Page 8 - Motorsport News (January 2020)

8 JANUARY 29 2020 motorsport-news.co.uk Advertising enquiries: 0203 405 8110

RACING NEWS

Photos: Mick Walker, Steve Jones, Richard Styles
IN BRIEF

BRDC Rising Stars
The latest batch of drivers to be selected to join
the British Racing Drivers’ Club’s Rising Stars
scheme have been announced. These include
four champions of major national series from
last year: Tom Canning (British GT4), Harry
King (Ginetta GT4 Supercup), James Hedley
(Ginetta Junior) and Scott McKenna (Ginetta
GT5 Challenge). Also selected were British
GT driver Josh Smith, VLN racer Ben Tuck
and Mini Challenge frontrunner Dan Zelos.
Green back to GT4
Teen racer Fin Green is looking at a second
year in the Ginetta GT4 Supercup, after
finishing eighth in last year’s standings, with
one podium finish under his belt. He had
a run in one of Rob Boston’s Ginetta G55s
at Donington Park last week, describing the
conditions as “very greasy” after an early spin.

Busy Khera C9 is set to race in Peter
Versatile racer Lucky Khera is in line for another Auto Group C category
busy season’s racing. As well as doing the
Porsche Carrera Cup GB with Simon Green
Motorsport, he also plans to race his recently-
acquired Ferrari in the UK Challenge. In FIRST SAUBER C9 TO
addition, he is targeting some outings in GT
Cup and Britcar, plus selected rounds of the
Kumho BMW Championship. He was busy
at Donington Park last week giving his Ferrari
a run in foggy and greasy conditions. MAKE RACE RETURN
TF fundraising
Double British GT championship-winning
outfit TF Sport is raising money for the Guide Hancock gives car its first shakedown at Donington after 18-month restoration
Dogs UK charity with an online auction of
signed team memorabilia. The gloves and
boots won by four-time series champion ByMattKew chassis87-C9-01– thefirst rebuiltbutretainedby Peter parametersandalarmsand That’sall tocome,which I’m
Jonny Adam during his 2017 Le Mans 24 of itstype–was raced Sauber fordisplay,priortoits cut-offs allbuiltin.Allthe excited about.”
Hours victory and Nicki Thiim’s 2019 British The very first Sauber C9 predominantlybyMike sale toitscurrent undisclosed tolerances areverytight TheC9 wastestedwith
GT race-suit will be available to purchase Group C sportscar built Thackwell andHenri ownertwoyearsago. so throughthedaywe had reducedboost, butHancock
on the team’s official eBay account. Items returned to the track Pescaroloas part of Following an18-month toease themback toletthe reckoned itwasstill
will be listed for 10 days with no reserve, for the first time in 30 KourosRacing. restorationatNigelMedcalf’s carrun. producingover 700bhp.
and all proceeds will go to Guide Dogs UK. years last week at It thenworetheprominent MotoHistorics,theC9was “Then westartedto use “There’sturbolag. It’s
Donington Park, after an ‘circuitboard’livery ina shakendown forthefirsttime afew morerevsandleanon literally likeyou’rewalking
AMR Academy 18-month restoration. dealwithsponsor AEG atDonington byrenowned the caralittlebit. It wasvery alongthe roadnormally
Aston Martin will continue its AMR Driver Eventually developedinto Olympiabeforeswitching to historic racingdriver and wet andgreasy andwe didn’t andthenyoujust suddenly
Academy this year, but reduce the number aLeMans 24Hours and itscurrentSilverArrows coachSam Hancock. getadry line appearingor step into thepathof a
of participants to 10. First run in 2016, the WorldSportscar title- scheme–adopted whenit Hesaid:“Mechanically,it anything. Ican’treallysay tornado,”he added.
initiative was revived last year and attracted winningpackage for1989, becamethetest carforthe ranflawlessly,which Ithink it hadamazing downforce, it Hancockand theowner
23 drivers aged between 17 and 25 with the C9enduredaslowbirth revisedfour-valveengine was quiteamazinggivenhow was justa bittoowet and plan toconductfurther
a confirmed programme racing an Aston when itwasintroducedtwo that wouldappear inthe complexit is.Wehadacouple greasy toget tothose kindof testing aheadof competition
Martin Vantage GT3 or GT4. British GT4 years earlier. MercedesC11 successor. of little electricalissues: speedsandkeep it pinned in thePeterAuto-run historic
champion Tom Canning came out on top Plaguedby unreliability, This chassis wasthenfully basicallyit’sgotlotsof safety down through theCraners. GroupCRacing series.
in last year’s Academy.

BMW Car Club champion Caterham Graduates popularity surges as it closes to new members
Page set to step up to M3
The Caterham Graduates membership this early, to very seriously, with a
Inaugural BMW Car Club Racing Racing Club has taken the ensure that our members dedicated Driving Standards
champion Matt Page has had an M3, unusual step of closing to any will have the opportunity to Team, made up of experienced
helped sourced by championship boss new members after receiving race at as many meetings as and respected members.
Neil McDonald, made available to him a significant amount of possible,” explained club “In addition, this season
for a 2020 class step up. interest for the 2020 season. director Andrew Outterside. we’ve introduced two new
Last year was BMWCCR’s second Over 90 drivers have signed “We think our success in types of membership, which
season and first as a championship, up across the four Caterham retaining existing members have proved popular. They
and Page took the overall title driving Graduates classes and and attracting new members cater for those drivers that are
a 325 Ti in the Cup class. membership has increased is due to a number of reasons. short on time but would still
Page achieved this after starting in by around a third. Firstly, our continued focus like to compete in a limited
BMWCCR two years ago with no racing “We’ve been overwhelmed on having fun in a sociable number of rounds [the CGRC
experience. McDonald has now helped by the interest in racing with environment for racers and Trophy] or just have the
Page acquire an M3 to drive this year in us in 2020 and have taken the their families. Safety and occasional outing with the
the more advanced M2 class, but Page unusual decision to close driving standards are taken club during the year.” Over 90 drivers have registered to race with the club in 2020
has to raise his budget for the campaign.
“We took a view that he was probably
going to be too good to stay where he
was,” McDonald said. “He started from Sprint races for 116 Trophy as it will partner with Production BMW
ground zero with no experience at all,
he’s gone on, won the championship.” The116Trophy willhold itheld its ownracesbefore Project 8RacingClub where
Page has also been offered tuition from sprintraces throughout theend of theseason and itwilljoin theProduction
BMW champion Garrie Whittaker. 2020in conjunctionwith willcontinueto hold BMWChampionshipgrid
BMWCCR has made a number of theProject 8RacingClub. 90-minuteendurance atthethreerounds.
regulation tweaks for 2020, including Theseries,whichuses racesat fivemeetings MarkBate, the116
halving its tyre suppliers from eight BMW1Series models, in2020. Trophycoordinator,
to four, with now only Nankang, MRF wasintroduced lastseason Butit will alsoholdfour said:“John Willcocks
and Pirelli dry-weather tyres and asa wayof competingin 20-minuteracesat three [fromProject8] isareally
Uniroyal wet rubber. These were the mini-enduranceraces meetingsthroughoutthe goodfriendof mineand
most commonly used by BMWCCR inarear-wheel-drivecar year;DoningtonParkon hekept intouchwith
competitors plus the move boosts foranaffordableprice. April5,BrandsHatch on whatweweredoing, and
organisational simplicity. Afterstartingoutas August 8andDonington atthebeginningof the
Furthermore, all 2020 races will be 20 partof the750MotorClub’s againon September 12-13. seasonwe werelooking
minutes long. Previously race one of its Series will also feature 90-minute races during this season Roadsportsentry lastyear, This isthrough the fortracktime.”
double-headers was 15 minutes.