EnduroKa 2020 is go! | PH Competes
The 2020 EnduroKa season will now kick off next month; here's how Team PH is shaping up...
As with all motorsport virtually everywhere, our second season in MSVRs EnduroKA series hasn't quite got off to the start we expected. Not our fault, of course - we were as excited as two small dogs in a tennis ball factory - but that excitement had to be held in check while the coronavirus took an enormous bite out of the calendar. Only in the last few weeks has the floundering stopped - and race fever returned.
If you're not familiar with our exploits from last year, the tale is quickly retold. We cobbled together a mixed bag of drivers to go endurance racing on a budget in the inaugural EnduroKA series, organised by Motorsport Vision Racing (or MSVR).
MSVR have years of experience with racing, but this was their first foray into wider entry-level team sport. Depending on the race length, the number of drivers in a team varied from two to six with mixed ability from complete rookies to blackbelt Le Mans champions. Races lasted anything from five to twelve hours, with five endurance rounds in 2019.
Being the largest circuit owner in Europe, the rounds were very well organised. Being PH, we were less well organised, but did fairly well anyway. Circuit racing is never going to be dirt cheap; our final cost for 2019 stood at £17,037, excluding personal costs such as racewear, track days for practice and travel - but that's everything else covered. Which includes buying the car, insuring and taxing it, building it, race entry fees, running, breaking and fixing it.
With five on our team, that's a more palatable £3,407 each, which is a very cost-effective way to go racing, especially when you consider the amount of track time involved. With our car still in half good shape from last year, we're expecting 2020 to cost around £10,000 (£2,000 each between five) for entry fees, prepping the car for another season, some spare parts and all racing consumables such as fuel and tyres.
We managed two podium finishes last year but never quite made the top step, so we're back chasing a win. Our driver line-up has changed slightly, with Sam Sheehan being replaced by PH developer Matt Dell. He will join the rest of the team from last year; Pete Dignan, Matt Bird, an occasional appearance from Ben 'New Baby' Lowden and our ringer from Caterham, Olly Lewis.
RF08 XWX spent the winter in storage at Sevens & Classics at Brands Hatch since November last year. We rocked up four months later to dust her off and prepare for what should have been our first race of the year at Donington in April. Despite being sat for a third of a year and looking a bit more tired than any of us remembered, she fired up on the first turn.
We got to work having a new windscreen fitted, stripping off last year's livery (or more what was left of it), replacing a bent damper and generally administering a good check-up. We made a point of building and maintaining the car on a driveway with nothing more than axle stands and basic tools last year; this year we plan to do the same thereby proving you don't need a fancy workshop or race truck to be at the sharp end of the grid (although a senior Caterham engineer helps).
Then, lockdown happened. A planned track day was aborted and the car returned to Sevens & Classics while we all washed our hands and watched Netflix for three months. Which brings us to two weeks ago and - finally - the thumbs up for our first race on July 5th, the exceptionally well named 12 Heures Du Norfolk at Snetterton. Since then Racing Pete has been busy teaching himself dent removal and tidying up the bodywork in preparation for a fresh livery.
Our little Ka is now taxed and insured through Grove & Dean and otherwise ready to go. Nothing like being thrown in at the deep end for Matt Dell. We still need to design a livery, Olly still needs to renew his race licence and we haven't been anywhere near a track all year, so everything is precisely on schedule with only three weeks to go.
How will it work with social distancing measures in place? We do not know. There will be much learning as we go - but we're used that by now. Frankly we can't wait to see everyone again. Even if it is two metres apart.
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