Saw a few Imprezas parked up, and a few people wearing SWRT gear.
Anyone from here attend???

 

A few of the RB5OC guys went mate so it was probably them.

Jim

 

Oh right. Didn't see any RB5's though. They must have all been together.

 

Yep - I was there!

 

yep i was there im my 06 WRX, Noticed some sweet Scooby’s with full rally logos one which had them in pink, sounds odd but looked good

 

Any news on Matt Neal??? I was hoping he'd keep that second place but he got rammed straight off the track!!

 

Yes I was there,

Mine was one of the two WR1's in the competitors car park.

Regards,

Robin

 

yes I was there,

UK04 WRX Black STI.

Good to see Plato WIN!!

Paul

 

Ah, I saw a WR1 as we left 50% chance that it was you

 

yeah i was there with Drumster

 

Me too..

 

If it needed a wash then it was mine

Didn't leave till after 6.30 though....... but at least by then the traffic had died down.

Robin

 

I was there too

 

Ah it can't have been you then Robin. I left straight after the last touring car race.

I see Collard has had his 2nd place taken away from him.

 

No can't have been then. Our last race was the last race of the day so by the time my 'boy' had done his debrief it was pretty late (and pouring with rain).

Sadly didn't get to see much of the touring cars, so didn't see the Neal/Collard incident, as my first priority for the day was to keep a nervous fifteen year old in the right frame of mind for the first two races of his car racing career. Mind you it was interesting seeing the sport from the inside as it were.

Regards,

Robin

 

I was there too

Parked behind a couple of classics, one green with gold decals and another silver classic. I was in a silver bugeye sport

 

So how did he do Robin????

 

Hi,

To give some perspective to the following answer he is the the only U16 in the Championship (and the youngest by about 6 months) and therefore obviously the youngest driver in an open wheel 'slicks & wings' championship. More remakable still though he only drove a kart for the 1st time in May 2005 and has only done 7 MSA Kart meetings.

We also have not had the budget for pre-season testing, he has had only one day in the car pre-season, apart of course from the mandatory tests that everyone has to do. Whereas the Fortec & Carlin rookies have been testing for a month or so at least (the Mansell boys too)!

So on Saturday morning he did 1st qualifying (driving on wets for the 1st time ever) and put the car on 17th (out of 22).

Second qualifying on Saturday afternoon wasn't so good 21/22 but we later discovered his brake bias was still set for the wet and by then it was a dry session on slicks........ obvioulsy he has learnt from that and will check it in future!

Sunday 1st (17th on grid) race he made two places up at the start, ran as high as 13th and finished 15th out of 22. All things considered we thought this was pretty good - then he got out of the car and mentioned to his race engineer that he had driven the last 10 or 15 laps with no clutch. To say the team were impressed that he had brought the car home with no clutch, only conceding 2 places as a result in his first ever race would be a major understatement! When they took the gearbox off the clutch plate was completely b******d, and has been sent back to Sachs as it had failed in an way it shouldn't have done. He also beat two of the BMW Scholarship Drivers and Leo Mansell so all in all we were delighted.

The 2nd race was always going to be compromised by grid position, but once again he gained a position on the start. He then gained a couple and lost some again (got out of shape trying a passing move). So he finished 20/22 at he end he said once he mucked up the pass he heard his Team Principal final instructions in his head "Make sure you finish at all cost, you won't learn anything stting in a gravel trap." The team also summed it up a less good result but a much better drive. So again we were pleased.

We were pleased to see he got noticed here:-

http://www.dotdotdotcomma.com/motors.../news_menu.php

Title - "FBMWUK Dunstan Check In"

Anyone sorry it has been such a long answer but there didn't seem much point just posting the results without the background.

Regards,

Robin

PS Tom's website is http://www.tomdunstan.co.uk

 

Wow. I'm well impressed! You must be really proud of his efforts. Looks like he has a promising career ahead of him! At 15, with not much experience, his learning curve is bound to be rather steep. Lets hope he moves further the front in his next few outings.

Steve

 

Thanks Steve,

Yes very proud - he is super kid as well which is the main reason I got involved - and I only got involved because I borrowed a can of petrol from his dad at Le Mans, which is how we met! It is going to be the most expensive can of petrol ever lol.

Nexa Racing Team Principal said in a TV interview he has the same 'attrbutes' as Raikkonen, Webber and Button at a similar age. (He worked with them).

And the guy who spotted him and convinced us to try and raise the budget for him to do FBMW likens his smooth driving style to Jackie Stewart.

All in all it is far too early to tell - we will see as the year progresses - but I am sure we will have fun finding out!

Feel free to say hello if you are at any of the BTCC (or the Brands WTCC) meetings.

Regards,

Robin