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2009 Round 3 Report

The fast and furious pace expected by the 1.639mile long Silverstone circuit was firmly in attendance during Round 3 as Olly Clark stormed to his first win of the season with a record-smashing 57.989secs winning run. Clark pushed the Roger Clark Motorsport Impreza to the limit throughout the final, crossing the finish line with brake discs glowing just 0.811secs ahead of Matt Allison in the Zen Performance Impreza.

Clark’s time was almost one second faster than his previous quickest lap of Silverstone in 2008, and sends a warning shot across the bows of his competitors as we reach the halfway point of the season.

Steve Guglielmi was the man in third spot in the Pro Class, his second trip to the podium this season in his Elise suggesting that he may be one driver capable of challenging for the title this year. But it wasn’t such good news for Chris Ward and the RSE Motorsport EVO though, the team having won both of the first two rounds so far but having to pull out after the first practice session with engine problems, despite having the second quickest time at that point. Their dropped points at Silverstone has blown the Championship wide open now and with consistent performers like Gareth Lloyd and Adrian Smith still in the mix too, Round 4 at Brands Hatch promises to be an enthralling battle.

In the Club Pro Class Robin Duxbury capitalised on his Knockhill win by scooping his second victory of the season with an impressive 1:01.095secs lap, the fastest to date of any Pro Club Class car at Silverstone. It was a close run thing though as the EVOs of James Nicholls and Jonathan Faull put in 1:01.829secs and 1:02.540secs respectively, but it was Duxbury who took maximum points and the MLR trophy back home. Out in the same sessions but competing in the Open Wheel Class was a returning Duncan Cowper in the Dax Rush, but unfortunately he was to return home with only a box of broken engine parts after putting a rod through his block during practice.

It looked like Skyline driver Lance Turner would be going the same way in the Club Class too, having had the marshalls’ fire extinguishers aimed at his engine bay during qualifying. Fortunately the problem was only a split oil return pipe from the turbo and he went on to take third place in the Rear Wheel Drive Class.

He couldn’t out muscle the impressive Supras of Steve Linton and Paul Whiffin though, the latter winning the class with a 1:03.433secs time which was also the third fastest Club Class time of the day. Also piloting a rear wheel drive but competing on his own again in the Naturally Aspirated Over Three Litre Class was Jeff Mileham in his TVR. It was no surprise he won his class, but his time was the fourth quickest in Club Class at just over one second slower than Whiffin’s big turbo’d Supra.

Top honours in Club Class however went to Shane Smith for the third time this year. His Abbey Motorsport prepared R32 Skyline has been dominant so far and he once again put in a Club Pro-challenging time of 1:02.999secs to take the Four Wheel Drive honours. He’s aware that the competition is closing in on him though, with Duncan Graham just half a second slower in second place with his Impreza. Without the flying lap that Smith put in, which even he admitted was more luck than judgement, Graham could have pipped him to top spot which will certainly put Smith on his guard in Round 4.

Jonathan Beech was third in that class albeit almost two seconds off Smith, but he and the likes of Russ Paton may yet force their way up the pecking order.

Back in the naturally aspirated cars, Paul Hughes’ Buddy Club Integra was another car and driver to add to their booty this season. The team once again overcame adversity, replacing a gearbox during the day then coming out with a 1:06.323secs lap which was enough to keep Mark Pollard’s Metro 6R4 and Tony Campbell’s Porsche 968 at bay. Campbell was only just quicker than Marco Haig’s Fiat Coupe in the Front Wheel Drive Class, a class whose podium had a distinctively Italian feel to it thanks to Antonio Giavinazzo’s Alfa 155 taking third spot. Only Paul West in the Civic Type R broke up the Italian party by taking a 1:12.233secs lap to second place, his third podium of the year.

That may not have been a record-breaking run, but throughout the field the displays continue to be impressive with improvements throughout as drivers and teams look to keep fine tuning their high-powered machinery. All eyes will be on Olly Clark in Round 4 though as the RCM car now seems to be firing on all cylinders after a mixed beginning to the season. “At Oulton we had a problem with the solenoids so didn’t get the gas firing on our hot lap and we won’t talk about Knockhill,” said Clark afterwards, “Matt’s an excellent driver and not to be under-rated, so it was great to get the win today and have the car performing so well”. RSE Motorsport will no doubt be back at Brands Hatch too and keen to re-ignite their challenge for the prestigious Pro Class honours, while Zen Performance will continue to fight to the end aiming to make it a green Impreza on top at the end of the year.

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Podiums (cluck for large images)

Pro Class Club RWD Club 4WD Club Pro winner

N/A Over 3Ltr Club FWD N/A Under 3Ltr

PRO/CLUB PRO/PROTOTYPE

1 – PR4 Olly Clark (Subaru Impreza)…57.989

2 – PR4 Matt Allison (Subaru Impreza)…58.800

3 – PRR Steve Guglielmi (Lotus Elise)…59.123

4 – PR4 Gareth Lloyd (Mitsubishi EVO 6)…59.659

5 – CP4 Robin Duxbury (Mitsubishi EVO)…1:01.095

6 – PR4 Adrian Smith (Toyota Celica)…1:01.805

7 – CP4 James Nicholls (Mitsubishi EVO 6)…1:01.829

8 – CP4 Jonathan Faull (Mitsubishi EVO 8)…1:02.540

9 – CP4 Andy Napier (Subaru Impreza 22B)…1:05.152

10 – CP4 Laurus Basinskas (Subaru Impreza GC8)…1:07.379

11 – CP4 John Stevenson (Subaru Impreza)…1:40.110

CLUB CHALLENGE

1 – 4WD Shane Smith (Nissan Skyline)…1:02.999

2 – 4WD Duncan Graham (Subaru Impreza)…1:03.419

3 – RWD Paul Whiffin (Toyota Supra JZA80)…1:03.433

4 – NAR Jeff Mileham (TVR Tuscan)…1:04.536

5 – 4WD Jonathan Beech (Subaru Impreza GDB)…1:04.932

6 – 4WD Paul Palmer (Nissan Skyline R32 GTR)…1:04.935

7 – RWD Steve Linton (Toyota Supra JZA80)…1:05.225

8 – 4WD Simon Deaton (Mitsubshi EVO 8)…1:05.475

9 – 4WD Russ Paton (Mitsubishi EVO)…1:05.475

10 – 4WD Marcus Webster (Nissan Skyline R32 GTR)…1:05.690

11 – 4WD Fiona Kindness (Nissan Skyline R32 GTR)…1:05.924

12 – 4WD Scott Robson (Subaru Impreza GC8)…1:06.056

13 – 4WD Tim Clark (Mitsubishi EVO 6)…1:06.122

14 – NAF Paul Hughes (Honda Integra DC5)…1:06.323

15 – NA4 Mark Pollard (MG Metro)…1:08.033

16 – NAR Tony Campbell (Porsche 968)…1:08.231

17 – FWD Marco Haig (Fiat Coupe)…1:08.242

18 – 4WD Phil England (Subaru Impreza GC8)…1:08.639

19 – RWD Lance Turner (Nissan Skyline R32 GTS)…1:08.642

20 – RWD Jamie Reynolds (BMW E30)…1:08.839

21 – NAR Daniel Gannon (BMW E30 325)…1:09.499

22 – NAF David Thorpe (Honda Civic EP3)…1:12.167

23 – FWD Paul West (Honda Civic)…1:12.233

24 – 4WD Warren Kelly (Ford Escort Cosworth)…1:19.359

25 – FWD Antonio Giavinazzo (Alfa Romeo 155 Turbo)…1:36.943

Catch the high speed action of Round Four on June 28^th

2009 Round 2 Report

It was another good day for the RSE Motorsport team as once again their Mitsubishi Evo VIII put in the fastest lap of the day to clinch maximum points in the Pro Class at Knockhill. Chris Ward who piloted the car to victory in Round One at Oulton Park was absent for the trip to Scotland, so the RSE team called in the services of Formula Ford driver, Rory Butcher, who managed an impressive 51.666sec lap in the 700bhp machine, enough to win on the day and break the Time Attack record previously held by Olly Clark (52.186).

The Scottish driver may have used his local knowledge to help edge out the competition, but second place driver Steve Guglielmi had a different trick up his sleeve; weight. The Lotus Elise driver utilised all of the cars’ advantages to pip much more powerful cars to the finish line of the rollercoaster circuit, notching up a win for rear wheel drive fans at the same time. Incredibly he was actually quicker than Andy Gallagher’s fire-popping Focus Cosworth, a car and driver well known to this circuit and a force to be reckoned with at any other. It may have been just a 0.085 difference but as any racer will tell you, it’s not just every second that counts, it’s every hundredth of a second.

Gallagher’s car is classed as a Prototype and therefore not in the running for podium places, which meant Zen Performance’s Impreza driven by Tom Ferrier took third spot. Ferrier and Olly Clark in the Clark Motorsport Impreza had been seemingly magnetised to each other throughout each session on track, either an odd coincidence or a spot of psychological duelling? There’s no denying the huge capacity for performance of both cars, so it was no surprise that they could only find 0.210secs difference between each other by the end of the day. That small margin was enough to give Ferrier that final podium place and keep Clark in fourth spot.

Adrian Smith returned to action in the Fensport Celica, having played team manager at Oulton Park, and managed a fifth place in the Pro class. Considering the power difference between the Celica and some of the Mitsubishis and Subarus, along with the fact Knockhill has traditionally conspired to break some part of the car, he will be extremely happy with that result.

Even happier though will be the winner of the Club Pro class, Robin Duxbury in his Mitsubishi Evo who posted the sixth fastest time of the day, beating some of the Pro class cars in the process. Jamie Nicholls managed another second place in the class to put his Evo at the top of the Club Pro points table, while Scottish driver John Stevenson won’t have hurt his cause by taking his Impreza to a third place finish.

In the Club Challenge there were forty one cars competing for twenty five places in the finals. The top ten 4WD, top three FWD, top five RWD, top two NA over three litres and top five NA under three litres would all be put through, so competition was tight from the offset. Amongst those drivers were three Scottish competitors who were taking part in just the Knockhill round of the series… and it looked as if one of them was going to cause as upset. Anthony Elrick in his Evo VI RSX was blisteringly quick throughout the day and in the finals it looked like his 55.610secs lap time would give him the win.

The Nissan Skyline of Round One winner Shane Smith though had different ideas, a last minute dash at the end of the final session dramatically stealing 0.056secs from Elrick’s best time to hand Smith his second win of the season. As a “one hit wonder” Elrick wasn’t eligible for podium glory anyway, so second place went to Russ Paton in the Mitsubishi Evo with Duncan Graham taking another third place… a feat made more impressive by the fact oil pressure problems all day had seen him nurse his Impreza around the circuit and put in just one flying lap in the final.

Another noticeable performance was from Kevin Duckworth and the Apex Performance Nissan S13, a car that suffered heavy damage just weeks ago at Oulton Park yet came back fighting to take second place in the RWD class. Steve Linton in the Garage Whifbitz Supra took the honours again in that class, with the ninth quickest time overall, Gordon Wright in his black R33 Skyline completed that podium.

The awesome capabilities of the Buddy Club Integra DC5 of Paul Hughes made themselves known to Knockhill too, not only winning the accolade of quickest naturally aspirated car under three litres, but also finishing seventh overall in Club Class. That also made the DC5 the quickest front wheel drive car of the day, and interestingly, the 58.369secs lap time would have put Hughes 11^th in the Pro Class. However, Marco Haig in his Fiat Coupe was officially the fastest in the FWD class as Hughes competes in the NA Under Three Litre category, the Italian bullet almost breaking the one minute mark around the tricky circuit. In the other NA class for cars over 3-litres, there was no denying Jeff Mileham’s TVR was always going to take the honours. That may be because his is the only car at this round which fits into that classification, yet his 58.120secs time was good enough to give him fifth spot in the Club Class, ahead of numerous turbo-fed entrants.

This years’ competition is certainly proving you don’t need to drive a Japanese car or have buckets of forced induction power in order to make your mark. Drivers throughout the Club Class are proving that, and at Knockhill, Guglielmi’s Lotus in the Pro Class also reinforced it brilliantly. Round Three at Silverstone may be a different story though, the twists and turns of Scotland forgotten about and the wide, long stretches of Tarmac ahead. Big power will be the order of the day there and RSE Motorsport will no doubt be hoping they have enough of it to hold the likes of Zen and Clark Motorsport off in a bid to make it a monumental three straight wins.

Super Battle Finals - The Results

PRO/CLUB PRO/PROTOTYPE

Click the thumbnails for larger Podium Images.

(Club Pro) (Pro) (The wet stuff)

1 – PR4 Rory Butcher (Mitsubishi EVO 8)…51.666

2 – PRR Steve Guglielmi (Lotus Elise)…51.715

3 – PT4 Andy Gallagher (Ford Focus Cosworth)…51.800

4 – PR4 Tom Ferrier (Subaru Impreza)…52.053

5 – PR4 Olly Clark (Subaru Impreza)…52.263

6 – CP4 Robin Duxbury (Mitsubishi EVO)…53.401

7 – CP4 James Nicholls (Mitsubishi EVO 6)…54.225

8 – PR4 Adrian Smith (Toyota Celica)…55.093

9 – CP4 John Stevenson (Subaru Impreza)…55.806

10 – CP4 Jonathan Faull (Mitsubishi EVO 8)…56.151

11 – PR4 Gareth Lloyd (Mitsubishi EVO 6)…59.744

12 – CP4 Laurus Basinskas (Subaru Impreza GC8)…1:17.742

13 – CP4 Andy Napier (Subaru Impreza 22B)…1:22.735

CLUB CHALLENGE

Click the thumbnails for larger Podium Images.

(FWD) (N/A Upto 3Ltr)

(4WD) (RWD) (N/A Over 3Ltr)

1 – 4WD Shane Smith (Nissan Skyline)…55.554

2 – 4WD Anthony Elrick (Mitsubishi EVO 6)…55.610

3 – 4WD Russ Paton (Mitsubishi EVO)…56.977

4 – 4WD Michael Mahoney (Mitsubishi EVO 3)…57.454

5 – NAR Jeff Mileham (TVR Tuscan)…58.120

6 – 4WD Duncan Graham (Subaru Impreza)…58.300

7 – NAF Paul Hughes (Honda Integra DC5)…58.369

8 – 4WD Jonathan Beech (Subaru Impreza GDB)…58.381

9 – RWD Steve Linton (Toyota Supra JZA80)…58.432

10 – 4WD Jonny Gray (Mitsubishi EVO 6 RS)…58.455

11 – 4WD Fiona Muir (Nissan Skyline R32 GTR)…58.887

12 – 4WD Scott Robson (Subaru Impreza GC8)…59.172

13 – 4WD Phil England (Subaru Impreza GC8)…59.405

14 – RWD Kevin Duckworth (Nissan Silvia 200SX S13)…58.647

15 – NA4 Mark Pollard (MG Metro)…59.999

16 – FWD Marco Haig (Fiat Coupe)…1:00.595

17 – NAR Tony Campbell (Porsche 968)…1:00.595

18 – RWD Gordon Wright (Nissan Skyline R33 GTS)…1:00.719

19 – RWD Lance Turner (Nissan Skyline R32 GTS)…1:01.156

20 – NAR Daniel Gannon (BMW E30 353)…1:02.052

21 – NAF David Thorpe (Honda Civic EP3)…1:04.357

22 – FWD Paul West (Honda Civic)…1:05.932

Catch the High Speed Action of Round 3 on May 31st

The full timings from the day can be found [ HERE ]

Check out the points now that the season is in full swing [ HERE ]

Full gallery now live - over 300 online pictures - [ HERE ]

2009 Round 1 Report

Time Attack burst into 2009 with all the pace and ferocity you would expect as the teams descended on Oulton Park for Round One.

After rain early on the skies soon cleared over the Cheshire circuit and it shone most heavily on Chris Ward in the RSE Motorsport EVO VIII. Pulling out all the stops in the Super Battle Final, Ward managed to pip reigning Champion Olly Clark and his legendary ‘Gobstopper’ Impreza to the top spot of the podium, taking the well-deserved honours in Pro Class in the process. Just three tenths of a second separated the two, with the Evo VI of Gareth Lloyd taking third spot a little over two seconds later. Not far behind was another Mitsubishi, this time though it was the Evo V of Russel Humphrey competing in, and winning, the Club Pro class with a fourth position overall, James Nicholl’s Evo VI coming in as runner up in that class with an impressive fifth place overall, highlighting just how competitive that class is set to be this year.

In the Club Class, it was a good day for Skylines as Shane Smith and Marcus Webster took first and second places respectively, both piloting R32 GTRs. Duncan Graham spoilt the Skyline party on the podium though, finishing less than two seconds behind Smith in his Subaru Impreza to take third, winning the Fastest SIDC car accolade at the same time.

Supras also had their moment in the spotlight, those of Steve Linton and Paul Whiffin finishing just ahead of Jamie Reynolds’ Lotus Elise at the top of the rear wheel drive class. Russ Paton in his Evo was under half a second slower than Reynolds which meant he also scooped an award from the MLR for being the quickest Lancer in Club Class.

The day threw up plenty of thrills and spills for spectators as well as a few new sights to take in on track. Fiona Kindness had a scary moment in the first Club Class practice session, her R32 slipping off the circuit as she came out of Cascades, the damp grass offering no help in stopping her journey towards the tyre wall. Despite being launched skywards, Kindness and her team managed to get the car back up and running to end the day with an impressive 15^th place overall.

Equally impressive was the pace of the naturally aspirated class, Tony Campbell’s Porsche 968 just inching out Daniel Gannon’s E30 BMW and the eye-catching Metro 6R4 of Mark Pollard in the final. Campbell and Gannon’s German machinery had been neck and neck with each other throughout the day and proved turbos aren’t always needed to be competitive in Club Class.

In the Pro Class, Andrew Gallagher’s Focus Cosworth also proved a point about the performance potential outside of the Japanese stable. Despite not competing in the final, the flame-spitting Ford’s 1:27.171secs lap time during qualifying was the fastest time of the day up to that point. In the final Ward’s Evo moved the bar even higher with a storming 1:26.883secs time, but Gallagher’s time would have been enough to beat Clark’s Impreza to the line, albeit by just 0.016secs. Simon Norris wasn’t able to get his Evo into the mix however, a differential hanger proving to be a weak point that stranded his car in the pit garage for the day.

The Pro Class competitors will have to wait until the rollercoaster ride that is Knockhill in Round Two to see where that car fits into the hierarchy, while there’ll be others like Russell Humphrey and James Nicholls in their Club Pro Mitsubishis and Steve Guglielmi in his TVR who will look to give the early front runners a fright in Scotland.

But Round One of the 2009 Time Attack championship belonged to Chris Ward and the RSE Motorsport team. “ It was all down to the guys today. They were still building the car at 9am this morning after the engine went bang on the rolling road earlier this week,” claimed Ward. “ And the car’s been perfect today. We made small changes throughout and even found two seconds when we put new tyres on. It’s fantastic for the team, first place is where they deserve to be!”. Even Clark praised the efforts of RSE Motorsport , “I’m delighted for RSE as they’ve worked so hard. We’ve made some good improvements to our car though and once I get my head around them we’ll be even better” he warned. Improvements are sure to come from all teams throughout the championship though, the long break from last season meaning Round One was as useful for ironing out performance issues as it was for getting points in the bag to many teams. With that mouth-watering prospect in store, the spectacle of these highly tuned machines attacking the tricky Knockhill circuit on May 17^th is one that shouldn’t be missed.