Apologies for some passing of time since my last blog as my proverbial plate just seems to get bigger, however I’m not complaining when on that plate is the finest of Italian cuisine to be washed down by Super Tuscan red, it’s just a matter finding room for the intake of an extra course and hope I can fit it all in. Of course what I’m actually talking about is the new Ferrari 458 Italia Challenge that Philip has acquired for new ventures further afield. Best of all is that its new…..brand spanking out of the box new! Now I’m going to be completely open here, I’ve had a crippling ‘no other road car is better than a Ferrari’ mindset since wearing grey shorts with conkers in my back pocket. This blind loyalty was firmly sealed once contents of an oddly shaped money box was swapped with a Ferrari annual with glossy pictures and exploded views of the then scarlet range of road cars. Fast forward a few hair styles from then and that obsession proved advantageous when I spent time with Pininfarina Study and Research as a development technician on bespoke Ferrari, ahhh great fun. A calling to motorsport took over my career aspirations, but Ferraris have never been far away throughout. Now we come to present day and this absolute drop dead gorgeous Rari has arrived at the Breezemount workshop. A prompt read through the 458 instruction manual has brought me up to speed on this current Challenge edition. It continues with the previous Challenge car ethos, not quite GT race spec but hardened up enough with the right racy bits stuck on for eligible competition. F458 Challenge Shakedown What really impresses me is the filtering down of F1 technology into the powertrain architecture, the current tread of seamless gear shift and active diffs to control whole corner balance is right there with this car. So with no delay, a shakedown with Philip at the helm and Richard Lyons as backup pilot was undertaken. A quick download of captured car data does indeed show the many electronic interventions of diff control thus enabling driver to just press right foot pedal and go. Don’t get me wrong, not even the F1 tech clever electronics can beat the laws of physics so drivers are still on their toes to avoid any pilot error induced pendulum effects; however the car proves to be fairly easy to drive and point through the corners. One thing that did become apparent to both drivers is the effect of some positive lift on the car at various performance points and so upon return to workshop an aero package has been the topic of development discussion. The plan is for Philip to learn the circuits in the UK with the Challenge, so I am pleased to say Breezemount Motorsport has linked up with Ferrari specialists FF Corsa who will take over the running of the car at their base at Silverstone with intentions to support us to UK and European circuits. Stuart checking Ferrari data. In the meantime while an aero upgrade is sourced for the Ferrari we have moved onto the Formula Master and Seat Leon. Our first outing this year with the Master at Mondello has highlighted an issue with setup as we have switched tyre brands and sizes, something which will require additional testing as we assess and learn to understand changes to the dynamics of the car. I fear quite a few changes to suspension components and permutations of setup to achieve balance equilibrium. This takes time which we are short of when that plate is already full and the saloon championship is well underway, so more on Formula Master developments later. Our first race at Kirkistown in the saloons showed Philip has the speed to qualify well but the Seat Supercopa Achilles heel is its DSG gearbox, AKA getting off the line. It’s a rather hit or miss affair as Philip found out on both races, then there was the realization that the saloon boys don’t give a damn if Philip is the outright record holder at Kirko. With a mixture of relatively equal matched machinery here, if you want to be first across the line then you have to learn to squeeze every ounce of horsepower from the engine on corner exit and accept that no one is going to give an inch on corner entry. Good point finishes for both races on our first event this year we are glad off, but much discussion on return to the workshop was had with many cups of coffee. So another test was booked 2 days before the second saloon race meet. I implemented another setup adjustment and Richard Lyons was on hand for the finer points of race craft and that all important lap time, then it was down to the stopwatch to tell the tale of positives or negatives. The times are good, real good, into the mid 61’s for Philip as the Leon is touching the edge of its performance envelope. So with race day on the next sunrise, the Leon is back A job well done! on the flat patch into the dark hours getting a final adjustment to remove a little of the nervousness that has crept in. A little red eye in the morning soon disappears as caffeine is consumed, 2 qualifies and 2 races await the Leon Supercopa as she warms up on air jacks. A quick download then check of engine vitals on the laptop confirms all is go for the morning qualify runs. The hard work Philip has been putting in is starting to pay off, fastest in his class and even out pacing the GT’s for Q1. ‘Car feeling better with that setup tweak Stu’ Philip comments, and indeed the confidence shows on Philips data, ‘just got to get the car cleanly off the line now!’ Well both races went well as it turned out, the DSG gearbox launch control is indeed useless as Philip loses places on both starts, however Philip drove well, exceptionally well, fighting with the mighty Hondas with a few well placed overtaking maneouvers to take class wins in both races. And to top things off a new saloon lap record of 62.2! Well done Philip, you have our attention now! Follow us on Facebook / Breezemount Motorsport  

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Breezemount Motorsport- a new arrival!

For the third year in succession the Thoroughbred Sports Car Club, Ulster Folk and Transport Museum partnership have secured the appearance of yet another significant Northern Ireland race car for their 2013 Cultra Hillclimb Event. Sixty-two years after Cultra-born Desmond Titterington took delivery of his ‘Festival of Britain’ Allard J2 (OZ4444), Somerset man Chris Pring will bring the newly restored car to contest the North Down Borough Council supported Speed Hillclimb at the award-winning Museum on Saturday, June 1st. Cultra 2013 marks the Allard’s first competitive outing since restoration – a fitting return to the place where this important cars’ racing story first began. The ‘Festival of Britain’ moniker was coined by the Irish motoring press and refers to the cars brief appearance as the official Allard exhibit at the 1951 Festival of Britain transport pavilion, shortly before delivery to Belfast. Titterington’s masterful performances in the Allard, including winning the 1952 Leinster Trophy, lead to race seats in the Ecurie Ecosse, Jaguar and Mercedes works teams, plus several outings in a Connaught F1 car. After his last event in the J2, an outright win on the 1953 Knockagh Hill Climb in Co.Antrim, the car was sold to a Scotsman, Jimmy Braid, who took it to Calcutta to compete in the local racing scene that had sprung up there. It was another Scot, Allan Ramsay, who got the most out of the Allard in India – taking on the assorted competition, including an Alfa Monza 6C, a Jaguar 100SS and specials built along Allard lines – he set lap records and took notable wins. Later, rescued from a scrap heap and packed away in boxes, the car went into storage for many years before returning to the UK. Over the last 12 years it has undergone a fastidious restoration by The Leiter Motor Co in Dorset, under the watchful eye of marque expert Paul Weldon.

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Cultra Brings Another Famous Car ‘Home’

After a year break of being at the fabulous Bishopscourt race circuit it was again time to head up to the Co.Down circuit. I headed up Friday afternoon  in my Nissan Juke supplied by Nissan Ireland (very economical- the 1.5dci Puredrive engine is brilliant.)  On Saturday morning we had two 15 minutes sessions to get with the grips of the track once again after a My Nissan Juke! long break! My first session went well and we gained some very valuable information regarding setup for the conditions and track. The second session wasn’t so great and we only managed one lap as the session was cut short because they were running out of time before qualifying commenced. We went out in qualifying in the Van Diemen RF91 which has a slight disadvantage against the newer car when it comes to straight line speed as it doesn’t have as good aerodynamics and not is as streamlined. I qualified 7th for both races out of a grid of 20 cars I was delighted and couldn’t wait for the two races on Sunday.  Saturday evening was lovely dry and a clear sky so we thought it might be dry Sunday, but we thought wrong. With shower spells but in between the showers the track was dry so it was difficult to get a good setup but we managed a satisfactory setup and we were ready for the race. We gridded up in our positions for the race and I was seventh, so I knew I had a bit of work ahead for the race but as the lights went out I got a cracker of a start and was in to third instantly- before the first corner! I held third for the whole race and it was a great feeling to get my first podium in FF1600!  For race two I was moved to 6th on the grid. I watched the lights with anticipation and when they went out I had another cracker of a start and went from 6th to 1st I just squeezed by the pit wall and the other cars! and I was now leading the race in the little ’91 car!  but it was red flagged after one lap as there was a incident at turn two. We came back around and were re-gridded while they cleared the stricken cars. Again I sat there while I waited for the 5 second board then the lights and again I got another brilliant start almost identical to the first one  and was now leading the race again!  With Ivor McCullough behind I knew I needed to keep pushing hard but his newer and more aerodynamic car was better suited to the long straights of Bishopscourt and he eventually caught me and passed which was probably inevitable with his more modern car!  Murray passed at turn three but I stuck with him to the end of the race with Noel Dunne right on my tail. I had one eye on Murray and one eye on the mirror to Dunne behind. I held off Dunne to the line and I crossed the line side by side with Murray to finish third. I was thrilled to get another third place and my second podium of the season! After the race everyone was coming up to me and congratulating me on the race. Joey Greenan came up to me and said I did a brilliant job, that meant so much to me! It was great to be driving such a iconic car that is 22 years old and is still able to mix it in with the newer and more aerodynamic cars ! Thanks again to all the team! Bring on the next round in Kirkistown!

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Back to Bishopscourt- with Sean Doyle

Ireland’s motorsport pedigree has been a wave of inconsistency over the past century. From early days, high calibre events such as the Gordon Bennett race and the Circuit of Ireland have attracted an international crowd and aesthetically, Ireland has proved to be a majestic location for the setting of road rallies. The major drawback that the industry here faces, however, is the lack of development programmes for younger drivers. Irish names gracing the world stage kicked off with rally aces like Paddy Hopkirk and Billy Coleman, motorbike legends such as Joey Dunlop and, more recently, circuit racers Eddie Irvine (Formula 1) and Colin Turkington (British Touring Car Championship). Despite these “flashes in the pan”, many Irish drivers have competed (and continue to compete) at national level with the younger crowd generally aspiring to move onto an international level. During the 1990s and early 2000s, the economic boom led to a healthy sum of entrants on the Irish rally calendar, including an array of WRC machinery and promising young drivers who constantly struggled to match their budget with their talent. Kris Meeke and Niall McShea are prime examples of this but it was not alone the rally drivers. The predicament stretched to circuit racers, most notably Adam Carroll (who raced for the Irish A1 GP team in their winning year) and Michael Devaney (A1 GP and Formula 3). A few weeks ago, I took a trip to Mondello Park with members of UL’s Racing & Motorsport society to spend a day as spectator of our very own national racing championships. It turned out to be a very enjoyable day and showcased the wealth of entertainment from our minnows very well. When we arrived in the morning, the HRCA historic class were racing and some beautiful machinery was on display including a Lotus Europa and Crossle 9S. This was only a taster though, as the Formula Libre championship was underway soon after and this surely was a treat. Formula Libre is an interesting class which is open to all single-seater models from any class. In that respect, cars from Formula 3, Formula Nippon, ex- F1 cars and even a Mission T5 took part in the event. Although performance parity may not have been a top priority for the championship organisers, watching them scream past while sitting at the pit wall was truly astounding. The noise was enough to excite any petrol-head and all of this was right on our doorstep. Granted, so far the driving talent was made up of amateur drivers with a bit of money out for their weekend of fun, away from the day-job. But such was not the case when the Formula Vee cars left parc-ferme and lined up on the grid. In the field of Vee machinery was promising teenager Jack Byrne. At just 16 years of age, Byrne was the most infantile entrant and is currently battling with Justin Costello for the lead of the VW Spares Rookie Championship. Although works outfits possessed an advantage, the racing 16 Year old Jack Byrne impressed in Vees. Image from JayTee Photographic remained very close and the competition was fairly even at the front providing tight racing and great entertainment for the fans. Ballyfermot man, Colm Blackburn, took the overall win in race 1 and won Class B in race 2. Ray Moore reaped the rewards for top honours in the main national championship in both races. Without a structure in place to nurture these aspiring racers, the very self-contained and weak Irish motorsport industry will probably push these drivers abroad to greener pastures in the not-too-distant future. Entry into motorsport, even at base level, is usually too expensive for working-class people but our new tin-top feeder series, the Ford Fiesta Championship, couldn’t be more affordable. The Battles raged all the way down the grid in the new Fiesta Series. Image from Con Connolly. Fiestas used are mostly stock cars, save for a few safety measures installed and other minor adjustments and can be built to race-standard for about 2000 euro. A field of almost thirty Fiestas took to the grid in the afternoon to battle it out in the spec-series and the race provided great side- by-side action and plenty of paintwork swapping. To demonstrate the closeness of the action, the top 3 in both races were covered by a second! Natural progression from the Fiesta championship leads into the Irish Touring Car Championship (ITCC) and here, an interesting mix of touring cars exist in three different classes. At the bottom is the stock-hatch class and it’s filled by hot hatchbacks like Andrew Twomey’s Citroen Saxo. Step up then to the Production class where you’ll find a collection of Honda Integras and Civics. Mark Keane, winner of the Race2Race competition last year, was present in his Integra. At the top is the Touring class where we find higher-spec Integras of Erick Carroll and Rob Savage as well as the beautiful BMW M3 piloted by Erik Holstein. Holstein’s M3 was dominant in ITCC. Image from Con Conolly. At Mondello, Holstein was the class of the field and was untouchable but Savage and Carroll had a very good tussle in their identical Hondas. The Production class was a lot tighter at the top with Mark Keane proving to be wise beyond his years, taking a maximum points haul from the weekend and in stockhatch, Twomey swept to honours after class rivals fell into various difficulties. All in all a good days enterainment, and all on our own doorstep. Check out www.mondello.ie for more dates and events! Patrick

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A Trip to Mondello- with Patrick Cummins

The British Touring Car Championship has been running, in one form or another, since 1958 and is now the UK’s biggest motor racing championship. Those of us old enough to remember the series when it was in its heyday in the late 1980s and early 1990s will remember names like John Cleland, Will Hoy, Frank Biela, Rickard Rydell, Alain Menu, Tim Harvey and Joachim Winkelhok. Back then the grid was full of works teams from the likes of BMW, Ford, Vauxhall, Nissan and Renault, however by the late 2000s the only works team left on the grid was Vauxhall with the rest of the teams being independently run. The series has undergone somewhat of a revival in recent years and with the introduction of the Next Generation Touring Car (NGTC) specifications it has become cheaper for both manufacturers and privateers to run a competitive car, resulting in one of the largest grids ever at 29 cars for the 2013 season. Long gone too are the days when the grid was full of international drivers. With the exception of Aron Smith, the entire grid is made up of British drivers. MG and Honda are the only works teams left in the championship, while there are 15 teams competing for the independent teams’ championship. 6 drivers are also contesting the newly introduced Jack Sears Trophy for drivers of Super 2000 cars. The leading Super 2000 driver in each race receives a cup and at the end of the season the driver with the most cups will we awarded the Jack Sears Trophy by Jack Sears himself. Jack was the winner of the inaugural British Saloon Car Championship in 1958. The 2013 season got under way on Easter Sunday at Brands Hatch with Jason Plato winning races one and two and Matt Neal picking up the win in the final race. I have been following the BTCC for as long as I can remember and have always wanted to attend a race weekend. I finally got around to it last weekend when I went along to watch the second round at Donington as a guest of the AmDTuning.com team who run a Super 2000 spec Golf GTI. The first thing that struck me after arriving at the track on Saturday morning as I was ferried into the paddock on the AmD team’s golf cart was how open everything was. The support paddock was in the middle of what would normally be the car park and the public were milling around watching the teams put up their tents and unpack their cars while in the touring car paddock the drivers were wandering around happy to stop to chat to fans, pose for photos and sign autographs. There were no F1 style barriers and drivers hiding away in air conditioned motor homes. Fans were free to walk up to the back of the garages and peer inside. The drivers even use the same public toilets as everybody else – at one point both Mat Jackson and Sam Tordoff were in the queue behind me! After being shown around the AmD garage and chatting to the team I went for a walk down the pit lane. As one of the smaller teams AmD are at the top end of the pit lane, near the pit entrance and as I walked down the pit lane towards the MG and Honda teams, who occupied the first two garages, the thing that was most obvious was that the further I walked along the busier the garages became. AmD and the other Super 2000 teams had perhaps 6-8 people on the team while the likes of MG and Honda have maybe 20-30.  The larger teams also have large hospitality tents that hold around 100 people while the smaller teams have a table and chairs at the back of the garage with a box of tea bags, paper cups and a tin of biscuits! Saturday morning consisted of free practice for BTCC and the support series and then the afternoon was taken up by qualification and ended with the first race in the Clio Cup series. I was in the pit lane for most of the day on Saturday and got to walk in and out of the garages watching the teams tweak their cars between sessions. I also got to stand on the pit wall for the BTCC sessions. The noise of the cars as they drive by is amazing and like nothing I have heard before – I could feel the sound wave from the exhaust as the cars backfired when changing gear on the straight. The sound is something that simply does not come across on TV. As the drivers sat in their cars preparing for the first free practice session thinking, some took the opportunity to familiarise themselves with the circuit! Sunday morning got off to a hilarious start as we made our way from the main gate to the AmD garage – four of us and a box full of sponsor goodie bags on a two seater, underpowered golf cart with James, the driver, unable to use the brakes as we would not have got going again if we slowed down. People were jumping for cover, although I’m sure that while it seemed like we were doing 100 miles per hour from the inside, it had all the speed (and danger) of Fr. Dougal on his milk float from the outside! As we made our way out to the infield to watch the first couple of support races the BTCC teams were busy with final preparations for their first race of the day. First up on Sunday were the Formula Fords followed by race 1 of the Porsche Carrera Cup championship with Irish interests represented by brothers Karl and Michael Leonard driving for Team Parker Racing in the Pro-Am1 category. Karl and Michael had a close battle with Victor Jiminez with Karl taking the category win in the motorsport.ie liveried car and Michael finishing third following a spin that allowed Jiminez to get by. Karl made it a clean sweep by picking up the category win in race 2. In addition to the two race wins, Karl was also awarded the driver of the weekend trophy. The BTCC cars took to the track at 1125 and we got to go onto the grid as the cars formed up. While the pit crews swarmed around the cars carrying out last minute jobs the photographers swarmed around the grid girls – no prizes for guessing where I ended up! We watched the first race on TV from the AmD garage. It was a different experience watching a race on TV with no commentary. The hard work was done at this stage and all the team could do was watch. One team member had a notebook where he logged each of driver James Kaye’s lap times with a comment next to it – either a time difference to the car behind or a note about something the driver did or didn’t do – while team manager Shaun was on the radio to James updating him on events on track that he had gleaned from watching the TV. It’s not like F1 where there is car to pit telemetry and GPS driver tracking, if the team don’t see it on the ITV4 live feed they don’t know about it. Race 1 was won by Gordon Sheddon, ahead of Andrew Jordan and team-mate Matt Neal. The holding area for the winning cars was right next to the AmD garage so at the end of the race we made our way over and were right in front of Gordon Sheddon’s car as he pulled in and got out of the car. It was really interesting to see the reactions and hear the comments between the drivers as they chatted about the race. ITV’s Steve Rider and Louise Goodman were on hand to carry out the post-race interviews. I’ve not watched the races back yet, but I’m sure we managed to get into the background. Following the interviews the drivers were taken out into the paddock where the podium presentation was carried out on the back of a truck for all the fans to see. AmD’s James Kaye came home in first place in the Jack Sears Trophy – here’s a shot of his empty champagne bottle. I don’t think they’re supposed to drink between races! During the lunch break there was a thirty minute slot where the pit lane was opened for the public to walk about and get photos and autographs. About 20 minutes before the gates opened the queue was easily four or five hundred people deep. Luckily, we had access through the AmD garage so we were able to bypass the queue and line up at the Honda garage to wait for Flash and Matt Neal to emerge. When the public were allowed in the biggest draws seemed to be the MG and Honda teams followed by the Airwaves team and BMW with the crowds dwindling the further down the pit lane you went. I know the drivers are probably contractually obliged to sit outside their garage and sign autographs, but it is a great idea and gives the fans an opportunity to get up close to the drivers. I suspect the drivers don’t get hassled as much over the weekend if the fans know they’ll have an opportunity for an autograph at this session. For race 2 we ventured out of the pitlane and took up a spot near the Craner Curves. I was amazed at the number of families that were sitting around the banks – it really is a family day out. There were first timers who arrived in t-shirts and shorts along with people who appeared to be regulars who brought picnics and tents to shield themselves from the wind. This was Matt Neal’s 500th race start and it was fitting that he reached that milestone at Donington, scene of his first ever win in 1999 when he picked up a cheque for £250,000 as the first independent driver to win a race outright. He ran with the number 500 on his car for race 2 to commemorate the occasion, while Jason Plato ran number 400 as this was his 400th race. Unfortunately for the AmD team, a start line collision between James Kaye and David Nye saw both men pile into the pit wall and retire from the race resulting in the safety car being deployed. Following the restart, Andrew Jordan pulled out a big lead after lunging down the inside of Shedden at the start of lap 7. Behind Jordan was a close battle between Plato, Shedden, Neal and Morgan with Plato eventually passing Shedden for second place and Shedden finishing in third. Matt Neal finished his 500th race in 4th place. We made it back to the AmD garage just as they were finishing patching up the Golf – a new front end, wings, doors and lots of red tape and the car was ready for race 3. Not a bad effort for a team of 8! We took to the grid for the final race of the day and as James had not finished the second race he was last on the grid, just behind Warren Scott who had put his car into the gravel trap at the Old Hairpin in race two. Due to the size of the field, the back of the grid is almost at the exit of the final chicane so this allowed us a great opportunity to get a close up look at the cars as they exited the chicane and did a quick burnout to warm the tyres. Then it was time to take another walk along the grid to check out the cars and the grid girls! As we were getting booted off the grid I managed to get a quick photo of Gordon Shedden as he prepared for the start. Again, we watched race 3 from the AmD garage. It didn’t go too well for the AmD team. Unfortunately, despite the sterling job by the team to get the car ready, an electrical failure caused James to stop out on track. Dave Newsham had a major wobble on the way through Craners on the opening lap that almost took out several of the top drivers, but luckily everybody managed to avoid him. Former WTCC champion Colin Turkington shot into the lead from second on the grid in his eBay BMW and remained there to the end, finishing four seconds clear of Gordon Shedden with Matt Neal coming home in third. At the end of the race we made our way again to the holding area to watch the cars come in and had the opportunity to eavesdrop on the drivers as they congratulated each other and chatted about the race, including asking each other how they managed to avoid the spinning Dave Newsham at Craners. We said our goodbyes to the AmD team and walked along the pit lane inspecting the cars and emerged into the paddock just in time to catch the end of the podium presentation with Colin Turkington taking his young son onto the top step with him – something you won’t see on your average podium. Now that I’ve experienced a BTCC weekend, I definitely plan to go back. I would recommend it to anybody. Donington is a great track as there are plenty viewing spots and no matter where you stand you have a view of three or four corners. It is also very easy to get to as it is practically at the end of the runway at East Midlands Airport and if you book early enough you’ll get return flights with Ryanair for less than forty quid. I’ve included a selection of photos below. For me the first image captures the spirit of British Motorsport perfectly.

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BTCC Donington- with Marc Quinlivan