Season One Review

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This is a post that I should of written many moons ago towards the end of the last racing seasons (and our first of course!), however it slipped my mind until I found a load of photos and a few videos knowing around that reminded me I should round things off. The last post here on the racing was I believe about Silverstone and we did proceed to race at Anglesey, Donnington and Oulton Park to round off the season. The gallery above is a right mismatch of stuff from throughout the season.

During the mid season break after Anglesey, we got the fanstatic 944 guys at Pro-9 to fit an S2 engine into our S as it was just plain underpowered – they sourced and put one in as well as sorting out the suspension settings and fitting an appropriate exhaust – alway a great bonus. We were excited to pick up the car and get to Donnington to see how competitive we were.

A nervous race. I was to start. We were lumped in with a set of classic cars – the V8s – so much engine, so much metal. The start was also a rolling start which I hadn’t experienced before simply due to the V8s being with us. It was all a bit manic – didn’t know how good the car was and there was V8s everywhere! A few laps later I was starting to ease into things but a slight spin left me accidentally burning out the clutch and so we lost the gears and were out – I was gutted to say the least as was Adrian – as he was only in for one corner!

Clutch fixed we got back out at Oulton and what a great day, great race. We had some hospitality for our business on the first corner which was superb to watch some of the other races and chat away. I was in second this time and we had a good race getting to know the car and ended up 9th which was great for our first (proper) race out with the new engine after always being at the back before.

Then, as the boys from Pro-9 has lost their flywheel their car was not to race. In an effort to help them out they renumbered our car as it was a 944 S2 and they were put to the back of the grid. That car can fly. With a driver much more used to fast 944 racing than Adrian or I, Brett shot our car through the pack ending up in 2nd place with a few laps to go. Coming up to some back markers though, disaster struck

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In a series of moves and shenanigans that we don’t fully understand or know, the front end of our car ended up in the side of another 944 back marker which ended the two cars respective races and all that overtaking up the pack was for nothing. Fortunately for us the damage was superficial to the front bodywork – wings and bumper – and in the off season, we were having them replaced anyway with fibreglass numbers. Still a little bit of a sad way to end the season for the car, but we were still very happy with our race.

The car has been with Pro-9 the whole off season for roll cage work, fibreglass work, paint, and a general tidy up of the bodges done by our previous guys over at VTEC Direct. We’re very very excited for it to be back and have a track day coming up at Oulton for some pre season laps.

Overall, what a great first season of racing. Ups, downs. Not enough speed to not being able to get the most out of it. Spins, dead clutches, small hose issues and much more. Superb. Roll on season 2. A few videos are below of Donnington too:

Rob Smith on Vimeo.

About Rob

I'm an average petrolhead - I love cars and get as much driving experiences as I can out in the world from test drives to track days.