MORGAN SPORTS CAR CLUB

Provided the car preparation is completed tonight and Mike can organise some way of getting the car from Donington to Mallory Park for Wednesday morning, Mike will be setting out to learn the track ready for the meeting on Sunday 10th August. Hopefully car owner Matt Wisher will be there to assist with driver coaching as he is based at the circuit with Everyman Racing.
On Sunday, Mike will be in class D which is for modified cars upto 1600cc. As the Peugeot 106 is very basic with no modifications except for the safety requirements, and hasn't seen a track for two years, he obviously won't win first time out!
As a bonus, Mike has also been entered in the final race which is a saloon versus sports cars race. Considering most vehicles will be a minimum of ten times the value of his, once again it will just be an exercise to collect another signature towards his National A. If all goes to plan and subject to funding, 2009 will be the season to make a mark. A full report with lap times will follow. We are unsure about TV coverage for this event and will make a posting as soon as we know. Good luck to the Klaassen team at the TKM festival and to Ash Hand at the GP meeting at PFI.

DRIVING EXPERIENCE DIRECT @ ELVINGTON THIS SUNDAY

Mike will be making his first visit to Elvington this Sunday. This time he is taking the DB9 up and offering driver coaching and some hot laps round the track.





It will be interesting for him to compare this 500bhp Rolls Royce of GT's to the Ferrari 360 and Lambo he drove at the Prodrive circuit a few weeks ago
This will be the start of a busy week involving Mike's first track race at Mallory Park.

STOCK HATCH IS NOW A SERIOUS PROBABILITY FOR AUGUST 2008

Just a few shots of a car Mike will be using for Stock Hatch and/or the TinTop series. If all goes to plan, Mike will start to prepare it next week and then get an entry for Oulton Park in early August and Silverstone towards the end of that month, following an initial shake down. Peter Felix, the former Stock Hatch and current Clio Cup driver, owned it and had matched the lap record in this car at Donington Park, where Mike plans to test it with owner Matt Wisher.



The car will need a thorough checking over, as it has been sat for about a year, but Mike is keen to get his hands dirty on the tools as soon as possible and convert his testing speed into some good race performances.

STOCK HATCH RACING AT DONNINGTON

In order for Mike to gain his ARDS INSTRUCTORS qualification, he has to complete six races as soon as possible. Having joined the 750 Motor Club back in 2005 when he planned a season in SAXMAX for 2006, he has decided to enter the senior version of that called Stock Hatch. With over 70 entrants at each race it will take him back to the days of Junior Max, when there were often almost 100 entries for Super 1, with A, B, and C finals. Mike has been offered the use of a Peugeot 106, but he may decide to buy a 205GTi for this season and then upgrade next year, subject to sponsorship.



















Here is an extract from the final from a 205GTi Please copy the code to your browser http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVSeqT1hDFE

Many thanks to Darren Wilson, Peter Felix and Craig Emmerson for their guidance.

MIKE AT AN EVERYMAN EXPERIENCE DAY

Mike has been invited to attend a session in early August at Prestwold Hall where he will start his preparation to become an ARDS instructor. The location is one of the venues for Everyman Racing, another being the Mallory Park circuit.

Because the coaching involves race driver training, the minimum requirements for employment is the ARDS Instructors qualification.

With the location just 5 mikes from his home, Mike hopes that this could be the next career move. Mike already has experience of driving a range of performance cars.

ARDS INSTRUCTORS COURSE

Following the great success of last weekend and his long-term wish to make a career in Motor Sport, Mike has decided to work towards the ARDS qualification in order to coach at both Experience days and at MSA race circuits such as Mallory Park. Ross Jones - MD of Driving Experience Direct has already more work for the coming weeks and is also recommending him to Everyman Racing, who run the Mallory Park ARDS school. In order to qualify, Mike must now upgrade his National B to an A grade, which requires completing six MSA approved races.

Three years ago we prepared some Citroen Saxo VTR's for SAXMAX a 750 Motor Club class. Mike passed his ARDS driver test with Jonnie Cocker the MSA GT champion, but he decided that his aim was to win Super 1 before leaving Karting. In 2007 his aim was to complete a win in the Senior class, and for 2008 to gin some coaching experience with Ultimate Racing. Subject to his Sponsors agreement, he will now complete the required races and aim to race for a full season in 2009.

If anyone reading this has any experience of running a Stock Hatch and lives in Leicestershire, we would appreciate any assistance offered. Also those supporters who were waiting to financially assist us once Mike moved into cars, now is the time we need you most. Mike only has one chance to create a good first impression and as he will be racing at Silverstone, Donington and Mallory there is plenty of scope for some local publicity and hospitality. Please refer to our sponsors section and thank you for reading this announcement.

FANTASTIC DAY AT THE PRODRIVE TRACK (NEAR KENILWORTH)

Images will hopefully follow, but Mike spent the day mostly in the Ferrari 360 with 30 clients being coached while completing 4 laps of the track each. A number of the drivers then paid for Mike to drive them round for some HOT LAPS, to show off the pace and agility of the vehicle.

The car had to be collected on Friday, so Mike was able to use it on the road to get 100 miles under his belt. With an early 7am driver briefing, the track day ran from 9am until the fun stopped at 5pm with the car boiling it's brake fluid! In the pre-session warm up, Mike also drove several laps in a Diablo, which he found to be a very stable vehicle but lacked the raw excitement of the Ferrari.

Having passed his initial test, he now looks forward to being a regular instructor at PRODRIVE with Driving Experiences Direct.

BRDC Stars table after the Llandow round

Following the publication today of the Stars table, it's encouraging to see that Ash is still in the top 15 seeded places. For his first year in the sport, this is an excellent record to date, and with the journey to Genk in three weeks time, Mike says he hopes to get Ash back into the top 10 again.

Ultimate Motorsport Confirm Toro Rosso Talks!

According to crash.net British F3, and kart team ‘Ultimate Motorsport’ have confirmed they are in talks with Toro Rosso regarding to purchasing a stake in the team. Barry Walsh, father of KF3 karter Macauley Walsh said this - ““If our plans go the right way, I’d like to think we could be on the grid for 2009. The aim is to have the whole structure, with the academy from karting through Formula 3 and the World Series and Formula 1 at the top.”

Mike is a driving coach for the Ultimate Motorsport Kart Team to Ash Hands, and said " It has been rumoured for months that Barry wants to get involved with F1, particularly now the F3 team is doing so well. It's a natural progression and I would hope that it could provide some good opportunities for me in a supporting role in F3 or even F1 as I passed all my exams and will qualify as a motor mechanic in a few months."

MIKE TO DRIVE A FERRARI 360 AT PRODRIVE

Mike will be at the PRODRIVE test track on Saturday driving a Ferrari 360. Mike said " The track is very close to Kenilworth so is very close to us and very convenient for me to get time in the seat of a GT car". He hopes that following this initial test, more track events will follow. This is ideal practice for his proposed move into racing GT's in 2009/2010.

PRODRIVE RACE INSTRUCTOR TEST DAY

Just had conformation that on his return from Spain, Mike will attend the Instructor session at Prodrive ready for assisting with Driving Experience Direct. They have a range of Super cars which Mike will be driving as follows :-

Aston Martin AMV8 Blast 4-6 laps Special Offer July 12th only!!! £70

Aston Martin DB9 Blast 4-6 laps (7.5miles) £89

Lamborghini Gallardo Blast 4-6 laps (7.5miles) £99

Ferrari 360 Blast 4-6 laps (7.5miles) £105

Porsche Turbo Blast 4-6 laps (7.5miles) £85

Contact : 08700 421142 or info@DrivingExperiencesDirect.co.uk