‘Giant-killer’ Lea Wood says he wants a repeat of Oulton Park’s greasy conditions at Croft this weekend (18-19 June).
In his first race back since Brands Hatch’s final round last October, Wood drove his 2006 BTC-spec Honda Integra – the oldest car on the grid – from 21st on the grid to a seventh place result at Oulton.
It was the former super silhouette champion’s first ever outright points in the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship and afterwards there were understandable scenes of elation in the Central Group Racing pit garage – as well as a few tears from Wood himself!
The result was a shock for the Integra is required to run with 50kgs more ballast this season as BTC-spec cars become obsolete, but in damp but drying conditions which called for drivers to gamble on tyre choice the Hereford racer seized his opportunity.
He only narrowly missed out on another top ten in race two, also held on a greasy track – he crossed the line in 11th overall just a second away from tenth and with a fastest lap better than four of those ahead of him.
Now Wood wants more of the same at Croft this coming weekend and he told btcc.net net: “I said before on your site if it rained anything could happen and it did!
“The Integra was the class of the field in its heyday and a good car is always going to be a good car. I guess the sweetest moment at Oulton was passing Matt Neal (pictured above) who won two titles in the Integra – for some reason his Civic was starting to struggle whereas the Integra was just awesome.
“There’s no way we’d expect results like that in bone dry conditions so I hope it’s a bit drizzly at Croft again this weekend. That always spices things up even more for the fans and I think everyone likes to see the underdog do well.
“It’s also a massive deal for a small team like ours. I said before we just hope to do the best job we can with what we’ve got and that as underdogs with a bit of an old favourite in the Integra we can build up a a following which might lead to more sponsors coming our way. Oulton was a great way to start…”
