My Caterham race car

[Ian P]

So that was my 2012 race season - one of the most challenging amateur race series in the country and I had managed 3rd Though I didn't feel it initially I was really happy.

As with all racing I needed a bit of help from my friends. I punch well above my weight being able to race at all but with the following people it turned out nice

A special thanks to:

Paul Aitken, Anat and all the guys at borro
Peter Young and my mechanic Rob Wells at Spy Motorsport
Ben Tompkins and Mark Farmer, great team mates and good friends
Mickey Singh for painting the car. After hearing about my crash at Silverstone the first thing he said was "don't worry, we'll fix it..."
Kieren Clark, the most impatient but motivating race instructor I have met!

So now what? I put a deposit down on the R600 upgrade kit which we all know didn't happen so the car was sold and is being pilotted by David Bearman in the R300 championship this year. Me, well I've gone halves on a Ginetta G50

[Ian P]

pw32 said:

Good read Payneeee. As I said many times, you did bloody well. Frankly though, you shouldn't of bought that G50 but come back and given it a second season!

Thanks mate, hindsight is a wonderful thing! I will make a return if I can get some funding and Caterham sort out the R600

[Ian P]

Well it turns out I did return. After a bit of fun in the Ginetta (great to drive but class racing isn't for me) I sold my half of the car and bought another R300.

The new car was nearly brand new, built in March 2013 and had competed in just 2 races. The plan was to do a bit of testing and make a proper assault on the 2014 championship. Here she is:



Like all good plans things never exactly work out. With talk of a sequential upgrade for next year I am re-evaluating after finding out the cost (£6300 + VAT!!!).

On a lighter note when I bought the car the previous owner had already entered the final round at Silverstone International and let it go with the car. borro are still sponsoring me so I decided to enter. Long story short, I qualified 11th in the wet and finished race 1 in P5. Not bad after nearly a year out of a R300.



In race 2 I had a good battle after dropping back to 9th (David in my old car hit me and then let me back through ) and finished 3rd. I held the fastest lap until the last lap too



The car is now for sale just in case I don't race next year so we'll see. I have a meeting with borro on Thursday so fingers crossed they will support me in 2014 - what in shall is to be decided - any suggestions...?

[Ian P]

longfellow said:

Ian, I've just read the whole thread and what a read it was. It seems like you're fairly handy behind the wheel of an R300 so my suggestion would be go for it in 2014 if you can just about afford it. Who knows, you may be able to finish the season as a champion.

I would give my left testicle to be able to race in some sort of motorsport but it's an expensive game and not made for a chap standing at 6'5" tall!!

What options do you have at this stage then?

Hi Henry,

Thanks for your kind words. I've been racing Caterham's for 4 years and steadily improved but a championship has escaped me so far. There were talks of people spending £60-70k in 2012 and I managed to do it with £18k which included the borro sponsorship. I could find that again (just!) but the gearbox upgrade throws in an expensive curve ball.

To help fund the racing I've just set up this: www.ptsportscars.com so if we sell a few cars I'll be racing By the way, there used to be a chap who was 6'6" who raced so I'm sure we could shoe-horn you in

My options are to stop and take a break, drop down a series to Supersport or go and race something else. The guys at borro are great so I want to make sure I show a return on their investment by a) being at the front and b) getting them as much TV/media exposure as possible. All the Caterham races are televised with the R300's on channel 4 so we'll see

Cheers,

Ian

[Ian P]

I'm famous

It was me, well spotted. I have partnered up with the chap who bought my R300 race car that this thread was built around. We've had mixed luck/success so far and the car looks like this:



I've changed teams too and borro.com are still my main sponsor with David bringing a couple of his own too.



Qualifying at Brands went well and I was 5/100ths of a second from class pole. Pole was taken by a Porsche with about 20% more power than us driven by pro driver, Marcus Clutton.

Lap 2 we were hit from behind and turned around with David driving. This popped the oil pump belt off and the drive back to the pits did the big end and main bearings. Gutted!

The engine is being rebuilt and we will be out at Silverstone on the 7/8th June. Stuart/Keith, if you see the car again come over and say hello

[Ian P]

carphotographer said:

It was Ian. I'm sure he'll feel you in to what happened over the weekend if he's reading this but it wasn't good.

I brought my Caterham from Ian a couple of months ago mad he's really passionate about Caterhams and Motorsport and would recommend him if you're looking to buy a caterham .

Jon

Thanks for the kind words Jon - it was good to see you at Brands. Sorry I didn't hang around but hopefully you enjoyed the weather and the racing