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Joe Tandy made up for his mistake
in race one at Oulton Park by dominating the second Formula Palmer
Audi race of the day.
The Bedford racing ace made a stunning start, bolting through a
tiny FPA car-shaped gap between front row sitters David Epton and
Emilio de Villota off the grid and squeezing into an early lead he
would not lose.
Epton got close to Tandy on occasion but never close enough to
have a serious look at taking the lead. “David kept me honest all
the way through,” said ex-Mini racer Tandy. “I had to keep well on
it throughout the race.”
Spaniard De Villota held second place until lap four when, at the
end of a two-lap safety car period, he pulled into the pits and
retired with a broken turbo. That left Epton to take second from
Briton Stuart Prior, who was a way back from the leading pair
after De Villota held the field behind him as he peeled into the
pits.
“Unfortunately, I messed up the start this time,” admitted Epton.
“Joe got a blinder. I just had to keep the pressure on him and
hope he made a mistake, but he didn’t.”
Prior, meanwhile, was happy just to be on the podium even though
he finished 17 seconds behind Tandy. “Those two were just a bit
too quick for me today,” admitted Prior. “I wasn’t sure what
Emilio was doing when he slowed to go into the pits but I don’t
think I could have caught the two in front anyway.”
Fourth went to South African Chris Hyman, who admitted he’d hardly
used any overboost because he felt so comfortable in fourth place
and was erring on the side of caution anyway. “I felt like I was
out there waiting for the proper race to start,” he said. “I
didn’t even have a sweat on when I got out of the car. I was going
to bring the car home whatever happened this time, and to catch
Stuart would have meant using boosts and then he wasn’t just going
to let me past.”
Paul Warren was fifth, leading home a group of four cars which
were squabbling throughout the second half of the race. Terry
White took the chequered flag right behind Warren, having taken
advantage of a mistake by Edwin Jowsey on the final lap.
Source: Formula Palmer Audi Press Office |
