CASTLE COMBE RACE IMAGES

Many thanks to the Stock Hatch Forum for the links

ROWRAH SUPER 1 THIS WEEKEND

Mike is at Rowrah this week with Milan for Super 1. Normal format of practice on Friday and Saturday timed qualifying, with the heats and finals on Sunday. The following week he is at PFI.

CADWELL PARK ENTRY GONE IN

Cadwell Park

A real mecca for bike fans, Cadwell Park hosts the biggest round of the British Superbike Championship, with thousands of spectators travelling to the circuit fondly nicknamed the ‘Mini-Nürburgring’ every August Bank Holiday weekend.

A growing number of car events are taking place at Cadwell Park too, as the reputation of this character-filled circuit continues to grow. The 75th season in the Lincolnshire track’s history features the British Kart Grand Prix, a Vintage Sports Car Festival, the Ginetta Festival and a race meeting for the Historic Sports Car Club, in addition to a number of club events.

Cadwell Park is probably most famous for ‘the Mountain’, where bikes frequently get airborne, and it’s the striking mix of twists, cambers and gradients that have led to the circuit’s burgeoning popularity over the years.Cadwell Park is a real gem in British motorsport, and is set for a momentous year in 2009.

FACE BOOK FAN CLUB NOW ON-LINE

Mike would like to extend his thanks to Gaynor Palmer for starting up an official FAN CLUB using FACEBOOK. If you have an account, please log on and leave your details. The aim is to produced all sorts of fun memorabilia items which will only be available to the 'select band of supporters'.

Mike really appreciated the volume of hits this blog gets and would appreciate receiving your constructive comments. Mike plans to keep a video diary of some of the events and make a number of public appearances with the car for his sponsors. The next one being on May 23rd at Mallory Park for SPOOX Motorsport called Party in the Park and another coming soon will be the Market Harborough Carnival on June 13th, when the car will be centre stage on the ANDREW GRANGER & CO Chartered Surveyors float.

Thanks again for looking in.

BUSY WEEKEND AT ROWRAH (CUMBRIA) AND THEN ON MONDAY (WILTSHIRE) AT CASTLE COMBE 400 MILES AWAY!

- A busy start as viewed from a car starting just behind Mike. This driver Andrew Tsang, overtook Mike into the first bend, you see him to the right and they both got through the crash together. Mike then tailed him for the rest of the race, his shorter Peogoet 106 Rallye gearbox being better off the line, and generally more suited to this circuit, as he could use all five gears. Mike never got into 5th as the Saxo box pulls to 110 mph in 4th, which was fast enough, but could have done with the closer matched gear set of the Rallye that most ran.









Following a successful test at Mallory on Wednesday, Mike drove to Rowrah Thursday evening with Milan his Rotax driver and gained good practice on Friday and Saturday and a few races Sunday in readiness for next month's Super 1.
Sunday evening was spent driving down from the almost the Scotish border, to Bath in the south, ready for signing on at 7.30am for the first outing in Stock Hatch for 2009. It was the first time Mike had seen the circuit and the first time the car had been in competition. The lap record was just under 1 minute 25 seconds, and within 8 laps of qualifying on a foggy track at 9am with 60 drivers entered, Mike managed a best lap of 1.26 dead, gridding him 18th in the first heat.
Some four hours later and with 42 cars gathered round him, trailing back round Camp corner, Mike fluffed his start!. Bogging the car down he managed to get passed by most of the field, six of which then decided to take each other out at the first bend right in front of him. The Safety car slowed the field, but on the restart, the front of the field sped away, leaving Mike to catch up over 15 places and getting back to 19th before the six laps expired.
Placed towards the back of the final grid, another four hours later, the race made a couple of attempts to start but yet again accidents called out the safety car, so from whwre he started, placed back in 36th on the grid, Mike only managed to pass 10 cars in the limited time available.
Conclusions to be drawn were that initially the standard rev limit of 6500 was hampering him, so it was raised withing the ECU to cut out at 7200 giving him the exra urge at the end of the straights without changing up. The engine ran well considering it had a standard exhaust still fitted. Having purchased a Custom Chrome system that will now be fitted and tested before the next round at Cadwell Park in May. The car also needs to be lowered at the front to assist the turn in. as it sits 30mm higher than the allowed ride height limit. Finally Mike and the car were 40kg over the minimum weight. Such a burden is too much to give away, so a smaller and repositioned alloy tank is one option for next time.
As always, Mike was disappointed not to have made more of an impact, but compared to last years champion, who was also running 40kg more lead as a winning penalty, Mike was not far short of his pace in the final, so plenty of positives to take from the meeting, the main one being to get the car back in one piece, unlike Carl Swan from Rugby - check this out, with Mike just avoiding the action!

MALLORY TEST ABORTED AFTER MATCHING THE LAP RECORD AGAIN

Due to the brake pads falling out following an axle change last week, Mike managed to spend his time wisely getting some shots for the sponsors/supporters. Nottingham based Race Technology kindly sorted out our interface problems with the OMEX ecu. PARKERS MOTOR FACTORS from our local town have now improved their discount to us for spares., which should be helpful during the long season
Our thanks as always to Granger & Co Chartered Surveyors, who have been a supporter of Mikes since his karting days. We are pleased to add CAR fx our vinyl sign suppliers and their sister company PMP developments for their support with Mikes new garage to prepare his car in.

PPC - MALLORY 23RD MAY - MIKE ON THE SPOOX STAND

Spoox Motorsport, who assisted with the Stock Hatch preparaion for 2009, and on-going race day support, have requested that the SAXO be on their stand at Mallory on 23rd May. Details of the event are available on the Mallory site http://www.mallorypark.co.uk/Default.aspx?TabID=120&CategoryID=6&langID=0&BrandID=0

CASTLE COMBE CONFIRMATION FOR EASTER MONDAY'S STOCK HATCH RACE

Just spoke to the race organiser, and Mike is part of a 57 strong field on Easter Monday. Mike will try and leave Rowrah at 6pm on the Sunday and make the 6 hour drive via Luton to Chippenham overnight, in order to attend scrutineering at 8am Monday morning!
Fortunately Spoox and his supporters will be travelling down Sunday afternoon, so everything should be ready and prepared for him to drive. With the top 15 qualifiers going straight through into the Final, it's his aim to get into the top 20, so he is near the front in the heat and hopefully mi-grid in the Final. That gives him twice as much track-time which is very important with this untried car.

WHILTON MILL THIS WEEKEND FOR SUPER 1

Mike will be at his 'home track' Whilton Mill this weekend for the first round of Super 1 where he will be attending to his driver Milan Mach. Mike couldn't attend the pre-race test today as he was testing his car at Mallory, but things look good for the weekend, as Milan was just off the pace without Mike, but should be on it by Sunday. Wednesday will be another Mallory test before a trip to Rowrah the following Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

MALLORY TESTING WEDNESDAY ON CLIO CUP PACE?

Unfortunately despite an ECU chip change, Mike still had no output for his datalogger, so had to test with no idea of his revs, temps or lap times in the car. Although Mike was there testing without any support, he managed to get some other racers to time him and give him the good news that he was consistently breaking the old lap record. Proof should be on the logger tonight once the data has been downloaded.

This was the first outing with the new engine, so Mike was still in a running in mood to start with, but in session two and three he started to let the engine and new gearbox have their heads. He was still running with the Millers 'running-in oil' for added protection, but will now swap to our race oil and filter. The session was fully booked, so Mike was lucky to get one of the last two places. We have already booked next week and hope Mike will have in-car data to work with.

Todays photo is being uploaded, showing all our sponsors imagery.