It was an exciting race in the Ferrari Challenge UK Trofeo Pirelli, held at the Oulton Park track. Below the podium the protagonists of the two classes, Trofeo Pirelli and Coppa Shell, commented on their performances.

Gilbert Yates (Charles Hurst), winner in Trofeo Pirelli

Pranav Vangala (HR Owen), second in Trofeo Pirelli: “A tough start to begin with. Thankfully Joseph (Dean) is okay after that little hit he had. Starting under the safety car is never ideal — you’d rather be doing it off the grid — but I feel like I got a good start and was able to hold onto Gilbert (Yates) for a while. Then I made a couple of mistakes. I think my tyre pressures were a bit high, and the car was sliding a lot. I came off the circuit a couple of times, which is very hard to recover from. In the last few laps, I felt like I was coming back, but it was too little, too late. Lessons learned for tomorrow”. 

Haymandhra Pillai (Stratstone Manchester), third in Trofeo Pirelli: “It was intense, my first time back in the car after eight months. It was a long one, but we made it there in the end”.

Mike Dewhirst (Dick Lovett Swindon), winner in Coppa Shell

Paul Simmerson (Graypaul Birmingham), second in Coppa Shell: “A great battle. I was managing the gap in front as much as the one behind, to make sure we couldn’t catch the guys in the Pirelli class. Fair play to Mike (Dewhirst) — he threw one up the inside at Cascades, and I wasn’t expecting him to do it there! I couldn’t turn, and then I got him in a drag race down the straight. There was a big hump on the inside that threw my car everywhere. I tried to fight him back, but by that time, he was gone”.

Peter Hunter (Stratstone Manchester), third in Coppa Shell: “It was a very lonely race. I sat back watching Dewhirst and Simmerson battle it out, thinking one of them would make a mistake so I could cut through. Then someone spun out and rejoined between me and them, which opened up the gap — I was too focused on him — and I ended up in third place on my own”.