No tin grins as Cole caught up in clashes
SOUTHPORT TIN-TOP racer James Cole faced another frustrating series of highs and lows when he returned to his “home” track Oulton Park, the scene of his early single-seater championship successes, during the fourth round races in the 2017 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship last weekend.
While his fellow team-mates in the Adrian Flux Subaru/BMR BTCC Racing Team enjoyed a resurgence in fortunes, including the superb first Scoobie win of the season by Ash Sutton, last year’s top BTCC rookie, Cole (28), after shining in practice, found himself the unfortunate victim of clashes with other competitors in two of his three races.
The Subaru improvement, after a disappointing start to their second year in Britain’s leading motor racing series, began to reveal itself during the two free practice sessions and it was Cole, who started his racing career at the picturesque Cheshire track ten years ago that led the Team BMR quartet in both sessions.
In the first session Cole, the winner of both BRSCC NW Formula Ford Post 89 and Class A Championships and the “Star of Anglesey” Championship in 2007, was fifth and led home teammates Sutton (eighth), Jason Plato (16th) and Josh Price (28th).
Clearly Cole’s knowledge of his “home” circuit is useful and in the second free practice session he led the way, only to be pipped to the number one slot by less than three tenths of a second by three-times BTCC champion Matt Neal (Halfords Yuasa Honda), in a rain effected frenetic 40 minutes.
Again he topped the Scoobie quartet with Sutton (fifth), Plato (9th) and Price (29th).
“This is like home to me,” said Cole. “If I could do it anywhere I would want it to be here as this is where it all began. I first sat in a racing car at Oulton Park ten years or so ago, so it would be great if we could show our true potential this weekend.”
Cole’s promise in those early days led to a move to the British Formula Ford Championship in 2008 where he finished an excellent tenth overall with Jamun Racing.
Remaining with Jamun in 2009, the Southport racer dominated the series with seven wins and six seconds, five pole positions and six fastest laps en route to the title.
A season long duel with a certain young up and coming American Joseph Newgarden who, this weekend will be one of the favourites for success in the famous Indianapolis 500, was a highlight.
Cole then made further move up the single-seater to Formula Three in 2010 and, after leading for most of the year, finished runnerup in the National Class of the Cooper Tires Formula Three International Series. Back to the present and come qualifying last Saturday afternoon and it was back to reality for the Scoobie squad whose performances so far this season have been hampered by centre of gravity regulations and lack of straight line speed. But once again, and with talk of a further turbo boost recalculation for the Subarus, Sutton bucked the trend and finished sixth _ despite losing his best time for exceeding track limits _ while Plato was down in 19th, Cole (21st) and Price (31st). Cole, who was actually only one second off the pole time set by Neal, tweeted: “Sadly can not explain the lack of speed! The Subaru is a great car, feel for the whole team. We will keep pushing...!” And that’s exactly what he did at the start of the first of the three races on Sunday. From his 21st grid slot he was up five places to 16th, at the end of lap one on what is considered by many to be a difficult track to overtake. It was all looking good for his first BTCC Driver Championship points of the season but, having made it into the top 15 a few laps later, there was disappointment on the 15th and final tour when contact with another competitor saw Cole drop back to 23rd at the finish.
Team BMR, however, were celebrating another third place podium from Sutton (he scored two third places at Donington Park at Easter) with Plato (13th) and Price (22nd).
Race two and Cole had little opportunity to make headway from his 23rd starting position.
And it was all over on lap six when the Subaru Levorg was struck and left spinning out of the race by Tom Ingram’s Spedworks Motorsport Toyota Avensis which in turn had been hit by another car.
Cole was left to watch from the sidelines as Sutton went on to score Team BMRs first win of the year, reviving memories of Subarus first BTCC win at Oulton Park last year.
Plato finished 13th and there was more celebrations for the team as Price was the Jack Sears Trophy (for rookies) victor in 15th.
Race three was one to forget for Cole whose retirement from race two left him starting the final encounter of the day from the back of the 31 car grid.
After several pit stops his weekend, one that had started so promisingly, ended on a low, as he was classified 28th, while Sutton completed another fine day for the Scoobie squad with a fourth place ahead of Plato (11th) and Price (27th).
But, as Cole said in interviews over the weekend: “We are getting there” and ”We will keep pushing...”
The fifth round BTCC series take place at Croft on the weekend of June 10-11.