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22 January 2009

New Kid on the Block

As some of you may know, one of the Tuscans up for sale over the last few months has been the Swedish GT car. This was a personal favourite of mine and one that I had an eye on for this season! Unfortunately I missed it as it was bought by Craig Winstanley for his son Danny.

So the car has now had it’s first testing session after a full check over and we can report that everything is fine, the car is strong and performing well and that Danny loves it and is looking forward to racing in the “Challenge” this summer.

Craig, the father, has some race experience himself, racing in the Time Attack Series in 2007. This is a Sprint series where the drivers all run at once, effectively a Qualy style event rather than outright racing. Based on Jap boosted saloons, huge horsepower’s mean that though the cars are heavy, they can still run very quick times. Pro Phil Glew ran high 49s.

Anyway, Craig and Danny are now looking to the TVR Challenge and are treating 2009 as a development year. Danny has had some Karting experience but is new to Sportscars being only 16 at the moment. Shades of Mickey Holden there. As I’ve said, the car has had a full Inspection, fettle and makeover and the boys were out at Oulton in January for their first shakedown.

Danny had Chris Maries (Tuscan Racer for 6 years or so) onboard to coach him and to make sure that the car was where they had hoped. He was pleasantly surprised with the stability and pace; possibly due to the aero package the car has which has been developed over several years of Swedish GTs. On the car, this is quite a different animal to a std Tuscan. Still the original AJP car underneath, it has been running in GTs for sometime across Europe, and as such has full FIA papers and so has a correct FIA cage and Bag tank. It also has air jacks, which I would LOVE to have! The GT format means a hard top, splitter and rear wing as many of our guys are now running but I would assume from its GT status that these have been carefully positioned and adjusted for maximum effect using dataloggers…again as our guys are now doing. This should be a VERY competitive car! You can see now why I wanted it!!!

Craig stressed that Danny is on a learning curve, and though they will obviously be racing hard, that they really are not expecting too much in year 1. Maximising the car and Danny’s driving skills are at the top of the agenda, but I would suggest that with their commitment and such a good car, they would have to be in with a strong shout at any and every round. They are looking forward to meeting everyone, as they have heard what a strong and friendly Paddock we have.

The Grids getting stronger year by year!

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