Thursday 25th June 2015

Highs and lows at Oulton Park: Time for Tea?

One man, his Lotus Elise and a topsy-turvy race at Oulton Park!

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We love a bit of onboard action here at PistonHeads. And there's nothing finer than kicking back with a cup of tea and reliving somebody else's epic racing weekend on a dull Thursday at the office. And this is a video with plenty of highs and lows.

It's the onboard camera from Ryan Savage's Elise S1 at Oulton Park in Race Two of the Lotus Elise Trophy. Poor Ryan's starting from pitlane, but you only have to wait until Cascades on the first lap for the excitement to begin. There are some great outbraking moves through the back of the field and some lap-long battles in the midfield. But also some disturbingly high-revving into the second gear hairpins, which may or may not have contributed to the unfortunate ending of this video. You're welcome to debate that theory in the comments below.

But we tip our cap to you Ryan, that was some brilliant racecraft, great overtaking and a thrilling video, even if it didn't have the perfect ending.

The next round of the Lotus Elise Trophy will be at Spa from July 9 to July 11.

Watch the video here.

 

[Pic from Ryan Savage via Twitter]

[wst]

Knowing what was going to happen was awful, I could hear something change a few laps before the end and the last straight before it went was awfully suspenseful.

Bloody good driving apart from that though!

[wevster]

Great driving!

Shame about the end.

[Stig]

Quality driving - but Savage by name, savage by nature with the gearbox

Still - at least he didn't end up being punted into the wall liek Donington

[Baryonyx]

What a shame it gave out at the end - but it was being pushed to the limit! Some great racecraft there, especially making places at the start of the first lap. Looked like he was driving to win, whereas many of other other racers looked like they were just out for a Sunday drive!

[MrBarry123]

Some great moves but that poor car. Ouch.

[Quhet]

Reminded me of playing a racing game with the settings on easy, absolutely scything through the field!

[Ken993]

Just to add to the story. Ryan managed to get second in class in the previous race which was a one hour endurance race. As the car was being checked over the team noticed a broken alternator bracket that had damaged the
the cam belt. The cam belt was changed but the team were struggling to fit a new alternator when the other cars were just leaving the pits so Ryan was sent out without an alternator. Ryan took his position on the grid but the team were not sure that all the wheels had been properly tighten so they had him black flagged and he started from the pit lane.o

[Mermaid]

MrBarry123 said:

Some great moves but that poor car. Ouch.

+ 1, he will probably break a few more cars, but if it ends up giving him the right break, it's worth it.

[Caddyshack]

It did look like it was possibly over revving on down changes and the shift light was flashing so it could easily have been exceeding where the Rev limit was set at. Rev limiters do nothing when over revved through going down the box.

Great driving though and clearly outclassed most of the field. It takes a lot to commit that hard when you do not know how much to trust the other drivers talent around you.

[Ken993]

[HeMightBeBanned]

What let go in the engine, to cause the fire?

[Maxx]

Erm ... this

[Maxx]

Awesome drive from Ryan though, he was on fire well before he was "on fire"

Maxx

[Stig]

Ken993 said:

Just to add to the story. Ryan managed to get second in class in the previous race which was a one hour endurance race. As the car was being checked over the team noticed a broken alternator bracket that had damaged the
the cam belt. The cam belt was changed but the team were struggling to fit a new alternator when the other cars were just leaving the pits so Ryan was sent out without an alternator. Ryan took his position on the grid but the team were not sure that all the wheels had been properly tighten so they had him black flagged and he started from the pit lane.o

Would running without an alternator not be against regs (marginal power gain as no parasitic loss)?

[JZZ30]

Bloody fantastic driving.

[Francelise]

Was the bottom end re built before you started racing it? Was it balanced and bearings checked/replaced?

I think if you race an engine straight out of a ZR road car, you are going to kill the engine.

Just me sticking my noise in.

Francelise

[steveavxt]

DELETED: Comment made by a member who's account has been deleted.

Yes. I guess it was because he felt the drivers were weaving too much while defending.

[Ken993]

Stig said:

Would running without an alternator not be against regs (marginal power gain as no parasitic loss)?

The regulations don't require you to run an alternator. It will actually slow you down as the performance of the engine goes down as the power of the battery goes down. As Ryan is very light, he can afford to run a huge battery, if he only had a race battery, it would not have lasted the length of the race.

[Ken993]

Francelise said:

Was the bottom end re built before you started racing it? Was it balanced and bearings checked/replaced?

I think if you race an engine straight out of a ZR road car, you are going to kill the engine.

Just me sticking my noise in.

Francelise

The engine was built by a company that are race engine specialists. A nice thought about using a ZR road car engine but that would not be very competitive.

[Ken993]

Francelise said:

Was the bottom end re built before you started racing it? Was it balanced and bearings checked/replaced?

I think if you race an engine straight out of a ZR road car, you are going to kill the engine.

Just me sticking my noise in.

Francelise

The engine was built by a company that are race engine specialists. A nice thought about using a ZR road car engine but that would not be very competitive.