Hawthorns goes Porsche
GT3 car for 2006 to improve on 'slow' BMW
 Hawthorns' BMW leads around Druids at Brands |
Hawthorns Motorsport has unveiled some of its plans for the Britcar race series next year -- and the team is ditching its 'slow' BMW M Coupe for a Porsche GT3.
The team said it intends to compete in the EERC Britcar series, supplemented with the odd British GT round and hopefully the support race to the A1 series, which this year was known as the Tag Heuer GT 250.
The team intends to race a 2004 Porsche 996 GT3 Cup car acquired from the successful Motorbase team run by ex-Tuscan team owner/driver Dave Bartrum -- terms were agreed last week. The car won first in class in the 2005 Tag Heuer GT 250. Moore Racing will prepare it and support the team as it did during most of 2005 -- the guys are eager to take delivery of the car.
The two main drivers will be Rod Barrett and Jan Persson, and this year they'll need extra pre-season testing in order to get used to the left-hand drive GT and its particularities.
Team boss and driver Rod Barrett said: "We have both spent many years driving Tuscans and last season we had fun with the BMW but she didn’t challenge us too much. On some occasions we were so slow on the straights that Jan and I managed to get through half a “learn Japanese while driving” course. We need to be challenged again, like we were in Tuscans so, whatever the Porsche tries to throw at us we think it will be kind in compassion to the monstrous TVRs.
"We anticipate what will hopefully be an exciting and fulfilling experience, Jan and I can't wait to get on with it -- our trophy cabinets are somewhat bare at present."
Co-driver Jan Persson said: "Dave Bartrum's Motorbase operation is there for us to seek advice from should we run into problems. Rod and I have known Dave for many years and he knows all there is to know about running these cars so we feel well covered at the moment. Moore Racing will have no problems getting to grips with the car particularly with the type of assistance we have available to us."
Barrett said: "We now have a car that can be competitive, so no more excuses about not having the power to get us into the thick of it, and despite our resistance to go the Porsche route, there really are few alternate options worth considering. She really is a cracking car and well proven in terms of her race history -- let's hope we can add and not detract from it."
Image courtesy David Lord
scuffham said:
wondered if you would stick with the breadvan...
It's getting somewhat more serious out there, so I can well see why the change.
see you next year!
Well, since you boy's upgraded to a race winning car,
well done by the way,
nice one, we had to follow suit, always said I'd avoid the 996 route but in the end the choices are quite limited if you want a competitive car even if the drivers are a bit short on talent as we are 
see you at the D/D knees up,
or something like that, a Tuscan Bonnet from TVR was £1500 
or £5/800 if you made one yourself !! I think there is a lot of ill informed rumours that arise around running costs, I've run teams for the last ten years and if it was as expensive as all these so called "informed " people claim, I would have gone bust years ago.
I've not gone into this lightly as my sponsorship at the moment wouldn't buy a set of tyres
and if that remains the case, which I'm sure it won't, Jan and I will be paying for our racing out of our respective incomes and that has to be sensible otherwise our wives will start having a serious go 
so we have to stay within very strict limits. If I thought all the "cost an arm and a leg" rubbish was true, I wouldn't be doing it 
Racing is not cheap, never has been, but that applies across the board and is relative to the type of racing you do, you work to budgets and with sponsors if you have them and if the money runs out, you stop.
>> Edited by racing rod on Sunday 27th November 22:02
scuffham said:
Agree with you there Rod,
911 is probably the cheapest car out there to run, nothing to learn, nothing to make, well proven, plently of them, and good factory support (on prices etc).
probably spend more on the Elise this year than the running costs for a 911...
Lets hope we are both right
mind you I think the drivers will have a bit of a learning curve, the LHD aspect will be interesting 
the press release said:
On some occasions we were so slow on the straights that Jan and I managed to get through half a “learn Japanese while driving” course.
That explains it, I thought we saw you flick the pages of something as you left 'the complex' at Thruxton last year and put it down again when you arrived at the pit straight , saying that even the T400 cars seemed slow compared to the 360 and Gt3's around the back. Hope you do well in the Porka
. 
you never know, a Sag may becon in a few years if the factory pull their fingers out. Harry
I think we would consider a shaggy arse if Britcar decide to cut the race lenghts to 10 minutes or 5 laps, that way reliability wouldn't be an issue
I don't know about the sharp end, but we will give it a go, at least we'll have a car that can match pace with most of them out there, It's Jan and I as the drivers that is a bit of a worry, still, we will have to dig deep and try and harness some of that old Tuscan spirit
and we may have to break our "We only drive at 95%these days rule" Gassing Station | General Motorsport | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff