Oulton Park - 10th October
Finol Star of Tomorrow Des Foley travelled to the Oulton Park circuit near Chester last weekend as part of his prize for winning the 2015 Finol Star of Tomorrow championship. Des enjoyed a day’s testing, bringing himself up to speed in the 160bhp Leastone 1000, his first time to experience slicks and wings in a single seater.
Having a solid days testing in the books, albeit with some minor comfort niggles, Foley qualified 11th on a grid of 25 cars, for both of the MonoMoto events which were to be held later in the day.
Despite his inexperience of both car and track, Des attacked the opening lap, vaulting himself up to 8th and holding on to the coattails of the group ahead. He settled into a steady rhythm, until a mid race safety bunched everyone up for closing stages of the race. Des used this to his advantage and made further progress after the safety car pulled off, to pull himself up to 6th place overall.
The top 5 made a break, as the 1000’s standard GSXR engine did not quite having the straight line speed to attack the tuned Jedi’s ahead of him. Despite a lonely end to the race, he began to reel off consistent laps, gaining confidence in the car with each passing lap.
Des had a good start to race two, making some aggressive moves into turn 1 and gaining a handful of places over the course of lap 1. A similar pattern to race 1 then emerged, with the race settling down and Foley once again setting consistent lap times. Running a comfortable 5th did not stop Des from pushing and it showed, as he ran deep at the Knickerbrook chicane on two occasions.
Des continued to push on and consolidate his 5th place but heading onto the last lap, a front suspension rocker broke, forcing Des to retire the car. However such was the pace of the leaders, Des was still classified in 7th place overall.
‘Apart from the final lap, the weekend was fantastic! The car was really enjoyable to drive, even though it is a big step up from the Vee, it is really forgiving which allowed me to gain confidence pretty quickly. And the track was phenomenal! A huge thank you to Finol and Leastone for this opportunity.’ said Foley post race.
The Finol Star of Tomorrow continues into 2016, with Finol Oils and Leastone once again offering Formula Vee rookies a prize race weekend during the Monoposto Championship, giving them the opportunity to experience a slicks and wings single seater on a UK track.
Videos from the weekend can be found below:
