Wednesday 14th May 2003

Ultima: Aaron Scott at Knockhill

Ultima racer Aaron Scott fills us in on his British GT race in Scotland

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Knockhill marked my first race in the British GT Championship. Having been ready to make my debut at Donington and Snetterton I was keen to get the car to the flag and bag some points for me, Steve and the team. We had a few problems in qualifying and this meant we started 11th for race one, however we moved up to 7th place by the flag. We had a good pit stop, there was a slight delay as we attended to a problem with the gear linkage. I was pleased with my stint and learnt a lot.

For race two Steve started the race, he started most of the races last season and it made sense for him to start the races at Knockhill. I took the car over in 8th place and fought through to 6th place at the flag. I had a good dice with the Corvette and managed to get by at the hairpin in the latter stages of the race. We were able to run a strong pace despite the fact that we had a cylinder go down on the engine.

Our biggest handicap so far has been our lack of track time and this has meant we have spent time fixing problems rather than making the car go faster. However, we hope now we can focus on improving the set up on the car and I'm optimistic we have a top 3 car for Silverstone. The boys in the team are superb, they are the hardest working guys you could meet!

I'm really looking forward to Silverstone now and I hope we'll be on the podium!

www.aaronscott.co.uk  

[PetrolTed]

Here it is UltimaChaps. First of Aaron's reports for PH. Let's get behind him and perhaps organise a few trips to cheer him on in the British GTs.

If you've got any questions for him, then fire away as he'll be dropping into the forum from time to time.

[davefiddes]

Was over at KH on Sunday to see the GTs. Was good to see the Ultima do two pretty solid races. I'm glad that Aaron finally got a shot in the race as well!! All credit to the team and both drivers.

It was quite interesting to compare the construction of the GT Ultima to my standard skinny one. The chassis is really different. Looked to me like the tubing was a lot slimmer and there was a lot less of it especially at the rear. The extra front roll hoop braces look very NASCAR

Wondered if there was something wrong with the engine. Noticed that only one of the exhausts was spitting flames under braking for the hairpin which didn't look good. Looked OK for the second race but I guess they must have shut it down. In hindsight it was obvious that they were short of grunt as one of the Moslers powered past the Ultima going up the pit straight (a 1:5 gradient or something ) like it was in the cup class even though they had similar corner exit speeds.

Also noticed the big Pistonheads stickers on the airbox

Anyway, it was good to see a competitive Ultima in Scotland at long last. Should give me a laptime to aim at when I finally get my beast out round the hill later this year...though if I get within 10% I'll be ecstatic!

[domster]

The car has a few differences over road going Ultimas. Things like a centrally mounted fuel tank behind the driver, centre lock hubs etc. I could maybe do a small article on it and take a few pics if there was enough interest.

Cheers
Domster

[ultimasimon]

That would be great Dom. I am especially interested in the bodywork mods. I like the way the rear quarters hug low over the slicks...the same can be said for the front arches. It would be nice to see some high res pictures up close and to be given a tour over the car.

Well done to Aaron and the team for their results. He still produced a good position despite some technical problems.

[domster]

Will see what I can do...

Cheers
Dom

[davefiddes]

That'd be great Dom.

I also spotted that the whole business of cooling was different on the GT car. They've got their race numbers where most of us have our engine bay air intake.....!

[GTRCLIVE]

Just keep finishing mate, i sure a Podium is close

Good luck..

[stig]

Great to see Aaron's report at last - keep 'em coming.

I'm due to go and see Pete Claridge and the boys soon, so will try and get the lowdown from the horses mouth regarding the car stuff.