Latest news from the Britcar endurance championship

[clive]

Today l spent an entertaining day at Brands watching Mark Ticehurst and Natasha Firman racing their works RX-8 in the Production S1 series.

After their class win at Siverstone two weeks ago Mark once again lead the class for the first hour showing excellent consistency, even being able to cut his pace to preserve his tyres on this tyre demanding track so the team would not need to change tyres during it\'s pit stop, potentially saving track time.

When the pit stop for fuel and driver came the team sadly lost a little time due to problems fitting Natasha who is much shorter than Mark, and then when back under way Natasha made an unforced error at clearways allowing two cars past but was still able to have enough pace to finish in a close second place in class for the team which is still an excellent performance when you take into account that this is a young team and Natasha today only completed only her seventh motor race ever and she even managed to lap an Audi TT that was in her class along the way.

The other amazing thing about their achievement is that Steve Guglielmi of Guglielmi Motorsport who is running the RX-8 Team on behalf of Mazda told me that they are still running a standard engine with their speed at the moment only coming from the excellent chassis the RX-8 is endowed with.

[clive]

Mark with a  healthy few seconds lead over the Honda that would ultimately overhaul the RX-8 Team and demote it to second place.

[clive]

Refuelling the RX-8 before the driver change while anxious Mazda personnel look on.

[clive]

The Team encountering a few problems fitting Natasha\'s much smaller frame into the RX-8.

[clive]

The RX-8 pulling into pitlane after another faultless outing in the Britcar endurance championship.

[MikeLMR]

very good show :cool it just goes to show the doubters that power really isn\'t everything when it comes to racing  (even in a straight line)
Wonder if we will see an 8 in the new world touring cars ? surely it must meet the rules now ?

[DaveCollins]

Good to see you had a great day out Clive.  It would be interesting to see if the engine is 100% standard or have they done any sump mods to stop oil surges?

I noticed a few more pics of this at  

http://www.rx8ownersclub.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7282&highlight=

and it looks like a certain Yellow RX-7 also attracted RX-8 owners attention!

Dave

[Torpedo]

The engine is supposed to be standard, apart from an air intake. Here\'s some photos of the car I took from the Silverstone meet. (These are in the members section of RX8OC).

[Warthog]

Clive---Steve G is a mate, I will pass on your comments in this thread tomorrow.
I\'m also out with him on saturday on the track, in between setting up the RX-8 cars he is going to set up my Rex, four wheel alinement already done by him but he wants to get my Tein suspension spot on, top mate.:wave :wave :wave

[Glenn Butcher]

Excellent stuff - thanks for the info. Clive, I\'m keen to get out and have a look at the RX-8 on track!

Just trying to track down its next outing etc.

[Glenn Butcher]

Right!

Found the website:  http://www.eerc.co.uk

Next meet is May 22nd @Snetterton

[clive]

Remaining Britcar Events


21/22 May Snetterton

25/26 June  Brands GP

16 July Snetterton

6 August

9/10/11 September ( Willhire 24 hour race)

1 / October

5 November Donington

19/ November  Brands GP

[iaint]

If the June date doesn\'t clash with anything should we organise a club day for those of us down this corner of the world?

Iain

[clive]

Originally posted by clive
Natasha made an unforced error at clearways allowing two cars past but was still able to have enough pace to finish in a close second place in class for the team
.

Hi All

 I have had a very welcomed update from Steve Guglielmi about the problems encountered in last Saturdays race where sadly Natasha lost a place due to what l thought looked like "an unforced error".

Steve now informs me that after some further testing during the week that the team now knows this error was far from "unforced" and was instead due to tyre wear that had caused a slight oversteer problem to occur and was in no way due to Natasha\'s lack of experience, indeed Steve and the team have huge faith in Natasha to "get the job done" as l am sure we will all see as the season progresses and Natasha\'s undoubted speed shows through.

[Martiny]

Ok well done. I stand corrected, I didnt think she would do well!!

Come ON Mazda!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!