Speed king Tom fights bad luck

I LOVE racing at Oulton Park because the fun never stops.

There is always something going on and the racing is as close as it gets.

This year we had everything from a funfair to a Eurofighter Typhoon blasting past with its two glowing red jets burning more fuel than all the race cars put together.

It kept a fantastic crowd of more than 40,000 people entertained but I think I had the best seat in the house for the racing.

I was always in the middle of it. I am never happier than when I'm rubbing door mirrors but unfortunately, I had a little bad luck.

After being fastest in free practice on Saturday, my brakes overheated in qualifying after a call on to the scrutineering patch at the wrong time.

One of the disadvantages of running a turbo like the one on my Ford Focus is that it gets very hot. I was seeing 800 degrees!

I can't just come in and switch it off or I will damage it. So I had to sit on the patch for 90 seconds and this managed to boil the brake fluid.

So when I went to go out to push for a good time, my brake pedal was long and I struggled to get it to stop. I lost two tenths of a second — which put me fifth on the grid.

In the first race, I was stuck in fifth place and couldn't get past a defensive Chevrolet, which then allowed the BMWs to get past.

But I snuck in behind one of them and followed it through to claim a creditable fifth place.

In Race Two I got a great start but on the second lap I didn't notice a tyre barrier at the Knickerbrook chicane had been knocked in over the kerb.

Unfortunately I clipped it with my front right wheel and had to race with bent steering.

I just about managed to finish with my front right tyre down to the canvas and luckily held on to sixth place.

Race Three was my chance to go for a win as I was fourth on the reverse grid and got a good start.

I picked off those in front of me one by one but just as I took the lead from SEAT's Tom Boardman, I went for the brakes, only to find the camber change in the road gave me the biggest snap oversteer of my life.

I managed to hold on to the slide but lost three places in the process. I finally finished fourth and was happy with three finishes in the top six to add more points to my championship tally.

Our Team Aon bagged the most points and my team-mate Tom Onslow-Cole won Race One and picked up the Cliff Johnson Trophy in memory of driver Martin Johnson's dad, who sadly passed away last week.

The trophy was for the driver who collected the most points over the weekend, so very well done to Tom.

Team AON is now third in the Team Championship and over the last two race weekends we have achieved three race wins and five podiums.

Away from this fast and crazy world at the race track, I have just found myself a new girlfriend. She is called Lauren and is definitely too good for me!

She has an amazing smile and makes me feel as good as when I've just won a race. She works for the Monster energy drink company and is always full of ... energy. Surprise, surprise!

Next race is Croft, just south of Newcastle, on June 20. Hopefully I'll be spraying some champagne there.

Meanwhile thanks for all the great support at Oulton Park.

You can find out more about Tom at www.tomchilton.com