924 Racing

Race dates for 2008

29th -30th March - Snetterton

12th – 13th April - Silverstone

10th May - Oulton Park

21st – 22nd June - Cadwell Park

19th – 20th July - Anglesey

16th - 17th August - Brands Hatch

27th – 28th September - Mallory Park

The 2008 season is nearly here!

2007 was my 1st year racing. Out of the new drivers racing in the series I have been awarded Rookie of the year 2007! This trophy is awarded to the driver who has shown the most improvement over the year. It’s a big confidence booster.

  For 2008 my goals are to improve consistency and achieve some top 5 finishes, there is a lot to learn, and with a strong driver field this year there is guaranteed to be some close racing…….I cant wait!

Pre season preparations are now almost complete. Following installation of a new Audi gearbox to replace the temperamental ZF dogleg a shakedown test was completed at a very wet Turweston Airfield.

  The car performed well with no major issues.

After a few gentle runs to ensure all was well with the gearbox, suspension, steering and brakes, 3 runs were completed to bed in new front pads.

  The rest of the test was spent running the car as close to race pace as the weather would permit and experimenting with alternative damper settings.

Testing was stopped after 30min when a crack was found in the exhaust manifold. Glad this happend on the shakedown and not race day!! Steve Brown.

Race Report Snetterton 29th -30th March

  With the weather forecast predicting apocalyptic rain and winds for the race on Sunday it was with some trepidation and a distinct feeling of impending doom I arrived at the circuit on an overcast Saturday afternoon.

  As it turned out Sunday was a fantastically sunny day top temperature was 14.5 deg C and no wind!

Qualifying

  This was my 1st time out at Snetterton on Toyo tyres so we set the car up based on Brands hatch settings from last year. I set off confident that the handling would be good. What I actually found was a nervous car with a tendency for severe over steer! A huge spin on the exit of Corum confirmed this, and that I had also driven off my talent cliff! Fortunately I managed to miss the marshal's post and the barrier and rejoin track. Qualified 9th slightly disappointing 1.28,602, 2.020 seconds slower than pole position.

Race 1

  Quick play with the settings before the race and all was well with the handling again. I had a fantastic start and made up a place. Finally finished 3 places ahead of my start position in 6th place. Fastest lap 1.28,106, 1.43 seconds off the race fastest lap.

Race 2

  Good start spoilt by missing the change to 3rd gear and slipped back to 7th. I managed to regain 6th a couple of times but in the end finished 7th. I’m not sure how, but I found some pace for the last race and managed to stick with the lead pack The racing was very close and it was a fantastic opportunity to learn from the faster drivers, my fastest lap was 1.27,640 0.683 seconds off the race fastest lap and only 0.070 seconds slower than the winner! A big improvement over qualifying.

 Steve Brown

Race Report Silverstone 12/13th April

Qualifying

Dry and sunny qualified 7th

Race 1

The heavens opened just before the race! And suddenly the dry setup from qualifying was no good. I made a guess on settings, softened the car and headed for the grid. We were given 2 green flag laps to allow us to acclimatise to the wet conditions, I could barely get the car off the line and at least 1 guy spun, this was going to be interesting.

  Red lights out and I missed the change to 2nd, I really need to work on this, it’s the 2nd time this year. So I slipped back. Going into the 1st corner 5 cars tangled resulting in a massive pile up, and utter Chaos, Nico Ferrari was hit so hard he suffered concussion, there were cars everywhere. Thanks to my poor start I was behind all of this and actually stopped to avoid contact! Setting off again I applied maximum concentration and just kept going with no spins or contact. Will Penrose and Graham Heard were very fast and both lapped me! Graham spun 1 lap from the end. I was surprised to find myself finishing in 4th!

Race 2 was dry and I started from 4th on the grid, I had a fantastic battle with Richard Mowbury for the whole race, I was faster in the corners but he was better on the brakes, and taught me a lesson in defensive driving! I just couldn’t make a move stick, plus I wasn’t about to do anything silly as I was in 4th! Graham Heard overtook us after about 5 laps but was having mechanical problems and we caught up with him near the end of the race so it became a 3-way battle. Gary Chandler joined the battle for a lap then got it very sideways at the 1st corner and collected Graham they both took chase but it was too late to catch us by then and I finished a 4th.

Steve

Race Report Oulton Park International 10th May

Oulton Park International is a fantastic circuit The combination of mid speed, and fast white knuckle corners make this a fantastic drivers circuit, Very technical, it punishes mistakes by adding seconds onto your lap time, Completing a fast lap is immensely satisfying! Plus it has a banked hairpin which the car can be thrown into at ridiculous speed!

Qualifying

I have never raced on the circuit in this configuration so qualifying was also my chance to learn the circuit. I was hoping to get a few laps behind one of the quick drivers, however it never quite happened. I managed to qualify 6th

Race

Absolutely brilliant start! Especially considering my rather lack lustre starts at the last couple of races, no missed gears or anything! Moved up to 4th by the 1st corner. The 3 cars ahead of me were absolutely flying I can honestly say I drove my socks off but just couldn’t close the gap. Came under pressure from Graham Heard for the first couple of laps but then he had some contact with another car and we opened a gap of around 40 seconds to the rest of the field. From then the race was quite uneventful for me I didn’t have the speed to catch the front 3 so I was relying on them making mistakes or being slowed by back markers They didn’t! I finished 4 seconds behind the leader in 4th place.

Overall pleased with my speed and absolutely loved the track.