Sunshine.co.uk started the championship well with good results in the first two race meetings but it seems their luck has run out, which was certainly the case at Oulton Park.

Paul O’Neill started the day with a share of the lead in the Independant’s championship but was forced to miss out the first two races due to a gearbox issue, which also hampered him at the end of qualifying.

The team managed to get the car ready in time for the final race which saw Paul come home in 10th place, which was later promoted to 9th following Andy Neate’s exclusion.

“It was a total reversal of how things went at Thruxton and Rockingham,” he reflected, “but you can’t have them all. This weekend has been a blip and it won’t happen again. You want to do well every time you go out on track but even more so on home soil and it is unfortunate that things didn’t go our way.”

“We win as a team and we lose as a team but they certainly didn’t deserve the bad luck we’ve had this weekend.”

It was a slightly different story for John George, but he was still unable to improve upon his points tally after finishing 12th and 11th in race one and race two respectively. Things looked promising in race three as John was running in a top ten place for much of the race but contact with Lea Wood in the final corner was enough to damage the engine which forced John to retire.

“Apart from the final race, it’s been a good weekend for me,” he said. “I ran well in practice but unfortunately I didn’t string a good lap together in qualifying which left me with work to do in the races. I had a good battle with Andy Neate and Lea Wood in race one to finish in twelfth and then I was eleventh for a long time in race two and was lapping quicker than the cars ahead. Unfortunately, Wood locked up in front of me and I had nowhere to go and the damage was enough to put me out of the final race. That was a disappointing way to end things but I’ve gone well this weekend and quicker than I have before.”

Sunshine.co.uk MD, Chris Brown, spoke out about his disappointment but feels that the team can bounce back from this at the next round of the season in two weeks time at Croft.

“Race day just didn’t go to plan, which is a shame because Paul and John were quick enough to show what might have been,” he said. “Tech-Speed worked so hard on Paul’s car and we were all gutted when he missed the first two races. It made it difficult in race three but he was still able to show that he is one of the quickest drivers out there.

“John’s speed in the first two races was really encouraging and he deserved to get a points finish today. Unfortunately it wasn’t to be and he was unlucky to get caught up in the incident that finished his weekend.

“Our season so far has been fantastic but sometimes things don’t go your way. We’ll regroup and head to Croft looking to get both cars into the points.”

Photo Credit: Pete Mainey (www.psmmotorsportimages.co.uk)

James Mappin is the editor-in-chief covering the British Touring Car Championship. You can contact him at james@btcccrazy.co.uk, on twitter @BTCCCrazy or on his personal twitter account @jamesmappin.