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Going into this weekend I had no circuit knowledge. Having elected to skip the Oulton Park round last year, an afternoon of testing on Friday had only two objectives: learn the circuit and refine a setup.

A broken head stud was the result of a single installation lap in the first of two sessions. Later, during the second session, the oil cooler was ruptured by a stone and a rocker gasket began to leak, ending what was a very difficult day in which I managed just half a dozen laps of the picturesque circuit.

On Friday evening we reappraised our situation. I had come to Oulton Park with the clear intention of winning. I wanted my fourth straight pole position and I wanted to make up for the mistake last time out at Silverstone. However, we found ourselves in a difficult situation. I still did not know the circuit well and with only a handful of laps, we approached making changes to our setup with some trepidation.

As far as I was concerned, the objectives had changed. Martin Farmer, last years Oulton Park winner and my only championship threat, was clearly fastest on Friday with the new 2008-spec GAC engine. With only ten championship points separating us going into this weekend, I had to focus on damage limitation. For me, we decided, there was nobody else in the race.

During qualifying, I stayed close to Farmer. James Birch put in an early quick lap to take provisional pole position whilst Farmer and I continued to improve our times. The session ended with Farmer improving on the final lap to take pole position. Birch ended up second whilst I was was third.

We were ahead of Farmer up until the final lap and considering the relative lack of circuit knowledge we had, it wasn't a bad result. The car was also distinctly unpredictable and we later discovered a broken trailing arm. Since lap one of qualifying we were running extreme camber on the right-rear wheel, almost certainly a result of taking the heavy kerbing through one of the two chicanes. All things considered, I was relatively confident.

Lining up on the grid, I still had just one goal in mind: finish ahead of Farmer. For the first time ever, I was ready for big picture racing.

Over the green flag lap I was somewhat concerned with the car. It sounded more "throaty than normal and I concluded it was probably a small piece of dirt in the carburettor. What's worse, the oil light had come on as I took my grid space.

I had an average get away but lost momentum as Hands came across to cover the inside. As I was swamped by many cars, I decided to err on the side of caution early into the turn one. I was down in sixth position but as we swooped through Cascades and down the Lakeside straight for the first time I was not particularly concerned. It was a train of cars: Hands, Farmer, Birch, Jake Oliveira, Sam Oliveira, myself and Ryan Lindsay. It didn't think it would last and so I sat back for a lap to consider the car.

Over the opening lap the oil light continued to flash. Rationalising that I wouldn't still be running if I really had an oil pressure problem, I figured it too was a victim of hitting the kerbing hard all weekend.

Exiting Lodge corner for the first time and we began to concertina together. I got alongside Sam up the hill and was past in time to take a somewhat normal line into Old Hall. Hands and Birch were alongside one another at the front, as were Jake and Farmer directly ahead of me.

Jake Oliveira and Farmer continued to run side-by-side down through Cascades and I managed to get to the gearbox of Jake before Farmer had a chance to close the door. Approaching the Shell Oils hairpin this time and I was back into 4th position but most crucially, ahead of Farmer.

I decided to start defending. After all, I did not have to win the race and even if the front three made a break, it didn't matter to me.

We continued to go wheel to wheel over the next lap, Farmer getting to my outside before Old Hall. He couldn't make it stick and fell back into line for the run through Cascades. Once again, on the run down Lakeside Straight, Farmer rocketed to my outside before Island Bend. Taking the outside line, he appeared to get on the marbles and he under-steered off the circuit and onto the grass. I could hardly believe my eyes and as I began to brake for the hairpin he was out the sight of my mirrors.

I continued to search my mirrors for any signs of the works GAC. Before we had even reached the Knickerbrook chicane I was confident that if he was still running, he was considerably down the order.

Sam Oliveira was now glued to my gearbox. Having reappraised the situation and still holding reservations about the reliability of my car, I moved over to let him past rather than risk fighting unnecessarily. What's more, by following him, I would be almost certainly be dragged back to the front while continuing to conserve my own car.

Sam was having his own difficulties and as he went through to my inside at Druids, his car was quite literally on fire. Being a sportsman, he let me back through and I continued to reduce the gap on my own.

Exiting Cascades again and it was now Birch who was to fall by the wayside. Suffering an engine failure, this promoted me back to where I had started in third position.

As I negotiated Island Bend for the third time I could see the stricken car of Farmer in the outside wall. Once again, this changed the dynamics of my race. With a ten point lead originally and a DNF giving Farmer only 1 extra point, I would need to score 18 to take the title, the equivalent of finishing fourth. As I was currently running in third position, I concentrated on keeping consistent and conservative. Ryan Lindsay was keeping me honest and his constant presence in my mirrors gave me little hope of relaxing entirely.