Build up to Brands 2010
Posted on 21st March 2010 by Team Neaves
Welcome back to the Peter Best Insurance Challenge for what promises to be another fantastic year of racing. The Team Neaves crew has been working feverishly hard over the winter to increase the size of their beer bellies, in pre-season girth-testing the hard work seems to be paying off…
The list of group C reprobates entrants has changed a bit this year, but still looks very well represented when compared with recent years. It seems the usual suspects will be there for the season opener, the V8 clan and Simon in the mighty midget followed by 2/3rds of Team Neaves. (which is incidentally usually the order on the track…) Dan will be MIA for most of this year while he concentrates on his web design business – shamelessplug.com.
After the brilliantly close battles at Snetterton the V8 clan have been busy adding superchargers over the winter months in order to overcome the -5bhp deficit to the Team Neaves cars. This year they are also opting for pictures of half-naked men on the sides of their cars instead of women – a change maybe designed to intimidate the opposition?
Hutch is rabbit-ing (somebody stop me!) away trying to weld fibreglass and metal together after the Midget was eaten by a blind BMW racer at the back end of last year. Lets hope the famous Midget makes it for Brands!
The list of modifications for the Team Neaves cars is literally to long to list here. Suffice to say the major changes are; Carbon Fibre Chassis, Hyabussa Engine Conversion, Dual Steering Wheels and an ex-Formula 1 quick lift jack. Early testing results are good and the Team have knocked over a minute off the class lap record at Brand Hatch.
Now for the class virgins;
Alan Brooke will be putting the eagerly anticipated 700bhp K-Series powered Metro through its paces for the first time at Brands, while in a surprising change of events brother Dave is opting to change absolutely nothing on his car.
Paul Luti will be piloting the 1000bhp lightened MG ZS of Ewart Kitson again after a good run at Cadwell. Rumour has it the underpowered ZS has spent the winter in a stable gorging itself on hay, so should be one to watch – especially when given to Paul, the not-so-tamed Scottish Race Driver.
Jonathan Wills is new to the series with Team 78 Racing and his 160 MG ZR, which will be the first ever entered in Group C. Isn’t it great to see some variety!
Dan Ludlow isn’t really a class C virgin, nor is he actually in Group C but is now sharing the helm of the Lunar Racing powered MG ZS, which after a winter in the stable with Ewarts ZS is now 200bhp up on last year and 3 tonnes lighter. Anthony Reid recently tested the car at Brands and got a very respectable lap time of 0.244 seconds, making it another one to watch.
Rockingham
Joking aside, Ollie’s pre-season testing at Rockingham was a nightmare. The weather was awful and half the BTCC grid were there to hold him up on the straights. But we did notice a great deal of diff oil coming out of the diff casing, which turned out to be a tiny pin hole in the axle. At £200 for the days testing, it was worth it just to find that out.
Further more, Ollie learned that the rain is scary, and to respect it…
In closing, we’re looking forward to the season opener at Brands as I’m sure you are. Hopefully it won’t be a copy of the processional F1 first race and we’ll get some good close racing…
It’ll be great to see all the faces again and we’ll see you soon.
Team Neaves
PS. Anyone who’s down for testing on the Friday is welcome to join us at the local boozer in the evening.
Sounds good shame I cant be there for the first round, enjoy the beers on Friday night. Will have to make up for it at Oulton
Pete