and makes a top six finish almost impossible now."

Jonathan Adam: "Two wins, two fastest laps and a lap record. It doesn't get much better than that. Our tyres were a bit older than Rob's in testing, but we did well and felt we would go on to do well this weekend."

Robert Lawson: "The aim of the game is to win races, and we haven't done that here. The team are doing well with the car but we haven't quite found that sweet spot this weekend."

Jeremy Gumbley: "We did so much driving yesterday (Saturday) that it took a few laps in the second race to engage your brain. For a few laps after that though I was driving the car like I'd stolen it! That last race was ace though, I had another mega start."

Daniel Rowbottom: "As I keep saying, our start positions have to be improved. Maybe we'll have a test day to figure out where we can find that little extra as there really should be no reason to not be on the podium now."