B Class second place for Craig

ON TRACK: Craig Mitchell in action in his Ligier JS49 car during the final day of the Ex-Cool OSS Championship at Silverstone earlier this month.

The final weekend of the championship took place at the Silverstone.

Craig qualified his Ligier JS49 in fifth and fourth place for race one then race two respectively, among a high quality grid of race cars. The final grid position would be determined from the results of race two.

Race one was run on Saturday afternoon during dry hot conditions and from fifth place Craig ran in the front pack for the entire race finishing third in Class B and one slot forward of the grid position.

Sunday morning was very wet and from fourth place again a third place in Class B was achieved; fourth overall in the race.

The final race of the season took place on Sunday afternoon and started in damp but drying conditions. Tyre choice was a real gamble as the sky was busy with black clouds. Craig went out on wets anticipating a certain downpour during the race.

A great start from the wet side of the track saw the young racer blast into second place pushing the leader for first place.

However, the damp conditions slowly disappeared as the black clouds failed to bring any rain. This did start to give the advantage to the slick shod cars and Craig slipped back into the clutches of the cars behind him.

Craig finished in fifth place and third in Class B. By the end of the last race of the season the chequered flag was followed by a massive downpour but too late to help Craig’s tyre gamble.

Craig finished all 11 races entered this season and importantly all results were a Class B podium, although no race wins were achieved.

Final points saw Craig top of Class B and second in the main championship. However, when the two round-drop score system was applied by the formula (32 points) this moved Craig to second in Class B and fourth in the main championship.

The Ligier car used this season is very much an original CN racer and a capable vehicle but when considering the cars Craig raced against are all highly upgraded versions of his standard car, then it does highlight just how well he adapted to the new challenge this year.

Some plans are in place for upgrades to the car which should put the young Scot in a very strong position for the 2015 race season.

Craig would like to thank Nu-Stock and KCEFM for their support throughout the year. He would also like to thank IF Motorsport and, of course, his dad for working with him at the events and preparing the car.