Dunlop Tuscan Challenge Rockingham 09/07/06
Discussion
Some great TVR Racing at Rockingham today,for the Double Header.
The weather was mostly dry ,some times sunny ,but very windy.
Particular Highlights ,were the Class B battle between Marc Hockin in the Griff 500 and Graham Walden in the 5 lite Rover Engined Tuscan race car - The race bred Tuscan managing to have the edge over the road based chassis of the Griffith - very close and exciting racing ensued.
Of the faster Class A - AJP engined cars, Tim Hood in the Sagaris managed to hold off Andy Holden in the Tuscan for both races ,with Steve Glyn maintaining overall 3rd in both races.
With at least three other racing Sagaris V8's being currently built, Tim will have to prepare himself for some very stiff competition
.
Although Tim's fastest lap of the day 1:08.326 is now Rockingham's fastest ever recoreded Sports Car Lap - beating the previous record held by a Mallock race car.
Also splendid to see an older Tiv racing ,in the form of Geoff Parkinson's 3000M running a tuned Ford Essex V6.
Top 5 Results for both races;
1st no10 Tim Hood - Sagaris AJP V8
2nd no 6 Andy Holden - Tuscan AJP V8
3rd no11 Steve Glynn - Tuscan AJP V8
4th no41 Graham Walden - Tuscan Rover V8 5.0
5th no14 Marc Hockin - Griffith 500
In Class C , both races were won by no 13 Howard Bryan in the Tasmin.
All in all,an Excellent day's racing
.
Edited for accuracy
The weather was mostly dry ,some times sunny ,but very windy.
Particular Highlights ,were the Class B battle between Marc Hockin in the Griff 500 and Graham Walden in the 5 lite Rover Engined Tuscan race car - The race bred Tuscan managing to have the edge over the road based chassis of the Griffith - very close and exciting racing ensued.
Of the faster Class A - AJP engined cars, Tim Hood in the Sagaris managed to hold off Andy Holden in the Tuscan for both races ,with Steve Glyn maintaining overall 3rd in both races.
With at least three other racing Sagaris V8's being currently built, Tim will have to prepare himself for some very stiff competition
. Although Tim's fastest lap of the day 1:08.326 is now Rockingham's fastest ever recoreded Sports Car Lap - beating the previous record held by a Mallock race car.
Also splendid to see an older Tiv racing ,in the form of Geoff Parkinson's 3000M running a tuned Ford Essex V6.
Top 5 Results for both races;
1st no10 Tim Hood - Sagaris AJP V8
2nd no 6 Andy Holden - Tuscan AJP V8
3rd no11 Steve Glynn - Tuscan AJP V8
4th no41 Graham Walden - Tuscan Rover V8 5.0
5th no14 Marc Hockin - Griffith 500
In Class C , both races were won by no 13 Howard Bryan in the Tasmin.
All in all,an Excellent day's racing
. Edited for accuracy
Edited by WhiteChimp500 on Sunday 9th July 22:16
Edited by whitechimp500 on Monday 10th July 10:54
that tussle for third/fourth must have been good, only 200ths between them in Race1!
but Graham now has a tuned 5L in his Blue Tuscan, the same as Marc has in his converted Griff road car. (Marc still having a slight weight penalty..thos not as much as I would have expected!)
I look forward to some more exciting racing from the pair of them!
Mark Freeman poled a fastest lap in Race 1 and completed both rounds in The light-blue Tasmin. This car hasn't moved for 3 years until last weekend, and it was new to him (obviously). A great job by Mark and Dulford Automotive who prepared the car in 1 week!
And Well done Tim ofcourse. Breaking records already, in his first season of Sagaris!
I believe there's a T350 on the way too???
andy
monster
but Graham now has a tuned 5L in his Blue Tuscan, the same as Marc has in his converted Griff road car. (Marc still having a slight weight penalty..thos not as much as I would have expected!)
I look forward to some more exciting racing from the pair of them!
Mark Freeman poled a fastest lap in Race 1 and completed both rounds in The light-blue Tasmin. This car hasn't moved for 3 years until last weekend, and it was new to him (obviously). A great job by Mark and Dulford Automotive who prepared the car in 1 week!
And Well done Tim ofcourse. Breaking records already, in his first season of Sagaris!
I believe there's a T350 on the way too???
andy
monster
A view of the race from Tuscan #6...
"I am sitting here with very sore arms and shoulders... the Sports Car circuit at Rockingham is very, very physical!
We had a very good day. Like virtually everybody else we had not raced on this circuit configuration before. Rockingham was the circuit where I made my Tuscan debut in 2003, although an engine failure in each race meant I only got 2-3 laps in both races.
The track was quite dirty for qualifying - the sweepers had been round the oval but not the infield, and due to a 'drifting' event recently there were some very peculiar lines evident.
We built up slowly getting some heat in the tyres: 1.19, 1.15, 1.13, before really starting to push hard on my 5th and 6th lap. 1.11.514 was the reward for lap 5 and quite a scarey 1.10.098 on lap 6. Scarey because exiting Turn 4 on the Oval, the front of the car suddenly broke loose and we understeered straight for the wall. A gap of a few feet became inches. Feathering the throttle very slightly we got away with it, but I decided that was the limit and pitted. The team told me I was in P1 and I was pretty comfortable that it was enough for the front row, so we parked up to prepare for the race which would only be some 40 minutres later.
Tim Hood in the Sagaris continued to circulate, with his fastest lap also coming on his 6th lap - 1,10.127. The chequered flag came out and I was still expecting Tim to put in a really fast final lap, but the order remained unchanged and I was delighted to have secured my very first pole position of my race career. Really pleased because Tim had not had any problems with the car, so it did seem to be on merit. With a difference of 3/100s of a second, it looked like we would have a race on our hands! However, I didn't kid myself about the race itself because the Sagaris, with its downforce front and rear, would have the advantage round this circuit, and I knew I could not do race distance as close to the edge as that fastest lap.
Marc Hockin and Graham Walden took the second row of the grid, less than a second splitting the pair, with the two class B cars pipping the more powerful Class A Tuscan of Steve Glynn.
Howard Bryan headed the three Class C cars.
Now this part needs a little explanation, as the original MST time sheet has race debutant Mark Freeman qualifying 6th in his Class C Tasmin. Truly an extraordinary feat!
Ufortunately the MST Timing sheets tell a slightly misleading story. Due to the Oval circuit being in use during the day as well as the Sports Car circuit, the usual chicanes to slow cars down if they overshoot the hairpin were not there. It was therefore possible to outbrake yourself, miss the hairpin and then continue round the Oval at unabated speed, to rejoin the circuit before Turn 4, having missed out the whole of the slowest section of the track. The timing system would still record a time, which miraculously could be anything up to 18 seconds faster!
Mark did precisely this and was credited with a 1.16 lap compared with his next fastest of 1.33. He 'fessed up' afterwards and the qualification sheets were reissued with Mark bringing up the rear. A point to note is that not only was this Mark's first ever race, he had never driven the car prior to qualifying. No doubt he will be along shortly to tell how he found the day. It must have been quite intimidating.
On to race 1.... Marc Hockin got a blinding start from the second row, but I lead into the first corner. Tim Hood was soon tucked up behind me, with Marc and Graham following in what would be a race long duel. I held the lead for lap one, with Tim looking very fast and very comfortable on the fast oval section, and my car feeling rather nervous! On the approach to the hairpin Tim went up inside and I took a deeper line, tucking in closer to the apex and getting the power down quicker to retake the place on the way out of the corner. Close stuff - in fact so close we even swapped paint! On to lap 3 and the inevitable happened, with Tim's superior aero really making the difference and he slid past to take the lead.
With the tyres now up to temperature and before we started encountering serious traffic we both hammered round and set our fastest laps on lap 4 - Tim with a new lap record (for any type of car) of 1.08.698, and mine 1.09.527. I was amazed afterwards to discover I had put in 5 sub 1.10 laps, given how hairy that qualifying lap had been.
My mission to stick with Tim came somewhat unstuck as we started lapping the slower cars. Rounding Turn 4 Tim passed a Tasmin before the very fast chicane without losing time, but it didn't fall quite right for me and I had to brake sharply, tuck in behind the slower car and then pass after the chicane, losing about 1.5-2 seconds, a gap I would struggle to catch up.
With Tim always in sight, a maximum of 6 seconds ahead, I worked hard to try to reduce the gap. He was locking up heavily under braking for 2 corners and each time that gave me a little hope. I was also hoping that the traffic would work in my favour later in the race, and sure enough it did; the gap reduced to 2.9 seconds on lap 15. I was trying so hard that I was pushing right to the limit through the chicane and clouted the floppy markers, fortunately just breaking the bonnet mount and radiator frame, with no serious damage other than a lot of white scuff marks. (I have since found more marks on the side of the car from other laps where the nose went through but a slight drift put the side of the car in contact with the 'floppies').
I finished the race 2.8 seconds behind Tim, the only cars on the same lap.
Meanwhile Steve Glynn had taken 3rd place, 3.4 seconds ahead of the titanic battle between Graham and Marc, who crossed the line 2 tenths apart after 20 minutes of hard racing. Class C honours went to Howard Bryan.
Mark Freeman finished his first ever race in 9th, with George Carter the last of the cars to finish (having been parked up at the hairpin if I remember correctly...?).
Poor Iain Jones suffered yet another DNF, this time with a seized fuel pump.
Mark had another hairpin outbraking moment in the race, so his fastest lap was in fact a 1.30.114 rather than the death defying 1.18.9 reported by MST. The Class C fastest lap was taken by Howard.
Tim Hood meanwhile discovered that his many brake lockups had (technical racing term here) mullered his front tyres. They weren't down to the canvas, they'd gone further than that with the steel wires showing. He had no choice but to put two brand new tyres on the car, and that, I sensed, was my goose cooked for race 2.
Like most of us my tyres had seen previous outings, and with the wear from the Oval we were forced to fit a couple of front tyres which last saw action in 2005.
The difference between new and old tyres was immediately obvious as the race started. Marc got another blinding start to briefly take the lead, with Tim and then I leading the field through the hairpin. Tim cornered as if on rails whilst I slithered through struggling for grip. Through the twists of the infield Tim was gone, and I knew immediately we could not live with him in this race. Tim pushed the lap record down to 1.08.326, whilst my best worsened to 1.10.672. Tim took a very comfortable victory, some 19 seconds ahead - again we were the only two cars on the same lap.
The top 7 all finished in the same order as race 1 - this time Graham finishing just 0.8 seconds behind the Class A Tuscan of Steve Glynn. The Marc and Graham tussle again was the closest racing.
Mark Freeman finished in last place in 11th, but got through his first race weekend unscathed and should be very pleased with two finishes.
Thanks to all who came along to support and say hello. It would also be remiss of me not to mention my team members: Charlie, Andy, Katie, Bob, Yvonne and Aless, for all their hard work. Special mention must go to Andy, from APM Automotive, who worked incredibly hard over the last two weeks to repair the engine. The head gasket problem was traced to a crack or porosity in the cylinder head itself, but not before Andy had replaced the gaskets and put the heads back on. The offending head had to come off again and a new head built up. All this was finished just in time on Thursday morning"
{Updated to correct smelling p1sstakes and correct a few things...}
"I am sitting here with very sore arms and shoulders... the Sports Car circuit at Rockingham is very, very physical!
We had a very good day. Like virtually everybody else we had not raced on this circuit configuration before. Rockingham was the circuit where I made my Tuscan debut in 2003, although an engine failure in each race meant I only got 2-3 laps in both races.
The track was quite dirty for qualifying - the sweepers had been round the oval but not the infield, and due to a 'drifting' event recently there were some very peculiar lines evident.
We built up slowly getting some heat in the tyres: 1.19, 1.15, 1.13, before really starting to push hard on my 5th and 6th lap. 1.11.514 was the reward for lap 5 and quite a scarey 1.10.098 on lap 6. Scarey because exiting Turn 4 on the Oval, the front of the car suddenly broke loose and we understeered straight for the wall. A gap of a few feet became inches. Feathering the throttle very slightly we got away with it, but I decided that was the limit and pitted. The team told me I was in P1 and I was pretty comfortable that it was enough for the front row, so we parked up to prepare for the race which would only be some 40 minutres later.
Tim Hood in the Sagaris continued to circulate, with his fastest lap also coming on his 6th lap - 1,10.127. The chequered flag came out and I was still expecting Tim to put in a really fast final lap, but the order remained unchanged and I was delighted to have secured my very first pole position of my race career. Really pleased because Tim had not had any problems with the car, so it did seem to be on merit. With a difference of 3/100s of a second, it looked like we would have a race on our hands! However, I didn't kid myself about the race itself because the Sagaris, with its downforce front and rear, would have the advantage round this circuit, and I knew I could not do race distance as close to the edge as that fastest lap.
Marc Hockin and Graham Walden took the second row of the grid, less than a second splitting the pair, with the two class B cars pipping the more powerful Class A Tuscan of Steve Glynn.
Howard Bryan headed the three Class C cars.
Now this part needs a little explanation, as the original MST time sheet has race debutant Mark Freeman qualifying 6th in his Class C Tasmin. Truly an extraordinary feat!
Ufortunately the MST Timing sheets tell a slightly misleading story. Due to the Oval circuit being in use during the day as well as the Sports Car circuit, the usual chicanes to slow cars down if they overshoot the hairpin were not there. It was therefore possible to outbrake yourself, miss the hairpin and then continue round the Oval at unabated speed, to rejoin the circuit before Turn 4, having missed out the whole of the slowest section of the track. The timing system would still record a time, which miraculously could be anything up to 18 seconds faster!
Mark did precisely this and was credited with a 1.16 lap compared with his next fastest of 1.33. He 'fessed up' afterwards and the qualification sheets were reissued with Mark bringing up the rear. A point to note is that not only was this Mark's first ever race, he had never driven the car prior to qualifying. No doubt he will be along shortly to tell how he found the day. It must have been quite intimidating.
On to race 1.... Marc Hockin got a blinding start from the second row, but I lead into the first corner. Tim Hood was soon tucked up behind me, with Marc and Graham following in what would be a race long duel. I held the lead for lap one, with Tim looking very fast and very comfortable on the fast oval section, and my car feeling rather nervous! On the approach to the hairpin Tim went up inside and I took a deeper line, tucking in closer to the apex and getting the power down quicker to retake the place on the way out of the corner. Close stuff - in fact so close we even swapped paint! On to lap 3 and the inevitable happened, with Tim's superior aero really making the difference and he slid past to take the lead.
With the tyres now up to temperature and before we started encountering serious traffic we both hammered round and set our fastest laps on lap 4 - Tim with a new lap record (for any type of car) of 1.08.698, and mine 1.09.527. I was amazed afterwards to discover I had put in 5 sub 1.10 laps, given how hairy that qualifying lap had been.
My mission to stick with Tim came somewhat unstuck as we started lapping the slower cars. Rounding Turn 4 Tim passed a Tasmin before the very fast chicane without losing time, but it didn't fall quite right for me and I had to brake sharply, tuck in behind the slower car and then pass after the chicane, losing about 1.5-2 seconds, a gap I would struggle to catch up.
With Tim always in sight, a maximum of 6 seconds ahead, I worked hard to try to reduce the gap. He was locking up heavily under braking for 2 corners and each time that gave me a little hope. I was also hoping that the traffic would work in my favour later in the race, and sure enough it did; the gap reduced to 2.9 seconds on lap 15. I was trying so hard that I was pushing right to the limit through the chicane and clouted the floppy markers, fortunately just breaking the bonnet mount and radiator frame, with no serious damage other than a lot of white scuff marks. (I have since found more marks on the side of the car from other laps where the nose went through but a slight drift put the side of the car in contact with the 'floppies').
I finished the race 2.8 seconds behind Tim, the only cars on the same lap.
Meanwhile Steve Glynn had taken 3rd place, 3.4 seconds ahead of the titanic battle between Graham and Marc, who crossed the line 2 tenths apart after 20 minutes of hard racing. Class C honours went to Howard Bryan.
Mark Freeman finished his first ever race in 9th, with George Carter the last of the cars to finish (having been parked up at the hairpin if I remember correctly...?).
Poor Iain Jones suffered yet another DNF, this time with a seized fuel pump.
Mark had another hairpin outbraking moment in the race, so his fastest lap was in fact a 1.30.114 rather than the death defying 1.18.9 reported by MST. The Class C fastest lap was taken by Howard.
Tim Hood meanwhile discovered that his many brake lockups had (technical racing term here) mullered his front tyres. They weren't down to the canvas, they'd gone further than that with the steel wires showing. He had no choice but to put two brand new tyres on the car, and that, I sensed, was my goose cooked for race 2.
Like most of us my tyres had seen previous outings, and with the wear from the Oval we were forced to fit a couple of front tyres which last saw action in 2005.
The difference between new and old tyres was immediately obvious as the race started. Marc got another blinding start to briefly take the lead, with Tim and then I leading the field through the hairpin. Tim cornered as if on rails whilst I slithered through struggling for grip. Through the twists of the infield Tim was gone, and I knew immediately we could not live with him in this race. Tim pushed the lap record down to 1.08.326, whilst my best worsened to 1.10.672. Tim took a very comfortable victory, some 19 seconds ahead - again we were the only two cars on the same lap.
The top 7 all finished in the same order as race 1 - this time Graham finishing just 0.8 seconds behind the Class A Tuscan of Steve Glynn. The Marc and Graham tussle again was the closest racing.
Mark Freeman finished in last place in 11th, but got through his first race weekend unscathed and should be very pleased with two finishes.
Thanks to all who came along to support and say hello. It would also be remiss of me not to mention my team members: Charlie, Andy, Katie, Bob, Yvonne and Aless, for all their hard work. Special mention must go to Andy, from APM Automotive, who worked incredibly hard over the last two weeks to repair the engine. The head gasket problem was traced to a crack or porosity in the cylinder head itself, but not before Andy had replaced the gaskets and put the heads back on. The offending head had to come off again and a new head built up. All this was finished just in time on Thursday morning"
{Updated to correct smelling p1sstakes and correct a few things...}
Edited by griff2be on Monday 10th July 19:49
Guillotine said:
that tussle for third/fourth must have been good, only 200ths between them in Race1!
but Graham now has a tuned 5L in his Blue Tuscan, the same as Marc has in his converted Griff road car. (Marc still having a slight weight penalty..thos not as much as I would have expected!)
but Graham now has a tuned 5L in his Blue Tuscan, the same as Marc has in his converted Griff road car. (Marc still having a slight weight penalty..thos not as much as I would have expected!)
I've now edited my post with the addition of real facts
Mild correction Andy...my fuel pump seized. I'd of been might pissed if it had of clogged cos I've only just flushed the whole fuel system out, cos there was crap in that tank from earlier in the year!!!
My report is on page 4 of the Rockingham thread in the Tuscan forum.
Regards
Iain
P.S. Just working on the video from the weekend
My report is on page 4 of the Rockingham thread in the Tuscan forum.
Regards
Iain
P.S. Just working on the video from the weekend
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