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April 30/May 1 OULTON PARK (Page 2)
The weather had started to brighten and the afternoon test session was dry, with the sun trying to get out. The two Peugeot's made an appearance along with last season's champion, Simon Harrison in the Ford Focus. Kevin put in some steady laps and reduced his time down to 1m56.773, his best around Oulton Park, to finish twelfth of the seventeen cars.

Dave Allan pitted twice with a VTEC problem and, combined with the session being halted when Simon Harrison appeared to innocuously pull over on the track, he could only manage four flying laps but still returned a creditable 1m55.238 to finish ninth overall.

Another niggly problem to occur during the test was a slight oil leak from the driveshaft on Dave Allan's car. This small problem, though, turned into a nightmare as the driveshaft would not free, so that the seal could be changed. In the end, the whole gearbox had to be removed from the car and, even then, it would only free after some desperate methods from the team. The job was finished barely thirty minutes from the start of qualifying.

Sunday's twenty-five minute qualifying session actually got underway slightly late at 14.53 with the weather still bright and dry. Two extra cars were present from the seventeen that tested yesterday, bringing the entry to nineteen, the highest so far this season.

Unfortunately, qualifying was also fraught with problems that involved both drivers. Dave Allan immediately came back into the pits with no VTEC once again. After some five minutes, he returned to the track but immediately pitted again with the same problem. After what seemed an age but was, in fact, only five minutes, he went out again. This time he did manage one lap toward the compulsory three that were required in order not to start from the back of the grid and possibly incur time penalties as well. But, he had to pit yet again. He went back out with just sufficient time to complete the required laps. On the second of those two laps, he put in a sparkling 1m54.785 to climb to eighth overall.