Puma Cup - CADWELL PARK - Round 3 - Race Review

Round 3 of this years Puma Cup took us to Cadwell Park in Lincolnshire which some of you may know as "The Mini Nurburgring".  Famous for it`s fast open Parkside and then it`s contrasting tight and twisty Woodside it makes for one of the most challenging circuits in the country.

I have raced at Cadwell a few times however the last one was 20 years ago!  Back in 2005 as part of the 750 Motor Club Locost Series.  Needless to say Cadwell is not a track you can really just turn up to and be quick so I booked on for a full days testing on the Friday before our race.

Once I`d got my eye in, our lap times were good, approx 0.5s off the lap record set in 2021 by Gary Jones.

Mark took over for the final test session and got some laps in too which was good :-)

Saturday we had a day off so after a nice lie in, we got ourselves off to to the sea side and spent some time and money enjoying Skegness - what a giggle that place is!

Very proud to have spent £30 and won enough tickets on the Spongebob game to "win" my new bedtime buddy........Gullbert :-)

So to Sundays race........

Qualifying was hectic!  After a few laps to get things up to temperature it was time to go for a laptime, the problem was - the traffic! I appreciate it`s normally the Pumas holding up the others however round the Woodland part of the circuit, we were being held up by cars who had a much quicker overall laptime - odd situation.

Mark was on the radio saying we were in pole, then we were 4th, then 2nd, then pole again, back to 5th....it was super hectic and not helped by 2 red flags.....  The upshot being that whilst I was happy with 3rd on the grid, I knew I could be quicker - thing is, all the Puma drivers could say the same so where were we really?  Who knows.

At this point I should mention that we had a modern era record entry of 9 cars for this race, unfortunately there was a late withdrawal but to have 8 x Puma`s qualify and make the grid was amazing.  Considering the Class system of the Tin Tops series we race with, their biggest class was "E" with 5 entries - Put that into perspective - The Puma`s are thriving and long may it continue.

So to the race........no spoilers - you can watch our Race Review video with commentary here..........

So that was that........

Thanks to everyone for your help and support, it was a long weekend for us and things like time off work, time away from home etc - Mark and Mike were ace.

We`ll try again next time at Silverstone, this time on the National Circuit - Sunday June 15th.

See you there!

Cheers

Jon.