The CPC Legends Cars series kicked off this weekend at Oulton Park with Paul Musselle returning to the series after a ten-year layoff and making a solid start to his 2010 campaign despite being involved in many incidents during the three race event.
Paul and his team had an excpetionally busy week as they put the finishing touches to the car, built their massive new hospitality unit for the first time, launched the series at title sponsor CPC in Preston and set-up the TV broadcast of the event!
As if not under enough pressure, Paul had the fortune/misfortune of picking a front row position in the balloted grid selection, a choice met by much amusement from his fellow drivers!
When the green flag fell Paul experienced the full agression of the pack in race one as he was pushed wide at the first corner, recovering to 10th for a solid start. In the second race the reversing of the grid positions from race 1 meant he started in 22nd place in the 30 car field and stormed through the pack , however he then missed a gear and a spin demoted him back to 18th. In the final race Paul made a great start from 8th on the grid to emerge from the first corner in 5th place behind teamate John Mickel , before he was punted off at Lodge Corner on lap 4. A solid recovery and race back through the pack saw him finish in a very credible 11th. As a result Paul leaves Oulton Park lying in 12th place in the Championship among the 30 car field.
A clearly elated Paul said afterwards "What a weekend, even I thought I'd taken on a little too much at one point! I had great support from the Mickel Motorsport team who worked furiously in the week building up to the race to get the CPC Legend ready. All weekend friends and family helped with the hospitality, transport and running of the show. The team from Mickel Motorsport continued their huge effort from first practice all the way through to the last race and my car felt brilliant; crew chief Craig Slater did a fantastic job. All I need to do is eradicate the errors I made, a lot of which were down to being a bit rusty but I know that I'll get better as the series moves on."
It was also a real family affair for Paul as his wife and children came to stay in the new motorhome kindly supplied by Travelworld RV's.
It was a busy weekend for CPC, the new sponsors of the Legends series, as they unveiled their new car and championship sponsorship to their 350 strong staff at a special staff event complete with a 'Stig' lookalike! The innovative electrical distributor have also commissioned a two seater car which was used to good effect for staff and competition winners to experience all the fun of Legends racing.
The series moves onto Brands Hatch next for round two on the 17th-18th April
