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Archive April 2011
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06/05/2011
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30-04-11
Formula 3: In Formula 3
Euro Series’ qualifying at Hockenheim Marco Wittmann
(Signature, 1:33.152 minutes) set the fastest lap time for the
Sunday’s race. Roberto Merhi (Prema Powerteam, 1:33.249
minutes) was 0.097 seconds slower and ended up second behind
Wittmann. In the ranking of the second-fastest lap times, the
Spaniard came out on top, which puts him on pole position for
the first race of the weekend. Points’ leader Daniuel Juncadella
(Prema Powerteam, 1:33.490 minutes) and Laurens Vanthoor
(Signature, 1:33.538 minutes) ended up third and fourth in
qualifying. In the final minutes, Wittmann’s lap time remained
unbeaten as the session was interrupted after Nigel Melker (Mücke
Motorsport, 1:33.751 minutes) crashed into the barriers. In the
remaining four minutes after the session resumed, the order
remained unchanged. Melker remained seventh as the best-placed
rookie, directly behind his team-mate Felix Rosenqvist (Mücke
Motorsport, 1:33.583 minutes) and Daniel Abt (Signature,
1:33.684 minutes) in fifth and sixth place respectively. Marco
Wittmann: “In qualifying, we tried a different set-up than we
had in testing this morning, which helped us. In testing before
Hockenheim, we have made good progress. Now, we have to wait for
the races in order to see how the tyres behave with this set-up
during the race distance.” Roberto Merhi (Prema Powerteam): “In
testing, my car wasn’t good at all, but we have successfully
developed it into the right direction. In qualifying, it was
nearly perfect and the balance was all right.”
 Porsche
Carrera Cup GB
: James Sutton was the man on top in qualifying for
the Porsche Carrera Cup GB at Thruxton today (30 April) when
he took pole position for both rounds five and six of the
championship. Jonas Gelzinis did the double In Pro-Am1, while
George Brewster took both Pro-Am2 poles. With his car nudging
165mph on the charge up Woodham Hill towards the Club Chicane,
Sutton (SAS/Redline) became the fastest ever Carrera Cup driver
at Thruxton by twice breaking the 1m14s barrier to secure an
impressive double pole. “We knew we had room for improvement
after testing, but I didn’t get the best out of my first set of
tyres,” said Sutton. His mid-session pit stop strategy worked
well and Sutton was one of the first drivers to rejoin the
session after his tyre change. “I got 2.3 miles of clear track
to give myself the best chance,” he said after topping both
grids. Leading the challenge to Sutton was Euan Hankey (Parker
with Juta), who also broke the 1m14s mark for the opening race.
However, Hankey believed it could have been even better. “I had
a big moment into the chicane; I locked the rears and bounced
over the middle kerb and it was still a 13.9s lap,” said Hankey,
who will start second for both races. Third places were shared
between Jonas Gelzinis (Juta Racing) and Stephen Jelley (Parker
with Juta). “There was a lot of traffic, but I’m leading Pro-Am1
and that is the focus,” said Gelzinis, who slipped to fifth for
round six. Jelley, meanwhile, was confident that he would be
strong for the races. “We did a very good race run in testing
and we’re in good shape for tomorrow,” he said. Michael Meadows
(SAS/Redline) and Tim Harvey (Nationwide/Motorbase) both took
top six places for each race, but there was frustration for
Harvey’s team mate Michael Caine. “We’ve got mega understeer;
the car is very different to testing,” said Caine who had been
right on the pace in testing but will start in ninth place for
both races. While Gelzinis set a searing pace in Pro-Am1, Rory
Butcher (Celtic Speed) was very impressive on his debut weekend
at Thruxton to lead the chase of the Lithuanian driver.
Importantly, Butcher did the fewest number o laps in qualifying
to keep his tyres in as good a condition as possible at a track
that it notoriously tough on tyres. “I seem to have taken to the
circuit relatively quickly and I’m in among the Pro drivers,
which is where we want to be,” said the Scot. On both grids,
Ahmad Al Harthy (Oman Air/Redline) and Alex Martin (Dextra/JD
Pierce by Parker) were third and fourth in Pro-Am1. Making it a
good session for Celtic Speed, Brewster headed Pro-Am2 for both
races and, like his team mate, had been very conservative on
tyre usage. “It was excellent; we had a game plan to do the
minimum number of laps to save the tyres,” said Brewster. Andrew
Shelley (Red Line Racing) was twice second for Pro-Am2, but felt
that a better time was within reach, while third and fourth
places in the Pro-Am2 were shared between Steve Parish (Motorbase
Performance) and Keith Webster (Red Line Racing).
Derek
Pierce is the latest Porsche Carrera Cup GB racer to benefit
from Michelin’s on-going support of the championship by
winning a set of tyres this weekend at Thruxton (30 April/1
May).Pierce, racing for Team Parker Racing team, has returned to
the championship this season after taking a year out of racing
in 2010 and is a leading contender in the Pro-Am1 category.
Having been the control tyre supplier for the Carrera Cup GB
since the championship was created in 2003, Michelin is once
more supporting the teams and drivers with the award of a
complete set of slick racing tyres at each event. Before the
start of testing, a name is drawn from a hat to receive the
tyres, with a value of more than £1000. “Michelin has supported
us throughout the history of the Carrera Cup GB and I am
delighted that once again they are giving away 10 sets of tyres
across the season,” said championship manager Marion Barnaby.
The stage is set for another superbly competitive pair of
races in the Porsche Carrera Cup GB at Thruxton this weekend
(30 April/1 May) after less than a second covered the top 12
drivers in testing today (Friday 29 April) ahead of rounds five
and six of the championship. For the second event in a row, it
was Pro-Am1 racer Jonas Gelzinis (Juta Racing) who topped the
overall times, with James Sutton and Michael Meadows right
behind for SAS/Redline. Meanwhile, Steve Parish headed the
Pro-Am2 category for Motorbase Performance. Gelzinis shot to the
top of the times in the second session to post the fastest ever
Carrera Cup lap of the Hampshire track. However, Sutton and
Meadows were within four-hundredths of a second of the
Lithuanian racer as he competed at Thruxton for the second time.
“It is much easier this year,” said Gelzinis. “I know how to
drive the circuit faster and the driving style for the new car
seems to help me.” Sutton, meanwhile, believed there was a
better lap still to come. “I think there is a 1m13s lap in
there,” he said. “The balance of the car is good.” Meadows was a
whisker slower than his team mate. “We did quite a lot of work
between the sessions and it paid off,” he said. Right in
contention for the first time this season in fourth was Michael
Caine (Nationwide/Motorbase), with a best lap only a tenth of a
second away from Gelzinis. “It feels alright,” said Caine.
“That’s the most comfortable I’ve felt in the car so far,” he
added. Team mate Tim Harvey was eighth fastest, but confident of
a strong performance in the two races on Sunday. “We changed the
car for the afternoon and it wasn’t so good; but looking after
the tyres will be the big issue here.” Well in the hunt were
Stephen Jelley and Euan Hankey for the Parker with Juta team,
while Richard Plant (Team Parker Racing) was a strong seventh
ahead of his first race at Thruxton. With Gelzinis setting the
overall pace, second in Pro-Am1 was Ahmad Al Harthy (Oman
Air/Redline) with a late push to edge Rory Butcher (Celtic
Speed) back to third. Butcher was another Thruxton newcomer. “I
really learnt a lot today,” said Butcher. “It’s really physical
out there!” In Pro-Am2, Parish topped the times from Redline
Racing duo Keith Webster and Andrew Shelley. “I like it here and
I had a lot of good advice from my senior team mates,” he said
of Caine and Harvey. “It’s all about confidence and it’s
coming,” said Webster.
 Karts:
James Singleton seems to have been tracked by ill-fortune
during the early phases of 2011, but a thoroughly well-deserved
and long-overdue podium finish in the Formula Kart Stars (FKS)
curtain-raiser at Rowrah has finally revved the talented North
Wales racer’s season into life.Pic
Chris Walker/www.kartpix.net
Read report
Formula Renault :
Atech Reid GP’s Tio Ellinas posted the fourth fastest time in
Friday’s final free practice session ahead of the
double-header rounds of the 2011 Formula Renault 2.0 UK
Championship rounds at Thruxton this weekend. New signing Dan
Wells kick-started his campaign with the Cardiff-based team, his
first time in the car, with the ninth fastest time in practice
one, with fellow Briton Oscar King, the least experienced driver
on the grid, 12th fastest. The team heads into the third event
of the season, for rounds five and six, leading the championship
after four podium finishes from the opening four races, and a
victory last time out with Cypriot Ellinas. This weekend marks
the first time at the Hampshire track for 19 year-old King, who
only came into car racing this season, the series opener at
Brands Hatch his first ever car race. While for Wells, the event
will see him return to his home track, where he hopes home
support will help him secure a strong finish on his debut with
Atech Reid GP.Tio Ellinas: “This was the first time I’ve driven
here in the dry, and I spent much of the first session
struggling to find my braking points. In the second session we
tried new tyres and were on the pace for sure, so for qualifying
tomorrow I shall be expecting to be in the top three at least.”
Oscar King: “I’m a little disappointed not to be faster here
today however having looked at the data I’m fairly confident I
can make up time in qualifying. It was my first time here in the
dry and it’s such a very fast track, pretty cool actually. This
afternoon I was running P8 but when we put new tyres on I wasn’t
able to continue that pace as I struggled a bit with understeer,
which caused me to slow down too much.” Dan Wells: It was a
pretty good opening day particularly considering it was my very
first time in the car. Although it would have been great to have
some testing ahead of my first race with Atech Reid GP, I felt
comfortable right from the start so I’m pretty happy. We spent
much of the morning session learning the car and getting used to
the team and in the afternoon getting a run on new tyres. It was
a pretty positive start and I’m confident that I can gain some
time for qualifying tomorrow, so I’m looking forward to that.”
Team Principal David Hayle: “It’s been a fairly productive test
for all three drivers and we hope to take what we’ve learnt
today into tomorrow’s qualifying sessions. All three are
relatively inexperienced and for both Tio and Oscar today was
their first time here in the dry, so it was a steep learning
curve.”
29-04-11
 Dunlop
Radical UK Cup
: Bradley Ellis is set to return to one of his favourite
European race venues on May 5&6 as the Dunlop Radical UK Cup
heads to the infamous Spa Francorchamps circuit in Belgium.
Ellis heads to Spa after an encouraging season opener at
Silverstone earlier this month with a charge through the
Supersports class field to record a top 10 finish in round one.
The 23 year-old was looking strong and battling for the class
lead in round two when a puncture put paid to his race chances.
The Croydon-born sportscar driver already boasts record form at
the Belgian circuit with a double podium finish scored when he
last contested the Radical series back in 2007. Although the
double header race weekend doesn’t form part of the
championship-point counting rounds this season, the Radical UK
Cup’s first international outing of 2011 will offer Ellis and
his new teammate vital seat time in the Supreme Racing Radical
SR3 as Andy Cummings makes his Spa debut. “We took a lot of
positives from our first races at Silverstone to carry forward
for the rest of the season,” said Ellis. “It’s a shame we can’t
score points at Spa but that means we can relax and enjoy a
double race weekend that offers us valuable time in the car. The
Spa rounds will be only Andy’s third and fourth races in the
series, so he’ll get more vital race experience on one of
Europe’s most demanding circuits. Unfortunately we can’t take
part in the additional track day test preceding the race. We’ll
only be able to do the two 40-minute practice sessions. Andy
will do the majority of driving then to help him get to know the
track, but then he’s probably only looking at getting 20 laps of
testing as it’s such a long lap. Regardless, I’m sure he’ll rise
to the challenge. I love Spa. Every time I race there I get on
well so I’ll be hoping for more of the same this year. I’ll be
aiming to qualify on the front row. It would be nice to get a
top five finish although realistically we are probably looking
at the top 10. But you never know what could happen at a circuit
like Spa. It’s the second race weekend as a new driver pairing
but Andy and I are already working really well together. He did
a great job at Silverstone and just gets better and better, so
we should be in for a good weekend. Spa will certainly be a
great experience for him and we’ll return to race in the UK as
an even stronger Pro/Am duo. I’m really looking forward to it.”
 Formula
Renault BARC:
Southwell racing driver Matthew Mason made a solid start to the
2011 Protyre Formula Renault
BARC Championship at Donington Park, taking eighth and ninth
place finishes with MGR Motorsport in his first ever car races.
read report
 WTCC:
After Belgium hosted the first European race meeting
of the season at Zolder,
the World Touring Car Championship will resume in two weeks at
Monza, for rounds 5 and 6. The Italian event will take place on
May 14th and 15th and will be preceded by a one-day
test on Thursday, May 12th.The WTCC competitors are due to have
five sessions of one hour each at their disposal, between 9.00
and 18.00, which will be especially important for Polestar
Racing and SUNRED Engineering, with both planning to test their
new 1.6L turbo engines. Another important aspect of the event in
Monza is that the compensation weight system will be applied for
the first time this season in order to balance performance on
the track. The weight list for the different model cars - based
on the lap times set in the two previous events at Curitiba and
Zolder - will be communicated soon by the FIA.
 Multiple
Turkish touring car champion Ibrahim Okyay
will return to WTCC at Monza. Okyay will be at the wheel of a
BMW 320si car run by the Borusan Otomotiv Motorsport. The
41-year old from Istanbul claimed five national touring car
titles (1999, 2001, 2007, 2009 and 2010) and was a regular
competitor in the 2008 FIA WTCC (best result 10th at Macau) and
the 2010 FIA ETCC Cup (4th in the Super 2000 Class). "Although
we managed to achieve brilliant results in the ETCC and in
Turkey, we are aware of how difficult is to be successful in the
WTCC. I don't think that the BMW 320si may be competitive
against the 1.6 turbo cars. But it's good to be back in the
World Championship, because our plan is to compete in the whole
season in 2012 and the races in Monza will help us to understand
where we are," Okyay said.
Competitors of the Yokohama Trophy are providing a thrilling
show inside the WTCC.
At Zolder both races were decided by close battles. In the
first one, Kristian Poulsen claimed his second victory of the
season, beating newcomer Norbert Michelisz by a tight margin;
after the 15-lap race the best five drivers - Poulsen, Michelisz,
Michel Nykjær, Javier Villa, Darryl O'Young and Pepe Oriola -
were all covered by less than five seconds.In the second race,
with Poulsen eliminated after contact with Tiago Monteiro,
O'Young grabbed his first win in the new Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T.
The high level of the competition in the trophy was clearly
proved by O'Young and Nykjær who were classified in fourth and
fifth positions overall, and by Villa who posted the fastest lap
of the race. The trophy classification is also very close, with
Poulsen leading by only three points ahead of the Villa- Nykjær
duo.
28-04-11
ILMC:
Allan McNish gives the new Audi R18 TDI an important race début
when the Scotsman competes in the second round of the
Intercontinental Le Mans Cup at Spa in Belgium of Saturday (7
May).McNish lines-up with regular co-drivers Tom Kristensen
(Denmark) and Dindo Capello (Italy) in the new diesel-engined
R18 Coupé for the 1,000km race around the stunning 4.35-mile
Spa-Francorchamps track. Spa takes on the added importance of it
being the first and only race for the R18 TDI before the Le Mans
24 Hours (11-12 June) meaning Audi Sport will use the near
six-hour race in the Ardennes region as a full, three-car “dress
rehearsal” for the prestigious French race.“It’s essentially two
races in one because I’ll have one eye on the Spa race and
claiming as many points towards the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup
as possible while also looking at the bigger picture of the Le
Mans 24 Hours,” stated Allan who finished third in the
corresponding Belgian race 12 months ago.Although we tested at
Le Mans recently, we’ll learn a lot more about the new Audi R18
TDI and also how it fares against the competition at Spa. The
20-minute qualifying session on Friday afternoon will be the
first time when we’ll see the true performance of all of the new
cars because it will be the first time when everybody is on the
same playing field together at the same time. Dindo, Tom and
myself were very close at Spa last year in the R15 TDI which we
ran in a Le Mans track set-up. We have a good chance going into
the event but it will be a testing one and I am looking forward
to seeing how things shake out.” McNish, Kristensen and Capello
recovered superbly to claim fourth place at the chequered flag
in the opening ILMC race at Sebring, the trio having led the
field several times before one of the “factory” Peugeot
sportscars miscalculated an overtaking manoeuvre and hit their
Audi R15 TDI with Capello at the wheel. “Spa gives us a chance
to bounce back in the ILMC from the disappointment of not taking
top honours at Sebring in March,” continued McNish. “We managed
to salvage fourth position and get some points on the board and
hopefully Spa will give us another opportunity of a good points
haul.” A magnificent field of 60-cars is entered for the Spa
race. Meanwhile ILMC organisers have announced that a six-hour
race at Zhuhai in China will close the seven-race series on 12
November
 Formula
3:
Reigning Formula Renault UK Champion Tom Blomqvist
wasted no time in demonstrating he has the speed and talent to
claim back-to-back drivers’ championships as he set a searing
pace throughout much of his debut weekend in the 2011 ATS
Formula 3 Cup. Tom, son of former World Rally Champion Stig,
opened his F3 account by taking a maiden pole and podium at the
Motorsport Arena Oschersleben on 24/25 April 2011. “On the whole
it has been a good opening weekend. Obviously we are all a bit
disappointed not to have come away with two victories, but we
have shown some very strong pace. Honestly, I think we could
have topped every timesheet. I’ve made a few mistakes this
weekend but learnt an awful lot!” said Blomqvist. “I’m confident
that we will be quick at Spa, where we are looking to get a
couple of winners’ trophies and put our title charge back on
track.” 17-year-old Tom made an immediate impact in Formula 3 by
leading the way in both practice sessions which took place in
warm German sunshine, outpacing his rivals by up to a quarter of
a second. Carrying the form into qualifying for race one, Tom
took pole position for his first F3 race by an impressive 0.357
seconds. But for a mistake in qualifying two where he ran wide
in the last sector, Tom would have almost certainly collected a
double pole having been up on the delta time at sector two.
From grid slot one in the opening round, Tom made a decent
getaway, but was out-dragged into turn one by Ritchie Stanaway,
who ironically had the territorial advantage into the first
corner despite starting from P2. From there, the race was set,
given the narrow nature of the Oschersleben circuit, which has
few if any opportunities to safely pass. Tom put in a mature
drive to finish second and collect a trophy on his debut. In
round two, the Saffron Walden based driver, who started from
fifth on the grid made a strong start and took fourth place into
the first corner. From there he reigned in third place Dutch
driver Hannes Van Asseldonk. Having got a run on the Dutchman
into the final corner, the two went down the pit straight
side-by-side as they crossed the line to start lap three. Tom
who had the inside line into turn one made a move in attempt to
take third place, but tangled with a resilient Van Asseldonk.
Despite coming in for a front nose change and rejoining the
field, Tom’s race was cut short with a gearbox failure on lap
six, which prematurely halted any ambitions of charging back
through the pack. The ATS Formula 3 Cup will travel to Belgium
for the next round on 6/7 May 2011. Tom and his fellow
competitors will race at the legendary Spa-Francorchamps Grand
Prix circuit, which is notorious for its changeable weather
conditions and action packed races.
Following a four-week break, the Formula 3 Euro Series teams and
drivers
will meet again this weekend at Hockenheim. There, they will
contest the rounds four, five and six of the 2011 season – and
Spain’s Daniel Juncadella (Prema Powerteam) wants to defend his
lead in the drivers’ championship. With Marco Wittmann
(Signature), runner-up in 2010, and his team-mate Daniel Abt,
the grid also features two hopeful German young-guns.
Furthermore, the event at Hockenheim also sees the start of the
new ‘FIA International Formula 3 Trophy’ created this winter.
The best three drivers in the Trophy ranking will be rewarded
with an FIA Super Licence. In early April, the Formula 3 Euro
Series kicked off its ninth season at le Castellet, France. For
the first time in the history of the series, a race weekend
comprised three rounds and in every race, Daniel Juncadella made
it to the podium by finishing third, third and first
respectively. His Prema Powerteam and Mücke Motorsport were the
squads that coped best with the new, softer Kumho tyres and so,
they shared the race wins. The winners apart from Juncadella
were Rookie Nigel Melker (Mücke Motorsport) and Roberto Merhi (Prema
Powerteam). In addition to the permanent Euro Series
competitors, three drivers of the British squad Carlin
Motorsport also are going to contest the Hockenheim weekend:
Malaysia’s Jazeman Jaafar, Frenchman Tom Dillmann and Colombian
Carlos Huertas. Furthermore, Sandro Zeller (Jo Zeller Racing)
who competes in the German Formula 3 Cup has opted for a
last-minute entry and will race at Hockenheim as guest racer.
Daniel Abt (Signature): “I’m truly looking forward to in the DTM
support programme racing for the first time in my career. To
date, I have attended many DTM races as spectator. Following the
season kick-off, we have been testing at Hockenheim for four
days and the tests proved to be ery helpful. I think we have
made a major step forward.”
Formula Renault:
Atech Reid GP is delighted to confirm that rising British
racer Dan Wells
will join the team for this weekend’s double-header rounds of
the 2011 Michelin Formula Renault 2.0 UK Championship at
Thruxton. The 19 year-old Racing Steps Foundation finalist only
started circuit racing last season in Formula Ford, and was part
of the RSF after competing just 22 races in a short career which
started in karting in 2009. Although no stranger to Formula
Renault, the Salisbury-based driver is nevertheless a relative
novice to the series but hopes to learn from the race-winning
team’s Tio Ellinas, who clinched his maiden victory last time
out. Wells will take to the Hampshire track for the official
pre-race test on Friday, joining Cypriot Ellinas and fellow
Briton Oscar King in a three-car line-up. “I’m delighted to be
joining Atech Reid GP for the next three rounds at least,” said
Dan. “And it’s particularly good to be starting with my home
track of Thruxton. I’m relatively new to racing, having only
started karting when I was 18 and then a season in Formula Ford,
so I know it will be very much a learning experience this
weekend. However I shall take a lot from the experience of the
team members and Tio in particularly which should offer a good
foundation from which to build over the coming races.” Team
Principal David Hayle was equally delighted with the
announcement as the team heads to this weekend’s BTCC support
rounds hoping for more race success; “We’re very pleased to have
Dan on board for this weekend. It’s his home circuit so
hopefully he’ll have lots of local support, which is always a
good way to start your campaign. He’s proved himself immensely
in Formula Ford, and although he’s relatively new to Formula
Renault, I have every confidence that he will settle in and work
well with his engineer and hopefully get a good result in front
of his home crowd”
 Renault
3.5:
Fortec Motorsport driver, Alexander Rossi
heads to Spa-Francorchamps as current World Series by Renault
Championship leader to contest rounds three and four of the
series this weekend. Alexander took a commanding win in the
opening round of the series and came home in second position in
race two at Motorland Aragon earlier this month. With a current
total of 43 points and a 15 points lead over his nearest rival,
Alexander now heads to Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium . Rossi a
past winner at Spa in 2009 Formula Masters and 2nd in 2010 GP3
Championship is no stranger to what's considered by drivers and
fans alike to be one of the most challenging race tracks in the
world. Alexander Rossi comments, "Coming off the opening rounds
in Aragon a few weeks ago, I can confidently say that the team
and I met our goals to open the season. However, we are still
looking to improve a few key aspects of our overall performance
to ensure that we can maintain this current momentum. I am very
much looking forward to the event in Spa this week as it's
personally one of my favourite circuits and I have a good track
record there in previous championships. The weather always plays
a factor at Spa, but we feel that our wet set-up is on par with
other teams, so we are relatively confident in that respect.
Our focus this weekend remains the same as always, to win, but
with the added pressure of coming in as Championship leaders, we
cannot get complacent. We need to keep pushing, there's a lot of
work to do." Jamie Dye, Team Manager, Fortec Motorsport,
concludes, "Alexander's pace over the winter, and in race rounds
1 and 2 earlier this month, shows that he is one of the men to
beat this season. We go to Spa this weekend leading the Drivers'
and Teams' World Series by Renault Championships and will aim to
take away maximum points once again. Spa is another circuit
where we have a good set-up, so for the Fortec team our goal is
to extend the lead in both points tables and keep up the fight
at the business end of the grid. Good luck to our drivers and
the team and we hope to see plenty of fans support in Spa."
 Grand-Am:
Racing fans attending this weekend’s NASCAR race at
Richmond, Va.,
will have the opportunity to see AIM Autosport’s BMW-Riley
sponsored by GAMMA88. The Daytona Prototype which races in the
Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal Cask
No. 16 will be included in a display promoting the upcoming race
at Virginia International Raceway (VIR).The display will be
located in the VIBE (Virginia Industry Business Expo) area, near
the Pit Stop Club, open on Saturday from 8:00 am to 7:30 pm.
Along with the race car, GAMMA88’s spokesmodels will be present
to answer questions, distribute brochures and pose for
photographs. Those who stop by the display will be offered a
code for $10 off the price of a weekend pass to the Bosch
Engineering 250, May 13–14 at VIR.The Bosch Engineering 250 is a
2h 45m race that will start at 3pm (ET) on May 14. MRN will air
live radio coverage with delayed television coverage on SPEED
beginning at 5pm (ET).
 Dunlop
MSA BTCC
star Matt Neal says he will be facing one of his biggest
challenges of the season when the Honda Racing Team takes part
in the third round of the series at Thruxton this weekend. The
Civic driver is second in the standings heading into rounds
seven, eight and nine of the 2011 campaign at the 2.3-mile
Hampshire track but the former double champion says this weekend
will be tough. Rulemakers have cut the level of boost that
turbocharged cars are permitted to use, and Neal says this will
affect his Civic. The organisers have changed the rules to peg
back our two-litre turbocharged engine, which seems to me like
it is a rule that has singled us out to penalise us more than
anyone else. I just can’t understand it,” says Neal. “It appears
that we have been held back because we had been doing such good
job so far this season, which isn’t fair.” As well as the rule
changes, Thruxton is the fastest circuit on the calendar and
offers a unique challenge for the BTCC runners. Its demanding
nature throws another unknown into the mixture.“Thruxton is
always tough on tyres and that means it is going to be a journey
into the unknown,” adds Neal. “We are going there with one arm
tied behind our back because of the rule changes and there is a
lot of work to do on the set-up. It’s so hard to know what to
predict from the three rounds but we know that the Civic has a
great chassis, so that is going to help us.” Neal’s team-mate
Gordon Shedden, who is seventh in the standings, thinks the
power cut will hurt the Hondas at the high-speed circuit. “I am
confused about how they have come to this decision to peg back
the turbo cars but we have just go to get on with our jobs and
perform to our maximum. We are going to be handicapped because
of this, but we will be giving it everything we have got,” says
‘Flash’.“I love Thruxton because it’s a very fast circuit and
you have to be brave but you also have to be clever in the way
that you use the tyres and how you preserve the rubber. It means
there is a lot to think about as a driver and it’s a challenge.
We are going to be fighting an uphill battle now that the rules
have been altered but there certainly will not be a lack of
effort from the Honda Racing Team.” pic Deniis Goodwin
 British
GT:
Century Motorsport’s Jake Rattenbury got his 2011 British
GT Championship off to the perfect start with a class win during
the second race of the day at Oulton Park on Monday,(25 April)
backing up a fourth place he secured during the opening race of
the season. Qualifying saw Jake go out early in the session,
increasing his pace during the 15 minute session to set a time
of 1:46.423s set on his last flying lap to go fourth in the GT4
Class and 22nd overall. “In practice this morning, we were five
seconds off due to problems with the brakes and rear suspension
braking,” said Jake, before adding: “So to come back to fourth
place, I’m over the moon. Hopefully we will do better in the
races and get a podium.” Jake almost secured a podium during the
first race of the day, having run third in class for most of the
race before handing the car over to his team-mate during the
mandatory pitstop. However they would be displaced by the second
KTM X-Bow for that final podium position. The best result came
in the second race of the weekend, where Jake’s team-mate
started fifth in class and 24th overall. Lap eleven saw Jake
get into the car under the Safety Car, allowing him to lead the
GT4 class after he left the pits. Sadly he then hit problems
just 10 minutes after starting his stint, loosing all his gears
apart from third and fourth, with the result that he lost the
lead to the #49 Lotus Evora. Jake took the flag second in class
and 14th overall, but was then promoted to the class winner
after the aforementioned Lotus was penalised for overtaking
under yellow flags. So in only his second race in the 2011
British GT Championship, Jake had claimed his first podium and
first victory – and with it, the GT4 Championship lead. “We had
a really good weekend overall,” said a delighted Jake. “To
finish it with a win especially after the gearbox problems, I’m
over the moon. 10 Minutes into my stint I lost all gears apart
from 3rd and 4th. As a result of Jake’s win in the second race
at Oulton Park, his pitstop in the opening race at Snetterton
will now be a 72 second stop, as the winners of each class get
an extra 15 seconds added to their time. Pic: Tim Auger.
 Euro
Late Model Series:
Sun and sweltering heat greeted the drivers and the fans for the
first European Late Model Series
race of 2011. Two Rookies Joined the field in the shape of
Gordon Barnes in the #08 Pontiac for Race Car Direct UK and
Michael Walsh in the #5 Chevrolet for Roots V8 Racing. Paul
Bowman and Keith Whalley headed the field away with American
"Andy" Andrews and Raptor Racing's Anton Gonnissen the meat in a
Monster Racing sandwich. Monster Racing's Rodger Twikler bought
out the first caution when he poked the #177 Chevrolet into the
wall on the exit of turn four. Xavier Vandermeersch spun out of
sympathy but went on to win the race in his patented sideways
style. Anton Gonnissen won the second race ahead of
Vandermeersch with Jos Jansen third and Raptor Racing's Kurt
Dujardyn fourth after the second Monster Racing car, the #89
Toyota of Wim Verloo spun on the back stretch wiping out Jean
Vasseur and Wim Moonen. Pic :Teuf Teuf Team
Read report
 Le
Mans Series:
Aston Martin Racing has made the decision not to contest the
1000km of Spa
Francorchamps on 7th May, but instead to focus on the ongoing
AMR-One testing and development programme.The ground up
developed AMR-One, Aston Martin’s new LMP1 prototype racer which
features a new turbo-charged direct injection 2.0 litre straight
six petrol engine experienced difficulties at the Le Mans test
with the engine plasma cylinder lining. The ambitious project
which is still in its early stages of a three year plan began in
September last year.David Richards, Aston Martin Racing Chairman
said: “We could go to the Spa 1000km race in May, but this race
meeting will set an agenda for us that doesn’t allow us to
achieve what we need to accomplish. We need to complete our
testing at our own pace including engine, aero and long distance
tests."
 The
new Audi R18 TDI with which Audi targets its tenth victory in
the 24 Hours of
Le Mans on June 11/12 is ready today with "tomorrow’s"
technology. During development of the new LMP1 sports car the
integration and future electrification of the powertrain and
various possible concepts for energy recuperation have been
taken into account. "We are very conscious of such systems,"
explains Head of Audi Motorsport Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich. "In our
opinion, just as soon as this technology proves to be the most
efficient we will use it at Le Mans." New regulations devised by
the Automobile Club de L’Ouest (ACO) and introduced this year
dictate significantly smaller engines. Audi has chosen a
particularly compact 3.7 liter V6 TDI engine, which is about 25
per cent lighter than the V10 TDI power plant previously fitted
to the older R15 TDI, and which leaves all options open for the
technicians with regard to electrification and energy
recuperation. However, Audi compact engine isn’t the only
surprise. The concept is also innovative for an LMP1 sports car.
To lower the center of gravity as much as possible and to
improve airflow through the car, the exhaust manifolds were
migrated from the left and right hand sides of the engine to sit
between the two cylinder banks. "Hot side inside" is the name
given to this concept by specialists, which was implemented in
similar form in Formula 1 in the 1980s. But the V6 TDI engine
powering the Audi R18 TDI, which has a cylinder angle of 120
degrees and thus an extremely low center of gravity, is
technically generations further along the line and is also a
technology-demonstrator for future production engines. In
contrast to previous Audi Le Mans sports cars, which all had
twin turbochargers, the R18 TDI is quite logically now only
fitted with a single turbocharger that also sits above the
engine and draws its air directly through the air scoop mounted
on the roof. "In this way we are able to convert the dynamic
pressure generated at high speeds with minimal losses into
power," explains Dr. Martin Mühlmeier, Head of Technology at
Audi Sport. The mono-turbo concept developed in cooperation with
Garrett was only made possible by the variable turbine geometry
(VTG) already used victoriously in the R15 TDI. "Otherwise the
response characteristics of such a large turbocharger would just
be too bad," explains Baretzky. The concept was continued
logically through a single pipe exhaust that exits at the rear
of the R18 TDI below the new fin which is stipulated by the
regulations. "This also stands for Audi ultra lightweight
technology," says Baretzky, "since we save components and weight
- for example for a second diesel particle filter." Audi Sport
has worked since July 2009 on the innovative engine concept for
which numerous new routes had to be explored. To control the
enormous ignition pressures and loads now only distributed
between six cylinders, a unique method of cooling the cylinder
heads was developed for the aluminum power unit, a concept that
could also be interesting in the future for production. Owing to
the compact engine and uncluttered flanks, the airflow from the
coolers can now exit practically unobstructed through the rear
end. "We could increase the aerodynamic efficiency of the car as
a result," says Martin Mühlmeier, Head of Technology at Audi
Sport. This aspect is even more important than ever before at Le
Mans due to the reduction in engine power - for the Audi R18 TDI
more than 397 kW (540 hp). Another unique aspect of the new Le
Mans sports car is its unusual sound. The Audi R18 TDI is
probably the quietest race car Audi Sport has ever built. "Noise
is unused energy," stresses Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich who is
delighted by the whispering murmur of the R18 TDI. "The sound is
unique," raves Le Mans record winner Tom Kristensen. "It’s hard
to describe. You have to hear it yourself. I think it’s
fantastic."
 Nurburgring
24 Hours:
When the Volkswagen Golf returns to the 24-hour race on
the Nürburgring-Nordschleife from 23–26 June, a number of
well-known Volkswagen drivers including René Rast and Peter
Terting will be joined on the grid by former Formula 1 racers
Johnny Herbert and Mark Blundell as well as DTM driver Edoardo
Mortara. The spectacular 440 PS, four-wheel drive Golf24 will
make its racing debut at the ‘Green Hell’ as early as at the
Nürburgring Endurance Championship this weekend.‘We’ve managed
to put together a very strong driver line-up for the 24-hour
race,’ says Volkswagen Motorsport Director Kris Nissen. ‘With
Johnny Herbert and Mark Blundell joining our ranks, we have two
experienced racers competing for us whose track records include
victories in Formula 1 and at the Le Mans 24 Hours, and both
contested the Volkswagen Scirocco R-Cup as Legends in 2010. So
it’s fitting that, on the Golf GTI’s 35th anniversary, they
compete on the Nordschleife which, like the GTI itself, is truly
a legend. With our other driver line-up we’re perfectly set. All
of our drivers have plenty of experience on the world’s toughest
race track and will give everything to make a strong showing at
the eagerly awaited 24-hour race.’
Volkswagen will field three Golf24 cars at the 24-hour race
in June. The car designated as number 35 will be driven by
René Rast, Volkswagen Junior and winner of the 2010 Porsche
Supercup, Nicki Thiim, the son of former DTM champion Kurt Thiim,
who most recently was successful with Volkswagen at the 24-hour
race on the Nürburgring, plus the former DTM and World
Championship driver Peter Terting, who is a firm component of
Volkswagen’s 24-hour driver squad as well. ‘I’m really looking
forward to the race. Due to its atmosphere and history, it’s an
absolute highlight, says Rast, who participates in the one-day
classic in the Eifel for the second time. ‘After not being able
to run due to conflicting commitments in the past two years,
it’s great to be returning this year in the Golf24. The car is
incredibly good fun to drive and was very fast in the initial
tests.’ Car number 135 will be driven by the Swede Fredrik
Ekblom and the two Germans Thomas Mutsch and Patrick Simon, who
are thoroughly familiar with the Nordschleife. ‘It’s a great
honour to be able to contest the 24-hour race in the new Golf24.
The car not only looks fantastic but also handles that way,’
says Ekblom, who was victorious in last year’s Swedish Touring
Car Championship with Volkswagen. ‘The race on the Nordschleife
is unique. Its importance has continually increased in the past
few years and the field is sensational. This will be my third
run, so I know that you can’t make any predictions. Anything is
possible on the Nordschleife.’
The number 235 Golf24 has a prominent crew in the cockpit.
It is occupied by the Formula 1 legends Johnny Herbert and Mark
Blundell who take turns with two young guns from
Volkswagen’s formula school. Edoardo Mortara won the Formula 3
Euro Series in 2010 and is driving for Audi in the DTM in 2011.
After a career in Formula 3, Franck Mailleux established
himself as a sports car racer, at the Le Mans 24 Hours among
others. The 24-hour race on the Nordschleife is a big thing.
I’m very much looking forward to it,’ says Johnny Herbert. ‘I
clinched my last Formula 1 victory on the Grand Prix circuit of
the Nürburgring in 1999, so I always like coming back to the
Eifel track. The Nürburgring has a very special meaning for me.’
Two Volkswagen Scirocco GT24-CNG cars complement the
Volkswagen line-up. In addition to the three Golf24 racers,
Volkswagen’s factory commitment includes two Scirocco GT24-CNG
cars with which the Wolfsburg-based squad has previously
celebrated a one-two-three finish in the class of vehicles with
alternative power-trains. At the wheel will be Volkswagen’s
Management Board Member Dr Ulrich Hackenberg, who is responsible
for technical development, former DTM driver Vanina Ickx plus
journalists Peter Wyss (Automobil Revue) and Bernd Ostmann
(auto, motor und sport). The cockpit of the second Scirocco
GT24-CNG powered by eco-conscious bio natural gas will be shared
by the Dakar Rally winners Giniel de Villiers (winner in 2009)
and Nasser Al-Attiyah (2011) and the former DTM racer Klaus
Niedzwiedz. The Volkswagen Golf24 will make its racing debut on
Saturday (30 April) at the second round of the Nürburgring
Endurance Championship (VLN). Fredrik Ekblom, Franck Mailleux
and Peter Terting will be contesting the four-hour race.
Further tests with varying driver squads are also planned at
the following two Endurance Championship rounds.
27-04-11
 Formula
Jedi: Nathan Wright claimed
a win and a 2nd place in the Easter weekend meeting at
Snetterton. Nathan came away from the Norfolk track leading the
Formula Jedi Club Class Championship after securing a win and
2nd place. Despite missing qualifying for the first race due to
a drive shaft failure, Nathan still took 2nd place in the race
on Easter Sunday on the newly revamped circuit. In the second
qualifying session of the weekend on Easter Monday, Nathan
qualified in P1 in class following the decision to switch to new
tyres for day two of the meeting. This improved his lap time by
almost 3 seconds which helped Nathan secure his 2nd victory of
the season despite a poor start due to the failure of a car in
front to get away on the grid. Nathan also managed to finish in
front of one of the ‘A’ series class cars as a result of the
increased competitiveness. The next race meeting is on the 4-5th
June at Cadwell Park where Nathan,who is still looking for
commercial partners to support his 2011 season will be looking
for more wins.
 Porsche
GT3 Cup Challenge: Oly Mortimer
took 2nd place in Race 2 at Croft in the Porsche GT3 Cup
Challenge after missing out in Race 1 after colliding with a
tyre barrier. Oly endured mixed fortunes in the second race
meeting of the season in the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge after his
stunning debut at Brands Hatch where he secured maximum points
from the first two races of the season in his series debut.
Despite another excellent start to the race weekend securing
pole position in qualifying, Oly could not make it three race
victories in a row after colliding with the tyres in the chicane
in the first race whioch forced him to retire with a burst
radiator. On Sunday, in Race 2 it was a different story. Oly was
back securing a 2nd place and 19 points in the series standings.
Oly commented: “It was a good and bad weekend. I am getting
faster and more confident with the car and importantly getting
more and more competitive. We managed to learn a lot about the
car this weekend and cannot wait for the next race” The next
race meeting is on the 14th-15th May at Donington Park in
Leicestershire. Oly is still seeking
for commercial partners to support his 2011 season.
 Formula
3:
Brazil’s Felipe Nasr continued his outstanding start to the 2011
Cooper Tires British Formula 3 International Series
at Oulton Park over the weekend (23-25 April), taking his third
win from the first six races and with it a substantial lead at
the head of the driver standings. Pic Jakob Ebrey Photography
Read report
 Argentinean-born
driver Facu Regalia
concluded his 2011 pre-season testing yesterday at Franciacorta
circuit, located near Castrezzato. Regalia and the Ghinzani team
enjoyed a successful test, completing 89 laps. “In the morning
we made different set-up changes because it was important to
know how the car behaved. In spite of my set-up was far from
perfect, I got a good lap time with worn tires, finishing just
two-tenths far from the fastest driver”, explained Regalia.
During afternoon, team led by Piercarlo Ghinzani installed the
usual set-up , one which had yielded good results at earlier
tests., “The Afternoon turned windy and it changed our schedule.
I lost straight-line speed, and I couldn´t improve my time in
the morning. Anyway, we leave Franciacorta very happy”, said
Regalia. His yesterday best lap-time was 1:05.311, in morning
session, while in the afternoon he did a 1:05.683. “I think that
I will be strong enough. I completed a good pre-season, evolving
as Formula 3 driver and I hope to have a good car because my aim
is to become the best rookie” he added.
 Karts: Formula Kart Stars got their 2011,
twelve round season underway in style at the beautiful
Rowrah circuit in Cumbria on Easter weekend where 101
competitors in the Formula One Management backed series were
treated to a mix of fine weather on Easter Sunday as well as
conditions more akin to the unpredictable British springtime in
the Lake District on Saturday.After
baking in the midst of a mini heat wave during pre race testing
on Friday there was a collective groan around the paddock when
Saturday dawned grey, cool and overcast on Saturday morning for
the opening round of the doubleheader weekend. Occasional light
showers, which made tyre choice a real headache for qualifying
and the heats, gave way to more permanent rain for the finals
but after Saturday’s poor weather there would be no question
regarding tyre choices on Sunday as the sun and warm
temperatures returned to bathe drivers, teams and spectators all
day. Read report
 Samuel
Oram-Jones had a character building start
to the opening two rounds of the 2011 British Formula Kart Stars
(FKS) series at Rowrah in Cumbria last weekend, but still came
away with his very first national class pole and a top-five
finish in the round one final. Pics
Chris Walker -
www.kartpix.net Read
report
Max Defourny decided to continue his international karting
season in KF3 Juniors
with a new team and a new kart. This young Belgian, who still
lacks the experience of his opponents, learnt a lot of lessons
during the first races of 2011.
Read more
British GT: The Easter weekend saw Freddy
Nordström have his first taste of endurance racing in
the Avon Tyres British GT Championship. Racing for Lotus Sport
UK alongside Leyton Clark on a Lotus Evora in the GT4 Class,
Feddy and his co-driver finished fifth in their class race 1 and
2nd in race 2, after a mix up withy the result had initially
seen them first. Still pleased to have achieved second place on
there first outing, Freddy said: “It’s been a tough weekend,
learning a new car and getting to know a new team, but we still
managed to come through it all.It
was great to get second place in race two, even though we tasted
victory for a short while. We have shown we are here to mean
business and that we are capable of success. I’m looking forward
to the next round now at Snetterton.”
Read report
 Formula
Ford:
A heroic last-lap overtaking manoeuvre into Lodge landed
Jersey-based racer Dan de
Zille his much-deserved podium of the weekend. It was a finely
judged piece of race craft that earned JTR racing its sole
trophy of the weekend. Oulton Park was the venue for rounds (4,
-5, and 6) of the MSA Formula Ford Championship, with Easter
Sunday breaking up the race days. The JTR team experienced a
few technical problems during testing, in which meant two of the
team’s cars needing a virtual rebuild to rectify the issues.
With his car sorted, Dan qualified well to gain good grid
position starts for all three races. (Qualifying 5th, 6th and
4th). In Race 1 Dan put in a mature drive, starting from 5th,
and in giving close chase to the front pack he only conceded a
place to teammate Uhrhane when he was squeezed onto the grass.
For race 2, Dan started in 6thposition, immediately moving up to
5th thanks to Uhrhane startingfrom the pit lane with technical
problems. Pursuing the leaders in a close battle for the entire
race, Dan overtook Finnish driver Buri in a spectacular last
lap, last-corner lunge into Lodge to secure his 3rd place
podium. Starting from 4th for the final race, Dan lost a couple
of places going off the start. Seizing an opportunity to take
back a place from Australian driver Goddard going into Cascades,
Dan went for the pass, only for Goddard to close the door,
causing both cars to spin off. Rejoining the back of the pack,
Dan put in some stunning laps to fight his way up through the
field to 8th place, only for the red flag to come out and the
results roll back a lap leaving him in 9th position. Dan
remarked: “To get a podium from where we started in testing last
week is a massive leap forward! All credit to the team, despite
early problems in testing they gave me a good car for the race.”
Team owner Nick Tandy said, “After previous testing up here we
all arrived feeling very confident about Oulton Park, but we
seem to have been plagued with technical issues this weekend.
However I am pretty confident we should be all sorted and back
on form for Snetterton.” The Fight for the FF Driver’s
Championship title got closer this weekend as Dan shifted from
2nd after race 2, back down to 5th position, with 116 points -
just 1 point behind McBride, who is only 1 point behind Uhrhane.
Next round for Formula Ford is 14/15 May at Snetterton.
 Le
Mans:
Benoît Tréluyer’s season began in earnest at Le Mans last
weekend where the three new Audi R18 TDIs made their first
public appearance. With the successful test complete, he now
heads to Japan for 2011’s opening Super GT round. On Sunday
evening, after the official test for the forthcoming Le Mans 24
Hours, Benoît’s smile revealed his delight at returning to
competitive action and the targets he has set for 2011. “We
have completed a lot of mileage since the end of last season so
it is a great reward to see the car at the top of the
timesheets,” he said. “We have to remain cautious as we are not
totally ready yet, but it is looking good. The Audi R18 TDI is
totally different from the Audi R15 TDI of last year and there
is a lot of expectation. New regulations, a closed car, the
desire to prove that we can be more reliable than our rivals
whilst at the same time being faster; with this car Audi wanted
to come back with a bang!” While Benoît remained guarded on the
potential of Ingolstadt’s latest prototype, he was more open
when discussing its ease of use. “What is certain is that we
have a car which is easy to drive. It’s great in the Porsche
Esses for instance which is a critical section of the circuit.
You enter the corner without any apprehension, whilst normally
it can be a bit hairy! As a driver, it’s a big deal to enjoy
driving and that helps improve overall performance.” Focusing on
the basics was the German manufacturer’s main objective over the
Easter weekend at La Sarthe. “Shakedown the three cars and test
several different things, followed by a major debrief with all
the team’s engineers in order to get the most out of the
gathered data! We did not take it easy!” Benoît’s preparations
for Le Mans continue on 6/7 May in the Ardennes region during
the 1000km of Spa-Francorchamps. Before then, another of his
season’s commitments will have already begun. This weekend, in
Japan, the Super GT championship kicks off at Fuji. Just as the
entire country was badly affected by the terrible earthquake and
subsequent tsunami in March, so Japanese motorsport is slowly
finding its feet again. For all its fans and those associated
with the sport, the first meeting of 2011 will have strong
symbolic value and be marked by great solemnity. “I was in
Tokyo the day of the earthquake,” said Benoît in La Sarthe. “It
was not what scared me, but the tsunami which I witnessed live
on television and the difficulty realising it was only 100
kilometres away. Then Fukushima happened… I left shortly
afterwards for Audi testing. I have not returned since, but have
spoken to the team nearly every day on the phone or by email. I
will be delighted to see everyone again even if I’m going back
with some apprehension. Saying that, I have never questioned
returning in light of the nuclear issues as Japan has offered me
so much.” Benoît left Le Mans on Sunday night, making a quick
visit to his home, before flying off to Tokyo. On Friday he will
be reunited with his Motul Autech squad, team mate Satoshi
Motoyama and the Nissan GT-R with which he intends to recapture
the title won in 2008. In life as on the track, it’s safe to say
he’s flat out!
French sportscar team and manufacturer OAK Racing,
which will this year enter four prototypes – two LMP1s and two
LMP2s – at the Le Mans 24 Hours, can confirm the signing of
Shinji Nakano and Nicolas De Crem for its second LMP2 machine.
The #49 OAK-Pescarolo is lead by Nakano whose speed and
experience will be a significant asset in the team’s bid for
LMP2 class victory. The 40-year-old boasts a fantastic racing CV
across Formula 1 and sports prototypes that already includes
four appearances at Le Mans. Nakano was also the first Japanese
driver to contest world motorsport’s three biggest events; the
Le Mans 24 Hours, Monaco Grand Prix and Indianapolis 500. He is
joined by 20-year-old Nicolas de Crem who in 2010 demonstrated
his potential while racing in Formula Le Mans. Last weekend’s Le
Mans Test Day saw the Belgian also prove his capacity to adapt
to the La Sarthe circuit’s unique characteristics during the
mandatory
 SEAT
Leon Supercopa:
It was a weekend of mixed emotions for promising young
British hope Max Goff in the second outing of the 2011
French SEAT León Supercopa Championship at Nogaro, with a
mechanical failure depriving him of a possible victory, but a
strong enough turn-of-speed to suggest that he will be a
contender through to the end of the season. Pic
Pro-Photos-Sport
read report
26-04-11
British GT:
The brand-new Scuderia Vittoria took a stunning victory
on its debut in the British GT Championship at Oulton Park
on Easter Monday. Charlie Bateman and Michael Lyons drove the
team’s Ferrari 458 Italia to victory in the second of the day’s
two races. The duo not only won but did so in style coming
right through the field after starting from the back of the
grid. Bateman had qualified third fastest, but a broken damper
meant that the Ferrari failed the ride-height test and was
forced to start from the rear as a penalty. Bateman was already
coming up through the pack when the safety car period allowed
the team to take an inspired tactical call from Scuderia
Vittoria pits who brought the Ferrari in early for Lyons to take
over. The 20-year-old then moved to the front and won the race
by 21.6 seconds to cap a dream debut. In race 1 Lyons had
qualified on pole and had a cushion of almost seven seconds when
the pitstops began. Unfortunately, Bateman stalled twice as he
tried to get going after the driver change, costing the car 35
seconds, he did however recovered to take sixth position.
Together with the later win, this moves Bateman and Lyons into
second place in the championship. Read
report
Karts Preview: Easykart UK
Championship - Round 2 Teesside Autodrome,
April 30 / May 1 2011. At last month’s opening round Tim Hill, a
normally ultra-consistent Heavy Class front-runner, had what can
only be described as an ‘off weekend’ and will head to the
Middlesborough track looking to get his fight for the crown
underway. No such troubles were experienced by reigning champion
Barnaby Pittingale. Last year he dominated the corresponding
round, and it will take a big advance in someone’s form to
dethrone ‘Il Dominator.’ However, any one of a number of drivers
could well throw down the gauntlet and do just that. Mark
Lawrence struggled in round one but was on the podium last
season. Will Smith is blisteringly quick wherever he goes and
will be keen to score a psychological blow on Barnaby by staking
his claim for the title with a win. Michael Roots scored a brace
of 3rd- place finishes in Suffolk and has earned ‘one-to-watch’
status as a consequence. In the Light category Joe Paterson had
a tough time of it at Ellough. Can he bounce back at Teesside?
Elliot Rice and Terry Langley will be amongst Joe’s toughest
rivals. Rice was pushed hard by former number one Langley, but
the latter failed to deliver that killer blow to defeat his
younger rival. A list of exciting talents, including Owen Jenman,
Patrick Lay, Sam Dimelow, Luca Hirst and Matthew Pearce – to
name but a few – will ensure that Sunday’s two finals will be
packed with drama, and make for a gripping spectacle around one
of Britain’s best circuits. O the evidence of Juniors opening
round, this class could simply become a Prost/Senna-esque battle
between Ronan McKenzie and Toby Sowery. Last month’s final was
totally gripping, so wanting to see more of the same is entirely
justified. Their closest challengers will surely be James Lay,
AJ Morris, Kieran Gordon and McKenzie’s fellow Easykart Driver
Program member, Will Stowell. Fellow Cadet graduate Tom
Thickpenny also impressed on his junior debut and knows how to
win under pressure at the North Yorkshire venue. In the Cadets
the standard of wheel to wheel action and entertainment is
usually off the scale. Sam Faulkner and Jenson Murchison
scrapped hard from start to finish. Krishaan Sivagnanam made
himself as a future star with his never-say-die attitude behind
the wheel. Lucas Blakely, Max Fitton and Matthew Taylor all took
podium finishes in the two finals at Ellough to put themselves
near the top of the points table. Matthew Round-Garrido and
Jordan Sanders have both made progress over the past year and
are capable of springing a surprise. It could well come in round
two. If you’re looking for a fast, friendly series where the
emphasis is on driver ability rather than budget, then you’ll
love Easykart. The action starts from 10:00am at Teesside
Autodrome, South Bank Road, Middlesbrough
 Formula
Ford:
Jamun Racing’s Scott Malvern sealed a perfect weekend hat-trick
of race wins
and fastest laps at Oulton Park over the Easter weekend to
rocket up the Dunlop MSA Formula Ford Championship of Great
Britain standings into second place - having begun the event
down in 12th position. After a disappointing season opener at
Silverstone, albeit an event which brought with it a race
victory in round one, Malvern knew he had to hit back with
maximum scores at Oulton and throughout the Easter weekend at
the Cheshire track he simply couldn’t be toppled. “It’s been a
mega weekend, really sweet,” said the Ilford driver. “It really
couldn’t have gone any better - three poles, three wins and
three fastest laps. We’re definitely back on track and now we
need to keep closing the gap.” The gap he speaks of is now only
22 points to championship leader, and team-mate, Jeroen
Slaghekke, but the Dutchman scored well himself today to back up
Saturday’s second place with a fifth and third. Pic Jakob
Ebrey Photography read
report
VW Cup:
Joe Fulbrook and James Walker each made an excellent start to
the 2011 Volkswagen Racing Cup
with FUCHS Lubricants at Oulton Park on Easter Monday, by taking
a win and a second place apiece - tying the pair on points at
the top of the championship standings.
read report
.jpg) Karts:
Dan Zelos has demonstrated that he will be a force to be
reckoned with
in both national karting series in 2011, after following up his
superb breakthrough triumph in Super 1 at PF International with
a performance that was unlucky not to yield the same result in
the Formula Kart Stars (FKS) curtain-raiser at Rowrah.
Pic
Chris Walker/www.kartpix.net,
Read
report
 Formula
3:
T-Sport’s Menasheh Idafar claimed his first Cooper Tires British
Formula 3 International Series podium of 2011
– his second career visit to the overall rostrum – at Oulton
Park in Cheshire on Monday, 25th April, following a tremendous
drive during the sixth round of the season. Having displayed
exceptional pace throughout the weekend, as proven when setting
third fastest time during qualifying on Saturday, the
British-born Bahraini thoroughly deserved his place on the
podium – especially having seen a second place finish in round
four slip through his fingers. “It’s fantastic to be on the
podium, I’m really happy and it’s a great result for the team
too”, said Menasheh, “The guys all worked so hard to get the car
repaired after Saturday, they did an amazing job, and although
the first race today wasn’t so good, being on the podium makes
up for that.” Pic Jakob Ebrey Photography
read report
 Bart
Hylkema, the dominant force in the Rookie Class
of the 2011 Cooper Tires British Formula 3 International Series,
sealed a clean sweep of victories during the second event of the
season at Oulton Park over the weekend, 23rd-25th April. Pic
Jakob Ebrey Photography
read report
 Le
Mans:
Greaves Motorsport enjoyed a successful Official Test
for the 2011 Le Mans 24 Hours, during eight hours of track
action on the Le Mans circuit. The team’s Zytek Z11SN - Nissan
was driven by the regular trio of Karim Ojjeh, Gary Chalandon
and Tom Kimber-Smith, who were joined for the day by Alex
Brundle, who was on an exploratory run. During the first
session, Tom Kimber-Smith posted the fastest LM P2 class time,
stopping the clock at 3:43.601 which was good enough for third
best time of the day in LM P2 class. Less good news for the team
was that Karim Ojjeh suffered a blow out in the left rear
tyre on the high speed section of public roads leading to the
Indianapolis corner. Karim managed to control the car at an
estimated 280 kph and the Zytek sustained only superficial
damage during its trip into the gravel bed. The team set to and
repaired the damage to the extent that Gary Chalandon was able
to complete his stint after the lunch break. Then Alex Brundle
completed10 laps in the Zytek-Nissan, recording a best time of
3:45.520, which ended up as third best time in LM P2 class
during that session. Team Principal, Tim Greaves, commented
after the Chequered Flag had brought the Test Day to a
conclusion. “We are very pleased with the result overall. All
the drivers drove well, though we had a few incidents, but we
managed the car well. We are happy with the performance, though
fuel consumption remains a bit of an issue. Karim had a blow out
going into Indianapolis, that was quite unexpected as the Dunlop
tyres had been good all day. Karim did very well to save the
car. Being stuck in the kitty litter cost us 45 minutes but the
car was recovered with minimal damage, which the crew sorted in
their usual exemplary fashion. It was a good day at Le Mans in
preparation for the Great Race.” Greaves Motorsport will have
its next outing at Spa Francorchamps, 5-7 May, for the 1000
Kilometres
 The
Le Mans 24 Hours Test Day was an important date on the Rebellion
Racing 2011 agenda.
The Swiss team used the test to run two heavily revised
Lola-Toyota LMP1 cars, each with a new aerodynamic kit, new
front suspension, a longer wheelbase and the introduction of the
wider front tyres supplied by Michelin. As the only opportunity
to test on the Le Mans 24 Hours circuit, the test day was of
paramount importance ahead of the race in June. The team’s six
drivers, Neel Jani, Nicolas Prost, Jeroen Bleekemolen in the
Lola-Toyota #12 and Andrea Belicchi, Jean-Chistophe Boullion,
Guy Smith at the wheel of the #13 completed a high number of
laps, thus carrying out important development work and gathering
valuable data for the engineers in the team, Toyota Motorsport
and Lola Cars. After 8 hours of testing on the Le Mans 24 Hours
circuit, the Rebellion Racing team were satisfied with what
they found. All the new developments pleased the drivers and
the engineers were reassured about the potential of the car and
its line of progression for the forthcoming Le Mans 24 Hours
race as well as the remaining rounds of the Intercontinental Le
Mans Cup and the Le Mans Series.
read more
 Seven
weeks ahead of this year’s 24-hour race in Le Mans (FR), BMW
Motorsport
made an important step forward in its preparation programme for
the classic endurance race. Together with 52 other cars, the two
BMW M3 GTs took to the “Circuit de la Sarthe” on Sunday,
completing a total of 147 laps. The team made full use of the
only testing opportunity at the 13.629-kilometre track and
collected a vast amount of valuable data that will be used in
preparation before returning to Le Mans for the big race held on
11th/12th June 2011. The no. 55 BMW M3 GT, with Augusto Farfus
(BR), Jörg Müller (DE) and Dirk Werner (DE) at the wheel, came
third in the GTE Pro class after two four-hour test sessions
with a lap time of 4:01.631 minutes. Andy Priaulx (GB), Dirk
Müller (DE) and Joey Hand (US) shared driving duties in the
second BMW M3 GT, finishing seventh after clocking a time of
4:03.856 minutes. “This test ahead of the 24-hour race
definitely was an important one for us,” said Team Manager
Charly Lamm following the test day. “Le Mans is such a unique
and mighty venue that every single lap of this track helps. The
team used the occasion to reacquaint itself with the special
demands and workings asked for by this classic circuit. The test
was of particular importance for Joey Hand. He was a Le Mans
rookie and successfully qualified for the race held in June.
Conditions were excellent, all six drivers managed to put in
many laps and collected a lot of data.” BMW Motorsport will
contest the Le Mans 24 Hours with the same driver line-up. The
team will then, not only fight for a top result in one of the
biggest races on the plant, but also for valuable points in the
Intercontinental Le Mans Cup. Following the GT one-two achieved
by BMW Team RLL in the opening Sebring (US) round, BMW is
currently holding the lead in both the GT team and manufacturer
classifications in this championship
 The
Audi R18 TDI had a successful first public appearance at Le Mans.
24,987 enthusiastic fans witnessed how Audi Sport Team Joest
prepared for the 24 Hour race (on June 11/12) on Easter Sunday
with all three cars and drivers. The new car with its ultra
lightweight technology set the two fastest times at the end of
the test day. Whilst it’s traditionally not about lap times on
test day, there were more significant findings for Audi during
the eight hour test. car was prepared well for the Le Mans
track, all scheduled programmes were completed and the ten
drivers adapted perfectly to the circuit. Apart from the nine
race drivers, test and reserve driver Marco Bonanomi was also
behind the wheel and drove at Le Mans for the first time.
Despite Audi focussing on set-up work, Tom Kristensen set the
fastest time of the day in car number 3. The eight-time Le Mans
winner lapped the Sarthe circuit in 3m 27.687s. Last year’s
winner Mike Rockenfeller only needed 0.128 more seconds in car
number 1 for the 13.629 kilometres. Neither a rain shower in the
morning nor a spin of the number 2 Audi R18 TDI hampered the
progress. The work with tyre partner Michelin was especially
positive. Tom Kristensen, Allan McNish and Dindo Capello
generated valuable data. Apart from setting up the car, for the
first time since 1999, Audi contests the Le Mans race with a
closed car. For the drivers it was therefore important to get to
know the car from within the cockpit whilst in traffic and to
practice driver changes in the pits. On Easter Sunday, not only
the upcoming Le Mans 24 Hour race was in the minds of Audi Sport
Team Joest’s team members. Each of the three Audi R18 TDI cars
carried two stickers on the rear wing that were styled according
to Michele Alboreto’s helmet. They were in memory of the former
Audi works driver who died on April 25 ten years ago.
 DTM:
"Alles neu macht der Mai" ("May makes all things new"):
The poem by Hermann Adam von Kamp that is part of German
folklore perfectly fits the DTM season opener at the Hockenheim
on the 1st of May (starting at 13:45 live on "Das Erste")
because at Audi, the only automobile manufacturer in the DTM to
have achieved a title hat-trick to date, a number of things are
completely different from last year. The tyres: Just like
Formula 1 the DTM has a new exclusive tyre partner. The Audi
drivers did a good job of handling the Hankook tyres during the
tests in winter. However, only Hockenheim will show how the
relative strengths of the contenders manifest themselves in a
direct comparison and who will do the best job of handling the
new tyres. The drivers: After the 2010 season, which did not go
according to plan, Audi exchanged three drivers and made two
reassignments. With an average age of 27, the youngest but
perhaps strongest driver squad in Audi’s DTM history will be on
the grid. Only three drivers - Mattias Ekström, Timo Scheider
and Oliver Jarvis - have kept their cockpits from last year. The
cockpit swaps: Mike Rockenfeller was the best driver of a
year-old A4 last year and rewarded for this achievement. The Le
Mans winner moved up into a current Audi A4 DTM from Audi Sport
Team Abt Sportsline and thus automatically belongs to the group
of drivers aspiring to the title. "Rocky" swapped cockpits with
Martin Tomczyk, who for the first time in his DTM career
competes for a team other than Abt Sportsline and is now the
"leader of the pack" at Audi Sport Team Phoenix. The newcomers:
Audi has signed three youngsters - Rahel Frey (Switzerland),
Filipe Albuquerque (Portugal) and Edoardo Mortara (Italy) - who
left promising impressions at a talent evaluation as well as at
tests prior to the season. Particularly Albuquerque and Mortara,
both of whom compete for Audi Sport Team Rosberg, are considered
capable of delivering a similarly strong start as Miguel Molina
did last year. At the Race of Champions in Düsseldorf last
November Albuquerque defeated Formula 1 World Champion Sebastian
Vettel among others. Mortara is also the current Formula 3 Euro
Series champion.
 Formula Renault BARC:
Hector Hurst proved his potential as a championship contender
in the 2011 Protyre Formula Renault BARC Championship with a
strong debut weekend at Donington Park with Scorpio Motorsport.
Hurst was a frontrunner throughout the weekend, taking a solid
top five finish in his first ever car race, before showing
superb speed when recovering from an early mistake in race two.Pic
Jakob Ebrey Photography
read report
25-04-11
Porsche Club
: Mark Sumpter kept up his winning ways at Croft
as the Porsche Club Championship visited the North Yorkshire
circuit, taking victory in both races and continuing his
unbeaten record, having taken all four rounds so far in 2011 to
add to his wins in the final three races of 2010. Pete Morris
chased him home in race one, after Mark McAleer hit problems in
his newly built-up 968, but in race two McAleer claimed the
runner-up slot despite continued electrical issues. In Class Two
reigning champion Chris Dyer also stayed unbeaten in 2011, but
had to work hard in race two after coming under pressure from
Anthony Oliver. Read report
Porsche GT3 Cup
: Nigel Rice took both Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge races at Croft
on Easter weekend, the Yorkshire racer making a successful
return to the track after a lay off. Oly Mortimer headed into
Croft having won both races to date this season, but a
retirement in race one dented his points challenge, though
sterling work from his team saw him back out on Sunday and
claiming second position.
Read report
 Karts:
Sam Brabham had an encouraging first Formula Kart Stars
race weekend,
on April 23&24, contesting the opening season rounds at the
challenging Rowrah circuit in Cumbria. Making his race debut at
national karting level, Sam made positive progress throughout
the double-header weekend, slashing his best lap time by over
one second and mixing it in the mid-field melee of the highly
competitive Junior Max class. On his first visit to the
undulating Cumbrian kart track, Sam soon got to grips with
getting to know the circuit despite changeable weather
conditions threatening to make for an even steeper learning
curve on Saturday. Taking everything in his stride, Sam bounced
back from initial misfortune in his Heats to work his way from
the back of the bumper 25-kart grid to record a respectable
finish in his first ever Final. With valuable race distance,
track, kart and engine set-up knowledge under his belt, round
two on Sunday gave Sam the chance to show more of his potential.
Strong performances in both of the Heats saw the 16 year-old
begin to battle in the mid-field before his constantly improving
form was reflected with a finish just outside the top 15 in the
second round Final. “I’ve really enjoyed my first Formula Kart
Stars event,” said Sam. “I arrived at Rowrah with quite clear
objectives in mind to learn as much as possible and keep getting
quicker, which I did throughout the weekend despite a
challenging day on Saturday. “Rowrah is quite a tricky circuit
with both tight turns and flowing corners, but I enjoy racing at
those kinds of tracks. We struggled a little with getting the
kart and engine set-up right, as this is quite a high altitude
circuit, but we definitely got better as the weekend went on.
The Project One team did a great job and as my confidence grew
I was able to advise what set-up changes we needed to help me go
quicker. We had quite a good package by the end of the weekend
which showed not only in my round two Final race result but also
in the improvement of my best lap time. My first Stars rounds
have been a great experience and I’d like to thank my family and
sponsors, Liberty and Grand Privé, for their valuable support in
helping me get on the grid.” Sam will be back on track for
rounds three and four of the Formula Kart Stars series at Three
Sisters, near Wigan, on May 21-22.
 Le
Mans:
It was a day of steady progress and methodical development
for RML AD Group as the team added to their experience and
understanding of the Honda Performance Development (HPD) ARX-01d
at the official Le Mans test on Sunday. Since the opening round
of the Le Mans Series at Paul Ricard at the beginning of the
month, when the HPD struggled for pace, the ACO has introduced a
modest restrictor break to the twin-turbo V6. The official Le
Mans test has been the first opportunity for the team to run the
engine in the new configuration, but it was the deployment of a
lower-downforce aero package that had a more significant impact
on narrowing the performance gap between the #36 and the rest of
the LMP2 class. “Although we have detected an improvement in
power from the engine following the ACO’s restrictor break, we
have still found it wanting,” admitted Team Manager Phil Barker.
“There has certainly been an improvement, but it is still a
considerable way off where we need it to be. ”The true
significance of the restrictor change won’t be apparent until
the teams reassemble at Spa, in a fortnight’s time, for Round 2
of the Le Mans Series. The RML and Strakka Racing HPDs will then
have to re-fit the homologated medium-downforce aerodynamic
package. “We’ll experience more drag at Spa, and may not have
the power to push the car through the air. Only then can we make
direct comparisons with the data from Paul Ricard. Then we’ll
know where we really stand,” said Phil Barker. Sunday’s two test
sessions at Le Mans have all been about improving the team’s
understanding of the car, and learning what will be needed for
the race in June. “Our priority was to ensure that Ben completed
his mandatory ten laps, and that we had a baseline set-up that
we can build on for the 24 Hours,” added Phil Barker. “We made a
series of changes today that have moved the car on several
significant steps.” Mike Newton and Thomas Erdos have raced
together at Le Mans for the last eight years, but Ben Collins
hasn’t been back to the Circuit de La Sarthe since 2002. “There
have been lots of changes since I was last here,” says Ben. The
first curve, up into the Dunlop chicane, seems tighter than it
used to be, and that caught me by surprise the first time I came
through. The new section down into the Esses, with a big bump,
was entertaining, but I really like the new Tetre Rouge. You can
really hammer out of there and onto the straight. It’s been a
long time, but I am starting to feel at home again, picking up
the rhythm, and getting a good feel for the track. I’m just
looking forward to getting properly stuck in when we return in
June." The significance of the new aero comes into play when the
car has to contend with the equally quick GT cars. “You can now
gain a tow and get passed them,” admits Ben, to which Mike
Newton agreed. “We’re out of the “dangerous mode” now, and in
far better shape for passing the GTs, at least here at Le Mans.
What’s also a personal relief is to be back here in an
open-topped car – I’d just prefer this one to be a bit faster!”
"We saw a significant improvement during the course of the day,
and that’s a positive and encouraging step forwards,” said
Pauline Norstrom, Motorsport and Marketing Director for AD
Group, the team’s principal sponsor. “We’d just like to be in a
position where we could actually realise the true potential of
the HPD. We’re now looking ahead to Spa, and seeing what unfolds
there, when we’ll be able to make a true comparison.” The 1000
Kilometres of Spa-Francorchamps takes place on May 7th. pic
Marcus Potts / CMC
 OAK
Racing has successfully utilised Sunday’s Le Mans 24 Hours test
day
to prepare for the endurance racing season’s most celebrated
event on June 11/12.The team’s primary objective for its pair of
LMP1s (#15 and #24) was to evaluate the new aero package
developed with the 24 Hours principally in mind, while the
LMP2’s (#35) aim was to qualify the two rookies that help
comprise its three-man crew. The majority of the programme was
successfully accomplished despite some technical issues and
off-track moment for the #24 car at the end of the morning’s
session. Sébastien Philippe, Team Manager: “The team completed a
lot of good work today. The test had no competitive significance
so the difficulty for the team and drivers was to remain focused
without worrying about our rivals. We have tested many things
and validated several aerodynamic solutions. For the #15 LMP1 we
were able to follow the proposed programme with Matthieu Lahaye,
Guillaume Moreau and Pierre Ragues. The day was a bit more
difficult for the other two cars, especially for the #24 LMP1 of
Richard Hein, Jacques Nicolet and Jean-François Yvon. At the end
of the morning, Richard had a big off at the Ford Chicane and
the damage could not be repaired in time for the afternoon.
Nevertheless, work accomplished with #15 will be applied to #24.
Regarding the LMP2, we encountered a suspension problem that
delayed us for nearly three hours this morning. The team did an
excellent job and the car was able to rejoin the track. Our main
objective was to qualify the two rookies, Patrice Lafargue and
Andrea Barlesi, and that has been accomplished. But towards the
end of the afternoon, Frédéric Da Rocha was hit from behind with
the impact breaking the diffuser on the right rear. We preferred
to stop before the session ended as we did not want to take any
additional risks before Spa.” Christophe Chapelain, Technical
Director: “Overall, today has been positive and allowed us to
validate several aero configurations and set-ups. We completed a
lot of short two lap stints without trying to set fast lap
times, which allowed us to acquire a lot of information. Now we
have to go through all the data in detail and fine tune the good
basic set-ups for Le Mans week’s first practice session. We have
a good V-max, one of our major objectives of development for
this year.” Jacques Nicolet, OAK Racing team owner: “We had a
very important working plan today and managed to stick to a
large part of it. The technical conclusions are more than
positive but next week is going to be very busy in order to
properly prepare our three cars for the second round of the ILMC
in Spa.” pic: Clément Marin
 Formula
Renault BARC:
James Thorpe(right) and Josh Webster took a
win apiece at Donington Park on Sunday, 24th April, during a
truly exciting season-opener to the 2011 Protyre Formula Renault
BARC Championship. Running as a key support category on the bill
of the Renault Trucks-sponsored British Truck Grand Prix, the
aspiring Formula One drivers from Formula Renault BARC delivered
some fabulous race action to the thousands of spectators in
attendance with Thorp emerging as the early series leader. “It’s
almost been a perfect weekend which is the sort of start I
wanted to get”, said Thorp, “Second in the first race was ok but
I wanted to go one step better in the second race, which we were
able to do. I’m happy overall as we’ve got a big bag of points
to carry through to the next round.” His debut victory in round
two, off the back of a strong second place in the opening
encounter, has given the 18-year-old MTech Lite racer a 13 point
lead in the standings over the surprise package of the weekend,
RPD Motorsport’s Steven Durrant . The 2009 Privateer Cup
Champion enjoyed by far his most successful weekend since
graduating to car racing in 2007, a maiden podium finish in
round one followed by an inspired fourth place in round two –
from a lowly 15th on the grid after gearbox problems in
qualifying. In total, five different drivers appeared on the
podium with Webster’s Fortec team-mates Kieran Vernon and Archie
Hamilton finishing second and third respectively in round two
following a titanic battle. During qualifying on Saturday,
24thApril, Antel Motorsport’s Dino Zamparelli took first blood
in the round one session with a pole position lap of 1m107.599
seconds (105.39mph). Hamilton and Webster qualified third and
fourth and karting graduate Hector Hurst was fifth for local
Loughborough-based squad Scorpio Motorsport, ahead of Durrant. In
the round two session, Thorp lapped almost 0.3 seconds quicker
than Zamparelli to seize his maiden pole position with Hamilton
third, Hurst a very impressive fourth and Hillspeed’s Howard
Fuller a promising fifth ahead of Vernon.
Read report
pic Dennis Goodwin
 20
year old Archie Hamilton
kicked off his 2011 campaign with a podium and enough points to
put him third in the Championship. 2011 sees Archie competing in
the Protyre Formula Renault BARC Championship with a competitive
field of 22 cars. Saturday’s qualifying saw Archie struggling a
little with understeer but he still managed to put in a time
just one tenth of a second off the pole pace, securing two
third-place grid slots. Both of Archie’s races were held today
at the Leicestershire circuit, with the first one bringing
slight disappointment following an incident causing damage to
his car while he was challenging for the lead on the opening
lap. The front wing damage proved too difficult for Archie to
challenge for positions but he drove to his best ability under
the circumstance and managed to hang on to sixth place to pick
up his first points. Archie had a great start from the line in
race two, immediately taking second place from Dino Zamparelli
and gaining time on leader James Thorp . A safety car was
deployed and Archie got a good restart, but as the race
progressed his tyres started becoming an issue as they
deteriorated. A Zamparelli challenge from behind was well
defended, with Archie holding onto his inside line as Dino’s
failed outside manoeuvre put him through the gravel. Kieran
Vernon was next to push hard and Archie made the decision to let
him by with four laps to go, holding on to third place. Archie
crossed the line to claim his first 2011 podium and lies third
in the championship. Archie Hamilton: “I decided that BARC
Formula Renault was the right series to learn more and become a
better racer. I was very happy with the testing but the racing
today has confirmed that it was the right thing for me to do.
The competition is fantastic and I know it will make me a much
better driver. Getting the podium finish was good too and being
towards the top of the table is a great confidence boost. To be
quick in such a competitive field is a good feeling. I hadn’t
tested at Donington so am really looking forward to Brands Hatch
where I’ve got race experience and get a few more test days in
before then.” Archie’s next event takes place at Brands Hatch,
Kent on 14th/15th May
 Josh
Webster proved his position as one of the title-challenging
favourites
in the 2011 Protyre Formula Renault BARC Championship with a
superbly dominant race-winning performance during the opening
round of the season at Donington Park on Sunday , 24th April.
The Stowmarket 17-year-old, driving with Fortec Motorsport,
made an absolutely electric start to the first of the day’s
races taking the lead three corners into the race. with a
tremendous pass on James Thorp at Craner Curves. From there,
the 2010 Formula Renault BARC Winter Series Champion was never
headed winning , building a lead of over two seconds by lap
nine he then posted a then lap record of 1m08.169 seconds
(104.51mph) on the 11th tour to seal two bonus points.Pic
Jakob Ebrey Photography Read
report
 Hillspeed’s
Howard Fuller underlined his promise as a Protyre Formula
Renault BARC Championship front-runner
during the opening event of the 2011 season at Donington Park
over the weekend, 24th/25th April, thanks to a highly
competitive top five result in round two of the 12-race
series. Pic
Jakob Ebrey Photography
Read
report
 Protyre
Formula Renault BARC Championship rookie Zaamin Jaffer
made a strong start to the 2011 season at Donington Park on
Sunday, 24th July, by just missing out on a top six finish on
his racing debut in a ‘slicks and wings’ car. Pic
Jakob Ebrey Photography
Read report
24-04-11
WTCC: The Belgian fans
that flocked to Zolder this Easter Sunday and were rewarded
by two close races that saw Rob Huff and Gabriele Tarquini share
the victories. In Race 1 Huff repeated his successful result
from one month ago in Brazil by converting pole position into
his second win of the season. Huff was followed by team-mates
Alain Menu and Yvan Muller who secured Chevrolet's second 1-2-3
finish of the year.
The second race was one of the most exciting ever with Gabriele
Tarquini and his SEAT León TDi being able to break Chevrolet's
monopoly. The fight for the lead between the Italian and
Huff will be remembered for some time to come and Sunday's
result proved that even a great team with great drivers can fail
when put under pressure.Which is good news for the championship
that is still led by Huff who has only a one-point margin ahead
of Menu.The battle for the Yokohama Trophy was equally
thrilling. Kristian Poulsen and Darryl O'Young (the latter
having just swapped to the Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T) grabbed one
victory apiece. But the competition was extremely close and
involved Michel Nykjær, Norbert Michelisz, Pepe Oriola and
Javier Villa who even managed to post the overall fastest lap in
Race 2. Good news also for Volvo, as Robert Dahlgren scored his
first points in what could be the last race for the C30 with the
2.0L normally aspirated engine. Polestar Racing are working hard
to bring the new 1.6L turbo at Monza, which could definitely
boost the ambitions of the Swedish patrol. The same aim have
SUNRED that hope to fit the turbo unit on Tarquini's and
Monteiro's cars at the Italian event.
.jpg) Karts:
It has been another good month for CRG UK,
with the promise evinced during the 2011 Super 1 Series
curtain-raiser at Whilton Mill cemented in style in the second
round at Shenington, as Andy King and Ash Hand(left)
demonstrated that they will be ‘a force to be reckoned with’
indeed this year. Having proven to be on-the-pace at Whilton,
King headed to Shenington sitting 11th in the Senior Rotax
national title standings and targeting a brace of solid top ten
finishes. Andy has graduated to Senior level in 2011 from Junior
Rotax, and he concedes that with the calibre of the opposition
being so high and so experienced, ‘you’ve really got to be on
top of your game’. He is well aware that he is on a steep
learning curve, but the goal, he reveals, is ‘to get a seeded
number this year and then go from there’.
Pic Chris Walker/www.kartpix.net
read report
 Formula
Ford:
Scott Malvern put the disappointments of a chequered
season-opener at Silverstone firmly behind him at Oulton
Park International Circuit on Saturday by taking a clear, and
almost completely untroubled, victory during the fourth round of
the Dunlop MSA Formula Ford Championship of Great Britain.
Thoroughly dominant in qualifying, taking pole position for all
three of the weekend’s races, the Jamun Racing 22-year-old made
a great start to this afternoon’s 11-lap encounter and saw off
some early attention from Dutch team-mate Jeroen Slaghekke to
notch up his second win of 2011. Pic Jakob Ebrey Photography
Read report
 Formula
3:
Menasheh Idafar underlined his ever improving pace in the
Cooper Tires British F3 International Series with a career
best qualifying performance at Oulton Park on Saturday, 23rd
April, but very real hopes of converting it into a round four
podium were dashed after an unfortunate excursion a third of the
way through the first of the weekend’s races. Pic Jakob Ebrey
Photography Read report
Ginetta Challenge:
: Mark Davies and Sean Huyton shared the wins at Oulton Park
on Saturday, in the opening rounds of the Ginetta Challenge in
their Ginetta G40s. Gary Simms won both races in the G20 class.
Davies took the win in the opening 20-minute race but retired
from race two after contact with Clive Richards at Island Bend.
Huyton starred taking the win from sixth on the grid.read
report
WTCC: Chevrolet's Rob Huff
claimed his second pole position of the season at Zolder.
Just as in Curitiba the championship leader emerged as the
fastest in Q2, beating his own team-mate Alain Menu and SUNRED's
Gabriele Tarquini by one and two tenths respectively. Reigning
world champion Yvan Muller was fourth ahead of Tiago Monteiro,
with Kristian Poulsen sixth and best of the Yokohama
Trophyrunners. Tom Coronel was the great disappointed as he
failed to move forward to Q2, while Fredy Barth won pole
position for Race 2. Q1 - The red flag stopped the
session after four minutes due to Michel Nykjær's SEAT hitting
the wall at the Villeneuve chicane. As soon as the session
resumed most of the drivers went for a quick lap with Tiago
Monteiro posting the fastest for good with the time of 1:38.952.
Yokohama Trophy competitors Kristian Poulsen (1:39.293) and
Mehdi Bennani (1:39.328) were second and third fastest
respectively, followed by the Chevrolet trio of Yvan Muller,
Alain Menu and Rob Huff. In the dying moments of the session Tom
Coronel was desperately trying to make the top-ten. He
eventually improved to 1:39.680 that was not enough as he
qualified 11th, only 0.042 seconds behind Fredy Barth in 10th.
The following drivers qualified for Q2: Monteiro, Poulsen,
Bennani, Muller, Menu, Huff, Michelisz (brilliant on his first
outing with the BMW 320TC), Tarquini, Engstler and Barth. The
latter will start from pole position on the reverse grid for
Sunday's Race 2. Javier Villa did not post any lap due to a
turbo failure.
Q2
- Chevrolet drivers set the pace straight from the beginning,
with Huff (1:38.458) and Muller (1:38.738) posting the
provisional fastest laps.Although Huff's time eventually proved
to be out of reach for the rest of the field, Muller's was
beaten by Menu (1:38.598) and Tarquini (1:38.723) who both
managed to improve just before the chequered flag was waved.
Despite a spin, Poulsen won pole for the Yokohama Trophy posting
a 1:39.398 that beat Michelisz's 1:39.450 by 0.052 seconds
only.
23-04-11
 The
2011 Porsche Carrera Cup GB
continues at Thruxton (30 April/1 May)
for rounds five and six of the 19-race season. With a field of
24 of the new 450bhp 911 GT3 Cup cars on the grid at the fastest
track on the schedule, it promises to be a fantastic weekend of
racing at the Hampshire circuit. Four races, three winners and
nine points covering the top three drivers point to a pretty
good start to 2011 for the Carrera Cup GB, with James Sutton,
Michael Meadows and Euan Hankey are setting the early pace. At
Thruxton the new cars could break the 1m14s barrier and take the
average lap speed past 115mph. Current championship leader
Sutton (SAS/Redline) says that the new car will be sensational
around Thruxton. “It will be an extraordinary place to race the
new car,” said Sutton. “The added aero will really work around
the fast corners and the new car is purpose-built for circuits
like Thruxton.” Sutton, champion in 2007, is back with a very
strong package and has been the most consistent driver across
the first four races with three seconds and a third. Now he
wants the top step of the podium as he builds a very strong
title bid. Running alongside Sutton in the SAS squad is Meadows
and a first victory at Donington will have been a timely boost
as he develops his own title bid. Right now, the driver really
taking the fight to the SAS-backed cars is Hankey in the Parker
with Juta car and he’s won twice. Euan was blisteringly quick at
Thruxton a year ago on his Carrera Cup debut and will be another
absolute benchmark. But this is not just about the trio at the
head of the points, as drivers like Stephen Jelley (Parker with
Juta), Team Parker Racing duo Sam Tordoff and Richard Plant and
Ben Hetherington (Redline/Oman Air) are all showing great pace.
Jelley won at Brands, but had a frustrating weekend at Donington,
while Tordoff showed race winning pace in only his second
Carrera Cup weekend. For category veterans Tim Harvey and
Michael Caine (Nationwide/Motorbase) it has been a troubled
start to the season. Harvey has suffered two punctures in four
races, while Caine’s campaign took a knock with a hefty testing
accident at Donington. If there is any track where their
experience will serve them well, it is Thruxton. In the Pro-Am1
category, Lithuanian racer Jonas Gelzinis (Juta Racing) has
taken the early advantage and even claimed an overall pole
position at Donington. He’s grabbed a points’ margin over Ahmad
Al Harthy (Redline/Oman Air) and Rory Butcher (Celtic Speed) and
at least goes back to Thruxton this year knowing the track after
his debut there a year ago. There is another great contest going
on in Pro-Am2 and so close is the category that the top drivers
were three-abreast at Donington at one point. George Brewster
(Celtic Speed) is the man with three wins from four races to his
credit, but Andrew Shelley bagged a first win at Donington as
his Redline Racing team mate Keith Webster ran them close. Steve
Parish (Motorbase Performance) should be back in the mix this
weekend, having missed Donington due to business commitments.
pic Dennis Goodwin
 WTCC:
Gabriele Tarquini kicked off the Belgian weekend
in style at Zolder setting the fastest lap in Friday’s
30-minute test. With ten minutes left on the clock, the Italian
driver in his SEAT León Tdi posted a 1:39.848, which he improved
to 1:39.726 in the dying moments of the session.Chevrolet’s
Alain Menu was second fastest with a lap of 1:39.765, the only
other driver to go under the 1:40. Mark. Current championship
leader Rob Huff placed third (1:40.050) just ahead of Tom
Coronel (1:40.132) and Yvan Muller (1:40.308). The SUNRED duo of
Michel Nykjær and Fredy Barth were timed at 1:40.520 and
1:40.694 respectively to be classified sixth and seventh, best
of the Yokohama Trophy competitors.The Volvo C30 of Robert
Dahlgren set the 10th fastest lap of 1:41.018. The session was
disrupted once by the red flag after 17 minutes, when Aleksey
Dudukalo's SEAT crashed into the tyre-wall at the Villeneuve
chicane. During the last minute Marchy Lee stopped his BMW car
at Turn 2 because of a throttle failure, and the session was
red-flagged for good.A few drivers received warnings for not
respecting the track limits and Kristian Poulsen had one of his
fastest laps disallowed for straight-cutting a chicane.Tarquini
said, “I
admit I was surprised by the lap time, taking into account that
now there are tyres in the second chicane while last year there
was none. On the other hand I have to say that track and weather
conditions were nearly ideal, though a little bit too warm for
our turbodiesel engine. I went for a set of fresh tyres on my
last stint and made good use of them. At the end of a test
session you never know what the others did, which tyres they
used, how much boost they gave. Therefore we must remain very
cautious in evaluating this result. But indeed it was a good
start!"
 The
FIA World Touring Car Championship and Infineon Raceway
have tentatively reached an agreement that would bring the world
championship to the Sonoma Valley in September 2012. "Bringing
the championship to USA was the next item in our agenda and the
last one to fulfill our aim for a really global calendar," said
WTCC promoter Marcello Lotti. "So far we had worked to establish
our European and South American events, reinforce our presence
in Asia and return to Morocco. Now we feel that the time has
come to expand to the US market that is a priority for our
manufacturers and stakeholders. Infineon Raceway is a modern
racetrack with impressive facilities, and I believe it is the
ideal location to host a WTCC event. I am very satisfied of the
meeting we had with Steve Page that enabled us to find an
agreement for submitting to the FIA the proposal to enter the
WTCC Race of US in the 2012 calendar." Steve Page, president and
general manager at Infineon Raceway, is excited at hosting the
first-ever WTCC event in the United States. He met with Lotti
earlier this week in Sonoma. "The WTCC offers the kind of
door-to-door hard-fought competition that American racing fans
really respond to and we're very excited about the opportunity
to introduce this series to the North American continent," said
Page. "The Infineon Raceway road course is an ideal circuit for
these cars and we look forward to introducing Sonoma-style
racing to a world-wide audience."
22-04-11
 Formula
3: Reigning National Class Champion Menasheh Idafar
made a superb start to the second weekend of the 2011 Cooper
Tires British Formula 3 International Series at Oulton Park
today, Friday, 22nd April, with the third fastest time overall
during pre-event testing. Delivering an outstanding performance
during this morning’s warm and sunny opening session, the
20-year-old posted a best time of 1m29.355 seconds (108.45mph)
on his sixth lap to conclude the run third quickest – within a
mere 0.117 seconds of pace-setter Carlos Huertas. For the early
afternoon session, track temperatures increased to 42 degrees
and so the outright pace was marginally slower. Menasheh lapped
strongly again and although not quite able to match his morning
best, a time of 1m29.761 seconds (107.96mph) placed him eighth
fastest. Finishing the day third on combined times marks a
tremendous beginning to the first UK event of the season for the
British-born Bahraini who goes into the race meeting 11th in the
championship. At Monza in Italy last weekend, he steered his
T-Sport engineered Dallara-Volkswagen to a pair of points
finishes during the season curtain-raiser. “It’s been a great
start to the weekend, it’s a fantastic feeling to be third
fastest but there’s a lot of hard work ahead”, said Menasheh,
“You always want to be quick in testing but it’ll be in
qualifying tomorrow and the races where it really matters. We’re
happy with how things have gone so far.” pic Jakob Ebrey Photography
 Facu Regalia set the best time during the Italian
Formula 3 test-day at Monza
yesterday (Thursday) , driving his Team Ghinzani´s Dallara-FPT.
Nineteen year old Facu set the time with half a second to
spare over his his teammate. Regalia who had been working on
different aerodinamic and set-ups at Franciacorta earlier in the
week explained : “It was a positive journey for us. There were
different reasons, one of them because I finished as the fastest
on track but the second reason is that my teammate, Edoardo
Liberati, was second. It shows both Team Ghinzani and me are in
good shape for the start of the season. The developments
introduced by Piercarlo Ghinzani´s team were effective at Monza,
a track which I was discovering today driving a Formula 3 car,
but I was comfortable. It´s a really fast circuit, the type I
prefer because they are suitable for my driving-style. My time,
1:46.693, was really good taking into account track conditions
and neither team nor I had expected it”. Pre-season testing
continues next week, on Tuesday.
 Le
Mans:
REBELLION Racing will introduce an new upgraded
aerodynamic package
on both of the team’s Lola-Toyota cars this weekend during Le
Mans Test Day on Sunday 24th of April, The front of the car is
based on a brand new concept, with new front lights and bodywork
changes that will allow the team’s Lola-Toyota cars to use the
larger front tyres available from Michelin. The rear of the
team’s Lola-Toyota cars will adopt 'swan neck’ rear wing
supports as the main visible change. Both the #12 and #13 cars
will run next Sunday at Le Mans 24 Hours circuit with the new
aero kit. Lola cars has designed and produced this new aero kit
for Rebellion Racing. The work started at the end of last year
based on Rebellion Racing’s requirements and desire to improve
the overall package of their cars. Bart Hayden, Rebellion Racing
Team Manager : “ Next Sunday’s Le Mans Test Day is a rare
occasion to test the cars on the Le Mans 24 Hours track, so it
is very important for us to have both cars fitted with the new
aero kit, as scheduled. We have a detailed programme of work for
each of the two cars to gain as much information as possible on
the new aerodynamics and compare the on-track performance to the
simulations. The drivers will also have a lot of work to get
through with the addition of the wider front tyres from
Michelin. Once again, the guys at the workshop are the unsung
heros of the moment, they have again put so much into getting
both cars ready for next weekend. I would like also to thank our
partners at Lola Cars who have produced all the parts,
suspension and bodywork to schedule. “
Karts:
Sam Brabham is set to start his very first season
competing in Formula Kart Stars
this weekend, April 23 & 24, as the first round of the premier
national karting series heads to the Rowrah circuit in Cumbria.
Representing a third generation of the Brabham family to embark
on a racing career, Sam’s progression to the national karting
ranks is supported by sponsors Grand Privé, the private
and exclusive supper club, and Liberty International
UnderwritersTM (LIU), a division of Liberty Mutual Group. Son
of Le Mans winner and double American Le Mans Series Champion,
David Brabham, and Grandson to triple Formula One World
Champion, Sir Jack Brabham, Sam will contest the Junior Max
class with the Project One racing team. Aged 16, Sam’s karting
career started a few years ago with arrive-and-drive racing at
Buckmore Park in Kent where he secured podium finishes before
stepping up to the Mini Max class with Project One. Sam
graduated to the Junior Max category last year, notching up
impressive club level results at both Buckmore Park and Bayford
Meadows. The Championship was established back in 1996 when
McLaren boss Ron Dennis, Mercedes boss Norbert Haug and karting
legend Martin Hines got together to create a junior karting
championship which would provide a path for young drivers who
wished to pursue a career in motorsport. Today FKS is supported
by Formula One Management and is committed to the road to
Formula 1 through racing and education. The Junior Max class
is one of the post popular karting categories in the UK for
drivers aged 13 to 17 years and Sam will relish the challenge of
joining the bumper 24-kart field of promising young drivers
competing in the FKS category. Sam Brabham (No. 23, Junior
Max): “I’m excited to be going into my first season of Formula
Kart Stars. It will be a good experience and I will learn a
lot. My aim this year will be to just keep on getting quicker,
learn a lot more about the kart and how it works as well as
focusing on improving myself and getting good results. “Most of
the tracks are new to me but I’m looking forward to the
challenge of learning new circuits, what changes I need to make
to go quicker and what I need to work on. I know Gerard and the
Project One team have a lot of experience and to have that level
of support behind me gives me confidence. I’m looking forward
to tackling my first race at Rowrah. I hope to do well there
and then steadily progress throughout the season. I’m sure we
can do really well this year “
 Historic
Karts:
The 2011 RetroRacer Championship sped into life on April 16/17
at Ellough Park
where more than 50 drivers were rewarded for their long drive to
Beccles with fine weather, a fine welcome and some fine racing
in all classes. With competitors travelling to Ellough, situated
at the far eastern tip of the UK, from as far afield as Jersey
and Stranraer in Scotland there was a good deal of anticipation
going into the start of the sixth RetroRacer season and with
more than 70 karts in total on display, some dating back to the
formative years of karting in Great Britain in the late 1950’s
those who turned up to watch the racing did not leave
disappointed. Two of the drivers who were richly rewarded for
their long journey were Channel Islanders Tania le Couilliard,
who won the 100cc Class I ‘Vintage’ division in her 1969 Sprint/Komet
K88 and Robert Miere, who was victorious in the burgeoning Class
I ‘Classic’ encounter in his self built 1982 Miere/DAP T70. In
the Class I ‘Historic’ race for karts built between 1972 and
1977 was equally well supported with David Gibson (1977
Deavinson Sprint/DAP T70) coming out on top ahead of Peter
Freeman (Blow Gnat/Komet K88) and Mark Ashton (Deavinson Sprint/Komet
K77). The technical and twisty Ellough Park layout proved
particularly demanding on the drivers and nowhere was this more
evident than in the Class IV classes for gearbox karts with the
250 drivers in particular having a tough time trying to hustle
their monstrously powerful machines through Ellough’s sinuous
turn six hairpin complex. However despite the tight surroundings
the gearbox classes provided some of the most compelling racing
of the weekend, not least in the Vintage division where Bob
Reynolds and Reg Gange (Barlotti/Villiers) traded the lead
numerous times in the final before Reynolds finally took the win
aboard his Bultaco powered 1969 Blow Invader. The Class IV
‘Historic’ race was won by Paul Brighton’s Zip Espada/Bultaco
K250 from the Villiers powered Zip Shadow of Chris Bagnall while
perhaps the best race of the day was saved for the fastest of
all karts present, the ‘Classic’ Class IV’s built between 1978
and 1982. What started as a three-way scrap for the lead was
reduced to a head to head battle when Frank Kirkham spun,
leaving Dan Rawden and Chris Coates disputing top spot. Coates
finally found a way through after several attempts and took the
win in his 1982 Zip/Rotax 125 with last year’s champ Rawden a
very close second. The second round of the 2011 RetroRacer
Championship takes place at Teesside on May 7th/8th.
21-04-11
 Formula
Ford:
Oulton Park is the venue for rounds 4, 5, and 6 of the MSA
Formula Ford Championship
this coming Easter Bank Holiday weekend. Where Jersey based Dan
de Zille will be back out in his Mygale SJ11 single seater run
by JTR. After the season opener at Silverstone where Dan got
off to a flying season start with 2 podiums, he is currently
lying 3rd in the overall driver rankings with 62 points, behind
Australian teammate Geoff Uhrhane (68) and Dutchman Jeroen
Slagkekke (75). Dan remarked: “I am feeling fairly confident
about the weekend ahead, we have had a few problems in testing,
which JTR are looking into and which I hope are sorted out by
tomorrow.“ The weekend’s programme kicks off with Qualifying at
12.00 on Saturday, race 1 at 15.55pm Sat and races 2 & 3 on
Easter Monday at 10.35am and 16.55pm at Cheshire's Oulton Park
Circuit.
Charity:
Brands Hatch will host the launch of the 2011 ‘Scumrun’ charity
banger rally
next Thursday (28 April), which raises money for the Dreams Come
True charity. The event, which is now in its sixth year,
challenges competitors to take part in a four-day race through
Europe in a car costing no more than £500, with each leg kept
secret until just before the drivers set off for the day. This
year’s Scumrun will feature more than 100 cars including a fire
engine and an original 1968 Morris Minor. Several teams will
also be celebrating the launch in fancy dress, with two teams
embracing the impending Royal wedding by dressing up as Prince
William and Kate Middleton respectively. Supporting the launch
event will be model Katie Green, who will accompany two families
that have benefitted from the service that Dreams Come True
provides. Scumrun organizer Martin Neal said: “Dreams Come True
are very pleased to be involved with the Scumrun Charity Rally
in 2011. We are hoping to raise a significant amount of funds
over the event to help fulfill terminally and seriously ill
childrens’ dreams become a reality. This will be an absolutely
magical event for the children, families, participants and the
charity and we wish everyone good luck with their fundraising
and enjoy the mystery destinations!” The 2011 Scumrun will begin
with a parade lap of the Brands Hatch Indy circuit before all
100 cars depart for a late night ferry to France .
 Renault
3.5: Teenage
Daniël De Jong made a highly promising debut
in the Formula Renault 3.5 Series at Motorland Aragon in Spain
last weekend, 16th/17th April, and the emerging Dutch racer is
confident his season will only go from strength to strength.
Arriving with a glowing reputation into Formula Renault 3.5
this year, the 18-year-old delivered two strong race
performances for Comtec Racing –improving his pace throughout
the event. His best result came in race two where a well judged
drive from 24th on the grid was rewarded with a top 15 finish.
In the process, Daniël posted a quickest lap time of 1m45.135
seconds – just 0.8 seconds away from the best of all. In the
opening 45-minute encounter, Daniël was 19th at the finish with
a best lap time within 1.4 seconds of the fastest of the race.
All in all a very promising debut in his 480bhp, 3.5-litre car –
a huge step-up from the 2.0-litre Formula Renault he’s raced for
the last couple of years. “I’m really satisfied with my debut”,
said the Westmaas driver, “I think we did a really good job, we
improved our pace a lot and in the end came away with two strong
race finishes. Finishing 15th in race two was a really great
start to my season, there are so many quick and experienced
drivers in Formula Renault 3.5 so to do so well on my first
weekend has given me a lot of confidence.” Running with backing
from Karpack, Boix and De Jong ECOCUPS, Daniël aspires to
steadily increase his pace throughout the 18-race season and be
in a position to challenge for the top 10 ahead of a full
championship bid in 2012. He added: “Of course, every driver
hopes to make it to Formula One in the future and I’m no
different – that’s my main goal. Being in Formula Renault 3.5 is
a fantastic place to be seen so if we can be successful in this
championship, it’ll be very important for my career.” There is
now little more than a week to wait until the next round at Spa-Francorchamps,
over the weekend 30th April/1st May.
Ginetta Jnrs:
Marford teenager Seb Morris has his sights set on yet more race
victories
when the Ginetta Junior Championship arrives at Thruxton next
weekend, 30th April/1st May, for the fifth and sixth rounds of
the season. Although only four races in to the current
campaign, the 15-year-old has exerted a tight grip on the
championship lead and after a string of remarkable performances
in his Hillspeed car he is very much the driver to beat.
Undefeated at Brands Hatch Indy Circuit and Donington Park
National Circuit, the Legat Owen and Liberty Properties
Plc-backed racer intends to make it six wins from six at
ultra-fast Thruxton next weekend, a track which demands respect
and rewards the bravest of competitors.“I’ve got good confidence
in the car ahead of next weekend, the guys at Hillspeed are
doing a great job and gave me a fantastic set-up at both Brands
and Donington”, said Seb, “I’m really looking forward to
Thruxton, it’s a great track – really fast and flowing – and I
think my smooth driving style should help the tyres. Thruxton
always takes a lot out of the tyres, and we only have five sets
for the season, so it’ll be important to look after them as much
as possible. I’m sure we can keep the momentum we’ve got at the
moment and fight for more wins, that always has to be the aim.”
Ahead of next weekend’s action Seb holds a lead of 52 points
over his closest rival, having scored 144 from a possible
maximum of 148 points.
 BTCC:
Alex MacDowall is cautiously confident
of possibly his strongest weekend so far in the 2011 Dunlop MSA
British Touring Car Championship when the action resumes at
Thruxton just over a week from now on Saturday, 30th April, and
Sunday, 1st May. Heading into the event ninth in the points
after last weekend’s outing at Donington Park, the 20-year-old
BRDC racer believes the fantastic balance and first class
handling of his 2.0-litre Chevrolet Cruze will pay dividends.
Thruxton, renowned as a tyre-killer due to the high-speed nature
of the 2.36-mile circuit, is certainly a unique challenge with
its outrageously fast corners at Goodwood, Village and Church
and the tight chicane at the end of the lap which always
provides incredible overtaking action. “Thruxton will definitely
suit our car better than Donington”, said Alex, “Over a single
lap though, the turbos will still have a big advantage. The
Chevrolet Cruze is a great handling chassis and has a good
balance in high speed corners which should really help on the
fastest parts of the track.Obviously, Thruxton is also notorious
for punctures – even with a normally aspirated car like the
Chevy – so while we try and fine tune the car during free
practice, the turbo cars will have to focus on race runs a bit
more. My aim at the moment is to again be the top-scoring
Chevrolet driver and the best scorer in a normally aspirated
car, as I was at Donington last weekend.” pic
Dennis Goodwin
 Le
Mans:
Lightweight design expertise expressed visually: This is
the principle under which Audi enters the 24 Hours of Le Mans
this year. The three Audi R18 TDI cars, which join the grid for
the French endurance classic on June 11/12 and which make their
first public appearance over the Easter weekend at the Le Mans
test day, perfectly embodies - also visually - Audi’s core
expertise in lightweight technology. The livery of the three
Audi Sport Team Joest Audi R18 TDI cars is dominated by puristic
carbon fibre. The car of last year’s Le Mans winners carrying
start number "1" even runs in the characteristic black of the
extremely light and, at the same time, high-strength material,
which also plays an increasingly important role in the
development of new production cars. "Carbon fibre is ideally
suited for lightweight design and construction," explains Head
of Audi Motorsport Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich. "We have deliberately
made this material and the ultra lightweight technology visual
for Le Mans. Lightweight design has occupied us for many years
in motorsport. Everything that we have learnt over the years and
especially about lightweight design and construction during
development of the R18 TDI will also be available for our
customers in the future - either in the form of greater
performance or in the shape of low fuel consumption and lower
emissions." The R18 TDI is a particularly authentic ambassador
for the company’s lightweight technology which will be bundled
by the term ‘ultra’ in the future. "Lightweight design is a very
important factor at Le Mans because a light car is also always a
more efficient car," says Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich. This year, it is
of even greater significance since the regulations stipulate
smaller engines producing less power - for the Audi R18 TDI this
means over 540 hp (397 kW). Although there is a minimum weight
of 900 kilograms for LMP1 cars at Le Mans, the target is to
produce a car weighing significantly less than this limit in
order to optimize the weight distribution with the help of
ballast and to lower the centre of gravity as much as possible.
The carbon monocoque produced in a single-piece, for which a
highly complex manufacturing process was developed and which is
an impressive proof of the company’s lightweight design
expertise, is not only revolutionary for a Le Mans sports car.
The same applies for the bodywork which was lightened by 40
kilograms between the first and second version. "Such a
consequent lightweight design is a high technical challenge,"
says Christopher Reinke, Technical Project Leader at Audi Sport.
The V6 TDI engine in the R18 TDI is about 25 percent lighter
than the V10 TDI engine in its predecessor. "On one hand through
downsizing, but also to a certain extent because we explored
completely new directions and chose an unusual engine concept,"
explains Ulrich Baretzky, Head of Engine Development at Audi
Sport. The new six-speed gearbox, which has a high amount of
carbon-fibre composite material, and the complete LED headlights
also help to save weight. It was also possible to omit the
electric cooling of the light-emitting diodes in the headlights
commonly found in production cars. Because the gearshift is no
longer activated pneumatically but rather electrically, the R18
TDI requires no more pneumatic system. Optimized airflow through
the cockpit should make air-conditioning redundant. "The Audi
R18 TDI is equipped with many innovative solutions," says Head
of Audi Motorsport Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich proudly. "It was built
for regulations specifically targeting future technologies - and
with the background enabling these technologies to be introduced
into road going cars in the future. This is what makes sport
prototypes so interesting for Audi. That we will now see the
first impact of Audi ultra lightweight technology at Le Mans
demonstrates just how motorsport and production line development
go hand in hand at Audi. I’m convinced that ultra will be
mentioned in one breath with terms like quattro or TDI in a few
years."
 BTCC:
Andrew Jordan and Pirtek Racing are riding high heading for the
next event on the BTCC
schedule after a fabulous weekend last time out at Donington
Park. Now, Andrew reckons that this weekend’s Thruxton event (30
April/1 May) could be one of the best of the season for Pirtek
Racing. The high-speed Hampshire track is the fastest on the
calendar for the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship and
invariably delivers spectacular race action and intense
competition. But Thruxton’s notoriously abrasive surface is also
incredibly tough on tyres and for the front-wheel drive touring
cars the series of never-ending fast right-hand corners puts an
intense strain on front left tyres. For the leading drivers, the
Thruxton weekend is all about tyre management. Andrew has
always been very strong at Thruxton, where driver talent and car
set-up are more clearly demonstrated than at some of the less
challenging tracks. After taking a win and two seconds at
Donington Park, and ending the weekend as the top scorer, Andrew
is understandably confident about Thruxton. “Thruxton has got
to be our strongest circuit,” he says. “But we need to go there
and be conservative on set-up and make sure we get finishes and
not any punctures. After a bad weekend at Brands, we’re now in
the championship hunt and we’ve just got to keep doing what
we’re doing.” For Jeff Smith, Andrew’s team mate at Pirtek
Racing, Donington represented a massive leap into the
front-running pack and he finished the weekend with a
spectacular fifth place to show how quickly he is getting to
grips with life as a BTCC racer. Thruxton will be another big
new challenge, but Jeff is clearly learning fast about the BTCC.
pic Dennis Goodwin
 Ginetta
Jnrs: Patrick McClughan put in a determined
performance and notched up more points at Donington
Park last weekend, in rounds three and four of the 2011 Ginetta
Junior Championship. Paddy, who is in his second season in
Ginetta Juniors came away with two ninth place finishes despite
a bent steering arm in race two. pic Jakob Ebrey Photography
Read report
Karts: At the second
round of the WSK Euro Series in Portimao, the CRG team won
both in KZ1 with Jonathan Thonon and in KF3 with Max Verstappen,
the category of the 13-15 years olds, which had the 102 entered
drivers. The performances of Arnaud Kozlinski's and Mirko
Torsellini's CRG-Maxters did not go unnoticed, either.
Read report
20-04-10
DTM:
Following a seven-year break, DTM returns to Austria from 3-6
June, 2011,
at the Red Bull Ring - formerly known as ’Österreichring’ or
’A1-Ring’ - the venue of the third round of the season. The DTM
will be the first major event held at the new Red-Bull-Ring. One
week before DTM makes its big Austria comeback, the popular
international touring-car series will come to Graz for a PR
event - on 28th May. During the event beginning at 09:00hrs and
ending at 17:00hrs, the visitors will be entertained by a
multifaceted programme including DTM demonstration runs. To
begin the Audi and Mercedes-Benz DTM drivers will cycle for the
campaign ’Fahrradfahren mit Helm’ (’Cycling with Helmet’) from
the ’Hauptplatz’ to the department store Kastner & Öhler , the
venue of the following press conference. And before the DTM
drivers will start their engines, ’Flying Bull’ sky divers will
land on the ’Tegetthoff Brücke.’ Then it’s time for the DTM
action: two DTM cars will drive from the ’Kaiser Franz Josef
Kai’ via the ’Andreas Hofer Platz’ to the ’Hauptplatz’, thus
offering the visitors the chance of witnessing the DTM vehicles
race past at close range. Furthermore, the DTM drivers will be
welcomed by the Mayor of Graz, Siegfried Nagl, and may sign the
city’s Golden Book. Afterwards there will be autograph sessions
. During the entire event, there also will be two DTM trucks
placed on the ’Hauptplatz’ as an additional attraction to the
DTM.
 Blancpain
Endurance Series
: A week after the FIA GT1 World Championship at the Zolder ,
Maxime Martin
and the entire Marc VDS Racing team headed off for Monza, for
the highly awaited launch of the Blancpain Endurance Series, the
latest competition created by SRO (Stéphane Ratel Organisation),
with the competition’s highlight being held in Belgium during
the last weekend of July, namely the Total 24 Hours of Spa.
Read more
 Formula
3:
One of Ireland’s most promising racing drivers, Gary Thompson,
is targeting the Japanese F3 National Class title after
confirming his return to the series with the SGC by KCMG team
for the 2011 season. The 18-year-old Dubliner, who will continue
to receive backing from Aviation Display and Cebu Pacific as
well as support from Bam Motorsport and team sponsor SGC this
season, finished fifth in his rookie year in 2010 having
graduated to the prestigious single-seater series from Formula
BMW Pacific, where he was runner-up in 2009. After opting to
stay with the Hong Kong-based KCMG squad for the new campaign,
Thompson, who scored two podium finishes driving the team’s
Dallara-Toyota last season, is planning a title assault this
year in the hotly-contested National Class. The new Japanese F3
season was due to begin this month at Suzuka, but due to the
massive earthquake and tsunami that rocked Japan in March, the
first round was postponed. Thompson’s 2011 campaign is now due
to start at Suzuka on 14-15 May and the youngster, who ended
last year ranked as Ireland’s best driver on the Castrol Edge
Rankings, is eager to get back to racing as he looks to follow
in the footsteps of fellow Japanese F3 graduates Pedro de la
Rosa and Adrian Sutil on the road to Formula One. Gary Thompson:
“I’m very happy to have re-signed with KCMG for my return to the
Japanese F3 Championship in 2011. The team and I worked well
together in my rookie season last year and I think we’ve made
some real progress since then. Since the terrible earthquake and
tsunami our plans have been a little bit up in the air and my
thoughts and best wishes have been with all those people
affected by the disaster as they look to rebuild and recover.
However, now my programme is confirmed, I’m really looking
forward to racing in Japan again. I thoroughly enjoyed it last
year and loved spending time in the country.The National Class
is very competitive again, in fact it looks like being the most
hotly-contested category this year, but we’ve been quick in
testing so far and we think we’ve got a good base set-up on the
car. My aim is to be challenging for wins right from the first
race and then to maintain a title push throughout the year.”
The start of the British Formula 3 Championship season at Monza,
Italy was dominated completely by the British Carlin team
powered by Volkswagen. The team celebrated a one-two-three
podium lock out in the first race, a one-two in the second race
and in the third and final race took first and third positions.
The Brazilian Felipe Nasr shone as best driver with the
Volkswagen driver winning the first and third races. In the
second race Nasr was only beaten by Carlin team mate Rupert
Svendsen-Cook. Nasr was particularly strong in the third race,
where he started from eighth position and dropped back to
eleventh on the first lap. From here, he drove brilliantly to
retake the lead and win in his Dallara F308 Volkswagen. After
the first of ten race weekends Nasr leads the championship by 18
points ahead of another Carlin driver, Jazeman Jaafar from
Malaysia.
 Formula
Renault UK: Mark Burdett Motorsport driver Jack
Hawksworth put in a good performance at Donington last
weekend in the Formula Renault UK championship. In the first
race he took a solid fourth place which he equalled in race 2.
This subsequently became second after a double disqualification
ahead of him, leaving him a challenging third in the title
chase.
Pic Jakob
Ebrey Photography
Read report
 Formula
Renault Eurocup:
The first meeting of the season for the World Series by
Renault
took place last weekend on the Alcaniz track in Spain and Paul
Loup Chatin took part in the very challenging Eurocup
championship.In this first leg, the “Euroformulavolant” 2011
was generally positive. Yet Paul Loup Chatin started well,
finishing in 9th and 7th place in the free practice sessions on
Friday. Sadly things went downhill slightly in the first
qualifier. Victim of a yellow flag when he was on his fast lap,
Paul Loup lost the advantage of his new tyres and could not do
better than 11th in his group. Relegated to 21st position on
the grid, he had an excellent start in Race 1 which propelled
him to 11th place at the end of the first lap! Unfortunately an
electrical fault forced him to retire which was a shame as there
wwas achance of getting some points. The next day, Paul Loup
found himself in the top group to compete in the qualifiers and
lost four places for just one tenth of a second, ending up in
9th position in his group and 17th on the grid of Race 2. Paul
Loup had another very good start and rapidly moved up to 10th
position and then ninth. The positions then stayed as they were
until the finish despite several attempts to overtake and the
Paul Loup would finally cross the finishing line in that 9th
place, “This place globally reflects the level of our
performance this weekend,” Paul Loup confided, “the Tech1 team
did some really good work starting with the collective tests to
improve the set up, but it required specific driving and I had a
bit of trouble with it to start with. Overall the weekend was
positive because we showed again that our performance is
constantly improving. It’s a shame we had an electrical problem
during Race 1 but that’s part of motorsport! All the same, I
reached my goal and finished in the top 10 and I think we can
hope for a bit better at Spa because the TECH 1 team support me
all the way.” Satisfaction was also found at Euroformula and
its Director, Laurent Fradon, explained his point of view to us:
“Paul Loup stayed in the running despite the problems
encountered. He knew not to give up and fought to move up the
ranking for the two races. The Eurocup is a difficult
championship and we have to give him time to get his bearings
but I am certain that he will soon be battling for the podium.
We are satisfied with Paul Loup’s performance.”
 Karts:
The 2011 Formula Kart Stars Championship gets underway this
Easter weekend
at Rowrah in Cumbria with more than 100 drivers looking for a
golden egg to kick off their Championship hunt. The Formula One
Management backed Championship will once again host the MSA
British Cadet Championship and the FKS Championship for Mini Max
and Junior Max. Unfortunately despite the series’ best efforts,
KF3 will not run this year although work is already underway to
revive the class in the future and a one-off event for the class
is planned for the penultimate weekend of the year at Whilton
Mill. Following the success of last season’s doubleheader format
all six FKS race weekends in 2011 will follow the same timed
qualifying, two heats and a final timetable on both days,
meaning the new champions will have to endure twelve rounds and
nearly 50 races between now and the end of the year. “I’m very
excited about the new season of Formula Kart Stars,” says series
director Carolynn Hoy, who has just returned to the UK following
her epic 16,000-mile Antarctic to Arctic fundraising journey.
“We received lots of positive feedback from our 2010 season and
we have tried to make sure that we improve on that even more for
2011. “It’s a tremendous shame that we couldn’t provide a KF3
grid this year but I’m sure that we haven’t seen the last of
this fantastic class in Formula Kart Stars.” In addition to the
season opening doubleheader at Rowrah, the twelve round
championship will also visit Three Sisters, Glan Y Gors, Genk,
Whilton Mill and Ellough Park with the Rotax classes all using
the CIK-approved Alfano Alspy system. As well as the round by
round free tyre draw and class prizes from Martin Plowman
(Cadet), Lewis Hamilton (Mini Max) and Bradley Ellis (Junior
Max) Formula Kart Stars will also be providing prizes from new
sponsors Powerboat P1 and iZone Driver Performance and control
fuel suppliers One Fuel by Shell.
An
unusual problem that affected Beitske Visser's racing chassis
made her weekend a lot more complicated at the WSK Euro Series
in Portimao. Her timed session was affected and the Dutch girl
started far back on the grid. So her goal became to recover as
much as possible, in order to score a few points and perform at
the same level as the leaders. read
report
 Ginetta
GT Supercup:
Jody Fannin had a rollercoaster ride during the latest
rounds of the Ginetta GT Supercup at Donington Park. After
finishing the first race on Saturday fifth in the G50 Class he
rebounded on Sunday to win race 2 before coming third in the
final race. Sadly that result he fell victim to a minor
technical infringement and was excluded from the results.
Read report
 Ginetta
Jnrs:
Declan Jones took a confidence lifting first-ever top-ten
Ginetta Junior Championship finish at Donington Park last
weekend, in rounds three and four of the series.
Pic Jakob
Ebrey Photography
read report
BTCC:
The clock is ticking… there are now less than two weeks to go
before Britain’s premier motor racing spectacle – the Dunlop MSA
British Touring Car Championship – returns south for its latest
battle royal of 2011 at the country’s fastest circuit, Thruxton
in Hampshire on Sunday 1 May. Arriving at Thruxton, however,
there’s a surprise championship leader – youngster James Nash
from Bedfordshire in his 888 Racing with Collins Contractors
Vauxhall Vectra. Although yet to win a race in the BTCC,
consistent high scoring means that after last Sunday's (17 Apr)
latest round at Donington Park the 25-year-old impressively
leads the way. But he’s under massive pressure. Right behind
with two wins already this season is Honda Racing Team ace Matt
Neal and, just one point further adrift, another of the
championship’s rising stars, Mat Jackson, who took a victory in
his Airwaves racing Ford Focus at Donington. Andrew Jordan, also
a winner at Donington in his Pirtek Racing Vectra, is fourth and
fifth Jason Plato in his Silverline Chevrolet Cruze which has
also bagged two wins so far in 2011. Reigning Champion Plato
will go into Thruxton’s three BTCC races eager for strong points
finishes after his title hopes were severely dented, quite
literally, with a huge high-speed roll at Donington. There are
also two drivers local to Thruxton on the BTCC grid – WSR BMW
team-mates Robert Collard and Nick Foster, both from Hook.
Collard is an established front-runner in the BTCC with four
career race wins to his name so far, whereas Foster will be
making his first appearance in front of his home crowd in what
is his debut season in Britain’s most famous and highest profile
motor racing championship. Thruxton’s big BTCC race day on
Sunday 1 May starts at 09.45am with the Pit Lane Walkabout
autograph session. Then follow the BTCC’s latest three races of
2011 as well as seven more races for the high-profile supporting
Ginetta Junior, Ginetta GT Supercup, Porsche Carrera Cup,
Formula Renault and Renault Clio Cup categories which offer the
very best in saloon, sportscar and single-seater action. Race
day trackside tickets from £23 per adult can be booked via the
www.barc.net website
or by calling 01264 882200.
Rallycross: Westhoughton-based
racer Tony Lynch will return to the scene of his first win
of the 2011 season this weekend when he takes part in a
non-championship Suzuki Swift race during the opening event of
the European Rallycross Championship season at Lydden Hill.
Lynch, who leads the Suzuki Swift standings following his
victory in the first round of the British Rallycross season, is
amongst the drivers who will represent the Suzuki series after
it was invited to appear at the event, and will hope to repeat
the kind of form he displayed when winning at Lydden Hill last
month. While championship points aren’t on offer in this
weekend’s event, the opportunity to compete on the European
Rallycross bill in front of a bumper crowd was too much to miss,
with Tony set to use the event to get extra time behind the
wheel of his Team Geriatric-run car ahead of the second British
championship round of the year at Blyton next month. “I’m
pleased to be able to take part in this weekend’s event, and it
will be a fantastic opportunity for both myself and the other
Suzuki drivers to race on the European Rallycross bill,” Tony
said. “It’s also a great opportunity to represent our sponsors
in front of a large crowd, and one that we just couldn’t turn
down. There is a large gap between the first and second round of
our own season, so Lydden is a good chance to keep my eye in
behind the wheel and even though we aren’t racing for points,
I’ll still be pushing hard to win. We’ve got one victory at
Lydden Hill already this season and if we could get another this
weekend, it would be the perfect way to prepare for the Blyton
night race next month.”
19-04-11
 Historics:
Formula Three is celebrating its sixtieth anniversary this year
and the category will be honoured this weekend at the inaugural
Cadwell Park Wolds Trophy, a major new historic race meeting
organised by the Historic Sports Car Club. The spotlight will be
on F3 with a series of races celebrating the cars throughout the
last 60 year, whilst there will be a number of support races for
classic sports and saloon cars. The battleground for
up-and-coming racers has nurtured many talents across various
national and international championships, including Sir Stirling
Moss, Ayrton Senna, Michael Schumacher and recent British F1
champion Jenson Button. The 500cc era at the birth of F3 ties in
with the earliest days of car racing at Cadwell Park , indeed
the very first four-wheeled race at the circuit was for F3 cars
and a report from this meeting has recently been uncovered. A
huge crowd of spectators (estimated at 30,000) attended a
meeting for both motorcycles and cars and saw R. Spreckley’s
Cooper triumph on the 1.3 mile circuit. Later that day a
handicap race was also held and was won by Charles Headland, who
posted an average speed of 57mph over the ten laps. Contemporary
reports described Cadwell Park as “a road circuit in the truest
sense”. The Phil Robinson Trophy for 500cc F3 cars this weekend
has been named in tribute to the Derbyshire racer who scored 11
wins at Cadwell Park between 1956 and 1959 and the man himself
will be presenting the trophy to the winner on Easter Monday.
The Wolds Trophy will be held at Cadwell Park on Easter Sunday
and Bank Holiday Monday, 24/25 April. More information is
available at
www.cadwellpark.co.uk
or by calling 0843 453 9000
The Ginetta Challenge
kicks off at Oulton Park this Saturday, with a full grid
of G40 and G20 models squaring up against each other.
The Ginetta Challenge has been synonymous with full grids and
close racing for many years now, but for 2011 it is set to be
even better. A broader spread of the new G40 models to take on
the older, yet lighter, G20 will add to the spectacle while the
entry boasts newcomers, a former champion and a host of
competitive drivers. Mark Davies (Optimum Motorsport) was the
Ginetta Challenge Champion in 2009 and spent last year at the
wheel of a G50 in the TOCA-supporting championship. He drove a
G40 at Snetterton last season and is set to contest a full
season to try to add a second Ginetta crown to his CV, but is
set to come under huge pressure from last year’s championship
runner-up Sean Huyton (Academy Motorsport) who graduates to a
G40 for 2011. Against them will be former Caterham champion
Clive Richards (Colards Motorsport) and fellow former Caterham
ace Neil Delargy, while Phil House heads the HHC Motorsport
attack. House, a former double Volkswagen Racing Cup Champion
should be on the pace in these cars, as will team-mate Richard
Sykes and Ryan Ratcliffe (Piranha Motorsport) who steps up from
the detuned G40s in the Junior Championship and former Renault
Clio pedaller Mike Robinson (TCR). The G20s won’t be outshone
by their newer cousins and their battles will be as fierce as
ever. Gary Simms, a Ginetta stalwart with GT, G50 Cup and G20
experience under his belt is set for another season and must be
a favourite within the class in his Optimum Motorsport-run car.
Stuart Pearson bagged a win at the end of last season and will
be one to watch, while Matt Flowers will be another front-runner
in his self-run entry. Keep an eye, too, on the progress of
Rick Parfitt junior as the son of the Status Quo rock legend
makes his Ginetta debut in another of the HHC Motorsport fleet
and will be keen to be up with the leaders rather than Down Down
the field…
 Eurocup
Formula Renault 2.0
Championship team MP Motorsport kicked-off the 2011 season
with a mixed set of results at Motorland Aragon in Spain over
the weekend, 17th/18th April – the first outing for the Dutch
squad’s newly confirmed three-driver line-up.
Pic Chris Schotanus/Essay Produkties
Read report
Formula Renault UK:
Jordan King learned some valuable lessons and picked up an
excellent top six finish in round two of the 2011 Formula
Renault UK Championship at Donington Park – leaving him looking
to the future with justifiable optimism.
Read more
 Formula
3:
Following a successful test day at South Australia’s
Mallala raceway
yesterday, West Aussie driver Bryce Moore has confirmed his Gold
Star ambitions for 2011. The 21-year-old aims to join the
Formula 3 Australian Drivers Championship this year and after
testing it’s clear that the pace will be there for a tilt at one
of Australia’s most coveted racing awards. Driving for R-Tek
Motorsport in a Dallara F307-Mercedes driven last year by Kiwi
Ben Crighton, Moore spent the morning learning Mallala’s
intricacies before banking some super quick times in the
afternoon once he had his eye in. A late-day run of four
consecutive 1m04.1s laps – unofficially, of course – saw him go
two-tenths underneath the track record set in 2006 by former
Gold Star champion Ben Clucas and all but matched last year by
would-be champ Ben Barker. He said that, after a shaky start,
the day ended with expectations well and truly exceeded. “I was
very green at the start and pretty shaky, I hadn’t been in a car
for long time,” he explained. “Once I had learnt the track
things started coming together and by the end of the day we had
a couple of really good runs that I’m told were right on the
pace, which is really, really good. “ Already driving for a team
headed by accomplished engineer Ian Richards, Moore had some
additional brainpower on his side during the test, having
enlisted the services of former (British F3) Hitech Racing
engineer Bruce Jenkins for the test day. “Bruce became friends
with my parents after moving to Australia and it was great to
have him along to help,” he said. “It’s important to have a good
relationship with your engineer and the fact I know Bruce really
well is a big help.” Buoyed by his strong performance on his
first test day in the latest-specification Formula 3 car, Moore
has his sights set on Winton as his first challenge. “Of course
everything revolves around us getting the sponsors together to
race, but I badly want to be on the grid at Winton – even more
so after today,” he enthused. “At this stage the goal is to go
to Winton and go from there,” he added. “But the ultimate goal
is to win the championship. With all respect to Team BRM, they
are a great team, but it would be great for another crew to win
the title so hopefully we can achieve that if everything comes
together this year.” Should Moore win the title this year he
will join an illustrious list of West-Aussie born and bred Gold
Star / Formula 3 champions, Aaron Caratti having won both titles
in 2005 and now-V8 Supercar racer Karl Reindler having taken top
spot the year before.
 Also
testing at Mallala was Queenslander John Magro, completing
his second day behind the wheel of his distinctive Magro
Motorsport Dallara, prepared and run by reigning champions Team
BRM. Magro was also super fast and set times in the low
1m04-second bracket in what he described as a ‘productive day’.
“We are very close to getting everything locked away for the
year and I’ve got no doubt I’ll be on the grid for Winton,” he
said. “The car felt great today and I’m really pleased with the
times. There’s more to come from me with more laps but based on
today I think we’ll be very competitive. I’m very close to
signing off on our sponsorship package for the year and getting
everything ready to go,” Magro added, noting that his car would
sport a ‘unique’ livery when it took to the track for round one.
Magro also said that whilst it was likely he would purchase the
ex-Ben Clucas, Clipsal 500 winning Dallara, Team BRM would
continue to run and prepare the car in aid of their quest to win
a record-breaking fourth consecutive crown.
Ginetta Jnrs:
Richard Ollerenshaw, team principal of Ginetta Junior
Championship squad Hillspeed,
has spoken out regarding what he deems “completely unacceptable”
driving standards in the category off the back of a bruising
weekend of racing at Donington Park. The third and fourth rounds
of the 2011 season this past weekend, 16th/17th April, certainly
featured a high level of on-track contact with a number of
drivers caught-up in incidents not of their own making –
including Hillspeed’s own Struan Moore. Having championed the
series since expanding the team’s operations at the end of 2009
to join the burgeoning one-make category, Ollerenshaw is now
becoming seriously concerned at a “diminishing level” of driving
standards and he’s seeking moves to clamp down on the culprits.
He said: “Some drivers are completely out of control at the
moment and that’s not portraying the championship as it should
be. Ginetta Junior is a fantastic series but the standards so
far this year at Brands Hatch and Donington have been appalling.
My belief is that there’s a certain amount of pressure on the
young drivers to race in a certain manner and that’s not
right. Drivers are leaning on others like they see in touring
cars and blatantly running people off the road which is bad
sportsmanship and extremely dangerous. I’d like to see much
harsher penalties being dished out for those who aren’t driving
and racing in an appropriate manner.” Ollerenshaw added: “We
know Ginetta is working hard to try and eradicate bad driving
and to penalise those drivers who continually push the fringes
of what’s acceptable and those who simply go completely over the
top. Hillspeed wholeheartedly supports any such moves and I hope
by drawing more attention to this we’ll get the championship
back to the fantastic series it truly is.”
 VW
Cup:
Mark Howard has been lured from retirement to drive the
newest car on the grid
of the Volkswagen Racing Cup with FUCHS Lubricants. His first
opportunity comes in the opening rounds of which take place on
Easter Monday (25 April). Howard, who hung up his helmet after
winning the Renault 5 Turbo championship in 1993, will give the
Mk VI Golf GTI its British racing debut at Oulton Park. The new
Golf has been created by Volkswagen Racing UK and will feature a
special ’35 years of the GTI’ livery. It will be one of a bumper
field of 24 at the Cheshire circuit for the first two of the
season’s 14 races. “I’ve always wanted to come back to racing,”
said Nottinghamshire-based Howard. “But I knew that I was
addicted, so I stayed away while I built my business and started
a family. Then I started to look around at what I could do and
considered several options, not knowing whether I had been away
too long and whether I still had ‘it’. “Then I found the
Volkswagen Racing Cup, which is a brilliant and very friendly
series, and within three weeks of seeing the plans for the new
Golf, here I am, all signed up and raring to go.” Said Melissa
Wight, of Volkswagen Racing UK: “We like to do a ‘new car
project’ every season and also wanted to do something to
celebrate 35 years of the Golf GTI; it seemed appropriate to
turn the latest incarnation of what has become an iconic breed
into a racing car. We had almost completed the build when Mark
came along so, as we were looking for someone to drive it, it
seemed perfect timing. “We have had enormous experience with
building Mk V Golf GTI models, so it was not a difficult
operation for us, and the engine in the Mk VI is the same as
that seen in the racing Sciroccos, so that was a help also. The
car looks awesome and we are delighted that Mark has come out of
retirement to drive it.” Including Howard’s there will be 14
Golfs on the grid at Oulton, and battle is expected to be
intense between them and the Sciroccos, the Beetles and the sole
Bora. Another new machine on the grid will be the GTI-engined
Caddy van, which will get its race debut in the hands of Simon
Elliott. Last year’s champion, Steve Chaplin, returns to defend
his title with his ‘Herbie’-inspired Beetle, and 2008 and ’09
title-winner Joe Fulbrook is back with his 1.8-litre
turbocharged Bora, the winner of 11 races in its six-year
career. Pic Jakob Ebrey Photography
 Formula
Ford:
The fast sweeps of the Oulton Park circuit in Cheshire
provide the backdrop for the next instalment in the Dunlop MSA
Formula Ford Championship story. Less than 30 points,- the worth
of a single race win, separates the top six drivers in the
championship, and on the form shown at Silverstone at least half
the field or more have the potential to win races. Dutch driver
Jeroen Slaghekke, who claimed a maiden win and a third-place
finish last time out in his Mygale for Jamun Racing Services, is
the man in the lead, but only 7 points over the third-round
victor, JTR’s Geoff Uhrhane. Australian Uhrhane impressed at
Silverstone and is relishing the opportunity to race his Mygale
at Oulton: “It’s a lot more of a driver’s track than the
Silverstone National circuit; it’s very different and more
challenging - a lot more corners and a lot more fun. I’ve done
two days testing there and we plan another two before the races,
so I should know it pretty well by then. Hopefully the car will
be up to speed and we should be right.” Uhrhane’s team-mate,
Dan de Zille, will be looking to go one better at Oulton after
twice finishing second at Silverstone, while JTR’s third man,
Tristan Mingay, is also hoping for a return to the podium. The
other top-10 men are Slaghekke’s Aussie Jamun team-mates Spike
Goddard and Nick McBride; Finns Antti Buri (LMS Mygale) and
Jesse Anttila (RaySport Ray); Jake Cook (Jamun Mygale); Philippe
Layac (Enigma/RV Mygale) and Matt Parry (Fluid Van Diemen). And
hovering just outside the top 10 is last year’s championship
runner-up Scott Malvern, who will be hoping to get his title bid
back on track after a disastrous start with new team Jamun. A
field of 19 is expected in Cheshire for Saturday’s fourth round
and Easter Monday’s rounds five and six, with a three-way fight
in the Scholarship class one of the added highlights. Cavan
Corcoran held sway in the class in his Getem Racing Mygale in
each of rounds one, two and three, but Tockwith twosome David
Moore and Jake Jackson will be out to redress that situation. Pic
Jakob Ebrey Photography
The 2011 Porsche Club Championship
visits Croft over the Easter weekend
for rounds three and four of the 17-race season, with Mark
Sumpter the man to beat at the front of the field after taking
two wins at Brands Hatch a fortnight ago. Out in his trusty 911
3.2 Carrera while his new car is being completed, Sumpter held
off Ben Demetriou’s 968 CS in both races, but there will be
plenty of other racers keen to deny him a maximum score in the
two day meeting, Saturday 23rd and Sunday 24th , at the North
Yorkshire Circuit. Yorkshire’s Mark McAleer missed Brands Hatch
with engine issues on his 968 CS, and the former champion will
be keen to put his season back on track at his home venue.
Fellow 968 runners Pete Morris and Miles Maserati also struck
problems in the opening meeting, Morris rapid in the opening
round till a clutch problem put him out, while Maserati was on
his way to his first podium finish before a gearbox issue – and
both will want to make amends at Croft. Class One is the most
tightly contested, and others to watch will be Andy Purdie,
returning to the series but having missed out with an engine
problem in the opening rounds, the always fast-starting Kevin
Harrison, and local racer David Botterill, who will be aiming to
use his Croft experience to the full. Richard Ellis provides
mechanical variety with his 993 C2, most powerful car in the
field but also the heaviest, while Mike Clapham makes a welcome
return to the series. Last season the outright title went to
Chris Dyer, and the Yorkshireman set about the defence of his
crown in style in the season-opener with a pair of in Class Two.
Having worked hard on his 944 S2 over the close season, Dyer was
running in the top-ten overall at Brands Hatch, and would love
to show the same pace at Croft this weekend.
The Porsche GT3 Cup
Challenge makes its first visit to Croft this weekend,
the series providing a racing home for the 400BHP racing Porsche
GT3s formerly eligible for the Porsche Carrera Cup GB and
similar series across the world. The opening rounds at Brands
Hatch were dominated by Oly Mortimer, the young Scot holding off
a strong challenge from Graeme Mundy in race two on a slippery
track. Peter Smallwood took the 2010 Driver of the Year crown
and has now stepped up to Class One in a 997 GT3, taking on his
2010 title rival Bertie Carruthers. Other drivers to show form
at Brands Hatch were Yucel Ozbek, who has raced Porsches on the
continent but is learning the UK circuits, Steve Liqourish, who
was on the round two podium, and ex-BTCC racer Simon Blanckley.
Making his GT3 Challenge debut this weekend will be experienced
Porsche racer Nigel Rice, a former double Porsche Carrera Cup GB
class winner, and a stiff benchmark for the series regulars.
With other cars expected out at Croft, the racing should be
close and exciting at the North Yorkshire circuit with its fine
variety of corners. The GT3 Cup Challenge concept forms part of
Porsche’s world-wide racing activities, the UK only the second
country to run both Carrera Cup and GT3 Challenge series. The
international Porsche Supercup heads the Porsche GT3 series
pyramid, with several nations or regions holding a Carrera Cup,
and the GT3 Challenge then existing in other areas, or
supporting the Carrera Cup as now happens in the UK
.
 Porsche
Carrera Cup GB
: Richard Plant claimed the best result of his short Porsche
Carrera Cup GB career
so far by securing an impressive fourth place in the opening
race at Donington Park yesterday (Sunday).. The Derbyshire-born
racer was in good form at his home circuit, following up his
fourth place finish with another consistent run to seventh in
race two. So after 4 rounds of the 2011 season Plant’ has
moved to fifth in the championship table and the highest
placed rookie. Read report
 British
GT:
Gregor Fisken and Tim Bridgman are targeting a strong
campaign in the British GT Championship in 2011 following
their confirmation for the new season in one of Trackspeed’s
Porsche 911 GT3 Rs. Fisken, a race winner and front runner
during selected British GT outings in the past two years, is
gearing up for his first full season in the prestigious UK-based
series, while the 25-year-old Bridgman, a member of the BRDC’s
Superstars programme last year, makes the switch from the
Porsche Supercup having also won titles in Porsche Carrera Cup
GB, Formula Palmer Audi, Formula BMW UK and Zip Formula.
Trackspeed, which clinched the 2010 British GT teams’ and
drivers’ titles, will field two Porsches this year, with Richard
Westbrook joining reigning champion David Ashburn in the #1
car, both carrying the livery of Fiskens, London’s Championship
Media Day. foremost historic automobile specialist. Gregor
Fisken: “I’m delighted to have joined Trackspeed for my first
full season in British GT. The team has a race-winning pedigree
and I’ll be working hard to ensure that continues in 2011. I’m
also very pleased to welcome Tim Bridgman as my team-mate. With
four motorsport titles already under his belt, Tim is one of the
UK’s most exciting young racing drivers and he has proven his
speed in Porsches before. I have no doubt that will continue
this year. Neither of us is underestimating the challenge that
lies ahead, as the British GT grid has strengthened considerably
this season, particularly with the influx of new cars such as
the Mercedes AMG SLS and Ferrari F458 Italia. However we’re both
confident in the team, the car and each other and I think we can
challenge at the front throughout the year.” Tim Bridgman: “I’m
obviously very pleased to be joining Trackspeed alongside Gregor
for what looks set to be one of the most competitive seasons of
the British GT Championship for many years. I’m also excited to
be continuing my relationship with Porsche. Since its launch
last year, the 911 GT3 R has enjoyed success around the world
and, with a strong car, a strong team and a strong co-driver I
think we have every chance of continuing that trend this
season.”
Mini Challenge:
Having ended last year with a maiden victory in the non
championship Donington finale, Jason Richardson started his 2011
campaign with a double win at Silverstone.
read report
Radicals: Roger Bromiley and
Shaun Balfe
had their patience rewarded at Silverstone, when Per Staaf Jnr
spun at Copse in the closing laps of race one, to hand them
victory. Staaf had already forecast his own win in race two,
which he duly confirmed, after GP3 ace Alex Sims set a cracking
pace.
Read report
 Karts:
Nyck De Vries won the two races held in Portimao (southern
Portugal), in the WSK Euro Series. Now with a score of three
victories in four meetings, the Dutch kart driver, with his
Zanardi-Parilla provided by the Chiesa Corse team, is leading
the Championship in the top category, KF1.
Pic KSP
Read report
In 2010, Ash Hand established himself as the best in Britain at
Junior level
by lifting the coveted laurels in the Formula Kart Stars
Championship; barely a handful of months on and having stepped
up another gear, highly-rated young Nuneaton kart racer is now
taking the fight to the Senior level, too, with an inspired
double podium finish only second time out.
Read report
 Renault
3.5:
The World Series by Renault championship took off in
front of an enthusiastic crowd of 60,000 at the Alcaniz Circuit
in Spain. Nelson Panciatici, with his new team KMP Racing
managed by ex-driver Bruno Besson, started the weekend well with
a best time in the first session of free practice on Friday
followed by 6th for race 1 in qualifying. Feeling confident, the
driver from Asnieres sur Seine then drove a superb race to take
the first podium of the season for the KMP Racing Team, Nelson
following the winner, Canadian Robert Wickens, over the line.
During the second race , after qualifying 4th, Nelson followed
the first three until to a fuel pressure problem caused him to
retire on the 8th lap. The KMP Racing team’s disappointment was
fortunately lessened by the progress of his co-driver, Anton
Nebylitskiy who finished 6th. Nelson Panciatici: “We immediately
found the right rhythm. I passed practically all the sessions at
the top of the time sheet, we are getting results in the
qualifiers and the race. It’s good for morale! Even if our
abandon costs us some precious points in the championship, I
prefer to stay positive because we have a high-performance car
which is important for what comes next. Mechanical breakdowns
are part of the race, we have to accept that and there’s nothing
we can do about it anyway!”
18-04-11
 BTCC:
‘Locals’ Matt Neal, Andrew Jordan and Mat Jackson
shared the wins
in yesterday’s three highly-dramatic Dunlop MSA British Touring
Car Championship races on their home circuit of Donington Park
in which defending Champion Jason Plato suffered a high-speed
crash. But it is rising star James Nash who sensationally leads
the points standings as the UK’s premier motor racing series now
heads south from Leicestershire to the Thruxton circuit in
Hampshire for its next exhilarating round on Sunday 1 May.pic
Dennis Goodwin Read report
A
fantastic weekend for Andrew Jordan and Pirtek Racing,
with a race win and two second places, made it the best ever in
the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship at Donington
Park over the weekend (16/17 April). “It’s been an incredible
weekend for Pirtek Racing,” said Andrew. “We were the highest
points’ scorer and won the Team’s Trophy. We’re now in the
championship hunt.” To make it a truly stunning weekend for
Pirtek Racing, team mate Jeff Smith had a great run, culminating
in fifth place in the final race of the day. The weekend
started in great style as Andrew set the pace in the first free
practice session, before qualifying fourth fastest. Jeff was
just two places behind. “In a way, qualifying was disappointing
as we’d been quickest in first free practice,” said Andrew.” I
knew the Hondas would be quick, but we should have been third
and we just ran out of time doing a damper change before the
start of qualifying. The car wasn’t as good as it should have
been so to still get fourth was pretty good.” That pace carried
forward into race one when Andrew chased Matt Neal’s Honda all
the way to finish second. “I could see that Matt Neal was
hurting his tyres a lot and so were we,” he explained. “About
four laps from the end I picked up a vibration and I started
taking it very easy.” From second on the grid for race two,
Andrew got a tremendous start to beat Neal to the first corner
and then drove a faultless race to fend off a determined
challenge from James Nash. “We changed the car set-up a little
bit for race two and it was mint. It stayed better for longer
and there wasn’t a chance in that race to slow down because Nash
was right on it. The one thing I really wanted to do was win
from the front, and not from a reverse grid, and win with
success ballast on the car. So that was pretty special.” The
reverse grid draw for race three put Andrew down in ninth place
on the grid and he predicted that there would be drama on the
opening lap as the faster drivers battled through to the front.
Sure enough, the opening lap was a chaotic affair, but Andrew
drove with great maturity to steer through the incidents and his
reward was another second place to wrap up the best weekend of
his racing career. “In the third race we just wanted to get a
finish and we knew it would all happen on the first lap,” he
said. “I was just very careful and picked my way through. To get
second from ninth on the grid carrying 45kg of success ballast
was fantastic.” Jeff scored a fantastic fifth overall to
complete a fabulous weekend for Pirtek Racing. “The team has
been superb,” said an elated Smith. pic Dennis Goodwin
Alex
MacDowall ended the second event of the 2011 Dunlop MSA British
Touring Car Championship at Donington Park over the weekend,
16th/17th April, satisfied with the end result after taking
three points scoring finishes and coming close to making his
first visit of the season to the podium. pic
Dennis Goodwin
read report
Radicals:
The champagne was flowing at Silverstone for the UK debut of
Marks Electrical Racing’s Radical Masters/UK Cup debut,
where Mark Smithson and Stuart Moseley took victory in the first
of the weekends two races. Having qualified on class pole
position for the first race, it was Smithson to start the race
in the SR3, which soon developed into a duel with Tom Ashton.
“Tom took me at Copse on the outside and defended well, but I
got him back at Stowe. I kept my foot in and got back ahead when
Tom got held up by an SR8, and then I did and lost two places,
before pitting to hand to Stuart four in a row,” said Mark.
Moseley was in contention immediately and reeled in class leader
Richard Carver, before making the decisive move with two laps to
go.”Mark had done really well and kept us right in the thick of
it. He kept his nose clean, we had a good stop and it was left
to me to chase,” said Stuart after taking the victory spoils.
The second race had Moseley starting, but after setting the
class pace again, he lost out to Rob Wheldon and Anthony Dunn
when one of the slower SR8 class cars got in the way. Once
Smithson had taken over, it became a straight fight to the flag,
with David Thorburn now in the Wheldon car. “I managed to get to
David, but just couldn’t get by,” said Mark. With second place
they now jointly hold the championship lead with Thorburn and
Wheldon. By Peter Scherer
 Formula
2: Will
Bratt
enjoyed an excellent start to the 2011 FIA Formula 2
Championship season at Silverstone Grand Prix Circuit on
Saturday, 16th April, by taking a highly competitive second
place finish during the first round of the 16 race campaign. Pic
FIA Formula 2 Championship Read
report
 Porsche
Carrera Cup GB:
Michael Meadows became the third winner in four races
when he scored his debut championship win in round four of the
Porsche Carrera Cup GB at Donington Park on Sunday (17 April).
Meadows led James Sutton home in a superb one-two for the
SAS/Redline team while Euan Hankey completed the overall podium.
A tremendous fourth overall and Pro-Am1 win went to Jonas
Gelzinis, while George Brewster won Pro-Am2 after a mighty
battle with category rivals Andrew Shelley and Keith Webster.
Earlier in the day in the first race Euan Hankey made it two
wins from the first three races when he won an action packed
round three . Hankey swept ahead to win after long-time leader
Sam Tordoff spun, while Ahmad Al Harthy (Pro-Am1) and Andrew
Shelley (Pro-Am2) both claimed debut category victories.
Read report
Team Parker Racing
continued their successful start to the Porsche Carrera
Cup GB season with another victory at Donington Park to make it
three out of three, only to finally lose their unbeaten record
in the second race of the day. Parker with Juta driver Euan
Hankey drove a superb race from fourth on the grid to notch up
his second win of the year. The Somerset man added third
position later on and now moves up to third in the
championship. Read report
Ahmad Al Harthy took his first victory on UK soil during the
third round
of the 2011 Porsche Carrera Cup GB Championship at Donington
Park on Sunday and with it made history as the first Omani to
stand atop the Pro-Am 1 podium. At the end of a truly impeccable
drive, the Oman Air Racing Team driver had more success in round
four when he secured an excellent second place finish in Pro-Am
1 to move into the runner-up spot in the class driver
standings. Pic Jakob Ebrey Photography
Read report
Andrew
Shelley has unveiled new backing for his 2011 campaign
in the Porsche Carrera Cup GB with Redline Racing and celebrated
by taking his first Pro-Am2 victory in round three at Donington
Park. North Yorkshire-based Shelley is being backed by Park
House Healthcare Limited for his assault on the Pro-Am2 category
and lies second in the division after the opening four races of
the season. Race commentator Alan Hyde described the Park House
911 GT3 Cup as the best looking car on the Carrera Cup grid.
Shelley contested a part-season in the Carrera Cup GB in 2004
and then returned to the championship in 2010, finishing seventh
in Pro-Am1. He started the 2011 season with a visit to the
Pro-Am2 podium at Brands Hatch and then took his first win at
Donington Park, one of his favourite tracks.Park House
Healthcare is recognised as a market leading supplier of
specialist pressure relieving and pressure reducing equipment,
hospital beds and moving and handling solutions to the NHS,
community and nursing home sectors. pic Dennis Goodwin
Current and former Porsche Carrera Cup GB Scholarship drivers
had a fabulous weekend at Donington Park (16/17 April) in rounds
three and four of the championship. Race wins for Euan Hankey
and Michael Meadows and a fifth place for Ben Hetherington
underlined the value of the Scholarship in bringing new young
talent into the championship. For 2010 Scholarship racer Hankey,
victory in round three backed up his win in the opening race of
the season at Brands Hatch to mark him as a major title
contender. The Taunton racer now lies third overall in the
championship points heading for rounds five and six at his home
track of Thruxton. Meanwhile Meadows, who was also a 2010
Scholarship winner, had the best weekend to date of his Carrera
Cup career to score his first win in the championship during
round four. The Banbury driver now lies second in the overall
points’ standings, just four points behind his team mate James
Sutton. Then, 2011 Scholarship winner Hetherington (Hulme
Walfield, Cheshire) took his best result so far with fifth
overall in only his third Carrera Cup race. Hetherington bounced
back from the illness that hindered his opening weekend at
Brands Hatch to show that he will soon as challenging for the
podium as his Carrera Cup experience grows. “I had a really good
race and I’m very happy with that result,” said 19 year-old
Hetherington after a strong performance. “This has been an
excellent weekend for Scholarship drivers,” said championship
manager Marion Barnaby. “Race wins for Euan and Michael and a
very good result for Ben underline the value of the Carrera Cup
Scholarship programme.”
 Formula
3:
Menasheh Idafar declared himself “very happy”
at the conclusion of the first race weekend of the 2011 Cooper
Tires British Formula 3 International Series at Monza on, Sunday
having raced competitively during rounds two and three of the
new season. After securing a points-scoring eighth place finish
on his International Class debut on Saturday afternoon, the
20-year-old was the victim of an unfortunate accident on the
final lap which dropped him from 8th to 18th
while in the final race , he came home 13th the from
17th on the grid. Pic Jakob Ebrey Photography
read report
Cooper Tires British Formula 3 International Series racer Bart
Hylkema
made a successful start to his debut season in the category over
the weekend, 16th/17th April, at Monza in Italy by sealing a
pair of Rookie Class wins in what was a truly incident-packed
event. Read report
 Ginettas:
Six races into the 2011 Michelin Ginetta GT Supercup and only
one winner , Tom Sharp
, making the six-time winner the most successful driver on the
entire British Touring Car Championship package at present. .At
Donington Park on, Sunday, 17th April, the IDL driver added the
fifth and sixth wins of the year to his remarkable tally.
Scorching to another lights-to-flag victory in round five, Sharp
fought through from fifth on the round six ‘reverse grid’ to
prove he can win from the front or from in the pack. Pic
Jakob Ebrey Photography Read
report.
 Hillspeed’s
Seb Morris secured win number four of the 2011 Ginetta Junior
Championship season at Donington Park this afternoon, Sunday,
17th April, to keep his 100 per cent win record intact and move
further clear of his young rivals in the chase for the coveted
title. Although only two race meetings into the 10 event
calendar, 15-year-old Welsh racer Morris has firmly established
a dominant presence and ahead of the visit to Thruxton in
Hampshire two weeks from now he’s already more than 50 points to
the good in the championship. Pic Jakob Ebrey Photography
read report
 Ginetta
Junior Championship prodigy Seb Morris
continued his hugely impressive start to the 2011 season at
Donington Park over the weekend, 16th/17th April, by securing
his third and fourth wins in as many races. Departing the
Leicestershire venue with a lead of more than 50 points in the
driver standings, the Liberty Properties Plc and Legat
Owen-supported racer remains undefeated in the current campaign
and is looking every bit a potential title winner even at this
early stage of the season. . Pic Jakob Ebrey Photography
read report
 Ginetta
Junior driver Jake Giddings had a frustrating weekend at
Donington Park.
The Upwell teenager was beset by a host of electrical problems
throughout the weekend. This ruined Jake’s free practice and
qualifying sessions as he was only able to complete the minimum
amount of laps to qualify, leaving him a disappointing 18th on
the grid. Race one started with Jake showing incredible pace he
overtook 11 cars in the space of 4 laps, until a costly spin on
lap 11 dropped him down the field, he did recover however to
cross the line 10th . Starting from race 2 Giddings stormed
through the field once more until being caught in an unavoidable
accident at Goddard’s that pitched him into the fencing, leaving
him to drive back to the pits with considerable bodywork damage.
The FML team worked hard to send him out again and rejoined the
field 2 laps down in 9 lap race to finish in 15th place. The
Downham Market High School pupil commented: “We have had a very
disappointing weekend at Donington, the team worked extremely
hard all weekend but the electrical problem had everyone
including Ginetta’s own race engineers completely stumped!
Hopefully I can come back at Thruxton in two weeks time and get
some much needed championship points to keep the season on
track”. Pic Graham Holbon
Tom Ingram headed to Donington Park as the early-season
championship leader
in the Ginetta G50 Cup – and despite a far-from-perfect weekend,
he left with an extended lead in the points. After putting
together an 11th-hour deal to race at Brands Hatch a fortnight
earlier, Tom repaid the faith with pole position, a win and , a
second place. Read report
Clio Cup:
James
Dixon continued his excellent start to the 2011 AirAsia
Renault Clio Cup UK at Donington Park over the weekend,
16th/17th April, by taking a strong runner-up spot in round
three and then going one better with his second victory of the
season in round four. Pic Jakob Ebrey Photography
Read report
 Clio
and Ginetta:
Total Control Racing enjoyed podium success in both the AirAsia
Renault Clio Cup UK and Michelin Ginetta GT Supercup
at Donington Park on Saturday, 16th April, with James Dixon and
Carl Breeze each posting a second place finish in their
respective races. Dixon went one better on Sunday winniung the
AirAsia Renault Clio Cup race on Sunday. Rounds five and six of
the Michelin Ginetta GT Supercup proved to be a mixed affair for
TCR’s Carl Breeze and Joachim Ritter although, as in the Clio
Cup, there was no lack of pace from the team as both drivers had
the speed to be right at the front. pic
Jakob Ebrey Photography read
report
New team Scuderia Vittoria had a strong weekend in the
second round of the AirAsia Renault Clio Cup at Donington Park.
Matt Allison took a pair of competitive fifth-place finishes,
while teenager Luke Wright qualified an excellent fifth on just
his second race weekend in touring car-style machinery in
another encouraging performance by the new squad.
read report
 Formula
Renault BARC
: Hector Hurst is getting set for his car racing debut
in the opening rounds of the 2011 Protyre Formula Renault
BARC Championship. The 18 year old has spent the last few weeks
making his final preparations ahead of his first two races at
Donington Park this coming weekend( April 23/24).
Hampshire-based Hurst has continued to clock up the miles,
heading to Brands Hatch, Oulton Park and Silverstone for more
track time with Scorpio Motorsport. The testing has gone well,
with the 18 year old regularly running in the top three.
Commenting on the tests Hurst said: “Brands was tricky, it was
my first time at the track and there was a lot of traffic. We
managed to learn the track which was good ahead of racing there,
but only got a couple of clean laps all day. Then it was Oulton
Park, though on the International circuit, not the Island
circuit which we’ll race on, but it was still good. It was good
practice, same with going to Silverstone again, because there
were so many people running on Avon and other types of tyres,
the track really transformed, which meant I got excellent
experience of adapting to the surface, as opposed to running
when it’s perfect. We set the pace at Brands Hatch and
Silverstone, but there wasn’t much competition there. Also at
Silverstone I got to try my first few race starts, which is
important before going to Donington for my first race weekend so
I have a gauge of what to do, so I don’t stall.” All the hard
work is paying off now, with Hector feeling really confident
ahead of his first BARC weekend: “I feel better now than I ever
have done, every time we go to a test or every day I wake up I
feel better prepared. I don’t feel nervous yet about the racing,
maybe I will when I get strapped into the car but I feel pretty
confident I can just get the job done. If we could go straight
out onto a podium in the first weekend that would obviously be
excellent, but as long as we’re top five and getting some good
points, that’s a great starting point for the championship. It’s
going to be a long year and everyone’s going to be very close,
so scoring lots of points consistently will be the key.” Hector
is set to launch his new website soon,
www.hectorhurst.com,
where fans can keep up to date with all his racing. He has also
recently joined Twitter, where he can be followed at
www.twitter.com/hectorhurst.
17-04-11
 Club
Racing:
Croft is already gearing itself up for its second motor
sport event
of 2011 which will be organised by Darlington & District
Motor Club on Easter Weekend (Sat-Sun 23-24 April).Headlining
the action-packed holiday bill is the DDMC’s fiercely
competitive Northern Saloon & Sports Car Championship featuring
a capacity 36-car grid comprising no less than 17 different
makes of car across six classes (pictured). Indeed, this year’s
entry list is over-subscribed with the club having received more
than 50 registrations in total. Reigning Champion Paul Moss from
Darlington will be returning to defend his crown in his Citroen
Saxo, but the opposition is tougher than ever.Moss, aged 42,
said: “There are 14 registered for my class alone – that’s
double 2010’s number – so it’s going to be very hard to win. But
so long as the entries are going up it’s great news for the
club, the championship and the spectating public.” The Northern
Saloons & Sports Cars will be in action twice during the weekend
(23-24 Apr) along with the high-speed Porsche Club GB and
Porsche GT3 championships, while two endurance races for the VW
Fun Cup, with all the unpredictability of driver change pit
stops, will add to the weekend’s entertainment. Moss’s Citroen
in particular will be a draw for many young motoring enthusiasts
from across the region as it is similar in looks to the type of
car they might drive on the road. But he added: “It’s probably
got 30 per cent more power than the best Saxo on the road and
pushes out about 200bhp. It’s a proper race-tuned version of the
car from the ground up. A lot of youngsters have some pretty
well-prepared cars like the Saxo but they’d know about it if
this one pulled up alongside them at the lights!” Croft Circuit
Manager Tracey Morley commented: “The Darlington & District
Motor Club has a great following across the region and it’s
wonderful to see that its first event with us here at Croft is
over-subscribed. We very much look forward to meeting spectators
over the weekend and particularly hope our free admission policy
for children appeals to family audiences. Certainly, two days of
very exciting entertainment are in store with us here over the
Easter Weekend. There’s also a capacity grid for the Fun Cup and
sizeable fields for both Porsche championships. It’s looking
like another terrific weekend of action at Croft Circuit.”
Pic TonyTodd
The BRSCC and Porscheracing Drivers Association (PDA)
recently announced a deal with Design 911 for them to be the
title sponsors of the BRSCC Porsche Championship in 2011. For
the new season, which started with a double header at the
BRSCC's Silverstone meeting last weekend, the championship will
be called the Design911.com Porsche Championship. The addition
of a class for the Boxster S to the long-standing and original
924’s breathed new life into the championship in 2010 and that
growth looks set to continue this year and beyond. Design 911 is
one of the largest dedicated replacement and performance parts
suppliers of Porsche products in the UK . Their delivery network
expands to over 120 countries world wide and they supply
products direct to retail, independent garages and workshops.
With over 22,000 different parts in stock and with the best
logistics systems they deliver what their customers need fast.
Design 911’s Karl Chopra commented “We are very proud to
associate our name with this growing championship which has a
great future and a clear synergy with our business. Design 911
has set new levels of achievement in a highly competitive market
and we have enjoyed consistent 20% annual growth rate.
Similarly, the championship has gone from strength to strength
over the last two years and we look forward to helping
accelerate that growth further.” Boxster competitor and driver
representative Nick Hull is as equally enthusiastic about the
tie-up, “2010 was a great season for both the 924’s and Boxsters
but the impetus the sponsorship from Design 911 will give the
championship will really help us all drive it forward. We look
forward to a long and prosperous association with Design 911 and
the BRSCC”.
Late last month it was also announced that the popular Ford XR
Challenge
had attracted a new sponsor for the 2011 season and would now be
known as the S&G Ford XR Challenge. S&G Response aim to offer
clients the best accident management service available. From
their state-of-the-art Head Office in South Manchester they can
provide tailor-made claims to each individual clients needs and
offer a consistently reliable and quality service to anyone
involved in a Road Traffic Accident.
The new XR season got underway at its spiritual home of
Oulton Park two weeks
ago with Simon Sheridan taking the XR2 win and John-Ifan
Jones the XR3i honours
Intervention Marshals UK is a club formed by serving marshals
who are currently working on the bank. IVMUK are keen to
encourage new members to join so they can work together to
improve marshalling standards within British motorsport. IVMUK
have a number of aims including training and support programmes,
fostering effective leadership, management and motivation
on-post, spearheading effective intervention response and
representing marshals concerns to the appropriate authorities.
For more information and to join go to
www.interventionmarshals.co.uk
 SEAT
Leon Supercopa:
Having established a reputation for himself as one of the finest
karters around with a string of national and international
successes, Max Goff has confirmed his potential with an superb
debut in car racing in the French SEAT León Supercopa
Championship – with a trio of podium finishes.
Read report
Masters Historic Racing :
TAG Heuer has announced it will increase its link up with
Masters Historic Racing to provide one of its prestigious
timepieces for each of the four champions at the end of 2011.
Masters, which has obtained championship status for the first
time in 2011, will be running championships for its GP Masters,
WSM, Pre-66 Touring Car and Gentlemen Drivers categories. Each
champion will win a sought-after TAG Heuer Carrera watch,
engraved on the back with ‘Masters Champion 2011’. Masters
Historic Racing Event Manager Rachel Bailey said: “We are
thrilled to be able to announce this increased sponsorship from
TAG Heuer. The company has long been associated with motor
racing and its desirable and evocative range of watches is the
perfect fit for historic motor racing. To have a global brand
such as TAG Heuer associated with Masters underlines our
position in motor sport and reinforces Masters as the place to
race in historic motor sport.” Rob Diver, Managing Director of
LVMH Watches, said: “TAG Heuer has a long and enduring heritage
in motor sport . This relationship with Masters is a great fit
for the TAG Heuer brand with our pioneering spirit and precision
timing. We are looking forward to some excellent racing during
the season.”
 Star
Mazda:
AIM Autosport’s Star Mazda team
was thrilled to have Larry Pegram win the Expert Class (and
finish eighth overall) at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham,
Ala. on Sunday. Larry led his teammates, Walt Bowlin and Zack
Meyer to the checkered flag as they finished second in the
Expert Class (14th overall) and 12th, respectively.
read report
 Renault
3.5: After taking a first step into motorsports in
2009
in partnership with the young French hope Nelson Panciatici,
RALF TECH returns this year in the world of racing in the World
Series by RENAULT with the KMP team. Driving for the team are
Nelson Panciatici from France and Anton Nebilitskiy from Russia.
 Formula
Renault BARC
: Donington Park National Circuit will play host
to the season opening event of the increasingly high profile
Protyre Formula Renault BARC Championship next weekend,
23rd/24th April, as the battle to succeed history making 2010
champion Alice Powell gets fully underway. With an extremely
healthy 21 car grid for the championship curtain-raiser, Formula
Renault BARC is in great shape for 2011. Without doubt the best
subscribed of the UK’s top junior single-seater categories, it
boasts some of the country’s most promising aspiring Formula One
talent. Ahead of the first two rounds of 12, a strong quartet is
expected to make the early running – Antel Motorsport’s Dino
Zamparelli (Bristol) and Fortec Motorsport trio Josh Webster,
Archie Hamilton and Kieran Vernon. Multiple race winner
Zamparelli returns for a full campaign, having finished third
overall in the 2009 championship, and will spearhead Antel’s
attack which also features car racing rookie Callum Bowyer.
Fortec fields four cars in total with Spaniard Victor Jimenez
joining Webster, Hamilton and Vernon at the Daventry squad.
Hamilton is back in single-seaters after a year away in the
Porsche Carrera Cup GB Championship while Webster, the 2010
Formula Renault BARC Winter Series Champion, and Vernon, a
multiple race winner in Formula Palmer Audi, both agreed late
11th hour deals. Reigning champion squad Hillspeed has a less
experienced three driver line-up but Indian-born Formula Ford
graduate Zaamin Jaffer has already proven his pace in pre-season
testing, as has Howard Fuller. They are joined by car racing
rookie Sean Walkinshaw. SWB Motorsport, which became a
race-winning outfit in its first season in 2010, fields a
four-car presence in the championship this year. Experienced
campaigner Andrew Jarman will be joined by three car racing
rookies – South African born Raoul Owens, Macaulay Walsh and
Jack Dex.
For two teams, Scorpio Motorsport and MGR Motorsport,
the Donington Park event carries particular significance as a
true ‘home’ event – both outfits based in nearby Loughborough.
Scorpio makes a welcome return after a year away and the team
will begin the campaign with a single car entry for newcomer
Hector Hurst. Winning the title in its debut Formula Renault
BARC season in 2008 and following up with another championship
crown in 2009, the squad most definitely has pedigree. MGR, led
by highly regarded engineer Mark Godwin, makes its main season
bow in Formula Renault BARC this year having debuted during last
November’s Winter Series. Scottish driver David Wagner
(Glasgow), runner-up in the aforementioned mini-championship,
will embark on his first full year of car racing alongside
karting graduates Russell Danzey and Matt Mason. Further new
blood comes in the shape of JWA Racing’s Tom Walker and
Essex-based Russian Ivan Taranov who competes for new squad
Daytona Motorsport. The new season also sees the welcome return
of category regular Steven Durrant, the 2009 Privateer Cup
Champion, with his own RPD Motorsport entry and ex-Formula
Palmer Audi runner James Thorp with MTech Lite. Simon North,
Promoter of the Protyre Formula Renault BARC Championship,
commented: “We really are looking forward to an absolutely
fantastic start to the new season at Donington. With more than
20 cars on the grid and a support slot at one of the circuit’s
biggest events of the year, we’re aiming to begin the
championship in style. We have a great mix of experienced
championship front-runners, exciting Formula Renault rookies and
talented young karters making the step-up to cars for the first
time. All in all we have every ingredient to make the 2011
Protyre Formula Renault BARC Championship season the best ever.”
Silverstone:
This Monday, 18 April, Silverstone will launch a 24 hour, 7 day
a week radio station
which will be broadcast on
www.Silverstone.co.uk,
as well as on 87.7FM at all Silverstone events. Silverstone
Radio is based at the circuit and will be headed up by well
known motor sport presenters Gary Champion and Alan Hyde. Many
names from the world of motor sport will be joining the team of
presenters, including Henry Hope Frost, Sky News and ESPN rally
front man Jon Desborough and, focussing on bikes, Paul Musselle.
The very first programme will be presented by Alan Hyde and
broadcast live from 12 noon on Monday 18 April. Silverstone
Radio, in addition to existing event features, such as live
commentary of race meetings, phone-in competitions and campsite
visits, will be made up of dedicated motorsport programmes
throughout the week, including ‘Tin Top Tuesday’, ‘A little
something for the Weekend’ and the ‘Silverstone Motor Sport
Show’. For the bike fans, Paul Muselle will be hosting a
dedicated programme to two wheels every Thursday at 21:00hrs. To
celebrate the launch of Silverstone Radio, listeners will have
the opportunity to win exclusive experiences in the station’s
first week on air, including behind the-scenes access with the
Silverstone Radio team at the FORMULA 1 SANTANDER BRITISH GRAND
PRIX and AirAsia British Grand Prix (MotoGP). Richard Phillips,
Managing Director of Silverstone Circuit, commented “We have
been running Silverstone Radio at our events for many years now
and it is incredibly well received by the fans. There is not
currently a UK radio station that is dedicated to motor sport,
so we decided to take a concept that works so well at events and
expand it into a 24/7 operation, to entertain, inform and
interact with motor sport fans around the country.”
 WTCC:
The 3rd and 4th rounds of the 2011 FIA WTCC will take
place at Zolder next week.
This event marks the opening of the championship's European
season that will end on September 4th at Valencia, before the
final tour to the Far East. This is the second visit to the 4-km
Belgian racetrack after last year's event that saw Gabriele
Tarquini and Andy Priaulx sharing victories for SEAT and BMW.
The Chevrolet team go to Belgium with the aim to defend their
leadership in both the Drivers' and Manufacturers' Championship.
Current leader Rob Huff will be the man to watch. Not only
because he won this year's inaugural race in Brazil, as he also
wants to make up from the 2010 disappointment, when Priaulx's
masterly defence driving deprived him of a possible victory in
the second race. Besides Huff's team-mates at Chevrolet Yvan
Muller and Alain Menu, other candidates to shine on the Belgian
circuit are Gabriele Tarquini and especially Tom Coronel. The
latter will benefit from the enthusiastic support of the many
fans that will make the short trip from Netherlands to cheer
their favourite driver.
 Three
WTCC teams are working around the clock to get ready in time for
the Belgian event.
bamboo-engineering collected their two new Chevrolet Cruze cars
on Friday at RML factory in Wellingborough. The cars were shaken
down by Chevrolet driver Alain Menu at a nearby airfield.
Bamboo's drivers Darryl O'Young and Yukinori Taniguchi had
started the season in Brazil with the old Chevrolet Lacetti
machines powered by the 2.0L normally aspirated engines. From
Zolder onwards they switch to the Cruze 1.6 turbo. Team
Principal Richard Coleman said: "We are very pleased, as now we
can look forward to regaining our competitiveness. We appreciate
the huge effort that RML and Chevrolet have made to get these
cars ready for this weekend. The shakedown went well and the
cars are now ready to go. Darryl and Yuke will get their first
run in the cars in Friday's test and I'm sure they will adapt
very well and quickly get up to speed." At the same time
Wiechers-Sport and Zengö Dension Team are frantically working to
finish building their new cars. Both teams were forced to miss
the season opening event in Brazil while waiting to receive
their new BMW 320 TC cars that will be driven by Urs Sonderegger
and Norbert Michelisz respectively. Their plan is to shake down
the cars early next week.
Rounds 7 and 8 of the FIA WTCC
will take place at Budapest's Hungaroring on June 5. The
WTCC Race of Hungary replaces the race in Morocco that was
cancelled after the local promoter was unable to secure the
financial support to keep the event going. This will be the
first time the WTCC visits the 4.4km racetrack that is home to
the Formula One Hungarian Grand Prix. Championship promoter
Marcello Lotti said: "We are very happy that the opportunity
arose to find a worthy replacement for Marrakech. Budapest is
the perfect solution: it is a modern and demanding circuit with
impressive facilities, brings the championship to a new country
in which WTCC has a lot of fans thanks to Norbert Michelisz and
also means huge saving in terms of logistics as it lies only 350
km away from Brno that hosts the following event." Zsolt Gyulay,
CEO of the Hungaroring Sport Plc. echoed: "I am very glad
that Hungary was given the chance to stage a WTCC event. This
FIA World Championship is the second most popular series after
Formula One. For this reason I think that the Hungaroring has
added another prestigious international event to its racing
calendar and this is also invaluable to Hungary because of the
tourism. We sincerely hope that the WTCC Race of Hungary will be
exciting and interesting for the Hungarian and the foreign fans.
It is of high importance to us that Hungarian driver Norbert
Michelisz can compete in front of Hungarian audience and at a
Hungarian track for the first time in the series' history."
Norbert Michelisz commented: "I am very happy because this is a
great opportunity to show how competitive we are. I was racing
at the Hungaroring from the beginning of my career, so I know
the circuit well. It makes me very proud to race in front of my
home supporters and I will be aiming for some good results to
please my fans."
Carrera Cup GB: Rory Butcher is the
latest Porsche Carrera Cup GB racer to benefit from Michelin's
on-going support
of the championship by winning a set of tyres this weekend at
Donington Park (16/17 April). Butcher, racing for the Celtic
Speed team, is in his first full season in the championship and
is a leading contender in the Pro-Am1 category. Having been the
control tyre supplier for the Carrera Cup GB since the
championship was created in 2003, Michelin is once more
supporting the teams and drivers with the award of a complete
set of slick racing tyres at each event. Before the start of
testing, a name is drawn from a hat to receive the tyres, with a
value of more than £1000. "Michelin has supported us throughout
the history of the Carrera Cup GB and I am delighted that once
again they are giving away 10 sets of tyres across the season,"
said championship manager Marion Barnaby.
MG Trophy:
Initially the MGCC had 21 entries for the first two rounds of
the season which was an excellent start considering the
difficult times we are still in. Unfortunately Robertson and
Ross were unable to make the trip south so they were down to 19
starters. Total newcomers to the Trophy were Fitzsimmons in
Luti’s old ZR 190, Campbell and Evans from the MGOC in their own
ZR 160’s, Kitson in the ex Pritchard ZR 160 and Mike Koskela in
his F 160. Returnees were Savage in the ex Hazel ZR 160 and Marc
Koskela in his F 160, welcome to them all. Several cars had
changed colour with some great paint jobs, they all looked very
smart. Don’t forget that there will be an award for the best
presented car at the end of the season once again.
Read report
Le Mans:
Robertson Racing will take a step closer to making their
Le Mans 24 Hours
debut next Sunday (April 24) when the team travels to Circuit de
la Sarthe for the event’s official test day. Since receiving
their invite to contest the legendary race’s 79th running on
June 11/12 from organisers the Automobile Club de l’Ouest (ACO)
back in February, the Braselton-based squad has been busy
preparing both Ford GTs that will make the trip to north-west
France. Despite having only one guaranteed entry at this stage,
the second car – currently first reserve for the GT classes –
remains tantalising close to also competing. With all six of the
team’s drivers – David Robertson, Andrea Robertson, David Murry,
Boris Said, Anthony Lazzaro and Colin Braun – each requiring at
least ten laps behind the wheel before being declared eligible
for June’s race, it was decided that both Fords would be made
available. Unfortunately, the team has therefore been forced to
take the tough decision of withdrawing from this weekend’s
American Le Mans Series round at Long Beach.
 Cadwell
Park
will celebrate the sixtieth anniversary of Formula 3
this Easter weekend (24/25 April), when the Louth circuit hosts
its first ever Wolds Trophy Meeting for historic race
cars.British F3 has launched the international career of many
legendary motorsport names including Sir Stirling Moss, Ayrton
Senna, Damon Hill, Jenson Button and James Hunt, and Cadwell
Park will host more than six decades of classic Formula 3
machinery. The celebrations will begin on Easter Sunday with a
race for Classic Formula 3 cars of the 1970s and 80s, before an
outing for 1000cc F3 cars featuring an appearance by 1960s
Formula 3 driver Bev Bond, who enjoyed an intense rivalry with
future double F1 champion Emerson Fittipaldi whilst competing in
the series for Team Lotus. Cadwell Park will be venturing back
to the roots of its car racing history on Easter Monday, when a
field of 500cc F3 cars – the first four wheel vehicles ever to
race at the Louth venue in 1953 – take to the track for a
special celebration race. There will also be support racing from
Historic Formula Ford, a long established feeder series for
Formula 3, featuring several local drivers - including Newark’s
Paul Dukes, who will be racing a Reynard SF79 once piloted by
David Leslie in period ‘Dukes Palletts’ livery, as Paul’s father
sponsored Leslie during his early career. In addition, the
meeting will include two races for Formula Junior cars,
representing the class that took over from F3 as the major
international junior single seater category between 1959 and
1963. Advance tickets for the inaugural Wolds Trophy meeting
are available until Tuesday 19 April from £10 for adults, with
free entry for children aged 12 and under. All tickets include
free paddock access, so spectators can take a close look at the
unique machinery competing and share the enthusiasm of the
drivers and teams who restore and maintain these classic race
cars.
13-04-11
Formula Renault:
Jack Hawksworth endured a trying time of things in the 2011
Formula Renault UK Championship
curtain-raiser around Brands Hatch’s Indy Circuit, but after
racing to a podium finish in what he described as being likely
his ‘weakest round of the year’, he is bullish about what he can
achieve ‘when we put all the pieces together’.
Read report
Following an encouraging first weekend to the 2011 Formula Renault UK
Championship during which his results failed to reflect
potential, Graduate Cup leader Jordan King has declared himself
bullish about his prospects for the remainder of the season.
read report
Karts:
Ed Brand maintained his perfect start to the new national
karting season
with a hard-fought victory and a new lap record in Oxfordshire
at the weekend. Two wins from two eventssaw the Ed Brand Show
continued in style at the Shenington circuit where Strawberry
Racing’s 16-year old star kept his cool to claim his second
successive victory in the British Super One Rotax championship.
read report
Ginettas:
The morning before the meeting, he didn’t even know he would be
racing, yet barely 72 hours later, Tom Ingram
was toasting his maiden victory in the Ginetta G50 Cup and an
early championship lead as he launches his bid for back-to-back
British crowns. Read
Report
12-04-11
 VLN
Endurance Series:
Kumho’s relationship with ‘Team Peugeot RCZ Nokia’
got off to a flying start at the opening round of the VLN
endurance racing series at the Nürburgring on April 2, when
Stéphane Caillet, Michael Bohrer and Jürgen Nett brought their
RCZ 2.0 HDi FAP home a convincing second in the class for
diesel-powered cars. The fastest lap around the daunting 14-mile
Nordschleife Circuit was achieved by Caillet in 10:00.848
minutes, which equates to an average speed for the Peugeot of
146.008 kph (circa 90.7 mph).Kumho has committed to supporting
the two-car equipe of RCZs at all 10 rounds of the Nürburgring-based
VLN championship, plus the circuit’s annual 24 Hour race. Said
Kumho’s European Motorsport Manager Steve Thompson: “We applaud
Peugeot Germany’s decision to promote their popular RCZ Sport
Coupes by contesting the demanding VLN series, and are pleased
to find they are delighted with the performance of our S700
slick tyres and the support given by Kumho Motorsport Europe and
DJ Lee from Kumho R&D. The result from the first race augers
well for the team, who have set their sights on a class win in
the 39th Nürburgring 24 Hour race on June 23-26.” The VLN or, to
give it its full title, the Veranstaltergemeinschaft
Langstreckenpokal Nürburgring (Association of Nürburgring
Endurance Cup Organisers), comprises eight four hour races and
two six hour events. The very popular 24 Hour race is not part
of the championship, but is understandably seen as a must-do
event for most of the teams concerned..
 VW
Cup: The latest addition to the 2011
Volkswagen Racing Cup grid
has been unveiled today at the Commercial Vehicle Show at
Birmingham’s NEC. The new Caddy Racer will join the FUCHS
Lubricants-backed championship with Volkswagen Commercial
Vehicles director Simon Elliott once again behind the wheel.
Since its introduction to the championship in 2004, the Caddy
Racer has proved to be a true crowd-pleaser, gaining its own
group of loyal followers while in the hands of both Elliott and
his predecessor, Peter Wyhinny. This latest model will surely be
one of the most recognisable vehicles on the grid when they line
up at Oulton Park on 25 April, finished in white and the
distinctive orange hue of the RAC, which is continuing its
sponsorship for the 2011 season. Beneath the new exterior are a
number of key upgrades have been made to improve performance,
handling and the dynamics of the new Caddy Racer over its
predecessor. The most significant change over the previous model
is the installation of a 2.0-litre petrol engine which develops
270 PS, channelled through the front wheels via a six-speed
Volkswagen Racing quick shift gearbox. In addition to this, the
rear axle has been uprated to the multi-link system found in the
road-going Golf. Simon Elliott explained: “The new Caddy has
started life strongly since its launch and has already started
winning awards, so the Caddy Racer will hopefully add to the
trophy cabinet. We learned a lot through the developments made
with the original Caddy Racer, and initial tests with the new
van have been extremely promising. This really is a clear
demonstration of Brilliant Made Better - I just can’t wait to
get back out on track.”
 The
2011 Porsche Carrera Cup GB
resumes at Donington Park this weekend (16/17 April) for rounds
three and four of the 19-race season. With a field of 24 of the
new 450bhp 911 GT3 Cup cars on the grid, there will be plenty of
action at the East Midlands track, with a host of contenders
across all three categories. The driver heading to Donington
with the early lead in the points’ table is Stephen Jelley
(Parker with Juta) and this is very much home ground for the
Anstey-based racer who took a win and a second at Brands Hatch
to take a four-point championship lead. “That’s a great start to
the season,” said Jelley. “Coming into my home races of the
season at Donington leading the points is mega. I’ve probably
done more races at Donington than any other circuit and I know
it very well. It’s always been a good track for me in terms of
pace, but with a home track there is always added pressure.” The
biggest rival to Jelley at Brands Hatch was his team mate Euan
Hankey, who also pulled together a very late deal to contest a
second season in the Carrera Cup GB. Hankey became the first
Carrera Cup Scholarship driver to win a race with victory in the
season opener at Brands and should be a major contender at
Donington Park. Ranged against Jelley and Hankey are more than
half a dozen drivers in the pro category and all of them have
very serious race winning intent. James Sutton and Michael
Meadows (SAS/Redline) were consistently strong at Brands Hatch
to offer the biggest challenge to Jelley and Hankey and it is
Sutton who currently lies just four points behind Jelley at the
head of the table. Meanwhile, youngsters Sam Tordoff (Leeds) and
Richard Plant (Sheffield) made impressive debuts for Team Parker
Racing and will be on their home track at Donington. For
Nationwide/Motorbase duo Michael Caine and Tim Harvey, Brands
was a difficult weekend and they will be battling to come back
strong at Donington, while 2011 Carrera Cup Scholarship racer
Ben Hetherington (Redline/Oman Air) will be aiming to move up
the order having raced at Brands when less than 100% fit after
being hit by tonsillitis. In the Pro-Am1 category, Jonas
Gelzinis (Juta Racing) emerged from Brands Hatch with an early
points’ lead but he faces some tough challenges. Notably, round
one winner Rory Butcher (Celtic Speed), Derek Pierce (Dextra/J&D
Pierce by Parker) and Ahmad Al Harthy (Redline/Oman Air) are all
strong contenders. For Pro-Am2 pacesetter George Brewster
(Celtic Speed) it was a great start to the season with a double
win at Brands. But Andrew Shelley (Redline Racing), Tautvydas
Barstys (Juta Racing) and Keith Webster (Redline Racing) all had
strong starts to their campaigns.
DTM:
In 2011, 18 drivers will be competing for the DTM title.
The two manufacturers Mercedes-Benz and Audi are both entering
nine drivers. Last year’s champion will not defend his crown, as
Scot Paul Di Resta, has stepped up to Formula 1 on the back of
his 2010 title win. The Mercedes-Benz drivers for this season
are Gary Paffett (GB), who already won the title in 2005, Bruno
Spengler (CDN), Jamie Green (GB), Susie Stoddart (GB), the two
ex-Formula 1 drivers David Coulthard (GB) and Ralf Schumacher
(D), Maro Engel (D) and the two new signings Christian Vietoris
(D) and Renger van der Zande (NL). “I am looking forward to a
great season. We have new drivers and will be racing with tyres
from the new DTM partner Hankook. This creates a new situation.
Even though things are still not going too well for us in
Formula 1, I am certain that things will be going well for us
again in DTM”, said Mercedes-Benz head of motorsport, Norbert
Haug, in a video message from Malaysia. Rivals Audi are counting
on Timo Scheider (D), the 2008 and 2009 DTM champion, Oliver
Jarvis (GB), two times’ DTM champion Mattias Ekström (S), Martin
Tomczyk (D) and Miguel Molina (E). New additions to the Audi
team are Swiss lady racer Rahel Frey, Filipe Albuquerque (P) and
Edoardo Mortara (I). Audi’s head of motorsport Dr. Wolfgang
Ullrich said: “After the year 2010, during which almost
everything that could go wrong, did indeed go wrong, we are
highly motivated to show that we can do better. We are bringing
a lot of colour into the DTM. Apart from two cars, all our Audi
A4 DTM are sporting different liveries and easy for the fans to
identify.” The calendar for the season includes ten championship
rounds in five countries. Moreover, fans are already looking
forward to a big show event in the Munich Olympic Stadium in
mid-July. Traditionally, the season gets underway at the
Hockeheimring Baden-Württemberg. Moreover, fans in Germany can
attend races in Oschersleben, at the Lausitzring and the
Norisring street circuit in Nuremberg and at the Nürburgring in
the Eifel region. Further rounds are taking place in Zandvoort,
Brands Hatch and Valencia. New on the calendar is the Red Bull
Ring in Austria. “The DTM already raced in Austria in the past
and was a real hit there. We want to build on that”, said ITR
chairman Aufrecht. In 2010, 685,000 spectators came to the
circuits to watch the DTM races live. The team of the Motorsport
Arena Oschersleben was awarded the trophy for organisers of the
year 2010. For all those who aren’t able to come to the race
tracks themselves, TV partner ARD is again broadcasting all
qualifying sessions and races live. On Saturday, ARD is
broadcasting from 13.30 till 15.00 h and on Sunday from 13.45
till 15.30 h from the DTM circuits. A new highlight for the TV
spectators: from this season, ARD will be showing all DTM rounds
in HD quality. During the DTM race weekends, the Formula 3 Euro
Series, Porsche Cerrera Cup, Volkswagen Scirocco R-Cup and SEAT
Leon Supercopa will also be in action.
Formula3:
Another test looms for young Argentine-born driver Facu Regalia,
this time at Misano near Rimini. “I face this test with the same
mindset than in previous days, which is offering me very good
results. I want to be on track as much time as I can, knowing
Misano during the morning and then scoring a good lap-time in
the afternoon. I think it´s a track suitable for my
driving-style, really fast and similar to others like Imola or
Mugello which I enjoy”, explained the Team Ghinzani driver. “My
rivals are testing there, many of them with loads of experience
in Formula 3. I will try my best on Tuesday while Team Ghinzani
and myself get a correct set-up for Misano”. Italian Formula 3
championship begins in a month time at Franciacorta
 Karts:
Strawberry Racing and its Cream Racing Engines division
celebrated another strong weekend
(9/10 April 2011) in domestic competition with victories in the
junior and senior classes. Ed Brand made it two wins in two with
Nathan Harrison claimed his first victory of the season while
team-mate Jack Barlow(right) also made the podium pic
Alex Roache read
report
This year, Sodikart will again be the Rotax Max Challenge Grand
Final official chassis
supplier. After a successful 2010 at La Conca in Rotax Junior,
the French mamufacturer. which is the first world kart
constructor with its Sodi chassis, will be the Rotax Senior
supplier in Al Ain, United Arab Emirates. .”Sodikart has been
cooperating with Rotax for over 20 years and are now about to
start our second Rotax Challenge Grand Finals. It is a pleasure
to work with Sodikart, both with the company and the men who
compose it.” Said Gildas Mérian, Sodikart CEO, adding,”Our
company considers this event the recognition of our capacity
to manufacture a high number of karts, always of high quality.
Our experience in 2010 has been a very enriching one and we
are very happy to be at the Rotax Grand Final, in the elite
category and with our new Sodi ST32 TTT chassis. Sodikart men
are proud of this recognition and we believe that our customers
will be too.” The meeting in the United Arab Emirates on the Al
Ain Raceway starts on 23 November 2011. As for Austrian Kart
constructor Rotax, it was very satisfied with Sodikart’s
performance at La Conca, so much so that it has decided to
entrust it with the supply of Rotax Senior chassis starting from
this year. The Rotax Max Challenge is a competition inspired by
the Olympic Games. The best drivers qualify at international
meetings and gather for the yearly grand world final. Every
year, there are over 250 qualified drivers from 5 continents
who compete on a single type of kart for each of the three
categories: Rotax Max Junior, Rotax Max Senior and Rotax Max
DD2. Rotax Senior, the elite category of the world final, is
open to drivers who are at least 15.
 FIA
GT1:
The Belgian round of the FIA GT1
World Championship saw the No.4 Aston Martin DB9 of Andrea Piccini and
Christian Hohenadel take over from its sister car to keep the
colours of HEXIS AMR flying. Although the Italo-German pairing
were forced to retire when leading the qualification race, they
fought their way from tenth on the grid to the second step of
the podium in the championship event. Their team-mates and Abu
Dhabi winners, Clivio Piccione and Stef Dusseldorp bagged the
points for sixth place despite having 30-kg ballast for both
races. Read report
11-04-11
 Formula
Ford GB
: Three races - three different winners. There could not have been a better
way to begin the Dunlop MSA Formula Ford Championship of Great
Britain for 2011 than the superbly exciting trio of races held
this weekend on the Silverstone National circuit.
Dutch driver Jeroen Slaghekke leads the points standings
following Silverstone thanks to a win - his first - and a podium
finish today, with Australian Geoff Uhrhane in close pursuit
after he scored his first UK race win in the final event of the
weekend in his Duratec-powered Mygale. In the Scholarship class,
17-year-old Cavan Corcoran claimed a hat-trick of class
victories on his debut in the championship. Pic Denis
Goodwin read report
 Also
at Silverstone for this season’s Dunlop MSA Formula Ford
Championship opener,
was Jersey-based Dan de Zille, who made his return to the series
for the third successive season, running with JTR Racing under
the guidance of Nick Tandy. Dan got off to a flying start in
this highly competitive setting, qualifying 5th for Race 1, and
4th for Races 2 and 3, with the top 5 cars all within
three-tenths of each other. In race 1, Dan quickly got up to
3rd position before getting squeezed into a corner, causing
contact and a spin. He recovered to finish 11th overall. In
Race 2 Dan dropped a few places at thestart, but quickly
recovered back to his 4th place grid slot. Hepicked up 3rd on
lap 7 before losing it again, then on lap 13 his rival Malvern
got in a tangle with Uhrhane, gifting Dan 2nd overall which he
held onto till the finish. Dan put in a superior drive in Race 3
anddidn’t make a single mistake. Front running Malvern spun off
on the first lap, elevating everyone up a place, and Dan then
expertly passed Slagkekke on lap 13 to take 2nd behind team mate
Uhrhane, resulting in a great one-two finish for team JTR. At
the end of the Championship’s first weekend Dan lies 3rd in the
overall driver rankings with 62 points, behind Australian
teammate Geoff Uhrhane (68) and Dutchman Jeroen Slagkekke (75).
JTR Team manager Nick Tandy said: “It’s been a fantastic weekend
for the team! I am delighted with all three of our drivers
picking up a total of 5 out of the possible 9 podiums; we have
definitely got the pace and we seem to be consistent, and I
can’t wait for the rest of the season!” Dan remarked: “I
thought it was going to take a few rounds to settle in to the
new set-up. It’s a shame about the Race 1 result, but I am over
the moon to be up there on the podium on the first weekend. I’ve
come away with far more than I expected, sitting 3rd in the
Championship standings - this gives us a good shot at going for
the overall Championship!”
 Grand-Am:
AIM
Autosport’s BMW-Riley Daytona Prototype sponsored by GAMMA88
finished fourth yesterday afternoon in the Porsche 250, round
three of the 2011 Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series presented by
Crown Royal Cask No. 16, at Barber Motorsports Park. After
racing to strategy and looking likely to achieve a second or
third-place finish, the team’s podium hopes were dashed by
contact with a GT Class car while lapping it. A damaged wheel
forced driver, Burt Frisselle, to pit under green with 26
minutes remaining in the 2h 45m race and a late charge fell 3.4
seconds short of the final podium place. photo: AIM Autosport/Mark
Jackson Read report
 Star Mazda:
French racer Tristan Vautier took a dominant victory
in Round 2 of the 2011
Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear at the Indy Grand
Prix of Alabama. Vautier led from the off and was never headed
in his #5 JDC Motorsports / Cecibon / Circuit du Laquais Mazda,
crossing the line 33-seconds ahead of Nick Andries Andries in
the Team Pelfrey / Lithionics Battery / GS610 Brake Fluid /
Trademark Garage Floors Mazda.
Read report
 F2000:
Remy Audette led flag-to-flag, from
pole,
to win the second F2000 Series race of the weekend at VIRginia
International Raceway over rookie Kyle Connery and Tim Minor.
Audette set fast lap en-route to victory, as he lowered the
track record during qualifying and then ran away from a stout
field during the race, to win by nine seconds.  “It can’t get
any better than this, what an awesome day,” said Audette, “At
the start I just looked forward and not back. It is a good way
to start the year, with a win and a fourth, the car was just
absolutely on.” Kyle Connery finished second to cap off a
rollercoaster of a race weekend.
Pic Dennis Valet Read
report
 A
great recovery drive from 21st to eighth place in Round 2 of the
American F2000 Series
at Virginia International Raceway has kept Nathan Morcom well in
contention for the title. Nathan Morcom is the leading rookie
and second outright in the American F2000 Series after today’s
second round at Virginia International Raceway.The Australian
teenager followed up his sensational debut victory in Round 1 on
Saturday (see April 9 news release) with an eighth placing today
that was almost as remarkable, if not as successful, as his
previous day’s performance. An incident just seconds after the
start left Morcom, who had qualified sixth after being baulked
badly during his quickest lap, languishing among the tail-enders
of the 28-car field.But a great recovery drive had him back into
the top 10 by the halfway mark of the 14-lap, 74km race. A
podium result looked possible until his Rondo Van Diemen’s
engine began to overheat, forcing him to back off to ensure he
made it to the finish. Despite the mechanical handicap, Morcom
held station and took the chequered flag, which had greeted race
winner and new F2000 Series points leader Remy Audette 37
seconds earlier. “Someone pushed me off at the first corner, and
with all the rain yesterday the grass was really slippery, so it
took me forever to get back onto the track,” Morcom said. “That
put me about 20th after the first lap – from then on I
concentrated on finishing the race and scoring as many points as
I could.I made up a dozen places by half distance, but then the
engine temperature started to rise and I had to short-shift to
keep the revs down. It was disappointing not to have a chance of
going for a second win today, but I’ve come away from the
weekend with a win in my first F2000 race, and top rookie and
second overall in the points, which isn’t too bad,” he said.
Pic
Dennis Valet
 F1600:
Tim Kautz won Sunday’s F1600 Formula F Championship Series race
at VIRginia International Raceway by seven seconds from John
Robinson (Swift/Ford) in second and Bill Valet (Swift/Ford) in
third. Kautz started from pole in his Piper DF3/Ford after
finishing fourth in the first race on Saturday. “It was fun, I
saw the guys battling it out behind me and just kept up a good
pace,” commented Kautz post race, driving with sponsorship from
Reliance Tool. “I saw Beasley in my mirrors going into one
corner and then he just disappeared.” Pic Dennis Valet
Read report
Ginetta Jnrs:
Sebastian seems to be a good motor racing name these days,
as just a week after Sebastian Vettel's win in Australia, Seb
Morris clinched honours in the Ginetta Junior Championship
opener. A week after Vettel’s Malaysian Grand Prix win, Morris
will be hoping to emulate him at Donington Park. Two Ginetta
Junior Championship wins from two races was the perfect start to
Seb Morris’s season at Brands Hatch as the Winter Champion
continued where he left off last November. His first race win,
in his Hillspeed-run car, came after a fierce struggle with
William Foster (Tollbar Racing with WIRED) in a re-started race,
while his second victory came later in the weekend when he had
to overcome Jake Giddings (FML) for the top of the podium. It
was an impressive start to his second season in the Ginetta G40s
and one that marked him out as the man to beat in 2011. Morris
comes to Donington Park this weekend with a 15 point lead over
Tom Howard (Tollbar Racing with WIRED) who bagged second place
in round two after a rocket-ship start from row three of the
grid. Howard, another second-year racer, took a third and a
second in the opening weekend of the season and will be bang on
the pace here, while impressive former karter Charlie Robertson
(HHC Motoorsport) lies third after a consistent weekend in Kent.
Giddings, second in the opening round, was in the thick of the
lead battle in the second race until he found himself in strife
at Paddock Hill Bend, running wide and becoming trapped in the
gravel. With a non-finish, and no points, he finds himself with
a 40-point deficit to Morris coming to Donington and he will be
keen to reduce that to stay in the hunt for the title.Of those
with a season of experience, Max Coates and former Junior
Rallycross champion Brad Bailey will be worth watching, while
George Gamble (TJ Motorsport), HHC’s Mikey Day and Niall Murray
(Beacon Racing) all impressed in their maiden runs in the
championship. Indeed, Murray, the inaugural Irish Ginetta Junior
Champion, ran well in the first race until a wide line dropped
him down the order.
Ginetta Supercup:
Tom Sharp was bang on
target in the opening rounds of the Michelin Ginetta GT Supercup
with three wins
and he is the man to beat at Donington Park this weekend. Sharp
sure hit the ground running at Brands Hatch with three wins in
the three races of the Michelin Ginetta GT Supercup, and this is
a history-making debut for the new Ginetta G55. The flagship
Ginetta championship may be a little different this season, with
two classes of car (for the G55 and G50) and a reverse top-four
grid for race two, but Sharp made the transition from G50 to the
3.7-litre G55 with ease. There was just no stopping him in Kent
and he will be in confident mood heading to Donington Park this
weekend. His championship lead is 35 points, a race win
effectively, and that margin really puts pressure on his rivals.
Carl Breeze (TCR) is one of them who left Brands Hatch
frustrated by an engine drama in qualifying that left him with
work to do in the races, although he did battle back to take
second in the final race. As runner-up in 2010, Breeze started
the season as the favourite to bag the crown but his opening
weekend certainly wasn’t the ideal one. An impressive newcomer
at Brands Hatch was reigning Ginetta Challenge champion George
Murrells who has made the big step up from the G20 1800cc model
to the 3.7-litre G55 with Optimum Motorsport. Murrells proved he
had speed and good racecraft in his title-winning G20 season and
that was reflected two weeks ago with a podium finish as his
stand-out result in a consistent weekend. Murrells will be a man
to watch this weekend. Adam Morgan will be eager to avenge a
stall and an accident at Brands Hatch in his Ciceley Racing G55,
while Australian Jordan Skinner (Brookland Speed Racing) had a
tough baptism on his sports car debut. In the class for the
older 3.5-litre G50s, Tom Ingram’s late deal to join the
championship with Plans Motorsport paid off as he took a win to
lead the class in the championship from fellow race winners Jody
Fannin (Pyro) and Andy Richardson (Richardson Racing). With
three races to enjoy at Donington, expect fireworks all through
the field!
Formula 2:
Less than one week away from the opening two rounds of the 2011
FIA Formula 2 Championship,
series front-runner Will Bratt has confirmed he’s returning for
a second season in the category after agreeing an 11th hour deal
today, Monday, 11th April. Off the back of a successful return
during official F2 testing at Snetterton the week before last,
the Will is delighted to be able to firm-up his racing plans for
the coming year with the sole focus of lifting the F2 title –
and with it the Formula One test drive with the AT&T Williams F1
team. “I really am very happy to return to F2 this year”, said
Will, “It’s a fantastic championship with an incredible prize
and we visit some of the very best circuits in the world. My
sole aim is to win the title this year, that’s my expectation
and I intend to deliver. The deal is very late in the day, so we
did miss the Silverstone test in March, but that shouldn’t be a
problem – I’m confident we’ll be strong.” The Oxon driver, who
will celebrate his 23rd birthday on Wednesday of this week,
finished fifth in the F2 driver standings during his maiden
season in the category and although securing four podiums, by
Will’s own standards he was disappointed with the eventual
outcome. He added: “Last year was disappointing by the high
standards I set for myself, we should have won a couple of races
at least and finished top three overall. We did have quite a bit
of misfortune for a variety of reasons but I’m back in F2 to win
it this time, I’m not setting my sights any lower. I really am
delighted to be back.” Although missing the official pre-season
Silverstone test during late March, which could well hand some
advantage to his main rivals ahead of the first two rounds, Will
underlined his pace and ability with a tremendous test outing at
Snetterton 12 days ago, setting second fastest time overall.
Pic FIA F2 Championship
 GT:
The concept phase of the new MP4-12C GT3 race car
began in the McLaren simulator in 2010. Like McLaren Formula 1
cars and the 12C road car, on which the 12C GT3 is based, the
simulator has played a vital role in defining the GT3’s
engineering requirements and technical specification. More
recently, the 12C GT3 tested at FIA* certified circuits and is
producing race ready performance. Following a test programme at
Circuito de Navarra in Spain, Mark Vinnels, McLaren GT Programme
Director said: “We defined the power, weight and downforce
targets of the 12C GT3 using the simulator, and the set-up
selected for the simulated GT3 car felt near-identical to the
cars we tested for the first time in Navarra. The McLaren
simulator is just one example of how we are preparing to deliver
a GT3 car that is the most driveable, reliable and efficient car
on the grid.” The new MP4-12C GT3 will undergo a rigorous
development and testing programme over the 2011 race season
before 20 cars are delivered to privateer teams for racing in
2012. McLaren Group Chief Executive Officer Martin Whitmarsh
will reveal the full technical specification, development
programme, driver line-up and race plans for the 12C GT3 at a
press conference at the McLaren Technology Centre (MTC) in
Woking, on 04 May 2011.
 ALMS:
The contrast between racing the 12 Hours of Sebring (US)
and racing on the streets of Long Beach (US)
could not be greater, but BMW Team RLL is looking for a similar
outcome – a one-two finish in the American Le Mans Series (ALMS)
GT class with the BMW M3 GT.In the four weeks since its strong
performance at Sebring, the team has been preparing for a race
only two hours long. Quick acceleration out of the tight
temporary street circuit corners is critical to fast lap times
at Long Beach, especially exiting the hairpin turn that leads
onto the longest straight. Both cars will be aerodynamically
trimmed to maximise downforce. Last season the race at Long
Beach produced a third consecutive podium finish for the team.
With the one-two at Sebring, BMW Team RLL enters Long Beach in
the lead of every ALMS GT championship category. Bobby Rahal
(Team Principal): “We could not have asked for a better result
in Sebring… but that was just the first round of a long fight
for the championship. I think the win definitely helped our
confidence and at the same time, it also put the target on our
back, so we will need to keep improving every week if we want to
be in the hunt at the end." Bill Auberlen (Car number 55): “Long
Beach is my home track. I've been all over the victory podium,
but never on the top spot. I believe this is our year. We have
the car, the team and the tire to win it.” Dirk Werner (Car
number 55): “A street circuit is always a challenge and
experience is quite valuable. You don’t have a lot of practice
time to feel comfortable and to set up the car. This will be
only the second time I’ve raced at Long Beach, but with Bill
being my teammate, I’m sure I’ll get some valuable information
how to race in his ‘living room’.” Joey Hand (Car number 56):
“Long Beach is great fun. The tight corners and big field makes
it a street fight! My momentum could not be better with my two
biggest career wins leading me into this race. BMW Team RLL is
making a big push for Long Beach. Our focus is on the
championships and we want to win each race.” Dirk Müller (Car
number 56): “I am very excited about Long Beach. It has always
been a very special event for me. I very much like street
circuits and especially Long Beach. I know after our fantastic
result in Sebring the whole team will be highly motivated again
to repeat this great success.”
-
Formula 3: The revised
Formula 3 Euro Series
that comprises three rather than two races per meeting, got
off to a flying start at the Circuit Paul Ricard over the
weekend 1-3 April. Not only were the teams adjusting to the
new format, but also to the brand new Kumho control tyre
that features a stiffer construction and softer tread
compound than its predecessor. One thing was clear from the
outset, the new covers were capable of quicker times, and by
the end of the meeting Daniel Abt of the Signature team had
lowered the Series’ lap record round Paul Ricard by a
staggering 0.705 seconds. ace one was won by the Mücke
Motorsport driver Nigel Melker, but the meeting was really
dominated by Daniel Juncadella and Roberto Merhi of Prema
Powerteam and Marco Wittmann – a team-mate of Daniel Abt. As
a result, the leaderboard prior to the next meeting at the
end of April at Hockenheim is:
-
1. Daniel Juncadella (Prema Powerteam)
-
2. Marco Wittmann (Signature)
-
3. Roberto Merhi (Prema Powerteam)
-
It was no surprise to see Merhi in the frame, as he had
topped the charts in official pre-season testing and the
Prema Powerteam had very quickly learnt how to set up their
cars for the new Kumho tyres.Said Kumho’s European
Motorsport Manager, Steve Thompson: “The Series organisers
asked us to design a tyre with a more significant
performance peak, coupled to a reduction in grip after just
a few laps; ie the type of performance cycle F3’s aspiring
Grand Prix drivers will need to cope with if they are to
make it to the pinnacle of motorsport. It is clear we have
achieved that goal and produced a faster tyre into the
bargain. We look forward to the next event with interest.”
10-04-11
 F2000:
Australian teenager Nathan Morcom scored a sensational debut
victory in the opening round of the American F2000 Series at
Virginia International Raceway on Saturday afternoon. In a
race-winning move, the 19 year-old Sydney driver resisted the
temptation to pull into the pits to change from slick tyres to
wet-weather ones as a thunderstorm saturated the 5.3km racetrack
at half-distance. He then displayed great car control in his
Rondo Van Diemen on the slippery circuit to grab and then hold
onto the lead until the chequered flag. The pivotal point in the
race came during a full course caution period following a
midfield pile-up at the first corner. Morcom, who started from
third position, was ahead of the eight-car melee, but as rain
began to fall he chose to stay out on the track with the lead
group behind the Safety Car while course workers cleaned up the
wreckage. Several drivers immediately dived into the pitlane to
change to wet tyres, hoping that their superior traction on the
rain-soaked bitumen would enable them to catch and pass the dry-tyred
cars by the finish. Morcom took the lead soon after the race
resumed, and stretched out a gap over his slick-shod
rivals.Meanwhile the drivers on wet tyres were charging back
through the field, but with lightning in the area race officials
aborted the race after six laps to allow corner marshals to take
refuge from the storm.Morcom crossed the finish line just over
four seconds clear of Venezuelan Robert La Rocca and American
Chris Livengood, the first of the drivers on wet tyres. “We took
a gamble on the slicks, and it was absolutely radical driving on
them in the rain,” Morcom said after the race. I had to lift my
dark visor to see ahead, which let the rain in, and I was
constantly adjusting the brake balance as the track went from
greasy to completely wet. To win at my first start in America is
just awesome – I’m over the moon!” pic Dennis Valet
read report
 F1600:
Jim Goughary wrote his name into racing history books
by taking the inaugural win in the history of the F1600 Formula
F Championship Series in a Piper/Honda by five thousandths of a
second in a thrilling side-by-side finish with John Robinson in
a Van Diemen/Ford under threatening skies at VIRginia
International Raceway.pic
Dennis Valet
Read report
Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge:
Oly Mortimer took a pair of wins at Brands Hatch
in the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge opening rounds at Brands Hatch
on Saturday April 9th, the Scot leading all the way in his first
Porsche races. Graeme Mundy was the closest challenger in each
race, and less than half a second behind the leader in the
shortened second race. Read
report
Porsche Club:
Mark Sumpter brought out his trusty 911 Carrera at Brands
Hatch
as his new mount was not yet ready to race – and promptly took
two wins to start his 2011 Porsche Club Champions campaign. Ben
Demetriou on his return to the series took two second places,
with Kevin Harrison and James Hilliard spending both races
squabbling over third and ending up with a podium finish apiece
at the end of an exciting afternoon’s racing in the opening two
rounds of the season. Reigning champion Chris Dyer started off
his season with a maximum points haul after twice taking Class
Two and running well up the top ten overall.
Read report
 British
GT:
Welsh racer Jake Rattenbury will race a Century Motorsport
prepared Ginetta G55(car pictured left) in the
forthcoming British GT Championship. Rattenbury, who made his
debut in the British GT series at Brands Hatch in 2010, racing
the Osbourne Racing prepared G50 will now step up into the GT3
Class with the brand new Ginetta G55 model. The GT drive came on
the back of a season where Jake tried out a number of different
race series, beginning with the Protyres BARC Formula Renault
with M-Tech Lite. The deal to join Century Motorsport sees
Rattenbury return to the Ginetta brand, having made his racing
debut in the Ginetta Junior Championship in 2007, with Muzz
Racing. Rattenbury has had a successful pre season, getting used
to the car ready for the season opening race at Oulton Park,
Cheshire on the 26 April. Looking ahead to the season,
Rattenbury is looking to learn more this year and move up the
grid as the season progresses. “I’m extremely happy to be racing
in the British GT this season,” added Jake. “Century Motorsport
are a proven, championship winning outfit and working with such
a fantastic set of guys will only help to progress my career and
help achieve the aims for this season.” Sharing the Century
Motorsport prepared Ginetta G55 is Ginetta G50 Cup graduate
Freddie Hetherington.
Pic: MW Motorsport media.
 Formula
Ford:
Last year’s championship runner-up, Scott Malvern,
made his first step towards going one better in the 2011 Dunlop
MSA Formula Ford Championship of Great Britain with a dramatic
victory in the opening round at Silverstone on Saturday. But it
was a very narrow win indeed for Malvern on his debut in one of
Jamun Racing’s Mygales - at the chequered flag just 0.077s
separated the Essex racer from his closest challenger,
Australian ace Geoff Uhrhane.pic Jakob Ebrey Photography
read report
 FIA
GT1: Following the first round at Abu Dhabi, the FIA
GT1 World Championship travelled on to the Zolder circuit,
for a first race on home soil this season for Maxime Martin. The
weekend kicked off perfectly for the Marc VDS Racing Ford GT
#41, the car proving fastest in the free practice sessions.
read report
09-04-11
 F2000:
A lengthy session stoppage on a slightly damp track awarded Kyle
Connery,
a rookie driver from the karting ranks, his first ever F2000
pole in his first ever F2000 qualifying session. A badly timed
and long black flag period created an interesting grid order,
and as the track went green in the closing minutes, Connery
suffered a massive crash in his #91 Van Diemen/Zetec. Connery
will keep his fast lap; due to not bringing out a session
stoppage, although the car is highly questionable for the 4:30pm
race start. The F2000 rookie Connery, who is actively looking
for sponsorship to run the full season, has been in the top
three on the time sheets consistently since Thursday's test day
at VIR. Robert La Rocca, driving a new RFR chassis for HP-Tech,
will line up on the outside of row one.
Read more
WTCC:
Eurosport Events announced that the World Touring Car
Championship will receive extended international TV coverage in
2011 thanks to new deals in two strategic markets: Germany
and China.The renewal of the broadcasting agreement with RTL
means that the leading German commercial channel will air a
10-minute highlight programme of all the WTCC races immediately
before the live broadcast of Formula One qualifying sessions. A
new agreement was signed with China's national television CCTV
for the broadcasting of dedicated highlight programmes of each
WTCC event within "Auto Times" weekly programme on Wednesday at
7pm on the free-to-air channel CCTV5, that reaches a total of
399 million households. This will enable WTCC to reach not only
the motorsport fan community but also a larger base through this
leading TV car show in the biggest automotive market in the
world. Géraldine Filiol, Managing Director of Eurosport Events,
said: "We are very satisfied with the signing of these new deals
which are significant for the development of WTCC. They will
ensure that our championship receives a strong visibility on
terrestrial channels in Germany and China, two of the largest
automotive markets in the world. The coverage of all 2011 races
on these channels will definitely contribute to promote even
further the WTCC and its partners, and attract larger and
diversified audiences."
 The
promoter of the World Touring Car Championship, Marcello Lotti
is attending the opening event of the China Touring Car
Championship this weekend at Shanghai's Tianma Circuit.The trip
to China was mainly intended to fix the operative details for
the joint event that WTCC and CTCC will run together at the
Guangdong International Circuit on November 5, 2011. Lotti
and Chinese promoter Qing Xia had also the opportunity to
discuss the future development of the CTCC in terms of technical
regulations. After the meetings Lotti took the the occasion for
of having a closer look to the Chinese championship that is
currently open to 2.0L and 1.6L cars split in two different
categories. "I knew already that the level of the championship
was very good, with the involvement of a number of car
manufacturer brands. And I was especially impressed by the
excellent promotion around the event. This makes me confident
that the WTCC Race of China in November will benefit from the
experience and professionalism of the CTCC promoter," Marcello
Lotti commented.
 F2000:
Remy Audette paced practice at VIRginia International Raceway
by nearly nine tenths of a second, putting in a lap at 1:53.949,
well under the existing track record set during qualifying last
year at 1:54.496. Combined session times at the end of the day
showed the Canadian fastest ahead of Chris Livengood, Kyle
Connery, Nathan Morcom and Robert La Rocca. Audette was fastest
during VIR F2000 testing on Thursday and sat on pole in 2009 for
the season opener in Virginia.“We are really happy with that
time,” said Audette. “We walked the track last night and learned
some things we didn’t know, we made one small change on the car
and that was it.”Livengood, meanwhile, another championship
contender, was second quick on the day.“We left a few tenths out
there,” commented the American driver. “It was a bit of the car
and a bit of me, we have a laundry list of things to do.”
Notable on the #37 fielded by Work Racing with support from John
Walko is a new cockpit air deflector that was developed in-house
over the offseason. pic Janice Eakin
Read more
 BTCC:
There are is less than a week to go
before the UK’s premier motor racing series, the Dunlop MSA
British Touring Car Championship, arrives in the Midlands for
its annual fixture at Donington Park (16-17 April). The venue,
just off the M1 and M42/A42 motorways, has a long association
with the BTCC and a bumper crowd is expected at the parkland
circuit for what will be the track’s most popular motor racing
event of the year. In addition to the three headline BTCC races,
another eight races for the high-profile Ginetta Junior, Ginetta
GT Supercup, Porsche Carrera Cup, Formula Renault and Renault
Clio Cup are also on the action-packed bill making the event
terrific value-for-money entertainment for both die-hard and
casual motor sport fans as well as families. Heading to
Donington on 17 April, reigning Champion Jason Plato has stolen
an early lead in the BTCC points table thanks to two wins in
last Sunday’s first three races of the season at the Brands
Hatch circuit in Kent. But the signs are that at Donington he
could struggle to stay on top in his Silverline Chevrolet Cruze
as many anticipate the circuit’s swooping, high-speed lay-out
could favour his rivals’ turbocharged cars. Among them are three
drivers who will feel very much at home around Donington, namely
Matt Neal, Mat Jackson and Andrew Jordan. Worcestershire’s Neal,
Plato’s arch rival in recent seasons, set new qualifying and
race lap records and also achieved a win at Brands Hatch in his
Honda Racing Team’s new turbo Civic. Furthermore, the Droitwich
racer will forever be synonymous with Donington – it was there
in 1999 that one of his race wins earned him a pay-out of
£250,000! Jackson, meanwhile, has got his 2011 season off to a
flying start. The 29-year-old was on the podium twice at Brands
Hatch in his turbocharged Airwaves Racing Ford Focus and will
arrive at Donington as Plato’s closest challenger, second in the
drivers’ standings.
 Silverline
Chevrolet driver Alex MacDowall
aims to start his season afresh at Donington Park National
Circuit next weekend, 16th/17th April, when the Dunlop MSA BTCC
rolls into the East Midlands track. After a robust
curtain-raiser at Brands Hatch last weekend, from which the
Carlisle racer was disappointed with some of the judicial
decisions which went his way, Alex is focused on putting it all
behind him during rounds four, five and six. Starting the
opening weekend off with a fine fifth place finish in the first
encounter, the 20-year-old was later handed a points penalty on
his racing licence for what he adamantly deems unintentional lap
one contact with the Honda Civic of former double BTCC champion
Matt Neal. In round two he was given a somewhat harsh
jump-start penalty, which prevented any chance of a podium
finish, and then in the last race he received a post-race time
penalty following contact while battling his way through the
order. Eighth in the championship as he left Brands Hatch,
following the penalties Alex unfortunately slipped to ninth
place in the standings.All in all a very trying start to the
2011 campaign for the Chevrolet Cruze pilot. “These things
happen, Brands Hatch was tough but I’m just looking ahead to
Donington now”, said the BRDC Superstar, “I think we’ll still
have the strongest package out of the non-turbo cars but, for
sure, the Hondas and the rest of the turbo cars will suit the
track.Our Cruze has a great chassis and good brakes, which can
make up time on the turbos, but the problem we’ve got is there
are two long straights at Donington and an uphill section too
which will favour the others. I know I’m one of the best at
qualifying though and a good grid slot is critical.”
Pic
Jakob Ebrey Photography
 Andrew
Jordan and Pirtek Racing
will be on home ground for the next instalment of the 2011
Dunlop MSA BTCC when the series moves to Donington Park over the
weekend of 16/17 April. For Lichfield-based Andrew, Donington is
one of his favourite tracks and he heads to the famous track on
the back of showing absolute front-running pace in the season
opening meeting at Brands Hatch. Although two punctures in Kent
wrecked his chances of an overall podium and even a race win,
Andrew knows how good the Pirtek Racing package is, and he is
determined to capitalise on that potential at Donington. Racing
alongside the 21-year old in the Pirtek Racing team is BTCC
newcomer Jeff Smith in another Vauxhall Vectra and Jeff’s
tremendous start at Brands Hatch suggests that he will be a
regular top 10 contender in his learning season in the
championship.Andrew reckons the combination of the Vectra and
the ‘Next Generation Touring Car’ (NGTC) turbo engine will make
a formidable combination at Donington Park. “I think it will be
one of our stronger circuits. We ran well there last year and
the new engine is going really well so I think Donington will be
good for us,” he said. “It’s good to have the Donington weekend
at the start of the season and Donington is very local for the
team so it will be good to be racing there. It is a challenging
track and it’s pretty exciting down the Craner Curves on the
early laps when you are just hanging on to the car!”
 Formula
3:
Dutch racing driver Bart Hylkema
has just a week to wait until his Formula 3 career gets properly
underway with the opening three rounds of the Cooper Tires
British F3 International Series taking place at Monza next
weekend, 16th/17th April. The 21-year-old, who will compete in
the newly rebranded ‘Rookie Class’ with the T-Sport team,
graduates to Formula 3 this season having honed his craft in the
ranks of Formula Renault over the last three years. For 2011 he
will receive continued backing from long term sponsors Geothex,
TORO, Club Car, Ditch Witch and Annika Schultz Communications.
Becoming a podium finisher in only his second season in the
Formula Renault 2.0 Northern European Cup, he went on to
establish himself as a consistent front-runner in Eurocup
Formula Renault 2.0 last year and took two podiums on his way to
sixth overall in the ultra-competitive championship. Since
choosing to graduate to British F3, the aspiring Formula One
driver has been impressive at the wheel of his Mugen-Honda
powered Dallara F307 during official testing at Oulton Park,
Silverstone, Rockingham and, this past week, at Snetterton.
Testing has been good and now I can’t wait for the first race,
I’m really looking forward to it”, said the Delft-based racer,
“Obviously it’s my first year in Formula 3 and to understand
everything takes time but I’ve learnt as much as any driver can
up to this point. I’m quite happy with the time difference to
the A Class (International) cars and the team is happy with my
progress. I’ve never been to Monza so I can’t wait for the first
round. I do feel quite at home at European tracks due to my
experience, it’s all of the UK tracks we’ve tested at during the
pre-season which have been a completely new experience for me.” Pic
Jakob Ebrey Photography
Saloons
: Robert Spencer got his CNC Heads
Sports Saloon Car Championship
season off to a perfect start with a double victory at Oulton
Park on Saturday (26 March). His Stuart Taylor Locosaki was the
class of the field, though Cam Forbes’ Westfield SEiW offered a
stern challenge in the opening race.With a capacity field,
several new cars, new drivers and good racing all the way down
the pack it was a great start to the new season for the BARC
(NW) championship. Race
report
08-04-11
Grand-AM:
AIM Autosport has qualified sixth for tomorrow’s Porsche 250
at Barber Motorsports Park. Driver, Mark Wilkins, was at the
wheel of the AIM Autosport BMW-Riley sponsored by GAMMA88 to set
a time of 1m 22.948s around the 2.3-mile (3.7 km) road course.
While the car looked sharp yesterday with it’s eye-catching
green, orange and white livery, it’s speed wasn’t so remarkable
and set only the tenth-fastest time. The car was transformed
today after engineers, Ian Willis and Jeff Lohman, poured over
the data last night and came up with a new set up that yielded
much improved performance in this morning’s practice session.
Tweaks before qualifying resulted in additional improvement.
“We’ve been working hard to get the car to work better for us,”
Mark said. “The Continental tire is very different from what we
used previously and this is only AIM’s second race on them. We
made some good changes over the course of practice and found
quite a bit of time. We’re going in the right direction and
we’re confident we’ll have a car to challenge our competitors in
the race.” “As usual Rolex Sport Car events are
super-competitive,” said Mark’s co-driver, Burt Frisselle. “We
did a great job, making progress quickly over the practice
sessions, but we’re still working for more speed. I’m confident
we can dial things in and run in the top three tomorrow.” “We
still have a lot to learn about what makes these tires happy,”
said Chief Engineer, Ian Willis. “With each event were making
gains and I’m confident we’ll be running at the front very
soon.” The Porsche 250 is a 2h 45m timed race, scheduled to
begin at 4pm (ET) tomorrow. Race coverage will broadcast live on
MRN radio with delayed television coverage on SPEED at noon (ET)
on Sunday, April 10.
 Formula
Ford:
Jersey-based Dan de Zille makes a return to the Dunlop
MSA Formula Ford Championship
on 10th April at Silverstone for his third successive season,
running with two-time Championship contenders JTR Racingunder
the guidance of Nick Tandy. Dan finished 8th in the Formula Ford
Championship in 2010. Towards the second half of the season Dan
was regularly finishing in the top 6, and his early-season
testing this year has demonstrated much potential. JTR Team
manager Nick Tandy said “It’s going to be a busy season; we have
three very strong drivers. We are delighted to have Dan on board
with us - he’s a very experienced driver. The tests days have
gone well, and Dan’s been putting in some front-running speeds.
We’re looking forward to a very strong start to the season next
week. When asked how he was feeling about the move and the
forthcoming season Dan said: “Making the move to JTR was a hard
decision to make as Minister had put so much into me. But
hopefully this will push me forwards as a driver and allow me to
perform at a higher level, consistently throughout the season. I
already know most of the team and it’s gelling well and we’re
setting good times so I am very happy with the move so far!
With regard to the season, I am feeling pretty confident, we’ve
not had long with the car in it's full JTR spec but we’re
already finding lots of time and closing in on the front
runners. I see my main rivals being Scott Malvern, Jeroen
Slaghekke and Geoff Uhrhane. The other Jamuns are also going to
be quick I think it's going to be about consistency as much as
raw pace so I need to have an intelligent approach to the
season.”
 Star
Mazda:
In Thursday afternoon's Star Mazda Championship qualifying
session
for Round 2 of the 2011 season at the Indy Grand Prix of
Alabama, it was French racer Tristan Vautier who proved once
again he is the master at 'shaving the barber' with a
pole-winning lap of 1:21.166 (102.013 mph) in his #5 JDC
Motorsports / Cecibon / Circuit du Laquais Mazda. Starting
alongside Vautier on the front row will be Brazilian driver J.V.
Horto, who was just 2/10ths slower in his #18 Juncos Racing /
Programa Leilões Mazda with a lap of 1:21.366 (101.762 mph).
Vautier dominated Star Mazda pre-season testing at Barber with
the quick time in five of six sessions over three days. "The
track was very different from the series test here three weeks
ago during IndyCar spring training" said Vautier, a second-year
driver who scored two wins last season and finished 5th in the
championship. "It was a bit slower, because the temperature was
up and all the different kinds of rubber on the track from
Grand-Am and IndyCar, but we all have the same conditions and my
engineer Rick Cameron gave me a really good car for qualifying.
Now we have to wait two days before we are on track again, and
we will all be guessing what is the best setup. But I think I
have the best guesser working on my car, so I feel good for the
race." Third on the grid will be Chilean racer Martin Scuncio,
who qualified on the pole and finished 2nd in the season-opener
at the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg two weeks ago. He turned a
lap of 1:21.440 (101.670 mph) in the #60 Juncos Racing / Bia
Comunicaciones / Cable Del Pacifico Mazda. Rounding out the
top-5 are Irish driver Patrick McKenna, the 2010 USF2000 series
runner-up who impressed in St. Pete with a steady drive,
starting 4th and finishing 4th in the #48 Team GDT / Motorsport
Ireland / Irish Sports Council / General Data Tech Mazda. And
on the inside of the 3rd row will be St. Pete race –winner
Connor De Phillippi, with a lap of 1:21.754 (101.279 mph) in the
Team Pelfrey / Justice Brothers Products / Trademark Garage
Floors Mazda. De Phillippi, the current championship points
leader, won the final race of the 2010 season, at Mazda Raceway
Laguna Seca, from the pole; he was the series 'Rookie of the
Year' and finished 3rd in the championship. In the Expert Series
for drivers 30 and older, the top qualifier was top AMA
SuperBike racer Larry Pegram, trading two wheels for four this
weekend. His lap of 1:23.261 (99.446 mph) was good for 13th on
the grid. The top ten cars in the field are separated by
slightly more than one second around the 17-turn, 2.38-mile
Barber Motorsports Park track.
Qualifying times
 Ginetta
Jnrs:
Championship leader Seb Morris
is focused on increasing his early advantage in the Ginetta
Junior title race at Donington Park next weekend, 16th/17th
April, when the series continues for rounds three and four.
Having got his campaign off to a near-perfect start at Brands
Hatch last weekend, the 15-year-old from Marford, near Wrexham,
is delivering on his promise as one of the true pre-season
favourites with two wins already in the bag and a 15-point lead
at the top of the table.“Everything went really well at Brands
Hatch, all of our preparation came together and the races went
as well as we could have expected”, said Seb, “We had the pace
right from Friday testing and we need to make sure we do that
every weekend, it’s so important to qualify at the front and
give yourself the best possible chance of getting into an early
lead.” At the flowing sweeps of Donington Park’s recently
reinvigorated 1.98-mile National Circuit, Seb is aiming for
continued success at the wheel of his Legat Owen and Liberty
Properties Plc backed Ginetta G40. Seb said: “I’ve only been up
to Donington once since last season’s race so I haven’t got
loads of experience of the track, although we did do quite well
there last year as I took my first podium. We need to get as
many points as we can and if we’re able to carry on the way we
started at Brands then we should be able to fight for the podium
in each race and, hopefully, two wins again.” Pic
Jakob Ebrey Photography
 Formula
Renault BARC
: Organisers of the Protyre Formula Renault BARC
Championship
today welcomed the arrival of NGK Spark Plugs as a new sponsor
to the flourishing one-make series.Already widely used across
all forms of motorsport including Formula 1, NGK will be the
official sparks plug supplier to the single-seater Championship,
which begins on Easter weekend (23rd/24th April) at Donington
Park in support of the ever-popular FIA European Truck Racing
series.NGK branding will also feature prominently on every
Formula Renault BARC car in 2011 with decals located on the rear
wing end plates beneath the race number. Commenting on the
announcement Tim Howes, Technical Services Manager at NGK, said:
“NGK Spark Plugs currently supports a wide range of prestigious
UK motorsport championships and we’re delighted to be able to
add Formula Renault BARC to this portfolio. With packed grids
and an appearance on the British Touring Car calendar, now is a
great time to be joining the series and the team and I are very
much looking forward to the opening rounds in two weeks time.”
Championship Promoter Simon North added: “We’re very pleased to
be welcoming NGK Spark Plugs to the series and look forward to
entertaining Tim and his guests in the Championship’s brand new
hospitality suite.”
.jpg) Karts:
Prima Racing trio Gaby Weyer(right), Tommy
Weyer and Herbie Grout
did the team proud indeed in the 2011 curtain-raiser for the
Little Green Man Championship at PF International – with
front-running performances from all three, and a thoroughly
well-deserved podium to conclude the weekend in some style.
pic
Chris Walker/www.kartpix.net
read report
 It
was with determination and talent that Felix Nilsson
started his international karting season. The Swedish driver,
who will be 14 this month, is keen to rise quickly in the
standings of the KF3 category (Junior). And has therefore the
wheel of an Intrepid-TM from LM Karting Team.However, the Swede
knows he will need to be patient and take the time to acquire
the experience he lacks. "My debut in karting dates back to only
a year ago, while some of my opponents have been in KF3 already
for 3 or 4 years, or more! This is why we have scheduled a
programme with several meetings in 2011. I need to drive at the
maximum and attend many races. Last year, I was at almost 10
meetings. First of all I raced in the Swiss Championship, than I
discovered international meetings, such as the Monaco Kart Cup
or the karting Champion Cup in Spain. I also have a very
pleasant memory of the Bridgestone Cup Europe, where I was one
of the finalist drivers", Felix noted.For Felix, the season
started in Italy with four races in just little more than a
month. "A small pain in my ribs forced me to skip the Winter
Cup, but then I competed in two meetings of the WSK Master
Series, in the WSK Euro Series and in the Andrea Margutti Trophy
in Castelletto di Branduzzo".
 Blancpain
GT:
Portuguese drivers Duarte Félix da Costa, Lourenço
Beirão da Veiga and Ricardo Bravo have signed with Team
Leipert Motorsport for the brand new Blancpain GT Endurance
Series. The Portuguese trio line up behind the wheel of a
Lamborghini Gallardo GT3 LP600. All races will be 3 hours of
duration, apart from the Spa 24 hours. After being rivals in
last year’s Seat Leon Eurocup, the three drivers have combined
to become the first ever 100% Portuguese team to compete in an
International Endurance Championship. With over 50 cars entered,
the Blancpain Endurance Series looks promising. "We are proud
and very happy to announce our 2011 project, ambitious and
seriously professional. It will be a tough and competitive
championship with prestige brands involved and a lot of good
drivers, but we three together form a very strong team", said
confident Duarte Felix da Costa. The Blancpain GT Endurance
Series will start in Monza (16/17 April). This is followed by
four other races; Navarra - Spain (21/22 May), the 24 Hours of
Spa Francorchamps - Belgium (30/31 July), Magny Cours - France
(26 /27 August) and finally Silverstone in England (9/10
October).
The Porsche GT3 Cup
Challenge enters its second year of competition at Brands Hatch
on April 9th, the series providing a racing home for the 400BHP
racing Porsche GT3s formerly eligible for the Porsche Carrera
Cup GB and similar series across the world. 2011 sees the
addition of some strong challengers to the series, especially
inh Class One – for the newer 997 GT3 Cup cars. Peter Smallwood
took the 2010 Driver of the Year crown and has now stepped up to
Class One in a 997 GT3, taking on 2010 title rival Bertie
Carruthers. A force in the class should be Stephen Ritchie, who
went from rookie to front-runner during the 2010 season and will
be chasing his first outright win. Some strong newcomers include
former Mini champion Ollie Mortimer making his GT3 Cup debut,
ex-BTCC competitor Simon Blanckley, and international Porsche
racer Yucel Ozbek. Greame Mundy and Steven Liquorish are also
both welcome additions to the Brands Hatch grid. Porsche
regulars Paul Winter and Tim Speed will also be out sharing
their GT3 in Class Two, the pair aiming to get amongst the Class
One cars in their older 996 GT3. The GT3 Cup Challenge concept
forms part of Porsche’s world-wide racing activities, the UK
only the second country to run both Carrera Cup and GT3
Challenge series. The international Porsche Supercup heads the
Porsche GT3 series pyramid, with several nations or regions
holding a Carrera Cup, and the GT3 Challenge then existing in
other areas, or supporting the Carrera Cup as now happens in the
UK .
Porsche Club:
Brands Hatch this coming Saturday, April 9th, hosts the opening rounds of the 2011
Porsche Club Championship – and a strong field promises to once
more offer up the close and exciting racing the series has
become renowned for in recent seasons. Class One features a host
of former champions battling for outright race wins, while 2010
overall champion Chris Dyer has elected to run once more in
Class Two as he seeks a second consecutive crown. The 968 CS is
the most popular mount in Class One, with 12 of the front-engined
cars entered for the two Brands Hatch races. Former overall
champion Mark McAleer will be out in his 968 once more, but with
stiff opposition including 2004 Class One champion Pete Morris
and the returning 2009 class champion Ben Demetriou – out in a
newly built-up 968 in a distinctive chequer flag livery. Other
drivers who should be challenging at the front in their 968s
will be Miles Maserati, a strong performer in 2010, the
returning Richard Higgins and James Hilliard, and Richard
Bennett - racing in Class One for the first time but one to
watch after taking second in Class Two last season despite
missing the first four races. Upholding the honour of the rear-engined
Porsches will be the fast-starting Kevin Harrison, always quick
off the line in his 964 C2, and the 993 C2s, the most powerful
cars on the grid but also the heaviest, of series regular
Richard Ellis and newcomer Karim Moudi. New for 2011 are a pair
of 964s entered for the experienced Mark Sumpter and Andy Purdie,
both former race winners in the series and eager to well at what
is the local circuit for their Paragon team. Dyer, who clinched
the 2010 title in the final race of the season, heads up the
Class Two entry, the Yorkshire racer keen to score points early.
The 944 S2 is the car of choice in this class, with rivals Ian
Balaam, Malcolm Scott and Paul Seagrave all out in S2s.
 The
F2000 Championship:
The
test day before the opening rounds of the 2011 F2000
Championship Season at VIRginia International Raceway
delivered the stout F2000 field two and a half hours of track
time to shake down cars, crew, new spec tires and more on an
almost-cloudless day in Southern Virginia. Combined session
times at the end of the day showed Canadian Remy Audette fastest
at 1:55.103 in a newly painted #21, followed by rookie Kyle
Connery, Chris Livengood, Alegra’s Angel Benitez, also a rookie,
and Tim Minor, the top Masters Class driver. Audette said: “we
had a small problem at the Oak Tree turn and went off, breaking
the nose and one track rod, I was a bit too excited trying to
pass Dave Weitzenhof. However, we got the car back together and
we are happy with the result. We are going to make some small
changes and try to continue being consistent.” pic Janice
Eakin Read more
 The
F1600 Formula
F Championship Series will embark on history this weekend
at
VIRginia International Raceway for the inaugural rounds of the
new national pro series with 32 cars on the initial entry list.
Nine chassis manufacturers are represented with 12 Honda Fit and
20 Ford Kent engines. The class and the category, which
originally peaked in the mid 1980s, is back for a 10-race,
five-event 2011 tour, with a full field on spec Hoosier tires,
and strong expectations. The entry list reads as a who’s-who of
race car manufacturers with chassis from Van Diemen, Swift,
Piper, Mygale, Royale, Citation, Lola, Bowman and Crossle. Young
aspiring drivers Colin Thompson and Sam Beasley, both under 18,
are poised to be at the front of the field. Beasley is entered
in a Mygale/Honda for Primus Racing while Thompson is in a Swift
DB6/Honda. Cape Motorsports with Wayne Taylor Racing brings a
proven record in open-wheel racing, fielding a single car effort
for Ryan Leach in a Swift DB6/Ford. Other prominent prep shops
represented for the inaugural weekend of F1600 include Polestar
Racing and Front Range Motorsports. Current Formula F National
Champion Tim Kautz won the Runoffs at Elkhart Lake last year and
could play spoiler in his Piper/Ford. Caitlin Johnston, who was
a front-runner last year in the Ontario Formula Ford
Championship alongside a handful of starts in the NASCAR
Canadian Tire Series, plans to contest the entire season in her
Van Diemen/Honda. Johnston competed in F2000 in 2009. F1600
should have a strong start, after years of planning, at 32
entries and contingency money available from both Honda and
Ford. The Series will be working hard to equalize both power
plants, introducing a restrictor on the Honda Fit cars that is
subject to change over the course of the season. Multiple
National Champion John Robinson will not be taking any chances
with engine equalization, bringing two Swift DB6s with each
engine option to VIR. “What better way to package spares than to
bring a complete car,” said Robinson. “Depending on the
restrictor, it will be a toss up as to which car to run, and
that decision won’t be made until qualifying begins.” Mike
Scanlan, entered in a Swift DB6/Honda, added: “My goal is to
contend for wins. We feel that we have the Honda sorted out
after a very successful, 2010 season running Nationals and being
competitive at the Runoffs. I have tested the Series tire from
Hoosier against much softer rubber, and we feel we have the
setup right for the tire.“How the first weekend goes will depend
so much on the restrictor plate issue. Clearly the Fit should
have an advantage down low and give a little away at the top;
gearing selection will be huge for the Fit runners. As for cars
to beat, I won't bite on that, there are too many top shelf
drivers entered, National champions among them,” continued
Scanlan.
 LMS: New car, new category, new drivers
and a maiden victory in the Le Mans Series!
The team from Strasbourg, Pegasus Racing, made a perfect start
to its first year in Formula Le Mans in the Le Castellet 6-Hours
race. Mirco Schultis, Patrick Simon and Julien Schell drove a
faultless race and took the lead just after half distance, which
they held to the finish.
Read report
 Cadwell
Park: With serious incidents in modern race
meetings and track events
thankfully rare, it's important that marshals are given practice
in extraction techniques wherever possible. As such, Cadwell
Park 's weekday team received important refresher training
recently. Steve Moore and Ian Burkitt, watch managers at
Skegness Fire Station, were on hand to provide both instruction
and guidance, ensuring that trackside assistance meets the very
highest standards. Of course it's also vitally important that
the crews have cars to practice their techniques on and Chris
Coote Cross Country Vehicles were on hand to help as the team
learnt basic extrication techniques using the equipment carried
on the MSVR rescue unit. Circuit Manager Jon Rush said, "We are
extremely grateful to Skegness Fire Station and Chris Coote
Cross Country Vehicles for providing their services, which made
this event possible.
 Rallycross:
Westhoughton-based racer Tony Lynch
made the perfect start to his assault on the Swift Sport
Rallycross campaign with victory in the opening round of the
2011 season at Lydden Hill at the weekend of 26/27 March. Tony
made the long trip South to Lydden Hill with a new look Team
Geriatric-run Suzuki Swift thanks to a major sponsorship deal
with Lucas Oil, with the target for the weekend being to take
the fight to defending Suzuki champion Dave Bellerby. Tony set
the pace in his opening qualifying heat before being stuck
behind a slower car in heat two, which left him needing a strong
result in the third heat to try and secure a place at the head
of the field for the final. Having seen 2010 rival Bellerby
delayed in his race, Tony duly dominated his heat and set the
fastest time of the day to secure pole position for the final.
From the front of the field for the final, Tony spent much of
the opening lap going side-by-side with Bellerby before
eventually getting into a lead he would keep to the chequered
flag, despite the best efforts of his rival to find a way
through. Tony’s victory means he leads the championship
standings after the opening round thanks to his maximum score in
the opening race and the bonus awarded for setting the fastest
time of the day. “We wanted to try and start the season with a
victory, and it was the perfect way to get our championship
challenge underway,” he said. “The fight with Dave in the final
was fantastic and it was great to be able to race side-by-side
with someone like that without it ending in tears. There was
some rubbing along the way like you’d expect but it was a clean
fight and the only disappointing thing is that I couldn’t see
how good it must have looked for the fans! “A win and fastest
time of the day is a great start to the season for the team and
all of our sponsors and we’ve now got to work hard to keep
ourselves at the front as Lydden Hill showed it’s not going to
be easy in the Swifts this year.” On the eve of the season
opener, Tony was able to confirm a new sponsorship deal with
DriveMe.net, which will see the company appear on the #2 Suzuki
throughout the season.
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on this site are not necessarily shared by 11/56 MotorSport or any of
theGrid team
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