Karen Phillips Racing

Welsh Water Woes!

2012-01-30T13:23:00.005Z

Despite problems with their workshop regularly being flooded lately, TenguDo Motorsport have been swift in getting Karen's car together very quickly. All that now remains is the fitment of new rear discs to go with the uprated calipers and then the engine rebuild.

Karen made a visit to TenguDo Motorsport on Saturday to deliver the rear calipers and check out the progress. She was pleasantly surprised to find that the gearbox, rear diff, driveshafts and hubs had all been replaced with the uprated items. The guys are now waiting on delivery of Cosworth engine internals before the rebuild of the engine can take place.

Once complete, it'll be time to organise a shakedown session or two to run in the engine and let Karen get used to the feel of the new set up. Here's hoping this can be sorted before the end of February.

TenguDo Motorsport are also trying to find a solution to their flooding problem...

Karen's Plans for 2012

2012-01-21T17:52:00.004Z

Karen plans to continue racing in the Nippon Challenge as part of the GT300 class. This is for cars with up to 300 BHP with a minimum weight of 1110 KG. Before this can happen, TenguDo Motorsport have quite a bit of preparation to complete!

Having blown the engine at Rockingham, a new engine was required. A Closed Deck Block long engine salvaged from a Subaru Impreza STi will form the basis of the new powerhouse. This should ensure longevity and more power than before. To help this, it will be fitted with ACL Race Bearings and Cosworth Head Gaskets and a Kevlar Timing Belt. A new 3 inch exhaust system with an open neck turbo downpipe has also been bought and had been installed before the Brands Hatch DTM meeting, but obviously didn’t help much. It should help increase power and reduce turbo spool up time. A large atmospheric dump valve will also be fitted. Other plans on the engine may yet see larger fuel injectors, a front mount intercooler and a new mappable ECU.

The running gear is also being upgraded to use a 5 speed DCCD gearbox, R180 rear diff, R180 driveshafts and R180 hubs. This will mean the transmission is stronger and the differentials can be locked at the flick of a switch to provide maximum grip at race starts. Two-pot rear calipers have also been bought and will replace the current sliding caliper items on the rear hubs for sharper braking. (Although a brake bias valve may be required to keep the balance and prevent the rears locking up first).

Further modifications will then be concerned with reducing weight and possibly adding aero modifications such as a rear underbody venturi tunnel. The doors may also be replaced with much lighter GRP versions with polycarbonate windows.

Karen is now a member of the British Womens Racing Driver Club (BWRDC). The club holds their own Championship based on the race results from whichever series the lady members race in. Karen will be competing for the Helen Spence Trophy. The club members have also been invited to compete at Shelsley Walsh Hillclimb, and the hope is that Karen will be able to compete to experience this local historic venue.

Race Report - Brands Hatch DTM 3rd & 4th September

2012-01-05T13:38:00.005Z

Following the engine damage at Rockingham, TenguDo Motorsport pulled out all the stops to ensure Rexy II had a loan replacement engine ready for the Nippon Challenge support races for the DTM meeting at Brands Hatch. The engine itself had recently been rebuilt and was residing in another car, but was untested.

Nerves were jangling on the run-up to qualifying with lots of incidents in the previous sessions and exciting (and noisy!) practice from the DTM cars. Unfortunately, there seemed to be issues with the new motor. It had problems revving out. As the session progressed the engine temperature began to rise. Obviously, this affected Karen's performance and she qualified about 2/3rds of the way down the field.

She started fairly well in Race 1, but an early incident saw the cars having to lap behind the Safety Car. After several laps, it had been decided that the incident was so severe as to require the race to be abandoned. Luckily, no-one was seriously injured. Due to a similar incident in the VW Scirocco support race there was no time left on the day to re-run the Nippon race.

Race 2 therfore saw everyone retain their original starting positions from qualifying. TenguDo Motorsport had tried everything to try and get the car running correctly, they even managed to scratch build an Intercooler spray system from the windscreen washer system of Karen's Mercedes Sprinter support vehicle! It was all to no avail, as the car was as bad as before and Karen was forced to limp around and finish 2nd from last.

It was a very depressing end to a long weekend. It was also to mark the premature end of Karen's season. It had been decided that the loaned engine would be returned to TenguDo and Karen would need to source a new one for TenguDo to fettle ready for the following season. Meanwhile she would miss Nippon Challenge rounds at Mallory Park and Pembrey.

Race Report - Rockingham 21st August

2012-01-05T09:01:00.004Z

The 'Rock was a challenge for Karen... Early morning rain had cleaned up any decent rubber that had been layed down during the previous day. The track surface proved to be very low on grip.

The Internaional circuit was being used by the Nippon Challenge, and as Karen was out on her initial qualifying lap she soon discovered the lack of grip and ended up spinning at the Tarzan hairpin.

Karen gathered herself and got stuck back in, being more wary of the track surface whilst still trying to get heat into the tyres. Unfortunately, just as she began to get into a rhythm, she noticed power seemed to be dropping off. In a short while she began to notice white smoke behind the car and before too long the cabin started filling with it as well! With power failing and visibility becoming an issue the only safe course of action was to retire to the pits.

The general consensus was that the turbo had failed completely or the turbo oil seals had gone. A turbo swap might have been conceivable if only we had a spare with us. That certainly might be resolved for future meetings but wasn't an option at Rockingham. Thus it was to be Karen's first ever DNS since she began racing in 2006. Despite doing only 4 laps with a failing car she managed to be classified in 26th place out of 33 runners.

Upon inspection back at TenguDo Motorsport HQ it became apparent the failure was much more severe than initially thought. Number three cylinder had lost its piston rings and the piston had been slightly melted. The rings had broken up and the bore was badly scored. The engine block was written-off. All the oil-smoke had been caused by oil seeping past the piston and being blown through the exhaust. A replacement engine was required before the next race meeting...

Race Report - Snetterton 300 25th June

2012-01-05T08:40:00.011Z

The Snetterton 300 meeting was the first event attended since Karen's car had been rebodied by TenguDo Motorsport. Despite some early morning rain, conditions for qualifying were good. Karen was enjoying the new Snetterton 300 layout with its mix of hairpins, sweeping curves and long straights. So much so, that she qualified in 8th overall and 4th in class.

Race 1 saw Karen get a decent start and she was soon battling with Steve Cassar's Proton Coupe and Kevin Middleton's Subaru WRX. Kevin was chasing hard when Karen managed to overhaul Steve, leaving Steve and Kevin to battle each other behind her. Kevin came out on top but they were both still chasing her hard. Karen was keeping them at bay but suffered bad understeer coming out of the Agostini hairpin. She went off onto the grass and slid across the wet grass into the armco then span back across the track into the infield. The car had stalled and despite Karen's best efforts ito took ages to restart. Meanwhile she could see all her competitors approaching and then passing her. She managed to restart and join the track just as class rival Darren Hughes drove past!

Karen was mindful to check the car out as she tried to catch up, but her recovery was hampered by bad vibration. It turns out the soft Snetterton mud had coated the wheels and had thrown out the wheel balancing! She did a brilliant job of chasing Darren down but had to be content with finishing behind him by 1.5 seconds. Karen finished 13th overall and 5th in her class.

It was heartbreaking to see the damage inflicted on the new bodyshell... However, the TenguDo crew weren't swayed by sentement and quickly got down to making repairs to enable the car to run again in Race 2. The wheels were swapped for another set and friends and helpers washed the mud from the car to make it look presentable again, even though it was missing the front spoiler which was feared had been destroyed in the shunt by the car driving over it!

Karen was now forced to start Race 2 from 13th position and it was indeed unlucky for her as she was caught in a queue of traffic behind the slow starting Suzuki Swift of Andy McLennan. Karen then had to recover as many places as she could. She had fun fighting through the field to eventualy finish 9th Overall and 4th in class.

Despite the damage to the car and missing out on podium results within the Subaru Cup, Karen enjoyed her drives and finished the day with a smile on her face. She was possibly cheered up by the guys being able to find the front spoiler intact at the side of the circuit, needing only a little paint to look as good as new.

Following the meeting, Rexy II was returned to TenguDo Motorsport to enble the crew to repair the panel damage ready for the next outing at Rockingham.

Do You Believe in Reincarnation?

2011-09-07T10:29:00.003Z

The guys at TenguDo Motorsport definitely do! Thanks to the shunts at Castle Combe Rexy's shell was compromised with the passenger side B pillar and sill area being of particular concern. It was decided that the best course of action was to re-shell.

TenguDo Motorsport already had a suitable shell waiting and so the guys immediately got down to the business of stripping Rexy of all the interior, rollcage, dashboard, engine, gearbox, etc. Basically everything!

The new shell was black and it was decided to go for a monochrome colour scheme. The guys took the opportunity to paint the engine bay white to make it easier when working on the car in the future.

Everything was completed in time for its first appearance at the Snetterton 300 meet. A massive thank you to everyone at TenguDo Motorsport who pulled all the stops out to ensure the new race car (Rexy II) was running great and looking amazing!

Race Report – Castle Combe 30th May

2011-06-23T07:35:00.017Z

Castle Combe was the first event at which Karen and Richard could stay overnight at the circuit in the relative comfort of their own semi-converted camper van. They arrived the day before the racing in the afternoon and went about making themselves at home. They and the TenguDo Motorsport Team enjoyed some beers in the evening and some fantastic food and more company courtesy of the Red Dragon Race and Track Club (RDRTC) BBQ.

Unfortunately, Bank Holiday Monday dawned damply and the rain gradually grew worse so that conditions for qualifying were rather less than ideal. The track was very wet with many areas of standing water. Karen's car was equipped with a set of cut Silverstone FTZ's which at best could be described as intermediates and so she would have to tread lightly. This she did and apart from one minor excursion to the grass at Bobbies chicane she survived unscathed. Many others didn't fare so well with casualties growing to the point that the session was red flagged after only 4 laps completed (If people were lucky!). Karen's qualifying time of 1:45.006 put her in 13th position for Race 1 out of 34 runners, and 3rd in line for the Subaru Cup.

Race 1 started in rainy conditions with Karen being baulked by a slow starting Civic but she was doing well until struck hard by Gary Chappel's Celica at Quarry on lap 2. This span her out but she managed to avoid hitting the try wall. However she lost 12 places immediately!

As Karen tried to recover, Anthony Allit's Civic exited stage left at Camp Corner and hit the tyre wall. On lap 5 she crested Avon Rise into Quarry to see Kevin Middleton's Impreza embedded nose first into the tyres. This caused the deployment of the Safety Car. Karen was trying to catch up with the main field hoping to make better progress when the SC went in. The Celica GT that had been in front of Karen span out on the exit of Tower and Karen jumped on the opportunity to overtake it, especially as this turned out to be the last lap! Karen Finished 23rd out of 34 runners and 1st in the Subaru Cup.

Race 2 saw the conditions drying out nicely and Karen made the most of the grip available in a storming start to take at least half a dozen places by Quarry on the first lap. Things were going well until she was driving up Avon Rise later on. #29 driven by her husband Richard in his second only race caught up with her and they were both on different lines. Unfortunatley, they came together and Karen came off worst being sent spinning off into the tyre wall. History was repeating itself and she was forced to produce another recovery drive, finishing 22nd out of 28 runners. This time being classified 3rd in the Subaru Cup.

Japfest 2011

2011-05-17T12:23:00.006Z

Castle Combe played host to thousands of people attending Japfest on Saturday 14th May. Karen and Richard attended the event with the rest of the TenguDo Motorsport team. Martin's #29 car and Karen's #14 car were on display in the Cymraeg Scoobie Club stand when not taking advantage of the track.

Karen started off carefully, nursing the rusty discs and new pads before pressing on harder. She enjoyed her track sessions and was getting a much better feel for a track she'd not driven on for several years. She was also getting used to the feel of the new clutch and quickshift combination. In her last session, the belt for the Power Assisted Steering snapped and this forced her to retire early. However, this is an easy fix and proved useful as replacement should prevent this happening during the races on Bank Holiday Monday 30th May.

Meanwhile whilst this was going on, Martin White the principal of TenguDo Motorsport, seemed a little preoccupied...

Castle Combe Here We Come...

2011-05-04T12:16:00.005Z

Except for a few sponsor and safety stickers, Karen's car is now complete and ready to race at Castle Combe on Bank Holiday Monday 30th May. The car will undergo a shakedown during track sessions at Japfest (also being held at Castle Combe) on Saturday 14th May.

This will allow Karen to re-acquaint herself with the car, the new quickshift and the new paddle-clutch. Neither of these have been used in anger as yet. Karen will also be able to re-affirm her lines on the circuit ready to race there a couple of weeks later.

Many thanks to sponsors TenguDo Motorsport for supplying and fitting a six-point OMP FIA approved rollcage with doorbars and an additional harness bar. We're really happy with the considerate and excellent work done. In addition, the TenguDo crew collected and re-delivered the car to our door. Now that's what I call service!

Preparations for the 2011 Season

2011-02-09T13:20:00.004Z

Work has begun on improving Karen's car and making it more competitive in 2011. First job was removal of the original Cusco/Safety21 rollcage which was no longer able to pass race scrutineering thanks to front struts that bent around the dashboard. With that out, all the sound deadening was also removed. The car is now ready for fitting of a new (MSA compliant!) rollcage by sponsors TenguDo Motorsport once they are in their new workshop premises.

The air-conditioning has also been removed and the rear doors and passenger door are yet to be gutted of their window winder mechanisms. A new racing battery has been bought which is only 7kg. Other new purchases include an induction pipe to replace the resonator box and smooth the airflow, a strut brace for the rear suspension and finally an aluminium bonnet to further reduce weight.

There will no doubt be further modifications to reduce weight and thus aid acceleration and braking. The season is approaching fast, and it'll soon become a race in itself to get Karen's car ready for some decent practice sessions before the first race...

Race Car Live! at Brands Hatch

2010-11-23T20:02:00.004Z

Race Car Live! was held at Brands Hatch on the weekend of the 20th and 21st of November. It's a demonstration to the public and other racers of some of the series, cars and technologies available in UK club racing. This year saw it presenting static displays, circuit driving and rallycross demonstrations.

This was Karen's first chance to help support Tengu Do Motorsport as a proper member of the team. Karen helped meet and greet the public in the pits and was also given the opportunity to drive Martin's car for a session. Having previously found Brands Hatch to be a bit of a bogey circuit for her, Karen quickly got into a great rhythm and had fun chasing down and passing a Porsche GT3. However, this didn't go to her head as she was lapped a couple of times by an Aston Martin Vantage GT4! Certainly the best sounding session grouping of the entire demonstration.

Martin provided exciting rides for passengers and also had a couple of other racing drivers try driving the car for themselves, including ex-BTCC champion Andy McLennan. Andy certainly provided the team with useful feedback and he enjoyed driving the car.

Karen even managed to show her talents as a domestic godess, helping to clear up the mess created by Martin deciding to bring half a tonne of the Paddock Hill Bend kitty-litter back into the garage with him!

Karen Joins The Tengu Do Motorsport Team

2010-11-23T19:46:00.005Z

Martin White, Team Principal and Director of Tengu Do Motorsport (Pictured above) was so impressed with Karen whilst she stood in for him driving recently, that he invited her to join the team!

Karen will be driving her own car again in 2011, but it will receive attention from the Tengu Do Motorsport Team and the plan is it will be painted and receive a graphics package to make it a true sister car to Martin's own #29 Impreza WRX RA.

Karen's really looking forward to enjoying racing with the Tengu Do Motorsport Team next season and is very grateful for the opportunity.

Race Report – Mallory Park 19th September

2010-09-27T18:55:00.013Z

Once again Karen had been given the opportunity to drive the Tengu Do Motorsport Subaru Cup car, due to its usual driver Martin White still being too injured to drive. With the weather threatening rain, the team decided to use the cut wet tyres which would give great grip in the dry and hopefully reasonable grip in the wet...

The weather remained dry, and Karen strategically got into the Assembly Area first to ensure clean track ahead of her straight away. She gradually increased her pace, mindful of the fact the car was equipped with brand new front brake discs and pads. Karen had to remind herself the nuiances of the circuit and the new layout of the approach to the hairpin. She enjoyed the session, being overtaken by some cars and overtaking others, swapping places several times with Rob Jefferies in his Turbocharged MK1 MR2. When the timesheets appeared, it showed she had qualified in 13th position with a best time of 57.209 seconds. It was noted that the tyre pressures had ballooned considerably which must have seriously affected her ability to get the best out of the car.

Race 1 started with Karen on the inside of the circuit, leaving no opportunity to use the side of the circuit due to the barriers! She didn't get a great start with the car stuttering and seeming to bog down. She was overhauled by the MX5's of Kevin Middleton and Matt Robinson. She fought hard, first managing to split them and then overtake them both. However, the fight had meant she lost touch with the cars further ahead. Thanks mainly to DNF's ahead, Karen finished in 8th place. Her best lap time was a 56.797, but more importanly she gained the final podium position in the Subaru Cup! Once again, it was discovered that the tyre pressures were soaring on certain tyres, affecting performance. Pressures were adjusted further ready for Race 2.

Race 2 had Karen starting on the outside of the circuit and the team had already discussed her use of the (now dry) grass thanks to the advantage of the WRX's AWD. When the lights went out Karen made a monster start and did indeed go 50/50 on the circuit and grass to launch herself from 8th to 4th by the first corner! Unfortunately, there were a couple of incidents in the pack much further back and it was serious enough to warrant the race being stopped immediately.

The cars that could continue were re-formed in their original positions on the grid, meaning Karen had lost her advantage. Worse was the fact that the guys in front were now wise to her tactics and blocked her off at the re-start. Karen found herself fighting hard with the MR2 of Nick Jones and MX5 of Jonathan Blake. Both were powerful two litre cars and were much lighter than the WRX. This meant they were pretty evenly matched. Karen did manage to get in front, but then outbraked herself going into the Esses forcing her onto the grass. She tried to keep her momentum going and re-joined the circuit but the mistake had cost her dear with the MR2 and MX5 nipping past her again. Karen was fighting hard again and would have re-gained her places, but a reduced race time thanks to the re-start meant she crossed the finishing line a mere 2 tenths of a second behind Jonathan's MX5. Karen's best lap time had improved to 56.527 seconds and although she finished where she had started in 8th overall she was 2nd in the Subaru Cup!

A massive thank you to the Tengu Do Motorsport team and its principal Martin White (Pictured with Karen). The crew not only provided the WRX, but were also invaluable in their enthusiasm and encouragement.

Karen's driving improved by leaps and bounds and it was noticeable how she was much more confident in her battling in close proximity and overtaking other cars. Promising great stuff for her return in her own car next season.

Karen Racing at Mallory Park on September 19th

2010-09-14T07:52:00.002Z

Martin White is still not fit to drive his Tengu Do Motorsport car at Mallory Park on September 19th and so once again has offered the drive to Karen. After enjoying the opportunity at Cadwell, Karen jumped at the chance to race it again at Mallory. Here's hoping that Karen's results will prove better than last time thanks to being more familiar with the car.

Race Report – Cadwell Park 22nd August

2010-08-31T19:09:00.012Z

Despite all expectations, Sunday 22nd August at Cadwell was very warm and sunny. Quite a difference to the previous day during which Karen and Richard travelled up to Lincolnshire. Although Karen's own car needs a new rollcage to get through scrutineering, she'd been offered a drive in the Tengu Do Motorsport car!

Martin White, proprietor of Tengu Do Motorsport and usual driver of Subaru cup car #29 had ben injured in a previous race and had been advised not to compete. He kindly offered the drive and race support to Karen for the Cadwell meeting. Karen and Richard were very grateful for the opportunity. The car was quite a departure from Karen's being lighter, lower geared, more RWD bias, and probably had a bit more power.

Karen's first real opportunity to drive the car came in qualifying and as Richard and the Tengu Do crew watched from the stand at the Mountain she seemed to be on the pace straight away. As the session was drawing to a close they were all shocked to hear the tannoy commentary screaming about Karen spinning like a top!! Everyone held their breath, but she soon re-appeared at speed without any discernable damage. Phew!

Karen had qualified in 13th place for Race 1, and last of the Subaru Cup runners. Given how quick she seemed to be going it was disappointing news. The race started with Karen getting baulked by other cars, and losing places to some rapid starting MR2s from behind her on the grid. Most of the race saw her claiming back these places and thanks to a DNF ahead she finished 12th overall. Karen had endured a couple of off track excursions which resulted in her being called in front of the Clerk of the Course...

Nippon Challenge Race 1 Cadwell 22/08/10 from Richard Senter on Vimeo.

During the break between races, the Tengu Do Motorsport crew worked hard on the car to remove as much weight as possible within the regulations after learning of an adjustment to the rules. The minimum weight had been dropped from 1250kg to 1200kg. That was news to Richard and Karen too. Nice to be told, eh?

The result of Race 1 meant that Race 2 saw Karen starting in 12th, next to Nick Jones in his MR2. Again, Karen was baulked badly, especially by MX5 of Jonathan Blake who in turn had been blocked by the poorly starting Buddy Club Honda of Paul Hughes. Again the MR2s found space and beat Karen into the first corner. Race 1 repeated itself and Karen spent a long while catching and passing the MR2s. She finished 10th overall.

Nippon Challenge Race 2 Cadwell 22/08/10 from Richard Senter on Vimeo.

Karen had missed out on a Subaru Cup podium position, but everyone was really happy that she'd done so well in a car she wasn't used to. Not only that, but she'd managed to return the car to its owner without any kind of damage whatsoever.

It's possible that Karen will be out in #29 again at Mallory Park in September, but hopefully Martin will be recovered sufficiently to drive his own car...

Karen Racing at Cadwell on August 22nd

2010-08-09T12:52:00.004Z

Image used with kind permission of Lance Wittenberg
It's now planned that Karen will be out racing at Cadwell Park in the Nippon Challenge/Subaru Cup on August 22nd. Karen will be driving the no.29 Subaru Impreza WRX RA for Tengu Do Motorsport. (Car pictured above)

Karen's very grateful to Martin and Mike at Tengu Do Motorsport for allowing her the opportunity to drive the car!

New Clutch. Faster Starts!

2010-03-23T13:20:00.003Z

On Sunday, the Tengu Do Motorsport guys went the extra mile and installed a new paddle clutch and quickshift in Rexy. The plan was to use our original flywheel to keep costs down, but upon inspection it was found to have small fractures! Luckily, the chaps had a serviceable old one spare and that's now gone in instead.

Everything worked perfectly, and you can even find reverse gear with absolutely no hassle. (Ask a Subaru driver). Karen's now getting used to the idea of building the revs and dropping the clutch for explosive starts. She soon got the swing of it and was astounded at the difference.

So thanks to Martin and Mike, if she does race this year then the rest of the grid better watch out for her when the lights go out...

Silverstone Nippon Challenge Launch Day

2010-03-08T20:30:00.006Z

Image copyright VF-Racing, used with kind permission
Karen and Richard attended the Nippon Challenge, Subaru Cup and MR2 Racing 2010 series Launch Day at Silverstone on Thursday 4th March. Unlike the last couple of years the weather was dry and bright although very cold.

Image copyright VF-Racing, used with kind permission
Both Karen and Richard drove the car amongst a variety of other Japanese cars including the ex-Matt Neal Honda Civic British Touring Car! Richard was also fortunate enough to be graced with a passenger ride in a race prepared Nissan 350Z which has had some tuning input by Nissan experts Abbey Motorsport.

Rexy ran perfectly all day and both drivers had great fun without worrying about the pressures of a race day. It was a shame that the new clutch and quickshift hadn't been fitted in time but that will be resolved soon.

A Nose Job...

2010-02-28T17:59:00.004Z

Rexy has received a minor front end makeover in time for the Silverstone Red Dragon Race and Track Club (RDRTC) day on Thursday 4th march. We were hoping to have had the new clutch installed and the quickshift fitted, but late delivery of the clutch and the fact Richard has been working many weekends overtime pretty much ruled this out.

The passenger seat and harness have been installed ready for passenger rides on the day. Donations in exchange for the rides will be given to the Sport Relief charity. Here's hoping the weather is dry for a change, unlike the past couple of years!

Karen's Plans for Racing in 2010

2009-12-14T13:41:00.004Z

Karen is planning to continue racing in the Subaru Cup and Nippon Challenge in 2010. The current plan is for the series to split and the Subaru Cup, Evo Cup and MR2 Turbo Cup to share a grid. The Nippon Challenge races will take place on separate days. 'Cup entrants will be offered a special rate to also participate in the Nippon races.

Rexy, Karen's long-suffering Impreza WRX race car looks to get a spruce up before the season begins. Most important on the list is the fitting of a new clutch and flywheel up to the job. Karen's starts were originally blistering, but she's since been surpassed by everyone else and the deteriorating clutch is greatly to blame.

In addition, it's likely to receive a front spoiler seeing as most others are using them. The fog-lamp recesses will also be filled with lamp covers to improve the air-flow at the front of the car. It's also highly likely that the silver doors will be painted blue to match the rest of the car.

A major sponsor would be very useful in helping out with the costs of racing, and Richard will be trying hard to sort out some kind of deal. Interested parties are encouraged to contact Karen through the contact link on the right of this page.

Karen's End of Season Summary 2009

2009-12-06T16:51:00.006Z

I thoroughly enjoyed racing my Subaru Impreza WRX in the Subaru Cup/Nippon Challenge this season. Although there were some races I didn't compete at due to damage to my car and unforseen financial constraints.

Some bizarre and unfortunate incidents like a black flag for a minor wardrobe malfunction at Pembrey (Whilst 2nd in the Subaru Cup!) and a spin on oil at snetterton, meant I missed out on more podium opportunities. At least I didn't suffer any real mechanical problems like many of my fellow racers.

The car ran pretty much faultlessly and I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Graham and Alix at XSpec Motorsport fo their sponsorship, support and friendship. Thanks also to my sponsors Opie Oils and SFS Performance silicon hoses for essential items at a special reduced rate.

I'm really looking forward to racing in the Subaru Cup/Nippon Challenge against all my friends again next year. I intend to improve upon my lap times and finishing positions whilst continuing to have fun!

Best wishes,
Karen.
x

Nippon Challenge 2009 from Richard Senter on Vimeo.

Race Report – Snetterton 22nd August

2009-12-06T16:32:00.012Z

Snetterton was the venue for what turned out to be Karen's final races of the year (Due to not planning to attend the Brands Hatch meeting and unfortunate circumstances ruling out the Mallory Park meeting). The weather was dry and sunny and hopes were high for Subaru Cup podium finishes. Things started well with Karen qualifying 3rd in the Subaru Cup, ahead of Darren Hughes and 14th overall.

Race 1 started and Karen was a little baulked by the two Hondas in front of her until she tried for 3rd gear and once again suffered with problems finding it. Meanwhile the Subaru Cup cars of Darren Hughes and Martin White had overhauled her and she was also passed by Richard Johnson’s Honda Civic. As she turned through the apex of Sear corner she was given a tap from behind which saw her make a mid-corner correction, and she was now having to fight Nick Jones’ GT200 MR2. Lap 2 saw Karen overtake Nick up the main Senna straight. As she went through Sear corner for the 2nd time she was given an almighty whack from behind from a GT150 MR2!

As Karen gathered herself together Nick passed her again along the Revett straight, but she returned the favour once again on the Senna straight. She was soon catching up with the group of cars in front along the Revett straight, but up ahead Andy McLennan’s Suzuki Swift had deposited oil over the track. As Karen braked hard for the Esses the rear of the car locked up thanks to the oil, and span her out. Luckily she came to a halt without hitting the barriers, and several other cars were lucky to avoid her or span out themselves. Just about everything else passed her before it was safe to move away and as she tried to catch up the Safety Car boards came out and everyone slowed up in convoy whilst the track was attended to.

The Safety car period lasted for 4 whole laps and during this time the field had become far too strung out and it was going to be impossible for Karen to catch up with the front runners. The Nippon races are all time limited as well and so Karen knew she had very little time to recover from this position.

As the green flags came out she powered up the Senna straight and overtook the GT150 MR2’s in front of her and used the power of the Impreza to catch up to the squabbling GT200 cars of Nick’s MR2 and Roger Sibley’s Honda CRX. She followed them closely through the Esses, Bomb Hole and Russell bend and over hauled Roger along the straight. Nick was harried through Sear and overtaken along Revett straight, where she also overtook a GT150 MR2. She was now left to chase down Piers Hulford’s Subaru Cup Impreza and Jim Bridge’s GT300 Nissan 350Z. She caught them at the Esses but had no chance to get past before the chequered flag was waved.

Having qualified in 14th, to finish in 21st was very disappointing for Karen and she was still fuming over being struck from behind earlier on in the race! It was left to Richard to make repairs to the rear bumper and replace the tow markings ready for the next race…

Nippon Challenge Snetterton 22/08/09 Race 1 from Richard Senter on Vimeo.

Thanks to the result of Race 1, Karen began from 21st on the grid. She got a reasonable start, overhauling Jim’s 350Z but was overtaken herself by Dallas Jackson’s MR2 and Piers’ Impreza. Coming out of Sear she managed to overtake Richard Johnson’s Honda Civic, Ian McLaughlin’s Suzuki Swift and Dallas. By the end of the Revett straight, Karen had caught up with Lee Bennett-Neal’s Integra, Nick Jones’ MR2 and Piers’ Impreza.

Up the start/finish straight Karen tried to out drag Lee’s Integra and was doing well, but he had the inside line and she had to yield going into Riches. Before the end of Lap 2, Lee had got past Piers whilst Karen was still chasing them. All the while she was busy fending off Richard Johnson’s Civic.

On Lap 4 going into the Esses, Karen overtook the ailing Impreza of Stuart Ward and followed the fraught battle between Nick’s MR2 and Piers’ Impreza, with Richard’s Civic still looming large in her mirrors.

Coming out of Sear in Lap 5, Piers got a bit sideways which caused Nick to slow up and Karen took the advantage to get past. As Karen followed Piers into Riches at the start of the next lap they were greeted by Darren Hughes’ Impreza recovering from the side of the track. Piers pulled up really quickly and baulked Karen as she tried to pass. Richard Johnson jumped at the opportunity and outbraked Karen and Piers into Sear corner and was now chasing Darren. Leaving Karen and Piers drag-racing up the straight! Piers had track position under the bridge and into the Esses, but Karen got a good tow on him and shot past him on the inside of Coram. Meanwhile, Richard’s Civic tried a move on Darren only to spin out onto the grass in the attempt.

The rest of Karen’s race was spent chasing Darren and gradually catching him to end up only 0.773 of a second behind him at the line. This meant Darren collected the final Subaru Cup podium position and Karen missed out. Karen finished in 12th overall. A great advance from her starting position of 21st.

Nippon Challenge Snetterton 22/08/09 Race 2 from Richard Senter on Vimeo.

It was when Karen drove into the paddock that Richard noted string-like material poking out of a bonnet vent. It turned out that during the race the power steering and alternator belt had been mostly shredded. Karen was lucky to be able to complete the race without losing her power steering!

Once again, an unfortunate incident in Race 1 ended up blighting both of Karen’s races. Despite this she enjoyed her recovery drives, even if she didn’t get to grab a trophy on the day.

"Mind the Doors!"

2009-10-21T14:10:00.008Z

Following the damage at the Silverstone race meeting there was a fair list of items required to repair Rexy: Four doors, a driver's front wing, driver's sidelight and driver's side indicator and repeater indicator, and some side skirting. On top of this, some repairs were required to the driver's side rear arch. Unfortunately this meant missing the next event at Cadwell whilst the repairs were completed.

Karen's sponsors XSpec Motorsport secured some second hand parts and Richard collected these and set about the repairs. The doors were fitted without any real drama other than the need for some wiring in the driver's door that needed sorting to correctly run in line with the alarm system and lock the doors without setting it off! It had been decided to save money by leaving the doors and door mirrors in the silver of the donor car. This made Karen's car easier to recognise at a distance on track.

Richard then painted the front wing in a matching blue and finished it with some lacquer. It was then fitted without any trouble.

Darren's pit helper Scott was drafted in to do the repairs on the rear arch, given that his trade is panel beater. He made a fantastic job of it which Richard then painted and lacquered.

All that remained was the application of the racing decals and Rexy was fighting fit again ready for Snetterton.

The more eagle-eyed of you may spot the side skirts are missing. Richard decided they just weren't worth replacing and so he tidied up each sill and plugged the holes used for attaching the skirts with small rubber grommets.

Race Report - Silverstone 6th June

2009-10-21T09:39:00.007Z

When Silverstone gets wet, its surface gets very slippery and unfortunately it was very wet for race day! Conditions were awful and Karen had more than one moment of drama during the qualifying session.

Images copyright Lance Wittenberg, used with kind permission.
All the Subaru Cup runners use the Silverstone FTZ Type RR tyre which is essentially a dry weather tyre and very slick. All of them experienced a near total lack of grip and terrible trouble with large bodies of standing water. Despite this, Karen qualified in 16th position, less than a second behind fellow Subaru Cup racer Martin White and halfway up a field of 32 cars.

Silverstone offered to cut extra grooves in the tyres to try and improve grip. Karen’s spare tyres were duly cut in this fashion and Richard braved the elements and swapped them onto the car. Tyre pressure was also reduced in an effort to find more compliance in the tyre which might help retain control.

Conditions for Race 1 were still treacherous. So much so, that Karen’s recollections of the race were very hazy due to so much happening. The most memorable moment however, was having got in front of Martin she led him into Luffield when he unintentionaly nudged the rear inside of the back of her car and spent them both spinning out. Normally it wouldn't have been a problem but due to the low grip conditions it caught them out. Martin recovered more quickly and got ahead. Karen finished in 17th position. Sam Maher-Loughnan, Alix Thompson and Martin took the Subaru Cup podium positions. Karen was next, ahead of Darren who was having terrible trouble with his windscreen misting up.

Images copyright Lance Wittenberg, used with kind permission.
The rain had stopped before Race 2, but there was still an awful lot of water on the circuit. As the leaders headed into Copse things started to go awry! Karen arrived there to find cars at all angles across the circuit and as she tried to avoid the Honda Accord of Andre Severs, he reversed into her. This knocked her into the path of Andy McLennan’s Swift which battered the other side of her Impreza!

Images copyright Lance Wittenberg, used with kind permission.
Karen continued on, and tried to get a bead on the disturbed handling of her car. The damage had bent the front wing down onto the driver’s front wheel causing her problems. This was partly responsible for a spin when she reached Luffield. She was now more or less last and had to chase after the GT150 MR2’s. As she began to get through them she spotted Adrian Howells going AWOL on the grass by the inside of Maggotts. Karen was now catching up to Darren who went wide through Brooklands and managed to keep the car going through the gravel to reappear going into Luffield. Karen wanted to chase him hard down the straight but was baulked by an un-gentlemanly move by Dallas Jackson’s GT200 MR2. Karen quickly resolved this and was soon hot on Darren’s heels again. They were close through Brooklands and Luffield but as they went through Copse Karen tried to sneak through on the inside as Darren had taken a wider line. He tightened his line slightly and Karen lifted off. Thanks to the conditions and being on the painted kerbing, the back end broke away and she span out into the pit exit lane. Cars streamed past and she was back behind the GT150’s again! This time her recovery was much quicker and it wasn’t long before she was once again dealing with the enigma that is Dallas Jackson. The front runners were now lapping as Karen got past Dallas and as she entered Brooklands she was forced to stand on the brakes as the race leader had spun to a halt in front if her. With cars around her she had nowhere to go and prayed she would stop in time! Luckily this was the case, but now she had to recover lost places all over again, including overtaking Dallas. This she managed to do and despite all the drama and running with a slightly hobbled car she finished in 15th position overall. Unfortunately, she was totally out of contention for the Subaru Cup podium spots.

Images copyright Lance Wittenberg, used with kind permission.
When Karen returned to the paddock, she was very surprised to find a good chunk of Andre’s pink rear bumper sticking out of the side of her car and also of the damage to the passenger side of the car. That damage was also an unwelcome revelation to Richard who’d been spectating from the inside of the circuit!

Nippon Challenge Silverstone 06/06/09 Race 2 from Richard Senter on Vimeo.

Race Report - Pembrey 16/17th May

2009-07-30T10:36:00.009Z

Nippon Challenge Pembrey 16th & 17th May 2009 from Richard Senter on Vimeo.

Despite dire warnings of heavy rain for South Wales on Saturday, Pembrey was more or less dry on the first day of racing. Due to a Caterham sprint event in the morning, Karen and her friends were able to have a comparatively long lie-in and enjoy a hearty full breakfast at their B&B before arriving at the circuit to find that scrutineering seemed to have started earlier than expected!

It was a good job too, as it turned out. Karen's was the first of the Subaru Cup cars to enter scrutineering and they weren't happy about the amount of thread (not) showing through some of the nuts on the rollcage and the presence of a video camera. The camera was removed and they warned us over the bolt length but provided her with a ticket to allow her to race. Following Subaru Cup cars were much less fortunate, as the scrutineers took umbrage at the fact their cages weren't fitted with door bars. It took a couple of hours until the situation was finalised by the Clerk of the Course (CofC) overriding their ruling and giving the go ahead for the cars to race. (The safety regulations for this class of car does say that door bars are optional, after all!)

Qualification began with the track showing the odd damp area and shallow puddle. Things seemed to go well and Karen looked pretty quick. Unfortunately after a handful of laps, her friend Darren's Subaru Cup car expired and he wouldn't take any part in the weekend of racing. Martin White's 'Cup car was giving him some cause for concern with erratic handling traits too. Towards the end of the session, Karen got a little bogged down behind a group of cars but in the end she qualified really well. She was placed 9th overall, being only a second behind the experienced racer and instructor Sam Maher-Loughnan and a couple of tenths behind Martin.

Race 1 began with Karen not getting her usual lightning fast start, but she clawed back places and was hunting down Martin’s Impreza. Martin span out and Karen pounced on the opportunity to pass Andre Severs ex-touring car Honda Accord. This now put her 2nd in the Subaru Cup behind Sam and easily within the top 10 overall. As she passed the pit wall though, she was presented with a black flag showing what looked like her racing number! Having not been involved in any incidents, she assumed she'd mis-read the number and continued racing. Next time around she dumbfounded to realise it was her number, and began to slow allowing other cars to pass as she made her way back around to the pits. She was sent to the CofC who told her a grid marshal had spotted that her right sleeve was considered too low down her arm and that for safety reasons she'd been called in. Why on earth it couldn't have been resolved on the grid is beyond anyone with an ounce of sense. Karen's race was ruined. We thought it was a DNF, but in fact she was classified as finishing 16th, which would have consequences for the following races…

Karen's 16th place in Race 1 would mean she started in that grid position for Race 2. Obviously she was now quite a way down from the front running Subaru Cup cars and behind new 'Cup driver Adrian Howells. Karen and Adrian were now surrounded by GT150 and GT200 class MR2s. Again, Karen didn't enjoy her usual fast start and ended up bogged down behind the mk2 MR2 of Dallas Jackson who can prove difficult to overtake safely despite the power advantage. As a consequence of this Karen was being harried by novice driver Mark Thomas in his mk1 MR2. In lap 3, Karen came through Spitfires and was moving right to take her line ready for the left hander of Dibeni when Mark tried to drive around her on the outside! One of Mark's wheels locked up Karen's right rear wheel and began to spin the Impreza. Mark's car then continued forwards to collect the Impreza's nose. Both cars ended up on the grass on the infield. Parts of the bumper were now fouling the front wheel and Karen's race was over.

When Karen returned to the pits Darren immediately sprang into action and had restored much of the bumper back to a decent condition by the time Richard had returned from the outside of the circuit. Between them they then managed to fix the bumper back in position and restore the under-bumper plastic shielding back into place. It was typical that they were caught in a brief shower of rain whilst doing so! The sun soon came out though, and Richard took the opportunity to replace the rear brake pads to save doing so on Sunday which was supposed to be very wet.

An incredibly frustrating day that should have seen Karen fighting for top honours in the Subaru Cup instead saw her with nothing to show for all her hard work. With Darren not managing to race either, it was a subdued evening for everyone as they ended up having a few drinks and some fish & chips or pizza back at the B&B watching the Eurovision Song Contest. A decent sleep, a fantastic breakfast and a bit of sunshine lifted everyone's spirits ready for the final race of the weekend on Sunday. Once again, Karen was to start from 16th on the grid but she was determined to be able to finish this race and claim as many scalps as possible in the process.

As the race start approached, it began to rain lightly. Thankfully, this race went more or less to plan with Karen making good progress through the field to the delight of her supporters. Karen finished 3rd in the Subaru Cup and 8th overall. A fantastic result given her start in 16th place, and finally some success following the miserable day before.

Japanese Performance Magazine

2009-05-06T10:20:00.005Z

Japanese Performance magazine will now be covering the MR2 Racing, Nippon Challenge and Subaru Cup. Please keep an eye out for this fantastic magazine carrying race reports and phtotographs of all the action from these exctiting race series.

June's issue should contain the report from Snetterton and possibly from Pembrey as well. Here's hoping the coverage encourages more people to join the series and more spectators too.

Details of stockists and subscriptions can be found here:
www.japaneseperformancemagazine.co.uk

Oils Well...

2009-04-28T11:32:00.006Z

Our engine and gearbox oils and oil filters arrived from Opie Oils. So Richard also sourced some Redline Water Wetter, some sump plug washers and some plumbers PTFE tape in anticipation of changing all Rexy's oils.

He also bought a new sump plug with a super strong magnet:

So on Saturday... Having inspected the current engine oil, it was in far too good a condition to warrant changing it! It'll be done as a matter of course after Pembrey. When the new sump plug will be used and the original will be kept as a spare.

The gearbox oil swap was easy and straightforward. Richard noticed there was some swarf on the plug, but nothing too bad. The gearshift quality didn't seem to have changed at all. We'll see what happens at Pembrey. However, the rear diff oil swap was a little troublesome thanks to not being able to undo either the fill or drain plugs! Richard tried again with a new plan on Sunday morning and all came good. Thanks to needing the car level on the ground, access was tricky and he ended up having to use a big syringe to get the oil into the diff. Another time consuming and uncomfortable job.

Richard then used a very fine blade on an angle grinder to cut sections in the return flange of each rear arch. His step-father Terry then used his bodyworking skills and tools to bend them all back out of the way and we used some seam sealer to keep them in place and treat them. Richard has just got to let that dry and then he'll paint over it with some black Hammerite or underseal.

When removing the rear wheels to facilitate the rear arch work, Richard noticed a carbuncle in the sidewall of one of the Silverstone tyres! They've all lasted really well and we were looking forward to using them at Pembrey, but now we'll be using our other (so far unused) set. We'll discuss the problem with Silverstone Tyres, but we'll probably have to buy a new tyre!

What? Wetter Water?

2009-04-22T12:06:00.002Z

In an effort to help Rexy keep it's cool, we're going to add some Redline Water Wetter to the coolant system. It's supposed to help by reducing the coolant temperatures and this has been proven in independent tests. Every little bit helps, after all...

New Sponsor: Opie Oils!

2009-04-20T11:41:00.002Z

Opie Oils specialises in the distribution of quality oils and lubricants. They sell one of the most comprehensive ranges of quality engine oils and automotive lubricants available anywhere in the UK from manufacturers including Fuchs, Silkolene, Castrol, Mobil, MOTUL, Redline and Amsoil.

Opie Oils sell oil for all makes of cars and motorcycles, from the most modern super cars to vintage and veteran cars and motorcycles. Their range covers mineral monogrades to super high tech race synthetics!

They also sell Brembo Brake Parts, Denso performance Spark Plugs, UFI Filters and other performance upgrades.

Opie Oils offer excellent discounts to Members of Car/Motorcycle Clubs and Forums with whom they are associated and also have an extensive trade selection for businesses. They have kindly agreed to sponsor Karen, so expect to see her car with new Opie Oils livery at Pembrey in mid-May.

If you need any oil for your car or motorcycle then don't hesitate in visiting their excellent website: www.opieoils.co.uk

Race Report: Snetterton 4th April

2009-04-09T18:45:00.008Z

Snetterton saw the 1st race meeting of the Nippon Challenge in 2009, now also containing the Subaru Cup in which Karen was competing. The Subaru Cup had four entries which would be driving against themselves and the various other Nippon cars for overall honours.

Karen came back in from qualifying complaining of power problems when exiting the Russell Chicane and trying to power up the main straight. After discussing the problem with her it became apparent that she may have been hanging on to the revs too long and the rev-limiter was cutting in. Changing up at about 6000rpm seemed to solve this problem for the rest of the day.

Image copyright Lance Wittenberg, used with kind permission
When the timesheets were published, we discovered that Karen had qualified in 14th place from a field of 23 cars. Quite prophetic, given her racing number is 14! That put her as the last of the Subaru Cup cars but ahead of the poorly GT500 Subaru of Stuart Ward.

Karen got a brilliant start in Race 1 and got the drop on Martin White and Darren Hughes, but as she pulled alongside Darren she had a little trouble finding 3rd gear. Darren got ahead and Karen had to follow him closely until Sear corner where she got a chance to accelerate past him up the straight and ahead into the Esses. That's how things stayed until Karen suffered another gear problem into Sear corner for the second time. She went for 3rd and got 5th instead, allowing Darren and Miles to shoot past. That's pretty much how things remained for the rest of the race, but later on Karen was driving around Coram corner when she spotted Darren facing the wrong way on the in-field. Thus she finished 3rd in the Subaru Cup, behind Miles Hulford and Martin White. Martin and Miles had a brilliant battle, with Martin taking the win. Karen was 11th Overall in the Nippon Challenge.

Again in Race 2, Karen got a great start and would have definitely overhauled Darren, but her start was totally ruined by an inability to find 3rd gear and then any gear for a while! She was overtaken by just about every other car in the field and had to begin an exciting recovery drive...

First to be passed was Jason Jesse in his MR2 mk1, then the MR2 mk1 of Nick Reed. Half a lap later it was the MR2 mk1 of Gareth Newton and the Subaru Impreza of David Williams. Next up were the squabbling MR2 mk2's of Nick Jones and Dallas Jackson. Later on she passed the ailing Honda Civic of Richard Johnson. She was determined to catch up with the Subaru Cup cars, and was hunting down Darren who's car was fighting him around each corner due to damage from his off in Race 1. She didn't have enough laps though, and finished up just a few tenths of a second behind him. That put her in 4th place for the Subaru Cup and 9th overall in the Nippon Challenge. Congratulations to Martin for another Subaru Cup win, and to Darren for a well deserved 3rd place!

Karen had a really enjoyable day's racing. She had fun chatting with all the racers in the paddock and the Silverstone Tyres crew, and was thrilled to get her podium place in Race 1 for which she received a lovely trophy!

Image copyright Lance Wittenberg, used with kind permission
Karen would like to thank Silverstone Tyres for their sponsorship of the Subaru Cup, and XSpec Motorsport for their hard work in preparing her car for the racing. She's really looking forward to the next event at Pembrey in May, and hopefully by then Richard will have improved the gear shift so she can give the other 'Cup racers a proper run for their money.

Rexy's Really Ready.

2009-03-31T11:51:00.002Z

Rexy is now complete and ready to race at Snetterton this coming Saturday 4th April. A few minor jobs remain like swapping the road wheels/tyres over for racing the racing items and when we're actually at the circuit we'll also remove the number plates. Otherwise, all we need is a decent slug of super-unleaded and it's ready to get stuck into the Nippon Challenge/Subaru Cup!

It's going to be really interesting to see how such a standard car compares against some of the other machines out for the Nippon Challenge. This is going to be great...

XSpec to the Rescue!

2009-03-24T20:41:00.005Z

XSpec Motorsport came to Karen's rescue by removing Rexy's engine and replacing the head gaskets. It seems the previous gaskets fitted were faulty. Both were leaking with the turbo side of the engine suffering worst.

Graham and Alix had some help where possible from Darren and Richard. The engine was removed and the gaskets were replaced, but this time with metal cometic type ones. Richard replaced the intercooler core with a better condition item and also replaced some boost pipes with SFS Silicon versions. Everything was then reassembled and the engine was slotted back in. The oil was replaced and the coolant topped up carefully. It fired up without problem and soon settled down to a steady idle.

Richard tried the car on the local roads and then it was given a power run on the rolling road whilst Graham listened carefully for any sign of detonation. No problems were encountered and Rexy made a healthy 186bhp at the wheels!

Karen would like to thank Graham and Alix for all their hard work and generosity. Here's hoping there will be no more problems with the engine and Karen will have a trouble free start to the season at Snetterton on the 4th April.

Silverstone Test Day 27/02/09

2009-03-02T12:48:00.007Z

Karen had her first chance to try Rexy on the Silverstone FTZ type RR controlled tyres on a practice day at the Silverstone circuit. (Oooh, spooky!). As the tyres were being fitted on the wheels there and then, she went out on the first session on some road tyres.

Unfortunately, within a handful of laps, the car was spitting out its coolant again. Otherwise, Karen was happy with the performance despite the old tyres and road specification brake pads. She comfortably managed some lap times in the 1:17 bracket.

The next session saw her using a set of the Silverstone tyres. Tentatively at first, she built up confidence in them to post 1:16 times. Whilst still being very mindful of the coolant and brakes issues.

During the lunch break, Graham Poultney of XSpec suggested lowering the boost to see if that prevented coolant loss. He did a quick swap-over with some boost hosing and Karen went back out in the afternoon only having 0.6 Bar of boost instead of a peak of 1.1 Bar. The coolant was still coming out, but her lap times were still consistently in the 1:16's.

It looks like Rexy's engine is going to have to come out for an inspection of the Head Gaskets to probably replace them and figure out a root cause for the problems we're having. Here's hoping it's resolved in time for the first race meeting at Snetterton... On a lighter note, it looks like Karen's getting more at home with Rexy and a healthy engine, XSpec brake pads and further practice will see her being very competitive in the Subaru Cup!

Darren Hughes - Racing Driver...

2009-02-24T21:57:00.003Z

Congratulations to Darren who passed his ARDS test at Castle Combe circuit on Thursday 19th February. Darren's now organised to race in the Subaru Cup against Karen this season. We wish him well, but not too well!

Looks like this season is going to be real fun with a great bunch of drivers and an interesing mix of cars in the Nippon Challenge incorporating the Subaru Cup. It's just a shame I'll be missing a mate to chat with during the racing, as he'll be out there himself.

Pull!

2009-02-24T21:43:00.005Z

Darren and Richard have been working hard lately to finish the mandatory safety requirements on Rexy. Darren finished wiring the electrical cut-out and Richard had done all the plumbing and nozzle location for the fire extinguisher. Following this, they organised the pull-cable location in the scuttle panel and Richard organised the fixture of the pulls within the cabin.

Rexy will be used in this format at a test day at Silverstone on Friday 27th February. Following this, we'll be fitting some rollcage door bars and a good deal of rollcage padding. Another interesing development at Silverstone will be the fitting of the new Ultralite alloy wheels wearing the control tyres.

Cool Runnings...

2009-02-09T12:57:00.004Z

The weekend saw a number of jobs done on Rexy despite the freezing temperatures. After the coolant issue at Rockingham, I drained the coolant and replaced the coolant hoses with new SFS silcon items. New coolant was mixed and the system filled carefully. The car was warmed up and I checked the levels topping up where necessary, ensuring the fans kicked in where required. The car is currently fitted with a decent reservoir cap from my road car Impreza. Once happy, The car was taken for a good hard drive before being parked up immediately and left running. There were only a couple of little bubbles that appeared in the expansion tank, but certainly none of the frothing and over-flowing that had been seen before. Here's hoping the problem is solved.

I removed the driver's seat and drilled a hole through the floor for an eye-bolt fixing. This was secured with a small steel spreader plate underneath the car. The 5th harness strap was then clipped in and the seat replaced.

Finally, whilst snow was falling heavily outside on Sunday evening, I was in the garage fettling the new centre console panel. It's now fitted with the electrical cut-out switch and a guide bracket for the pull-cable. It's also got the extinguisher pull-cable and rain light switch fitted. The panel and bracket now need painting and the application of the required stickers and it can be fitted into the car.

Rexy Rocks!

2009-02-05T12:57:00.003Z

The gang went to Rockingham on Saturday 31st January to try the new and improved Rexy on track for the first time. Unfortunately, he disgraced himself by spitting out a fair amount of coolant. We'll be trying to sort that out when the weather improves. Another annoying problem was that our new camcorder had a habit of shutting down after only a few seconds on track. This meant no in-car footage and I'm left wondering if it's due to excessive vibration. That will have to be sorted out as well!

Apart from that, Karen enjoyed the handling of the car and the almost total lack of body-roll. Grip from the old Bridgestone tyres was better than expected. There was some minor tyre rub against the body of the car, but this may have been peculiar to Rockingham thanks to its blend of crests, dips and camber. Braking seemed pretty good despite using some standard front pads. With the cooling issue sorted, Rexy has real potential to be a terrific race car.

Happy Trails and Boost Bothers.

2009-01-26T12:49:00.003Z

Rexy received a present this weekend in the form of a trailer. This was bought from our friend John Wilson who was upgrading to a more modern trailer. Our new trailer has integral ramps which are so much easier to use than our previous one. Rexy is now parked up on the trailer ready for towing to Rockingham on Saturday 31st January.

Not sure he deserves a present though, as he's disgraced himself lately by activating his Check Engine Light! (CEL). Having read the diagnostic code, it seems the problem is a gummed up boost solenoid. apparently a common fault, this should hopefully be rectified by spraying a brake cleaner aerosol into it whilst it's switching on/off in a special test mode. Here's hoping it does the trick.

Gathering Momentum.

2009-01-14T17:50:00.002Z

On Saturday, Richard and David attended the Autosport International show. They met a few old faces and managed to haggle some deals. Ending up with a load of edging trim, some bonnet pins and boot springs, cable pulls and an FIA Master cut-out switch.

On Sunday, Darren and Richard completed the swap of the rear brake discs for new items and the fitting of the rear HEL braided brake lines. The entire brake system was systematically bled and things were looking good. The edging trim was used on the sharp edges now left on the door apertures after removing the interior trim. They also applied yellow tape to the battery earth lead. Richard now has the task of testing the brakes on the forthcoming Saturday.

Today, Richard put in an order for turbo and coolant silicon hose kits with SFS Performance. This was thanks to organising a 25% discount with one of their reps at the Autosport International show. To see their extensive range of kits and individual hoses and connectors, please visit www.sfsperformance.co.uk

Karen's new 5 point Sabelt harness and Lifeline 2000 extinguisher kit arrived by courier today from Peter Lloyd Rallying. This means they can fit the new harness at the weekend and begin sorting out positioning and plumbing of the extinguisher. Please check out www.peterlloydrallying.co.uk

'Charging Off to Pastures New!

2009-01-06T21:40:00.005Z

The Supercharger has now been collected by its new owner Rob Jeffries, who's already raced in the Nippon Challenge in his MR2 MK1. Rob is planning to convert the Supercharger to have the 2 litre turbo engine and LSD originally from a MK2 MR2 Turbo. The car will then compete in the GT250 class. Such power and torque in a light car should see Rob being very competitive in that class and hopefully also against contenders in the GT300 and GT500 classes.

It'll be great to see the car still competing and we hope it brings him success. As long as it doesn't keep overtaking Karen's WRX!

Subaru Cup Tyre Sponsor Announced.

2008-12-18T14:04:00.002Z

The Subaru Cup will be sponsored by Silverstone Tyres. The control tyre for the 'Cup will be the Silverstone FTZ type RR as pictured below:

Silverstone Tyres will also be supplying on-site and technical support at each event. We're looking forward to getting a couple of sets of these tyres fitted as early as possible next year to see what they're like and for Karen to become accustomed to their characteristics on track.

The new tyres will be fitted onto the Ultralite Atec alloy wheels. Sizes to be used will probably be 215/45 x 17". Here's hoping they're also good in the wet as well as dry conditions!

Christmas Comes Early!

2008-12-08T10:54:00.003Z

Whilst collecting some new rear brake discs from XSpec Motorsport, Richard was delighted when Graham also made a present of a set of XSpec high performance front brake pads for Karen's car! Many thanks to Graham and the continued sponsorship from XSpec Motorsport. We hope that Karen and her XSpec logo'd Impreza WRX will make you proud next year.

Currently, Rexy needs the rear brake lines and brake discs replacing and once that is complete it'll be time to check out the operation of the entire braking system. If all is well, we can start looking for some trackday practice early in the new year.

Nippon Challenge 2008 Video

2008-11-23T16:42:00.000Z

Sitting Pretty.

2008-11-10T12:30:00.013Z

Despite some bad weather over the weekend, a decent amount was achieved on preparing Rexy. Our friend David had come to stay for the weekend, and Darren also turned up to help work on the car.

On Saturday, having serviced David's Forester Turbo, we swapped the wheels on Rexy for the set of Sti 17" ones lent to us by Darren. These were secured with some natty looking lightweight blue wheelnuts.

Karen, David and I then took the opportunity to try Rexy out with his new boots. David was certainly very impressed, having never driven such a powerful car before. Karen and I were very happy with the upgrade.

Next on the list of things to do was swap out the standard Driver's seat and install the pair of racing bucket seats. Once that was done, a spare (non-MSA legal) Sabelt harness was fixed into position for the passenger seat. The Driver's side is still using the standard inertia-reel item until we get a race legal 5-point Sabelt harness soon.

Sunday saw Darren take charge of the brake upgrade. With the new coilovers and wheel package, we could now fit the larger XSpec 295mm discs and 4-pot calipers. the flexible brake lines were also replaced with the HEL braided lines in a fancy electric blue finish.

For now we fitted some half-worn pads from my own Impreza Turbo road car. We're probably going to use CarboTech XP8 pads when we come to use the car in anger on track. The passenger side gave us some concern as the nut on the end of the fixed brake pipe didn't want to come off and it was just beginning to round off. After several different methods of removing it were tried and failed, David and Darren visited Halfords and returned with a proper brake pipe spanner in 10mm. This had very little trouble in allowing the pipe to be disconnected from the old flexible line and onto the new one.

Only the rear brake discs and flexible lines need replacing and then the entire system will need bleeding. Then we can carefully check the brakes work properly. it looks like Christmas will see Rexy with lots of presents: Extinguisher kit, electrical cut-out, vinyl graphics, etc!

Rexy's Return Home.

2008-11-02T12:51:00.003Z

Having just returned from a great holiday in the 'States, Karen and I made our way to XSpec in Hinkley with bleary eyes on Saturday morning. Graham gave us a warm welcome with hot drinks and chat. Lots of good news on Karen's WRX and a bill that wasn't as extensive as we'd feared!

Rexy is now MOT'd for another 12 months which will come in handy getting used to how it performs and for wearing in new tyres. We don't currently have a trailer so at least we can still move it around legally and get it to trackdays, etc.

Work done included MOT preparation, fitting an uprated fuel pump, fitting and setting the geometry for the XSpec Coilovers, fitting the rollcage, supplying new XSpec brake discs and finally getting the power checked/set on the rolling road. Headline figures were 203bhp & 192 lbs/ft at 4500rpm at the wheels! (Putting engine power somewhere in the region of 270bhp which is good for a WRX of that age).

I drove Rexy home in convoy with Karen who drove my 1999 UK model Impreza Turbo. I'd never really noticed before much difference between Impreza models, but Rexy could now lay waste to my car!

So, when the weather allows all the bits lying about in the study and garage will be fitted and we'll be looking for a trackday to try it out...

Concrete Jungle?

2008-10-03T10:04:00.003Z

Not Exactly. With the advent of some sunny weather last weekend, we used the opportunity to lay down a couple of extra feet of concrete in the garden. Once this has dried, we can empty the shed (the green thing on the left of the picture) and move it across to stand on the new section. This should then provide plenty of room on the opposite side of the shed to stand a larger trailer big enough to carry Karen's Impreza race car (Rexy). The previous trailer was quite snug in its spot before and that was only just big enough to carry a MK1 MR2. Here's hoping Karen's measurements of the planned new trailer were correct!

We were aiming to perform the shed moving this coming weekend, but unfortunately the weather forecast is for rain. This will make emptying the shed of all its contents onto the lawn rather tricky!

Image Galleries Revised.

2008-10-01T15:28:00.003Z

Thanks to the use of a www.flickr.com account, I've been able to create some slideshows for the various sets of pictures. These include Karen's racing and the race car preparation for her original MR2, the Supercharger and now the Subaru Impreza. Please check the links within the Image Galleries section on the right-hand side of the page.

What goes around...

2008-09-15T07:21:00.003Z

...More wheels of course! Yet again, I managed to blag some bargains on eBay. This time it was in the form of two sets of Ultralite A-TEC alloy wheels in 7" x 17" size with an ET48 offset and PCD to suit a Subaru Impreza.

It just meant a hectic day on Saturday driving in convoy with Rexy to drop it off for the work at XSpec, and then continuing on to Preston in Lancashire to collect the wheels.

We're still uncertain of the tyre requirements for either the Subaru production class or the Nippon Challenge itself next year, so hopefully when the suspension is replaced we'll be able to use Darren's STi alloys and then get the control tyres fitted to the new alloys in the near future. (Or at least in time for the first race next year).

Rexy Goes the Full Monty.

2008-09-08T20:16:00.004Z

Karen's Impreza WRX has been christened Rexy, and with her old race car now gone it was time for Rexy to begin the process of being converted into her latest racing car. Time to start stripping!

I removed the rear seats, belts and then all the trim in the boot. That was followed by the centre console and then both front seats. The carpet was then removed and various door trim parts. The passenger seat belt was removed, but the driver's one remains as the seat will need to be put back in to drive the car to XSpec in Hinkley for the rollcage install and various other work.

Everything does look a bit of a mess at the moment, but you can't make an omlette without breaking some eggs, as the saying goes. Karen's seen me prepare cars before but still manages to roll her eyes and ask if I know what I'm doing - When obviously, I don't have a clue...

In the next couple of days all the removed items will be disposed of and hopefully if the weather allows then myself and Darren will start chipping out all the sound deadening from inside the car. It's surprising how much that stuff weighs.

A Fond Farewell to an Old Friend...

2008-09-08T11:58:00.006Z

Sunday was a sad day, as Karen's first race car that saw her through two eventful seasons of the MR2 Challenge was collected by its new owner. Shane will be driving the car in the MR2 Racing series, hopefully starting with an appearance at Snetterton in October.

It was quite emotional preparing the car for collection. Even Darren came over to pay his respects before it went...

Shane arrived at about 4.30pm and we did all the paperwork and talked him through the use of his new trailer. Soon it was time to say goodbye to Karen's faithful first racer and good luck to her new owner Shane.

All we could do then was to wave them goodbye...

We're looking forward to seeing Shane racing and will support him where possible. Here's hoping he has as much fun beginning his racing as Karen did with that car.

A Wheely Good Deal!

2008-09-06T14:22:00.004Z

Darren made a flying visit today and kindly delivered four Subaru Impreza STi late model alloy wheels. Darren's going to lend them to us for the foreseeable future to help in getting Karen's Impreza racing as soon as possible.

They've been supplied in natty nylon wheel bags to keep things tidy when they're off the car. They're wearing Bridgestone Potenza RE040 tyres which have a decent aount of tread on them and are apparently great in the dry, but not too good in the wet.

The tyres are sized 225/45 x 17, which may be slightly too big and will possibly foul on the struts. There's only one way to find out, and that's to fit them. We're hoping to get them refurbished in time for next season with a colour change to brilliant white which will contrast nicely with the blue of Karen's car.

The shocking revelation to Richard was the heavy weight and size of wheels & tyres for the Impreza. He certainly won't be able to carry a couple at a time like he did for the Toyota MR2 Mk1 cars. Finding space in a towing vehicle or for more spares could be very tricky!

Brake it down...

2008-09-05T11:46:00.003Z

Having spoken to Graham Poultney about the regulations for the proposed Subaru Cup production series, we felt more confident about sourcing some suitable brake upgrades that would be within the series regulations.

Once again, we've manged to find a decent deal on eBay. This time we blagged a pair of Subaru Impreza front 4-pot calipers and a pair of rear calipers. Total cost including delivery of £166.99.

They'll be tidied up and re-painted to a suitable colour and matched up to some new discs and pads from XSpec as well as some braided hoses. They'll be a vast improvement over the current sliding caliper setup, yet are fairly cheap compared to other brake kits available and of course will be series legal.

McRae Gathering 31st August 2008

2008-09-01T11:48:00.004Z

We attended a tribute to the late Colin McRae that was held at Prodrive headquarters in Banbury and then later at their proving ground in Warwickshire. The event was attended by over one thousand Subarus of which most were the Impreza model.

A world record was broken by 1086 of the cars being used to form a mosaic spelling out Colin's name and displaying the Saltaire. It was a fantastic day with a great atmosphere (depsite wet weather in the afternoon). We even posed for a photograph with Colin's iconic rally cars and we'll be framing that and a copy of the mosaic photograph that is soon to be released. In the meantime, check out this version released to the newspapers:

If you want to know where we were, check out the cars in the 'C' of Colin. We were on the far right-hand side of the middle part!

Congratulatons to the organisers of the McRae Gathering and all those that took part in this fantastic tribute to Colin McRae.

More eBay Bargains!

2008-08-16T09:38:00.003Z

Good old eBay. What on earth we we do without it now, eh? We recently managed to bag some bargain racing sets for the WRX. Ideally, the seats should be lightweight buckets but we found these Corbeau Forza Sport 2000 seats in blue/black mounted on adjustable Impreza subframes ready to bolt straight in. We won the auction and ended up paying £186 including delivery. They're in fantastic condition and will certainly do the job!

After a further rummage around in eBay we spotted a very nicely priced LED Rain Light that cost £16.50 delivered, instead of nearly £80 that we've paid previously. Not only that, but YB Racing had given us (And all the Nippon Challenge participants) a 10% disount on OMP and K&N items purchased from their on-line shops, so that was used to buy a discounted steering wheel hub to allow a smaller steering wheel to be fitted.

The interior colour scheme of the WRX will now be a blue/black affair with the Corbeau seats, OMP steering wheel from Karen's original MR2 MK1 and now a blue Sparco gearnob. Blue Sabelt harnesses will also be adorning the interior.

We are still awaiting the regulations for the Subaru Cup, and arrival of our rollcage. The plan is that Richard and Darren will strip the interior of the car of the rear seats, carpets, headlining, sound deadening, etc. XSpec Motorsport will then be free to fit the rollcage. Once done, Richard and Darren can finish the preparation by replacing the front seats and installing the electrical cut-out and fire extinguisher system. On top of this, it is expected that the suspension, brakes and tyres will need replacing to fit in with the Subaru Cup regulations. It's also likely that the clutch will need replacing with an item more suitable for racing. It may sound like a lot of work, but it's a damn sight less than was required for the Supercharged MR2 MK1...

XSpec Motorsport & Consultancy

2008-08-12T11:33:00.005Z

Having bought the WRX as Karen's next race car, all did not go as well as we would have liked. XSpec Motorsport stepped in and got us out of a big hole and we'd like to take this opportunity to thank Graham and Alex for their hard work in getting the car back into rude health for us!

Xspec Motorsport is a company with a long history in supplying (and using) competition parts. They are now offering their experience in supplying the right competition/fast road parts as well as a everything to do with maintaining your Subaru. From a basic oil change to 800 bhp engine builds, right through to a full race or rally prepped car. Over several years they have invested significant funds in laying down tooling to ensure that the products they sell are precisely right for the applications, whether that be casting Aluminium Wishbones for Impreza’s or engineering Clutches for road and rally use at very competitive prices.

They have a 2000bhp rolling road to help in this development and the tuning of customer cars. They support the Nippon Challenge and will soon be fielding arrive/drive cars in the new Subaru Cup production class racing.

Karen is proud to be associated with XSpec Motorsport, and they will be doing a good deal of the preparation work on her car for the 2009 season. Full details of this work will depend on the Subaru Cup regulations which are yet to be published. Karen's car will feature XSpec Motorsport sponsor decals.

Please visit the XSpec Motorsport website here.

If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em!

2008-08-11T07:11:00.003Z

After a great deal of time and effort getting the Supercharged MR2 MK1 into a race worthy condition, it all seems to have come to nought. The car simply doesn't perform as it should. Whilst mulling over what we could do about it, an opportunity arose and thus we bought another new car!

The new car is a Japanese import Subaru Impreza WRX. We're hoping to prepare the car in time for an appearance in the Snetterton Nippon Challenge race in October. This unfortunately means Karen is not going to take part in the forthcoming Mallory or Cadwell races, as we need to save the money towards the preparation of the WRX. We're also still trying to sell Karen's original N/A MR2 MK1 race car.

Steve Vince, the organiser of the Nippon Challenge and MR2 Racing series, has announced a new series called the Subaru Cup. This is for Subaru Impreza WRX's of the same vintage as ours and is a production specification series. We'll be preparing the car to compete in this. The 'Cup should form part of the Nippon Challenge, but the hope is that it may gain enough support in the future to warrant its own series.

We've now owned several Subarus. Two Imprezas, a Legacy Turbo and a Forester Turbo and have met a great many friends through the local Impreza Driver's Club. This helped sway our decision on the new car. Of course one of the main factors was the noise they make. It does mean we'll need a bigger trailer though!

Race Report : Pembrey 28/29th June

2008-08-10T10:56:00.009Z

The Pembrey meeting of the Nippon Challenge promised to be a great weekend of racing thanks to a marvellous amount of track time. It would consist of a free practice session, a qualifying session and then three twenty minute races. Of course, to enjoy all this racing we had to get there first. We made the journey on the Friday afternoon and had to endure howling gales and torrential downpours as well as delays due to road works on the M4.

We had decided to leave the race car and trailer at the circuit under the watchful eye of Rob Jeffries #35 who was staying there over the weekend. We met Gareth Newton #17 as we arrived and we drove in together. Rob told us that the Mitsubishi Evo driven by David Williams had already been written off during a bad accident in practice earlier that day. David had been taken to hospital, but was quickly released after being checked over. The worry was that similar weather would make the weekends racing just as hazardous…

Saturday certainly began dry although it was overcast and always seemed to threaten rain. We’d taken the precaution of putting some Toyo Proxes T1-R tyres on the Supercharger, hoping they would cope in dry and wet weather. The car passed through scrutineering without incident, but the scrutineers took exception to the rollcage in Roger Sibley’s Honda CRX and the poor chap was forced to turn around and head for home!

Image copyright Gareth Newton, used with kind permission
Karen went out for her twenty minute practice session carrying a fair amount of fuel. We’d put quite a bit in the car before arrival due to there being no petrol available within the circuit and other sources being quite far away. We were hoping that she’d burn off a fair bit during practice ready for qualifying but the plan didn’t work as well as we’d hoped. So the car was heavier on fuel than anticipated and Karen was complaining about oversteer, making her a little too nervous to push any harder. Richard reduced the rear tyre pressures in an effort to reduce the oversteer and Karen went back out for qualifying.

Image copyright Gareth Newton, used with kind permission
Karen’s best time was 1:15.622 which put her 24th out of 26 runners. She was a good couple of seconds down on the leading N/A MR2 MK1 cars. The oversteer was still apparent and our only option was to swap the rear wheels for a pair wearing very worn track biased Yokohama A048R tyres. They would certainly provide better grip and reduce the oversteer, but only in the dry!

Image copyright Gareth Newton, used with kind permission
Leaving it as late as possible and keeping a careful watch on the weather, Richard swapped the rear wheels in time for Race 1. Karen spent the entire race chasing MX5 #67 getting close several times but simply not getting a chance to overtake. She finished ahead of the chasing MR2 MK1s of Nick Winter #28 and Nick Reed #19. Whilst at the pointy end of the grid, Graham Poultney’s Impreza took the win. Chris Huntley’s MR2 Turbo came 3rd. Both Mazda RX7’s had retired with technical problems, but would be back out for Race 2.

Image copyright Gareth Newton, used with kind permission
The weather remained dry and so the setup for the Supercharger remained the same. Early in Race 2 there was a coming together between Dixon Cheng’s Honda Integra and Chris’ MR2 Turbo, when Chris went slightly wide and Dixon went for the apex at Dibeni Bend. The result of this was Chris’ MR2 driving up the side of the Integra and rolling. The race was red-flagged and stopped. Chris was shaken but un-hurt, unfortunately the same could not be said for his car. After a delay to recover the car, the race re-started. It played out exactly the same as Race 1 for Karen and although the results seemed disappointing, she was enjoying her battles with MX5 #67. Graham’s Impreza took another win, being chased hard by Tony Crossley’s RX7.

In-car footage of the incident in Race 2 can be seen here.

Saturday night was a chance for a social event, and the organiser of the Nippon Challenge Steve Vince had laid on a BBQ for the racers. During this he handed out the trophies for the days racing and everyone had the chance to relax and enjoy a drink. Karen was accosted by the organisers of the MX5 racing, who tried to talk her into jumping ship and driving in their series. Mad as she is, she’s not clinically insane enough to join them (Yet!).

Image copyright Gareth Newton, used with kind permission
The final Nippon Challenge race of the weekend wasn’t due until just after lunchtime, and so the morning was a chance to relax and watch some of the other races. As the time of the race approached the weather was clear and bright, but there were some ominous clouds on the horizon. Race 3 began with Graham’s Impreza getting the drop on Tony Crossley’s RX7. However, Tony soon overhauled him and began to stretch out a commanding lead until after about three quarters of the race he had to pull up with a fuel pump wiring failure, and Graham was gifted with a hat-trick of wins. Meanwhile, Karen was fighting hard and managed to take the #67 car under braking into the hairpin. Once achieved, she managed to drive away from him. Then the heavens opened and Richard was worried that Karen would have difficulty in the rain on those worn semi slick rear tyres. She drove carefully and finished without incident. Karen was really happy to have achieved her goal of overtaking the MX5.

Karen’s in-car footage of Race 3 can be seen here.

Given the initial promise of the Supercharger and Karen’s previous good results in the MR2 Challenge this was not where we hoped she would be in terms of results. Having to fight so hard to overtake a lower-powered MX5 whilst the rest of the field sped off into the distance was becoming something of a joke. The Supercharger can't even keep pace with an N/A MR2 MK1 race car. Consensus of opinion is that the Supercharger unit itself has a slipping clutch robbing us of the power required. The rear suspension is too soft, the car is still too heavy and another set of expensive semi-slick tyres are required.

The bad news for the Supercharger is that we’ve purchased a new car to be converted into a racing car for the Nippon Challenge and it’s not even an MR2. Sorry folks. As the old adage says “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” so we’re going to race a Subaru Impreza instead!!

Race Report : Rockingham 8th June

2008-07-14T18:48:00.006Z

Image copyright Lance Wittenberg, used with kind permission
A dull start to the day brightened quickly to bathe the Northamptonshire Rockingham circuit in bright sunlight. Steve Vince and Rob Jeffries (MR2 MK1 #35) had great pleasure in telling us off the awful conditions in the previous days MR2 Racing. Wet conditions akin to driving on ice, etc.

Nothing like that kind of weather for Karen, as she drove into the assembly area before qualifying. It was already becoming fairly warm and all the drivers would experience rising temperatures in their cars. Richard got Karen to wait to go out to qualify at the back of the field, with the aim that she got some clean track around her whilst re-familiarising herself with the track and warming the Yokohama A048 tyres before she was lapped by faster cars. Karen enjoys the circuit with its flat out sections along the banking and technical in-field with varied corners, cambers, crests and dips. She seemed fairly content with her qualification effort, but once again the car seemed to let her down on the power front and she qualified 27th out of 30.

Image copyright Lance Wittenberg, used with kind permission
By the time of the race, the day had really hotted up. Karen was to start directly behind her friend Jim Bridge #30 in his Nissan 350Z. As the red lights went out, Jim laid down he laid down two black lines of rubber. Karen overtook him through the first banked corner and closed on Dave Cross #7 in an MR2 MK2. Dave was having clutch trouble and was limping home to retire. Karen passed him before the hairpin, but she herself had been overtaken by two MX5’s. At only the third corner there was a large accident consisting of several MX5’s. Karen squeezed through the melee, but as the other cars rejoined the circuit she was clattered again for no good reason as they went passed her. Karen was left trying to figure out if her car had been damaged and lost concentration which saw her go wide and onto the grass at a later corner! The MX5 onslaught still wasn’t over and she was mugged by three more of them through the chicane onto the banking. Despite Karen being able to brake just as well as them, they’re still so much more nimble.

Another couple of recovering MX5’s passed her into the hairpin on lap 2. Things then settled down and Karen set about trying to keep in touch with the rear of the pack of MX5’s. Meanwhile, Jim’s 350Z was nipping at her heels. At the beginning of lap 5, she nearly had a couple of the MX5’s into the hairpin but decided that discretion was the better part of valour and yielded, thinking they might shut the door a little too violently…

Image copyright Lance Wittenberg, used with kind permission
On lap 6, the superior grunt of Jim’s 350Z saw him overtake Karen along the banking and into the hairpin. Plonking himself right in the middle of the battling MX5’s! It was at the end of that lap that she began to be lapped by the leading cars. On the next lap she out-braked MX5 #67, but narrowly avoided being clouted by another one who we will optimistically assume hadn’t seen her on his inside…

Karen was now really battling with #67 and they swapped places a couple of times, with the beginning of Lap 8 seeing Karen in front. She made sure of overtaking the other MX5 that had previously baulked her as well! She was really gunning for it now as they chased her hard and she was determined they should not get past! This increase in pace saw her fastest lap of the race as she caught up with another pair of MX5’s in front. The chequered flag meant she couldn’t advance on them though. Karen finished in 24th position overall.

Image copyright Lance Wittenberg, used with kind permission
Karen made a point of visiting the Clerk of the Course and complaining about the driving standards of the MX5’s. It turned out that Jim also had to scream to a halt for them as they rejoined the circuit after that first lap incident. In such circumstances drivers are supposed to wait to rejoin only when it is safe to do so and would not hinder other drivers. This was the last time the MX5’s would make up the bulk of the field with their own series forming part of the Nippon Challenge. Pembrey onwards would see them with their own races…

Click here to watch the Rockingham race video.

Race Report: Silverstone 27th April

2008-05-21T20:08:00.008Z

The inaugural race meeting of the NipponChallenge was due on Sunday 27th April at Silverstone. Karen’s MR2 MK1 Supercharger wasn’t actually finally completed until the Wednesday before. The Friday was practice day, but only the morning was available. It seemed like a good idea to see if the car would actually perform at all before using it in anger and thus Karen, Richard and Darren kept their fingers crossed as the car ventured out on the National Circuit for the first time since its rebuild. Things went well and by the end of the morning Karen had posted 1:16 minute times. Despite the new home-brew chargecooler system working effectively, boost was still restricted to 10psi and there were ominous noises emanating from the gearbox…

So the crew arrived back at Silverstone on Sunday morning and found themselves a space in the paddock next to Jim Bridge and his Production Class Nissan 350Z. The car was originally from America and had been prepared by a professional outfit to a very high standard. We’d all become acquainted at practice on the Friday. Jim was a little worried about the forecast very wet weather, in full knowledge his car would be a total handful. Karen was also concerned, not knowing how the Supercharger would handle with the LSD in the wet.

Image copyright David Avery, used with kind permission
Conditions were overcast and dull initially but slowly things began to brighten until Silverstone was bathed in bright warm sunlight! This helped lift spirits and it wasn’t long before the dreaded spectre of scrutineering was upon everyone. Karen was due to lead Jim in his 350Z and Chris Dunlop in his Honda Civic over to scrutineering to let them get a heads up on what happens. However, as she started the Supercharger, the throttle ran wild and she was forced to kill the engine with the cut-out! It turns out the throttle cable had come adrift of the throttle pulley and so the guys had to go ahead on their own as Darren and Stuart Skinner wrestled the throttle nipple back into place. Things went much more smoothly after that until we discovered Jim’s car had failed inspection due to the electrical cut-out not working. Darren and Richard got to work and swapped the cable for a spare Richard carried and got it working. Seems the outfit that prepared Jim’s car could never have tried the cut-out as the angles were all wrong for it to operate correctly. Jim was soon re-checked and all legal to race.

Image copyright David Avery, used with kind permission
Qualification was a real eye-opener for everyone concerned. Some of the cars were extremely fast and seemingly spectacularly loud! Of particular note were a couple of RX7’s, a Subaru Impreza and Chris Huntley’s bright orange MR2 MK2 Turbo. Whilst those guys were hurtling around, Karen was fighting for space amongst the throng of MX5’s out on track. Karen qualified 34th for Race 1 with a time of 1:18.071 and 32nd for Race 2 with a 1:18.333 from a total of 40 runners. That was disappointing, given her times from Friday would have put her starting in roughly 25th place. Dallas Jackson and David Cross had posted some great times in their MR2 MK2’s, but Dallas was forced to retire from the event with a clutch problem. That left David starting near Chris’s MK2 Turbo at the pointy end of the grid!

Race 1 saw Karen get a great start, passing the two MX5’s in front of her and the Honda CRX Del Sol of Roger Sibley before Copse. Into Becketts and one of the MX5’s and the MR2 MK1 of Mark Thomas briefly got ahead before she passed them down the National Straight. Once again the MX5 of Jennifer Garret passed Karen through Brooklands. The MX5’s revelling in their lighter weight and seemingly more nimble handling. As Karen rounded Copse at the start of lap two, an MX5 in front got very crossed up sideways on the outer kerbing until it flung itself towards the centre of the circuit right in front of her! On lap 3 one of the MX5’s once again got the inside line for Brooklands and got past. On lap 4 a pair of MX5’s overtook Karen through Becketts but she hunted them down along the National Straight and had positioned herself perfectly for the inside line through Brooklands. Unfortunately, she had to abort her manoeuvre as yellow flags began to wave. Two MX5’s had a coming together between Brooklands and Luffield and by some bizarre fluke one had driven up the other car into the air and ended up on it’s rollcage upside-down! The race was immediately red-flagged and the cars were then formed up on the grid in their positions from the beginning of that lap. Karen’s crew figured she was to re-start in roughly 29th place.

The re-start of Race 1 was a minor disaster for Karen, as Jennifer Garrett’s MX5 pulled across to close the door in an uncompromising manner. Karen was forced to go around her but the loss of momentum saw Karen haemorrhaging placings! She’d lost six places by the exit of copse (Mark Thomas’ MR2 MK1 was one of them) and that wasn’t the last of it. She lost out to another MX5 on the exit of Becketts. On lap 2 Jennifer once again piloted her MX5 around the outside of Brooklands to gain a place over Karen. On the very next lap she was mugged by two more MX5’s into Copse. Karen was now defending hard against Roger’s Honda CRX Del Sol. He out-gunned her down the Main straight, but he out-did himself by going too deep into Copse and Karen had the inside line, so re-took him. Yet another MX5 dived inside to beat her through Becketts but the greater torque of the Supercharger saw her past him again and ahead into Brooklands and Luffield. Lap 5 saw Roger re-try his previous move but he didn’t make the same mistake this time and he was away. As they came through Brooklands a couple of MX5’s were re-joining from the gravel trap. The status quo remained to see Karen finish 29th overall.

Damage to the car was limited to a large crack down the side of the lovingly crafted front bumper. That was soon fixed with judicious use of red tank tape and new cable ties.

Race 2 didn’t see Karen get a great start and a couple of places were lost immediately. She fought Roger hard down the National Straight and got the inside line into Brooklands. As she exited Luffield, the rest of the field ahead seemed to have little trouble driving away from her. Behind her were Roger and a couple of MX5’s that were constantly threatening. On lap 6 Karen was just entering Maggotts when the three front runners lapped her. The two leading RX7’s passed without incident, but the Impreza of Graham Poultney had been un-sighted by the MX5’s behind Karen. Graham pulled hard in to make Becketts only to find Karen already occupying that bit of tarmac! He gave her a sharp tap on the passenger side on his way past, as they both attempted to reduce the impact of the collision. Lap 9 saw one of the chasing MX5’s get their nose into Becketts on the inside, but Karen swiftly out-paced them along the straight. It was Chris Huntley’s orange MR2 MK2 Turbo that lapped Karen at Becketts on the next lap. Lap 11 saw Chris Dunlop’s Honda Civic lap her on the run into Magotts. At the start of Lap 12 one of the chasing MX5’s managed to squeeze past into Copse. Karen chased him down along the National straight and positioned herself to get him on the inside, only to be robbed by the blue flags warning of lapping cars. So as Tony Crossley’s RX7 took the inside line she was forced to play follow my leader with the MX5 ahead until the exit of Luffield, Woodcote and the chequered flag. Once again, Karen finished 29th.

Click here to watch the Race 2 Video.

Damage this time was a cracked passenger door mirror and a battered and flattened passenger rear arch. Richard was rather perturbed that all his hard work in preparing the bodywork of the car would have to be re-visited in several areas. Not only that, but it seemed that synchro on third gear had gone on vacation and either the Supercharger clutch was slipping or the Supercharger drive belt was slipping which would account for the lack of boost. Plenty of things to improve before the car’s next outing.

Image copyright David Avery, used with kind permission
The Nippon Challenge had arrived, and in style. Lots of smiling faces from new racers and old-hands alike. Admittedly, much of the field was made up of MX5’s racing in their own series, but later in the year they’ll get their own races leaving the more varied field of Japanese cars to have their own fun.

Ready to Race!

2008-04-24T14:19:00.006Z

Karen's new Supercharged MR2 MK1 race car is now complete. Friday will be the first chance that Karen's had to drive the car and this will be at Silverstone as practice for the races to be held on Sunday.

Richard and Karen would like to thank the following people: Darren, Lance, David, Terry, Martin Goldsack, Tim Cartledge, Tom Dyke, Toni Gladding and Garrick Abrahamson. (Plus anyone else who contributed, and I've unfortunately forgotten!) Without their help this project would not have been completed at all, let alone in the time available. Further thanks go to Karen's Sponsors: Rogue Motorsport, MR2 Only Magazine and Red Dragon Autosports. Their sponsorship decals will hopefully be on the car in time for the first races.

Here's hoping that things run smoothly and the car is able to compete in the Nippon Challenge races on Sunday, and finishes them looking as good as it does now!

Winning the race to get ready?

2008-04-14T11:48:00.004Z

Further progress is being made on getting the Supercharger finished in time to run at Silverstone on 27th April in the first race of the Nippon Challenge. The last weekend saw the racing seat being fitted more securely, the anti-roll bar droplinks being replaced and also the rear toe-arms. The chargecooler system was finally plumbed in and tested.

The remaining tasks are either technically much simpler or cosmetic. One major item that needs sorting is a trip to Powerstation to get the coilovers sorted, the geometry setting and then to have a run on their dyno to get a power figure. It's hoped that Karen will then get a chance for a test day, but things are going to be awfully tight to manage that before the 27th April!

New Sponsor - MR2 Only Magazine

2008-04-10T09:11:00.003Z

It is with great pleasure that we can now reveal MR2 Only Magazine will be sponsoring Karen's racing in the Nippon Challenge. The editor of the magazine, Stephen Bishop, has kindly agreed to provide all the vinyl decals for the car and Karen will get race reports and further coverage in the magazine as well as other benefits.

MR2 Only Magazine is a dedicated glossy magazine for the MR2 enthusiast and communty worldwide, printed and available via subscription bi-monthly. You wont find MR2 Only Magazine on the newsagent shelves.

MR2 Only Magazine prints regular reports on the MR2 Racing and MR2 Championship race events and will now also be providing reports on the exploits of Karen driving the MK1 Supercharger in the Nippon Challenge.

Please visit www.mr2only.com for more details of this fantastic publication!

Nippon Challenge Track Day at Silverstone

2008-03-17T20:58:00.006Z

Silverstone saw the official launch of the Nippon Challenge at a track day held on a very wet and blustry Sunday. The track was covered in areas of standing water and everyone was nervous about the prospect of going out for the first time. Richard pumped up the pressure in Karen's tyres to try and ensure the modest grooves dispelled some water at least!

Image copyright Sarah Wherry, used with kind permission
Karen pronounced the car very twitchy, which was hardly surprising. The other MR2 drivers were trying out the new Toyo R888 tyres for their racing and were having the same trouble. At one point Karen had to go off what might laughably be called the drier line to avoid an MX5 and ended up spinning at Copse.

Image copyright Sarah Wherry, used with kind permission
It seems the Yokohama A048R tyres on Karen's car are high maintenance, needing a careful eye on their pressure to ensure heat and grip in changing conditions. The original high pressures meant less grip as the track dried even slightly. Reducing the pressure improved things marginally.

Image copyright Sarah Wherry, used with kind permission
At the very end of the day, Richard took the car out for a spin and was lucky to enjoy the track as dry as it had been all day with a very definite dry line and more heat in the tyres produced great grip. He shared the track with a monster ex-Japanese Touring Car R32 Skyline GTR. See the video below:

Despite the conditions, incidents were very low in number and everyone seemed to have a good time. A big thank you to Steve Vince for organising the day for the Nippon Challenge and MR2 Racing groups, and providing a lovely hot lunch as well!

And Breathe…

2008-03-09T19:47:00.001Z

Richard only had time to complete a small task on the car this weekend. He cut down the length of an elbow piece of 70mm silicon hosing and created an aluminium bracket to fix the air filter in place. All that now remains is to drill a couple of holes in the boot floor through which to bolt the bracket and to spray the boot interior white. Everything can then be assembled to complete the new induction kit. This will receive plenty of cool fresh air thanks to the vent in the side of the quarter panel and new vents in the rear panel which will draw the air over the filter cone.

Can’t Stop the Rock!

2008-03-09T19:39:00.005Z

Sunday 24th March saw Karen and Richard attend a track day at Rockingham. This was driving the International Long Circuit configuration which Karen will be racing on in June. Karen was driving her naturally aspirated ex-MR2 Challenge car, but was using the 15” wheels and Yokohama A048R tyres from the Supercharger to get a feel for them.

Image copyright Richard Senter
Grip from the tyres (a least in the dry) is prodigious, allowing higher cornering speeds and fantastic braking even with standard discs and calipers using the Carbotech XP8 pads. This obviously bodes well for the Supercharger which will be a lighter car in race trim.

Image copyright Richard Senter
It was great to share the day with some friendly faces in the form of Garrick, Jo and Tom. Garrick and Jo were working for Bookatrack on the day, and Tom had come along to say hello and enjoy some passenger rides.

Image copyright Richard Senter
Richard had a couple of sessions in the driving seat which he thoroughly enjoyed, but most of the time was given over to Karen to get to grips with the circuit. She also had a brilliant day and enjoyed some tussles with various cars including other MR2s, a Prodrive fettled Aston Martin Vantage V8, Mitsubishi EVOs and Lancers, and a Mazda RX7 which it turned out had about 400bhp!

Image copyright Richard Senter
Other notable attendees at the event were Dixon Cheng in his Honda Integra and the Buddy Club Integra. Both are due to take part in the Nippon Challenge and they looked phenomenally quick around the tight infield and out across the banked oval sections.

Chilled Out...

2008-02-20T10:26:00.002Z

Slow progress is being made in preparing the Supercharger for the forthcoming Nippon Challenge. The cold weather is stopping progress during the evenings, but it is making for great weather at the weekends once the frost has cleared. Therefore all work is being done at the weekends in the sunshine until things warm up!

Recent work has included the removal of the original radiator support, the creation of an airflow scoop in the front storage area and trial fit of the radiator and chargecooler radiator on a new support. Future work will include aluminium shrouding around the radiators to force the air through rather than around them, and a scoop in the bonnet to mate up to the one in the storage area which will allow the air to pass over the car. This should increase stability at high speeds and improve braking and grip.

Ready to Rock!

2008-02-10T15:18:00.001Z

Richard and David set about preparing Karen's previous race car for some up-coming track days. The first one is Rockingham at the end of February. Whilst David removed the passenger seat from the donor car, Richard swapped over a driveshaft. The opportunity was taken to fit 15" wheels from the Supercharger wearing Yokohama A048R tyres. Karen will then be able to test out the grip levels these provide as they will be used when racing the Supercharger.

They then installed the passenger seat in the racer and fitted a harness. This will allow for more fun at track days and the possibility of tuition from more experienced racers.

Shiny, Shiny, Shiny...

2008-02-05T10:37:00.000Z

It's like Christmas all over again, as items keep turning up for the Supercharger. Recently receieved items from PowerSupply (www.psupply.co.uk) include bonnet pins, a cable-pull, and some aluminium and silicon piping for the chargecooler install. A race transponder was bought from Tim Cartledge (www.tcracing.co.uk) and finally an air-filter was purchased from eBay. It's now down to Richard to ensure everything is fitted and working in time for the shakedown test at Silverstone on 16th March.

TV Coverage for the Nippon Challenge

2008-01-30T08:14:00.000Z

The 2008 Nippon Challenge currently has four televised races. These will be shown on MotorsTV in a half hour repeated program and then highlights will be shown in "Race and Rally UK" on Channel 5. Further sponsorship is currently being negotiated for the remaining races and discussions are already taking place to secure full TV coverage for 2009.

Karen has previously appeared on MotorsTV in coverage of a Silverstone round of the 2007 PowerNights event. Here's hoping that more media coverage can help drum up some sponsorship funds!

Let There be Light(ening)!

2008-01-20T17:55:00.001Z

Richard got busy with the angle-grinder this weekend and cut out the webbing from the Supercharger's new engine lid and from the boot. The engine lid is now lighter than the original one and doesn't have that air-scoop that proved impractical. It still needs holes to be drilled for the bonnet pins to be fitted. The boot lid requires further work to plug some holes and to have a high-level rear spoiler fitted.

Plenty of other work is still required to get the car to a state where it can be used for a shakedown and meet and greet with other Nippon Challenge competitors at Silverstone on Sunday 16th March. A closer deadline is giving more impetus to get things done!

Autosport International 2008

2008-01-13T12:44:00.000Z

Karen and Richard visited the Autosport International Show at the NEC. They had a good look around and had the chance to meet up with old friends from the MR2 racing fraternity.

A lot of time was spent with Steve Vince on the Red Dragon Track and Race Club stand, helping promote the MR2 Racing and the Nippon Challenge. A lot of interest was shown in both formulas and Steve was approached by several new drivers for each.

It seems likely that Karen's sponsorship by Rogue Motorsport will continue in 2008, which is wonderful being associated with the premier MR2 tuning and motorsport preparation business in the UK!

Karen is pictured posing next to a highly modified RX7 which is due to race in the Nippon Challenge.

Nippon Challenge Draft Regulations Published

2008-01-04T09:03:00.000Z

The initial draft of the Nippon Challenge regulations have been published on the website: www.nipponchallenge.co.uk

Even though the Supercharger will be racing in the Modified class, it will not be allowed GRP front wings which is a real shame as steel originals can be costly to buy. We were hoping to use GRP replacements in the event of damage. There is some good news though, with confirmation that the headlights are not a requirement for racing. Sidelights are sufficient. Thus we won't be replacing the pop-up headlamps on the car. The covers will be fitted in a permanent down position. This will save something in the region of 7kg in weight and a great deal of time and effort.

Some of the other cars already prepared for other types of competition may now have to be classified within the Invitation class of the Challenge, due to various modifications more extreme than those allowed in the Modified class currently. Hopefully this won't put them off competing and putting on a dramatic show for the crowds!

Happy New Year - 2008

2008-01-01T16:32:00.000Z

Happy New Year to everyone. Let's hope this is a great new year for MR2 racing and for the Nippon Challenge.

Karen received a race car related gift for Christmas. Our friend David presented her with a special money box especially for collecting funds for the MR2 Supercharger.

As you can see, David's modified the money box to suit its purpose. Obviously, this isn't going to generate quite enough money to help greatly. So if there are any potential sponsors out there, don't be afraid to contact Karen via the link on the right-hand side of the page to see how we can help promote your business!

Exhausted!

2007-12-17T11:24:00.001Z

The Supercharger required an exhaust, and for now Richard used a standard N/A item which just about fitted. This allowed the car to be run without sounding like a very LOUD tractor. Various other jobs have been done and other requirements have come to light...

It's hoped that we can get the Supercharger to the stage where it can be used for a trackday sometime within the first few months of next year, as a shakedown. Only then will we be able to tell what further modifications are required ready for the first event in April.

The Cooler The Better...

2007-12-09T15:02:00.000Z

The parts required to convert the Supercharger to running a chargecooler (water-cooled) rather than an intercooler (air-cooled) have started to arrive. The first item was a Subaru Legacy Chargecooler:

This will cool the air coming from the supercharger before it goes into the plenum chamber. The second item to arrive was a Fiat Cinquecento Radiator. This will be used to cool the water running through the chargecooler which in turn will cool the air passing through that. The radiator itself is quite compact and very lightweight being an aluminium core with plastic end caps:

The third item to arrive was an electric water pump from a VW/Audi which will be used to circulate the coolant around the chargecooler system. All these purchases so far have been via eBay. The only other items required for the conversion are some silicon pipes to transport the coolant between the radiator and chargecooler, and for getting air from the supercharger into the chargecooler and back out into the plenum.

The Nippon Challenge website is now up and running and an interesting selection of cars has begun to form within it. This bodes well for a mixed field of car makes, models and performance levels. Visit www.nipponchallenge.co.uk for more details.

Karen's Supercharged Ready For 2008!

2007-11-26T14:01:00.000Z

Karen plans to race an MR2 Mk1 Supercharger in the Nippon Challenge next year. The car requires some work to get it ready which will include a serious weight reduction programme and the installation of a chargecooler to stabilise induction temperatures and produce consistent high boost. Improvements will also be made to the current handling and braking.

All these changes will be required to get the best out of the cars modest power to give it hope against the other cars in the 'Challenge such as Mitsubishi Evos, Subaru Imprezas, Nissan Skylines, Honda Civics, etc. The racing should be exciting to watch and have a number of fantastic different sounds coming from the various engines.

Thanks go to new sponsors Red Dragon Autosports for help in providing the Supercharger. Steve Vince of Red Dragon Autosports is the organising force behind the Nippon Challenge and it's hoped this may help persuade other drivers to keep their distance from Karen's car!

When circumstances allow, Karen hopes to participate in rounds of the MR2 Challenge and also the popular and televised Power Nights events with her current MR2 Challenge car.

Karen's End of Season Summary 2007

2007-11-22T20:43:00.001Z

The season started well at Snetterton with separate grids for the Mk1 and Mk2 cars, and at one point in the first race I was in 5th place! As the following races returned to mixed grids it was tricky chasing places whilst avoiding the lapping Mk2’s and their slower cousins with their sometimes erratic cornering.

My results this year have been adversely affected by the actions of other drivers. One in particular managed to cause a lot of damage and my only DNF so far, and in a later race sent me spinning off track again after side-swiping me on a straight! (And they say its women that can’t drive).

Despite this, my results have improved over last year and I’ve achieved many new personal best times at each circuit visited. I was delighted to receive the “MR2 Challenge Most Improved Driver 2007” trophy at the end of the season.

I would like to thank my sponsors Rogue Motorsport, who helped out with a suspension problem and provided me with a set of the fantastic CarboTech brake pads. MR2 Only magazine have kindly detailed my exploits throughout the year and I’ve been proud to carry their graphics on the car. Thanks also to Tim Cartledge who travelled a great distance and worked very hard to change the car's clutch. My friends David, Darren and Lance have also helped with the various repairs required. Of course, a big thank you to my long-suffering husband, Richard.

I’ll soon be revealing my plans for racing next year, so please keep visiting this site for more info.

Karen.
x

MR2 Challenge Most Improved Driver 2007

2007-11-13T15:37:00.000Z

Image copyright Sarah Wherry, reproduced with kind permission
Following the final MR2 Challenge race of the season at Mallory Park, Steve Vince provided a buffet for the MR2 drivers and their supporters. It was during this buffet that Steve took the opportunity to make some surprise presentations.

Karen was awarded the Most Improved Driver 2007 trophy. Steve had decided that Karen's skill and determination had improved so dramatically from the previous year that she was the rightful winner of the award! (This is not an indicaton that her driving was anything other than great last year, be the improvement has been there for all to see).

Race Report: Mallory Park 14th October

2007-11-13T14:58:00.000Z

Another 5.30am start saw Karen and Richard arriving at Mallory Park around 7.30am with their friend Darren having met them en-route. It can be difficult to find paddock space at Mallory and this was the reason for getting there comparatively early. The car was unloaded and washed as Karen chatted to Sarah Wherry and the other drivers as they began to arrive.

With the scrutineering bay open, it was decided to get the car inspected early on in case of problems. Of course, there were none and the car was given a ticket allowing it to race. With that sorted, it was off to the cafeteria for a well deserved breakfast!

Image copyright Sarah Wherry, reproduced with kind permission
The qualifying session was supposed to begin at 10.40am, but things seemed to be running slightly ahead. Karen was escorted by Richard to the Assembly Area as early as possible to try and ensure she got out toward the front of the field and would enjoy some clear track straight away. As it turned out the officials let the cars onto the track out of their original order, and thus Karen was in the middle of things. Despite being on very worn Falken tyres, Karen managed a personal best time of 1:00.49 which saw her into 22nd position overall and 10th in class for the beginning of the race. However, given the previous incidents involving Arron Pullan #26, she was concerned he would be starting directly behind her…

Image copyright Simon Fidoe, reproduced with kind permission
The race began at about 2.45pm, and Karen was behind Rob Howes #7 and Sam Hare #62 on the grid. As the lights went out, Sam got ahead of Rob and Karen tried to follow. She had to go around Gerrards with Rob on her inside. Karen was now stuck behind the #44 Mk2 of Andy Woodvine and couldn’t quite get in front of Rob at the exit of Gerrards onto Stebbe straight.

Andy was slow through the Lake Esses and Karen was effectively boxed in. This allowed Adam Lockwood #51 and Paul Barker #16 to drive by. A queue of cars formed on the inside of Shaws hairpin and Steve Woolfe #88 drive past Karen on the outside. Roger Pullan #13 also managed to out drag her and pass her on the Devil’s Elbow. So that was easily four places lost within the first lap!

Karen was now chasing Roger but couldn’t seem to get close enough to make a move on him. On lap three, Sam Hare #62 pulled out of the way after Shaws hairpin on his way to retiring from the race. All the time, she was under pressure from Arron Pullan #26. On the fourth lap, Karen decided that discretion was the better part of valour, and when Arron tried an overtake at the Esses she decided not to fight him on the inside at the hairpin. She assumed that once again she’d probably be knocked out of the race and left with a hefty repair bill. As it was the last race of the season and her birthday she decided to let him through. Oddly, he did seem to have an interesting amount of straight line speed…

By lap seven, Karen was catching Roger again, whilst she was being hounded by Nigel Buttfield #34. On the next lap, everyone overtook an ailing Adam Lockwood in car #51 before the Lake Esses. The status-quo remained, with Karen chasing Roger and being chased by Nigel, until the final lap when Roger moved over too far for the lapping Mk2 of Steve Lumley #58 and got himself on the grass on the outside of Stebbe. He rejoined the circuit, and Karen would have overtaken him but for the fact she had seen Patrick Mortell #1 was already overtaking him on the other side. She therefore left Roger room, just in case he decided to go too far her way this time! Karen finished in 22nd overall ahead of Nigel and George Stoddart. She was 10th in class A for production Mk1’s.

Image copyright Simon Fidoe, reproduced with kind permission
All the cars were collected within scrutineering, where they were checked to see that their alloy wheels were of the size as stipulated in the technical regulations. There was also talk of the cars being weighed to ensure they were all over their minimum weights, but after a while it was decided that wasn't going to happen. We'd rather the opportunity had been used...

Mallory Park in-car video here

Karen was a little annoyed with herself for losing ground on the first lap which could have made things so different, but was happy to have completed the season with no further mishaps. She did manage to improve her personal best time during the race by 3/100th of a second to 1:00.46. It wasn’t too long before she was really hungry and looking forward to the end of season buffet provided by the MR2 Challenge organiser Steve Vince in the cafeteria. Some things never change!

Race Report: Snetterton 29th September

2007-11-13T13:08:00.000Z

The weather had initially appeared ominous but things soon brightened up and that’s the way it remained. As usual, the car was washed before scrutineering through which there were no problems. Fuel was added and the car was then ready for the qualifying session.

Image copyright Matthew Holland, reproduced with kind permission
Whilst waiting in the Assembly Area, Karen become more and more nervous as always happens. Once she was out on track the nerves disappeared and she was straight into the swing of it. Her pace seemed good and she didn’t get caught in any battles for track position. She qualified in 27th place for Race 1, out of a total field of 34 cars. Importantly, her consistent lap times saw her qualify in 23rd place for Race 2.

Image copyright Matthew Holland, reproduced with kind permission
Karen formed up on the grid for Race 1 behind John Wilson #17 and Hugh Gilmour #98. As the lights went out she accelerated past Hugh and followed John past the Mk2 car of Andy Winterton #8. At the first corner she was squeezed between the Mk2’s of Dan Parker #65 and David Bryant #38. She ended up getting past David and chasing Dan through Sear corner and down the Revett straight.

When exiting Riches on lap two, there had been an incident which caught out Dan leaving Karen to continue chasing John Wilson. Dan quickly used the superior power of the Mk2 to drive past Karen along Revett to rejoin the fray. It was just a shame he seemed to be holding her up through the corners. In the third lap, Karen once again fell victim to the power of a Mk2 when Andy Winterton caught her along Revett to get in front just before the Esses. Karen kept in touch with Andy, but was again overhauled by another two Mk2’s along the Revett straight! This time it was the #9 car of Rob Horsfield and #33 car of Rowland Wooley, who had both recovered from that incident on lap two. As she chased them through Coram they passed Dan Parker who was rejoining the circuit after some kind of misdemeanour.

By lap seven Karen was busy chasing Nigel Buttfield #34, who’d been passed by the errant Mk2’s. This was interrupted by David Bryant #38 who intervened in his Mk2 just before the Esses. At the beginning of lap nine Karen was forced wide at Riches by Dan Parker #65 who had recovered from his earlier off, so once again her chase of Nigel had been baulked. Dan used his superior power along the Revett straight and Karen gained on the battling Nigel and John.

It was now the tenth and final lap, and again Karen was passed by a Mk2 along Revett. This time it was David Weaving in #89! As she drove through Russell chicane, tight behind Nigel Buttfield to run to the finish line she noticed that Roger Pullan #13 who had been following her for most of the race was now joining the circuit from the grass on the infield and finished ahead of her. He’d cut the final chicane gaining an unfair advantage and was later docked 1 second to correct the result and his racing license was endorsed. Karen was thus classified in 26th position overall, and 12th in her class.

Snetterton Race 1 in-car video here

Image copyright Matthew Holland, reproduced with kind permission
Karen’s hopes were high for a better result from Race 2, given her higher grid position and hopefully less interference from Mk2 cars. Unfortunately, things didn’t quite turn out as she expected…

Image copyright Matthew Holland, reproduced with kind permission
Rob Howes #7 and Hugh Gilmour #98 managed to keep ahead of Karen at the start of Race 2 and she followed them closely through Riches corner. It was halfway to the next corner, when from nowhere; Karen was sideswiped hard by Arron Pullan #26 and was sent spinning off the track!

With the engine still running Karen managed to rejoin the circuit but was pretty incandescent with rage and set about trying to catch up the rest of the field. She’d now been unceremoniously relegated to last place! As she fought to catch up, Karen passed the other lady racer Sarah Wherry #23 who was rejoining from an incident at Russell chicane. It turns out Sarah had also been struck and spun out by another competitor. So both ladies were now struggling to recover.

By the end of the third lap Karen was hunting down the Mk2 of Richard Weaving #86 and Mk1 of Ivan Thomas #59. Karen drove past Ivan out of Russell to get ahead by the beginning of lap six. Richard had powered away and thus Karen was left to catch the Mk1 of Paul Radford #39. Paul’s car got lairy on the exit of Russell and Karen was forced to slow before overtaking him. Sarah meanwhile got a better exit and out dragged them both. She claimed the inside line for Riches corner and slowly and inexorably began to draw away from Karen.

On lap nine, there was a yellow flag on display at Sear corner, which turned out to be for Arron who’d gone wide and was driving back onto the Revett straight. Karen derived a good deal of pleasure driving past that little scene…Coming into the Esses, she also passed a retiring Jorge Calado #24. Rob Horsfield #9 was piloting his Mk2 back onto the track just before Russell chicane and caused Karen a real headache. She overtook him coming out of the chicane and her crew believed she’d overhauled him only to discover he crossed the finish line 1/10th of a second in front of her! A fantastic recovery effort from Karen, finishing 29th overall and 14th in class. A very exciting race, but for all the wrong reasons.

Video copyright Karen Phillips, reproduced with kind permission
A good amount of time was spent in the office of the Clerk of the Course that day. Karen was not at fault in any incident, but she still felt agrieved at having to make formal complaints. Unfortunately, Karen was not alone as there were several serious incidents that day. Here's hoping the driving standards would improve for the final MR2 Challenge meeting at Mallory Park.

Further Updates Coming Soon...

2007-10-19T08:58:00.001Z

Once again, we've been kept rather busy with racing committments and some repairs. Please keep an eye on the site for details on the Snetterton double-header and the final race at Mallory Park.

Karen will also be writing her end of season round-up, and giving details of her various plans for racing in 2008.

Race Report: Silverstone 22nd September

2007-10-08T19:09:00.000Z

Image copyright Lance Wittenberg, used with kind permission

Karen had spent the previous day practising on the Silverstone National circuit. The first two sessions in the morning were done on the old Yokohama A539 tyres and the two sessions in the afternoon were used to test some Toyo T1-S tyres as possible control tyres for the MK1 cars in the 2008 season.

Karen found difficulty in re-creating her 1:18 lap times from the Power Nights event in August. In fact she was a good couple of seconds down on her best time. We tried to figure out why and assumed it might be the use of heavier alloy wheels and comparatively cold track temperature. Not forgetting that the Toyo tyres were actually totally brand new.

Race day certainly began cold and fresh! Karen, Richard and David left home at 5.30am and arrived at the circuit with the Dawn sunlight at about 7am. Silverstone being so close, it made little sense to pay to stay in a hotel or bed and breakfast place. The race car had been left at the circuit overnight and was soon unloaded from its trailer.

Image copyright Lance Wittenberg, used with kind permission

All the drivers had been told to report for signing on a mere five minutes before scrutineering time began, yet race control and scrutineering were at opposite ends of the paddock! Obviously it took a genius to organise that little gem… Richard took the car through scrutineering and the only sticking point was the fact the car was equipped with a video camera, but there was no form to allow its use. Luckily, as this was being discussed Karen appeared, having jogged the length of the paddock. She produced the required form and all was well.

Richard had noticed on the Friday that the N/S driveshaft was throwing out some grease and so the time between scrutineering and qualifying had been ear-marked to fix this little problem. With the clock ticking, Richard re-packed it with grease and replaced the cable-ties securing the cover with some more sturdy jubilee clips instead. He felt like a mechanic for a WRC team, only much slower and less well paid!

The qualifying session began at about 9.15am, in dry and bright conditions. Richard hadn’t intended to bother timing the session but he and David soon resorted to using their mobile phones for rough times. Things seemed to be going pretty well and Karen was certainly quicker than during the previous day’s practice sessions. Unfortunately, our friend John Wilson in the www.ifdevracing.net sponsored car made his first appearance onto the main straight with his bonnet pressed firmly against his windscreen! John drove carefully off circuit and found his way through the safety barriers. He emerged and removed his helmet and we feared he’d not re-join to qualify for the race. Fortunately, the marshals were really helpful and between them the bonnet was secured, John strapped back in, and the car let out in a gap. He might have missed a couple of laps but he continued on and qualified in 22nd place! Karen continued to improve her times until she qualified in 25th place with a time of 1:18.601 which was only a few hundredths off her personal best. That meant she was several cars ahead of the other lady racer, Sarah Wherry in 30th place.

During the lunch break, Karen’s father and brother arrived and were very happy to hear of her qualification results. Not only did Karen do a great job, but it was a relief to know the car was working well after so many repairs due to the incident at Mallory Park.

Image copyright Lance Wittenberg, used with kind permission

The race itself began at 1.40pm. Karen was initially baulked by a slightly slower starting Jorge Calado #24 in front of her. Sarah Wherry #23 meanwhile got a clean run down the outside following the MK2 of Dan Parker #65 to get in front of Karen at Copse. A big crowd formed through Becketts and Sam Hare #62 got around on the outside. Yellow Flags were waving at Brooklands thanks to a couple of MK2’s playing in the kitty litter. As Karen navigated Luffield, Jorge steered inward ever so slightly to give her a little nudge and then out-dragged her along the main straight. The recovering MK2’s blasted past Karen as she chased down Sam and Jorge. Nigel Royle #87 also got past her as they braked down into Brooklands. Without any more interference from the MK2’s, it was a four-way battle between Jorge, Sam, Nigel and Karen. Nigel and Jorge double-teamed Sam down the main straight into Copse as Karen got ever closer. After a couple of laps of trying hard, she got past Sam into Copse and was then after Jorge and Nigel. As a couple of MK2’s made an appearance to intervene in her battle, it seems their group had caught up Sarah who went a little wide defending her line at Luffield and span off into the pit lane! Nigel had to go wide to avoid her and Karen’s greater speed carried her past him. Jorge lost time going very wide at Copse and got caught amongst the MK2’s, allowing Karen to catch up. As Karen and Jorge fought, Nigel had made a recovery and passed Karen through Maggots into Becketts. It was very close between the three of them and next time around Karen tried to squeeze past through Maggots on the wrong side to gain the inside at Becketts but it didn’t work and she couldn’t out-drag Jorge up the following straight. That’s how things stayed for a great close finish. Karen was 26th overall and 10th in class for the MK1’s.

Silverstone in-car video here

A good result for Karen, having come back from a miserable DNF in the previous round. Exciting close racing against Jorge and Nigel, and a better result than the other lady racer. Things were beginning to look up again!

Post-Mallory Repairs

2007-10-08T18:59:00.000Z

The incident at Mallory had left Karen’s car in quite a state. Two crushed front wings, a broken bumper and front valance parts, a crushed radiator, bent front light covers, a heavily creased driver’s door with smashed glass, a mildly dented passenger door, a badly dented driver’s rear quarter panel with a missing side vent and finally an errant driver’s front wheel thanks to a sheared track rod end.

Image copyright Richard Senter, used with kind permission

Our friend David came up from Wiltshire for a weekend of repairs. He and Richard stripped the damaged parts from the front of the car. They then set about removing the worst of the dents in the rear ¼ panel by using David’s slide-hammer to pull the panel back into some sort of shape. Darren also made an appearance and lent his strength to help things along. Where holes had been drilled to allow use of the slide-hammer, they were filled with fibreglass and filler was used to smooth things out.

Image copyright Richard Senter, used with kind permission

Richard and David then removed the steering rack from the donor car and replaced the one on the race car. At least moving the race car about was now a lot easier with the steering returned to a working condition!

The donor car had already had its driver’s door removed for storage as a spare and this was now brought out to replace the badly damaged one on the race car. David made short work of swapping the door lock barrels to enable the use of the original key on the new door and solved a small wiring dilemma presented by the new door thanks to some interesting bodgery by a previous owner. After some messing with the hinges the new (red!) door was fitted to the car. The window winder turned out to be a bit clonkey, but at least it worked.

The next weekend, Tim Cartledge #42 came up from Sussex to help install a new Exedy clutch. Quite a drive to spend your weekend struggling with a clutch change, and that’s just how it turned out! One of the first jobs on Saturday saw Tim spear his finger with a screwdriver, yet despite this nasty wound he soldiered on for the weekend. Many hours were spent trying to get the gearbox back onto the car and it was on what was decided would be the very last effort that everything just fitted into place! Richard finished replacing the ancillaries and exhaust. Just after Tim had left for home, Richard discovered the loss of reverse and a very floppy gearchange. The linkage levers on the gearbox had come apart and were found to be damaged. Replacements were soon robbed from a spares car and everything was returned to a working order. Richard certainly learnt an awful lot that weekend!

Image copyright Richard Senter, used with kind permission

Image copyright Richard Senter, used with kind permission

During the following week, Richard won a pair of front wings in an eBay auction and collected them from close to Oxford. He also managed to bag a spare radiator, and a driver’s door for John Wilson #17 who’s car had received some damage at a recent PowerNights event.

John kindly donated a driver’s side headlight assembly, and with the help of our friend Lance, the bulkhead was re-shaped to allow the correct mounting of the pop-up headlights.

In previous repairs, Richard had taken the time to prepare panels and spray them in an attempt to match the colour of the rest of the car. This was a costly and time consuming process. To simplify things, Richard decided to brush paint the required panels in a blue/black mix of Hammerite that was as close as he could get to the undamaged parts of the car. Lance also helped to paint the headlamp covers, front valance and sideskirt parts. Richard even painted the original bumper which had bounced back into a decent shape. Part of Tim’s fee for helping with the clutch was that Karen’s car should be fitted with a fluorescent pink air-intake which he’d brought along with him. It certainly helped take peoples eyes away from the damaged rear ¼ panel!

A new radiator had been ordered and arrived within a couple of days. The original one had been crushed from beneath and was removed. The radiator support was bent back into shape and the new radiator was fitted and the coolant system was flushed and carefully filled and bled to avoid air-traps. The operation of the electric fan was also checked.

Image copyright Richard Senter, used with kind permission

Finally, Richard re-sprayed the previously black GRP sunroof panel with a colour very close to the original blue of the car. This meant when the MR2 Only graphics were applied the resulting effect was really rather good! MR2 Only decals were also applied to the front and rear bumpers. The race numbers were applied to the new door and the car was complete.

We’d like to take this opportunity to thank MR2 Only and its staff for their support and offers of spare parts. Thanks must go to David, Darren and Lance for their help with various repairs to the car and a special thanks go to Tim Cartledge for spending the weekend changing the clutch – We really appreciate it!

Race Report: Mallory Park 19th August

2007-10-08T18:53:00.000Z

Image copyright MR2 Only magazine, used with kind permission

Having had an early start from home at 5.30am, Karen and her team arrived at Mallory under grey clouds but no rain. The car was unloaded and washed and had no problems with scrutineering. As Karen’s nervousness grew, David, Darren and Richard tucked in to hearty breakfasts made by the lovely ladies in the cafeteria.

Qualifying began at 9.50am and although the track looked dry enough it was still damp and greasy. Karen had a big sideways moment on the exit of Gerrards that left her team with their hearts in their mouths. Everyone seemed to be at least a couple of seconds off their best dry pace and the times reflected that. Karen had posted a time of 1:05.516 which put her in 24th position out of 29 runners.

The cars were called to assembly not long after 2pm and were soon formed on the grid. However, cars from the previous race were still being collected from the circuit upon low-loaders and thanks to having to wait for an ambulance to return to the inside of the circuit they were on the grid for over twenty minutes. The green flag lap proceeded without incident and before much longer the race had finally begun!

David Litchfield #11 was chasing Mark Jessop #73 hard for the lead of the race until a moment on the grass at the Esses sent him headlong toward the tyre wall on the inside of the circuit at nigh-on full speed. The car hit the tyre wall and was catapulted upwards into the air a good number of feet before gravity sucked it back down roof first! Luckily, David was un-hurt and managed to extricate himself from the wreck within a couple of moments to everyone’s relief.

Tim Cartledge had been having great fun drifting his #42 Mk1 around Gerrards, but it seems this was at odds with his rear Falken tyres and it’s likely that the passenger one came away from the rim. This caused the car to slew further sideways and end up side on into the gravel trap. Physics dictated that the car would end up rolling, which it did a total of five times before coming to rest perched on the armco next to a marshal station! Tim was un-hurt except for a gash on his arm received from shards of glass when exiting the car. All the glass had been shattered and yet upon inspection after the race it appeared the roof had not even been pushed against the rollcage. It seems the MR2 is a safe car to roll in!

Image copyright MR2 Only magazine, used with kind permission

Karen’s clutch was slipping badly and every gear change saw her loose ground to the rest of the field. She was chased hard by Arron Pullan #26 who eventually got past at the Esses. Karen used the improved braking power from her CarboTech pads to brake later on the inside of the hairpin but Arron hadn’t seen her and turned in causing a good deal of damage to Karens passenger front wing and bumper. It’s possible the collision either locked the wheel under the arch or broke the steering, as Karen fought for control coming out of the hairpin and tried to avoid a spin. The cars clashed again and Karen was catapulted towards the lapping cars of Patrick Mortell #1 and Steve Lumley #58 who were fighting for second place. Patrick squeezed past but Karen struck Steve’s car very hard. This sent Steve into the armco and Karen bounced away to nose into the armco heavily on the opposite side. With the rear of Karen’s car butting out into the middle of the track the race was finally red-flagged.

Karen was unharmed but the marshals were forced to help her out of the car through the driver’s window (which had shattered), due to the door catch not seeming to operate. Karen was taken to the Medical Centre where she was checked over and found to be in good health. She was surprised when Tim was brought in for treatment!

Richard was unaware of the events that had unfolded and he watched as Steve Lumley drove his car back through the paddock, all the while fighting broken steering. Karen’s car was recovered on the back of a low loader and deposited near the scrutineering shed just as the heavens opened and torrential rain came down. The awful weather would eventually see the meeting abandoned.

Karen’s car was left with two crushed front wings, a broken bumper and front valance parts, a crushed radiator, bent front light covers, a heavily creased driver’s door with smashed glass, a mildly dented passenger door, a badly dented driver’s rear quarter panel with a missing side vent and finally an errant driver’s front wheel thanks to a sheared track rod end!

Image copyright MR2 Only magazine, used with kind permission

Karen apologised to Steve who was supremely understanding of the situation and they commiserated with each other over the states of their cars. It was then left to Karen, Richard, David and Darren to attempt to load the wrecked car back onto its trailer. Sarah Wherry helped direct the crew as they pushed it into place. Karen would like to thank Sarah and everyone else who offered assistance at the time and for help with spare parts if required – It was very much appreciated.

A very miserable end to the Mallory meeting; Karen’s first DNF in nearly two seasons of motor racing. A number of possibly serious incidents resulting in at least two cars being put out of action permanently. Topping it all was the awful weather which ruined the rest of the days racing.

Briefly, there was the hope that with the race red-flagged with enough laps done that Karen and Steve might still be classified with finishing positions. The requirement was 8 laps. Steve had completed 10 laps, and Karen 9. Unfortunately, an obscure ruling was used which saw them both still classified as DNF and Jason Jesse #37 came 24th having only completed 8 laps. Motor racing, you couldn’t make it up!

Lack of Site Updates...

2007-09-04T13:25:00.000Z

Image copyright MR2 Only magazine, used with kind permission
As you can see, the last race resulted in a certain amount of damage to Karen's car. This was through no fault of her own and resulted in Karen's first DNF in nearly two whole seasons of racing. Karen herself was unharmed in the incident.

Updates to this site may be postponed for a while as our time is being taken up repairing the car and getting a new clutch installed in time for the next meeting at Silverstone on 22nd September. The next updates should give a full race report for the Mallory meeting and details on the repairs and clutch change.

Karen and Richard would like to thank all those that expressed concern and helped out at Mallory after the incident, and offered help with spare parts and repairs.

New Sponsor - Rogue Motorsport.

2007-08-24T07:29:00.001Z

Karen is proud to be associated with Rogue Motorsport. The Warwickshire based company recently re-worked Karen's suspension and provided her with a set of Carbotech XP8 racing brake pads. Karen's car is soon to receive a set of Rogue sponsorship decals.

Rogue Motorsport can offer you anything for your MR2 from a basic oil and filter change to a monster 600bhp engine build in their purpose built 4,500sq ft facility. Constantly at the forefront of MR2 development, they have built some of the fastest MR2s in the country and will shortly be releasing their own 2.2 litre stroker kit for 3SGTE based cars.

Rogue Motorsport are proud to participate in and support the MR2 Challenge Series, and have taken class victory honours for the last two years. They race their own cars, supply and provide fully built race cars for other competitors and even offer arrive-and-drive hire packages at competitive rates.

Rogue Motorsport Limited
Unit 12 Runway Farm, Honiley Road
Meer End, Kenilworth, CV8 1NQ

Telephone 01676 530222
Fax 01676 530484
www.roguesystems.co.uk

Race Report: POWER NIGHTS Silverstone 2nd August

2007-08-16T11:28:00.000Z

Karen attended the first ever Power Nights event at Silverstone, which consisted of a day of practice sessions and then two evening races. For this particular event there were enough MR2's to ensure they had their very own qualifying and races. Race 1 grid positions were determined by the qualifying times and Race 2 starting positions would be a reverse of the Race 1 results!

Given that there were twelve MK2 cars competing and only two MK1 cars, Karen and Richard had figured that Karen would likely qualify and finish last in Race 1 and possibly therefore get pole position for Race 2.

The practice sessions went fairly well and Karen was pleased with her improvement. Within only a handful of laps in the first session she'd already easily eclipsed Richard's Time Attack record for the National circuit of 1:22.964. By the end of all the practice sessions she'd recorded a 1:19 by Darren's timing. We'd figured she was about a second behind the other MK1 of Jon Grimes #79, whilst the MK2's were just incredibly fast in comparison.

There were a few minor incidents during qualifying which began at 3:45pm. Andy Woodvine #44 beached himself in a gravel trap and Richard Weaving #86 was experiencing clutch problems. Karen seemed to be driving really well in spite of her car bouncing a little too much down the main straight. She managed her best time yet at 1:19.408 which put her in 12th position, behind Jon but ahead of Andy and Richard.

Race 1 began just before 6pm in glorious sunshine. Karen got a pretty good start, outdragging David Weaving #89, but Andy Woodvine #44 got in front at Copse. Thanks to the speed of the MK2's Karen got a little left behind and had to concentrate on trying to catch the rear of Andy's car in the distance. Thanks to some offs and technical problems with other cars Karen actually finished 10th, ahead of the MK2 of Richard Weaving #86!

Race 1 in-car video here

With the sun on its way down, there was brilliant sunshine in certain sections of the track and shade in others for the start of Race 2. This began at about 7:15pm. Karen actually started on the second row thanks to the DNFs from Race 1 being placed ahead of the rest of the field. She got a fantastic start and drove past Richard Weaving #86 to chase Adam Litchfield #81. It wasn't long though before the MK2's began to stream past her. This left Karen defending her position from Jon Grimes before she outbraked herself at Brooklands and he got through. Gradually Karen began to reel him back in but there simply werent enough laps left to catch him before the chequered flag.

Race 2 in-car video here

Due to more incidents Karen was classified in 9th place for Race 2. More importantly considering an upcoming MR2 Challenge race at the circuit, she achieved a best lap time of 1:18.513!

Power Nights was a thoroughly enjoyable event from start to finish and we'd like to thank Patrick Mortell of Rogue Motorsport for helping to organise the MR2's involvement.

Race Report: Brands Hatch 28th July

2007-08-14T21:02:00.000Z

Karen and Richard had tried to book a full day of practice at Brands, but had left it too late. Apparently bookings would only be accepted for single seater practice sessions by the time Richard rang. Therefore when they arrived at Brands on Friday afternoon to see the circuit and say hello to other racers it was galling to discover that other racers had managed to get places after they had tried!

It was a little too late to worry then, so Karen and Richard marvelled at the hilly nature of the circuit having only previously seen it on television which masked its true nature. They sat in the grandstand above Paddock Hill Bend and could see virtually all of the Indy circuit laid out in front of them. Karen’s concerns over Paddock Hill grew as they watched the practice sessions in the warmth of the summer sun.

Race day did not begin well… Karen was rather poorly in the morning. Either her evening meal disagreed with her, or she’d caught too much sun in the afternoon. She was left feeling rather drained and suffering feverish like symptoms. Her breakfast was more or less just a fruit juice and a number of grimaces as she tried not to watch Richard wolf his breakfast down!

Having arrived at the circuit it seemed parking of the tow-car and trailer would be a problem. Luckily, Tim Cartledge kindly helped out with making space for us next to his good self. By way of returning the favour, Richard helped him out by making his racing seat secure in time for scrutineering.

Karen’s car passed through scrutineering without incident and immediately following this a short detour was made to the interior of the circuit to get the car on the official weighbridge. With a third of a tank of petrol, the car and driver weighed in at 1061kg. Therefore, it was decided to add more fuel up to half a tank to ensure the car would be legal at above 1050kg following the qualifying and/or race.

Richard left Karen in the assembly area whilst he trudged his way back through the paddock and uphill to sit in the grandstand again. He watched as Karen began her first flying lap and had a lairy oversteer moment going down Paddock Hill bend, causing her to fishtail slightly up Hailwood Hill. She certainly treated the corner with more respect after that. A little later, Sam Hare #62 started to lay down gearbox oil beginning at the sweeping right hander of McLaren and then throughout the rest of the circuit. This caused problems for several people resulting in the end of qualifying for at least a couple as they slid off into gravel traps. Karen managed to stay on but she was fighting her symptoms and was unfamiliar with the circuit. Jorge Calado #24 overtook her into Graham Hill bend and then suddenly decided he “needed some space”. His decision to brake sharply and leave a gap in front did nothing for Karen as she had to come to a complete stop behind him. Another qualifying lap consigned to the bin and a very unhappy Karen…

Image copyright Peter Jones, reproduced with kind permission
Ultimately, she qualified last but one and was left feeling deflated and unhappy at the prospect of racing on a circuit she still didn’t have the grasp of. She was left trying to find shade in the rather warm paddock and gulp down large quantities of water.

Karen’s spirits had picked up a little after friendly chats with other racers and especially Arthur and Hugh Gilmour. (Thanks for lunch!). Her nerves began to jangle as usual as the race approached and she made her way to the assembly area without Richard who went straight to the packed grandstand to watch the race.

As the red lights went out, Karen picked up three to four places by Paddock Hill Bend, tucking up behind Tim Cartledge #42. As the cars streamed up Hailwood Hill, Karen was still on the inside but noticed a queue of cars forming around the apex at Druids. She tried to go through the middle instead and encountered a cloud of dust. As she drove down Graham Hill she spotted red flags and she began to coast back to the start line. It turned out that the dust was due to Hugh Gilmour #98 having been forced into the gravel on the outside of Druids. Whilst he was plucked out of the mire, the other cars were re-formed into their original positions on the grid. Unfortunately for Hugh, his slot was taken by reserve driver Adam Litchfield #81 for the restart.

Image copyright Peter Jones, reproduced with kind permission
Again, Karen made a couple of places and followed Tim and again Druids was almost grid-locked by the number of cars. Karen managed to pick up at least another place through Druids and down Graham Hill. As the race progressed though, the positions she had gained were lost as she busied herself simply coming to terms with the circuit itself. Sarah Wherry #23 had a moment at Paddock, braking very late and hard resulting in a spin into the gravel trap. Thus a yellow caution flag covered Paddock Hill Bend for the rest of the race. Karen finished last, but was surprisingly happy with her drive and much more happy with driving Brands Hatch itself. She was also relieved to have passed a post-race weighing session with the car coming through at 1058kg.

In terms of outright results then, it was a pretty diabolical race for Karen. However, she had actually finally enjoyed the experience despite feeling quite unwell. She finished the race without incident unlike her fellow female competitor. Karen’s hoping that a return to health, some work on her suspension, and the familiarity with Mallory will yield much better results in the next Challenge outing.

POWER NIGHTS Racing - Thursday 2nd August.

2007-07-31T14:05:00.000Z

Karen will be competing at Silverstone on the evening of Thursday 2nd August in the inaugural POWER NIGHTS competition. The timetable for the day is as follows:

09:00 - 09:25 MR2 Testing
11:00 - 11:25 MR2 Testing
13:45 - 14:05 MR2 Testing

15:45 - 16:00 MR2 Qualifying

17:00 - Gates open to Spectators
17:15 - 17:45 Track entertainment with Terry Grant and his Stunt Cars

18:00 MR2 Race 1 - 10 minutes + 1 lap
19:20 MR2 Race 2 - 10 minutes + 1 lap

20:45 Race Awards Ceremony with BBQ in Paddock (open to all)

Current MR2 Entry List:

1. Patrick Mortell (mk2)
2. Steve Lumley (mk2)
3. Karen Phillips (mk1)
4. Andrew Woodvine (mk2)
5. Rob Alman (mk2)
6. Jon Grimes (mk1)
7. Andy Hutchinson (mk2)
8. Alan Henderson (mk2)
9. David Weaving (mk2)
10. Richard Weaving (mk2)
11. Jeff Holden (mk2)
12. Adam Litchfield (mk2)
13. Malcolm Edeson (mk2)
14. Gordon Milner (mk2)

Race 2 will be reversed from the finishing order of Race 1, and therefore thanks to the number of MK2 cars involved it is expected that Karen will be in her very first pole position start!

The racing will be recorded for transmission on MOTORS TV very soon. It's a great chance for Karen to enjoy some practice and racing on the Silverstone National circuit at a bargain price.

Race Report: Snetterton 15th July

2007-07-26T21:05:00.000Z

Video copyright Matthew Holland, reproduced with kind permission

Just for once the MR2 Challenge cars weren’t required for scrutineering at the crack of dawn. This gave Karen and her crew a chance to actually enjoy their full English breakfast for once!

Having arrived at Snetterton circuit, the car was unloaded and given a bit of a wash just in time for a heavy rain shower to wash all the soap off. As the car was presented for scrutineering the sky began to brighten and the rain stopped. After inspection the car was given a ticket to race and there was only a short time to chat with the other racers before the qualifying session began at 9.50am.

Thanks to the increasing amount of sun and a decent breeze the track had dried nicely with only some dampness remaining at Riches and Sear corners. Karen’s husband Richard and their friend Darren watched her progress from the Esses. Karen seemed to have found a decent amount of free track around her most of the time and Darren’s unofficial timings seemed to show she was doing well despite being out on brand new shaved Falken tyres. When the timing sheets were published it was obvious that there were performance improvements amongst the other racers in the MR2 Challenge and thus Karen had qualified 27th for Race 1 and 30th for Race 2 from a field of 38 cars. It should be remembered that 14 of the cars ahead of Karen were MK2 models with their power, grip and braking advantages.

Image copyright Matthew Holland, reproduced with kind permission
Race 1 began in bright, dry conditions. Karen had a great start that saw her gain at least one place before the first corner of Riches, and she even managed to overhaul the #18 MK2 of David Henderson at the following Sear Corner. Unsurprisingly, however, he then proceeded to use his power advantage to make a break from a good deal of the MK1’s along the Revett Straight. On the third lap Karen was being harried by Chris Dunnett #31. She spotted a waved yellow flag as she entered Sear and began to lift off the throttle in anticipation, causing the rear of the car to break away and she span off. As Karen struggled to recover onto the track several cars drove by losing her all her hard fought places. She was now trying to claw back places and Arron Pullan #26 was first on the list, followed by Chris Dunnett #31. Karen passed Ivan Thomas #59 and was then chasing down Steve Woolfe #88 on the penultimate lap. By the time Karen reached the Esses on the final lap, she had indeed overtaken Steve. At the very final corner of the race at Russell Chicane, Karen accelerated out only to lose traction on the soil and plastic corner markers strewn across the track during previous incidents. She couldn’t hold the car and the resulting spin lost her the four places she had just recovered. It’s a good job we didn’t have an in-car camera running as the audio may not have been for the feint of heart… Karen finished 16th in class A for production MK1 cars.

Image copyright Matthew Holland, reproduced with kind permission
Having watched the events unfold from the Esses, Richard and Darren believed that Karen had done pretty well during the race and waved at her as she drove past on the cool down lap. Karen was giving the thumbs down sign and Richard assumed there was some problem with the car. The guys quickly made their way back to the paddock to meet her. Strangely, she was nowhere to be found and it turned out the cars were being weighed in the scrutineering building. The guys were also dismayed to hear that Karen had spun on the exit of Russell Chicane just before the chequered flag and dropped four places! Sure enough, upon her return Karen was furious – Both with herself, and the fact that the MSA official had decreed the car underweight by 3kg at 1047kg. Karen was left assuming she would now be excluded from the results entirely!

The guys were left reeling. The car had previously been weighed on the same scales at Easter and found to be 1059kg in exactly the same specification and with the same low fuel load. It turns out a number of other cars had suffered a similar fate. Many cars that were either under or over the 1050kg limit all seemed to be about 10 to 12kg lighter than expected!

Luckily, the decision was taken by the MSA official not to exclude anyone at that point, but warned that cars would be weighed after Race 2 and those underweight at that time would definitely be excluded from the results. Richard was left with no option but to play safe and to add more fuel than usual to the car for Race 2 to act as ballast and ensure a post race weight above 1050kg. (At least, against their scales, anyway…)

Image copyright Sarah Wherry, reproduced with kind permission
Race 2 was another dry race. Karen started 30th and thanks to a couple of vacated grid slots ahead of her and some brilliant overtaking she was 25th by the time she’d reached Revett Straight, claiming places from Hugh Gilmour #98, David Cross #13 and David Block #40. In the second lap, Karen caught and passed Chris Dunnett #31 to start chasing Rob Howes #7. This was until Rob and Karen came across a Rogue MK2 car recovering from a spin at Russell Chicane. This managed to intervene and allowed Rob to pull away. Karen was left leading a pack of cars that had now caught her up, headed by the bright orange car of Ross Stoner #22. Both of them were overtaken by the MK2 of David Bryant #38 along Revett. As they went under the bridge and approached the Esses poor Ross had a massive moment and span out in a massive cloud of dust. This now released Hugh Gilmour #98 to begin his attack on Karen. As Hugh closed on Karen they both overtook David’s MK2 on lap 8. By the final lap Hugh was worrying Karen, but at the end of Revett his brakes deserted him and he was forced to overshoot down an escape road instead of making the Esses. Karen managed to hold off the advances of David’s MK2 until the chequered flag to claim 25th place in an enjoyable and closely fought race. This meant Karen finished 11th in the production MK1 class A.

A great days racing and a triumph for the MR2 Challenge coming after the previous debacle at Mallory Park. The spectacle of a grid of 38 MR2’s streaming through the Esses and Russell was awesome. Karen completed both races, when she had been facing disqualification. Her result from Race 1 could have been fantastic, but for some unfortunate mistakes. Solace must be taken from the determination to recover positions that saw her produce some great racing. Karen knows there’s still obviously much room for improvement. Once again the race results seem skewed thanks to the weight of MK2 cars at the head of the field. It seems the 2008 season will hopefully resolve that issue by having split grids for MK1 and MK2 cars at each meeting, to keep everyone happy…

"Contact Karen" Link Added.

2007-07-24T11:49:00.000Z

A new link has been added in the options on the right of the page which will allow anyone to contact Karen via email.

There have been issues with comments not being added to postings made on this site and to avoid such issues and to enable a full dialog we thought it would be nice to introduce this feature.

If you are a prospective sponsor then please make yourself known, or if you've a general question about getting started in motorsport, what it's like being a female racing driver, information on the MR2 Challenge, etc, then click on the link and send Karen an email.

"Put The Kettle On..."

2007-07-10T07:19:00.000Z

No, we're not putting our feet up and having a rest!

Darren came over last night to help out with the radiator/fan issue. We quickly removed the temp-sender from the original radiator and then Darren suggested we test it to ensure it still worked.

With only the ignition on, the wiring harness was plugged into the spare temp-sender which rested in an old mug. The kettle was boiled and the water poured into the mug. After a short while the fan started running. Thus it was proven the spare temp-sender worked.

It occurred to us that during our experimentation the water had to be boiling hot. If not then the fan would not kick in. Thus we chose to risk getting the car hot enough to check the operation of the temp-sender in the radiator. After a long while and pipes getting very hot, it worked!

Now we don't have to worry about swapping the temp-sender and we know the cooling system works properly with no leaks. Seems like Karen and Richard did a good job at the weekend after all.

A Dose of Radiator Poisoning.

2007-07-09T10:44:00.000Z

Some things are never simple...

The plan was to swap the lightweight wheels and their shaved Falken tyres back onto the race car, ready for the Snetterton meeting next weekend. Richard had just about completed that when Karen noticed a pool forming under the nose of the car.

For some reason the radiator had started leaking! It was a great shame, as the radiator core was in very good condition compared to some. The only option was to swap it for a slightly ropey looking one from the spare red car. At least that one wasn't leaking its coolant everywhere.

Having swapped the radiators and re-filled the coolant system, it was discovered the electric fan would only work when the temp-sender wiring was un-plugged. Our diagnosis is a malfunctioning temp-sender. Thus the working one from the original radiator will have to be used instead. That'll require more draining/re-filling.

At least it was spotted before driving all the way to Norfolk to miss out on the racing!!

Blasts from the Past...

2007-07-04T10:17:00.000Z

We recently re-discovered some in-car video of Karen's preparation for the Formula Woman competition, and thought it worthwhile uploading to the 'web. These clips show Karen receiving tutoring from ex-touring car champion Tim Harvey.

The first clip shows Karen driving her highly modified Nissan 200SX (S13):

The second clip shows Karen driving Richard's Subaru Impreza Turbo:

We are hoping that in future Karen will be carrying a camera in her race car for some exciting footage.

MR2's - Habit Forming!

2007-07-02T07:21:00.000Z

We've bought another one! A bargain blue car was discovered on eBay and the location was not very far away at all. The auction won, we collected the car yesterday from a guy called Damian who's also a racer and had nearly joined the MR2C himself.

This makes a fleet of 3 MR2's we now own. The red car is being dismantled to keep everything as spares and the chassis will be scrapped. The new blue car will hopefully quickly be insured and put through an MOT to become road legal. Then perhaps it can slowly be turned into another MR2C car "in waiting".

Race Report: Mallory Park 24th June

2007-06-27T21:02:00.000Z

Photograph copyright James Merrett, reproduced with kind permission.

Mallory Park in Leicestershire was the venue for the 3rd meeting in the MR2 Challenge calendar. Dark heavy clouds were hanging ominously overhead as Karen’s entourage arrived at the circuit.

The race car was unloaded from the trailer and immediately given its first wash since having the new front body panels fitted after the damage received at Cadwell in the previous meeting. Shortly afterwards it was straight into scrutineering where Karen was asked to demonstrate the electrical cut-out, and luckily Richard had spent a fair few hours the previous weekend getting it to work correctly after some recent difficulties. The car passed with flying colours.

The qualifying session was due not long after, by which time the rain was coming down fairly steadily. There was a growing patch of standing water towards the exit of Gerrards and the surface on the exit of the Shaws hairpin was rather slick under power but otherwise the grip levels seemed fine. Karen felt her performance was pretty good considering the conditions and the fact that she kept in touch with Rob Howes #7, who’s usually a strong performer.

Richard and his friends were busy taking rough lap times and were impressed with her pace, as she’d already improved upon her previous times in the wet at the circuit. Unfortunately for Karen, it seems everyone else’s times had also improved. That and the re-merging of the MK1 and faster MK2 fields saw her qualify in 25th place overall, 14th out of the MK1 cars. However, a group of 6 other cars failed to make the final 30 places and were relegated into running in a separate race organised by the CSCC.

Race 1 was due to begin at 1pm and by that time the weather had improved dramatically with no more rain and the track drying rapidly. There was some confusion as the marshals attempted to assemble the large grid of 30 cars in the assembly area. Seemingly still not right, it led to cars sitting high up the Devil’s Elbow as positions were sorted out. At this point, the field were waved off under a green flag. Jason Jesse #37 immediately overtook Karen and John Wilson #17, before realising his mistake much later on and falling back behind them when they reached the Devil’s Elbow!

Karen assumes that when the grid re-formed, numerous cars were still not in the correct positions so another green flag was waved. Jason overtook Karen again, this time almost running straight into the back of John! Once more he realised his mistake, and returned to his position as the cars drove slowly around. Meanwhile, at the pointy end of the grid Andrew Hutchinson #21 and Sarah Wherry #23 were coming to blows as they fought for the lead of a race that wasn’t even in progress! The end result of this saw them both removed from the grid and sent to the Clerk of the Course.

The actual start of Race 1 began using the red lights, with Karen’s progress hampered by the sheer weight of number of cars trying to go around Gerrards. Things began to thin out slightly as the cars powered along Stebbe Straight, but as the front runners entered the Lake Esses all hell broke loose! The video footage below clearly shows the damage done to several cars in the incident:

video copyright www.ifdevracing.net, reproduced with kind permission.

Karen was blessed with luck and skill in equal measure and managed to zip through a narrowing gap in the melee, losing only the passenger door mirror in the process! For obvious reasons the race was immediately red flagged. Due to the previous amount of time wasted the officials abandoned the re-start, preferring to attempt it at the end of the day.

Race 2 began at about 4.30pm, but of course it was now effectively Race 1! The grid positions remained the same and the start of the race saw Karen managing to keep Jason at bay. Things were still tight the first time through Gerrards though. Karen snuck inside the MK2 of Andy Winterton #8 at the Lake Esses but lost the place again as he powered past out of the Devil’s Elbow.

Photograph copyright Derren Phillips, reproduced with kind permission.

Karen was in a struggle with Jason for a fair while and at one point they were neck and neck along the Stebbe Straight. Bradley Philpot #50 had possibly re-joined the circuit after an incident and was seemingly cruising down the middle of the straight. As Karen and Jason approached him they seemed set to shoot past on either side until Bradley moved across – right in front of Karen! Jason flew by and Karen was left caught behind Bradley for another half a lap until Bradley seemed to clear whatever problem he was having and accelerated away, leaving a rather disgruntled Karen to begin chasing Jason down all over again. After a few laps of continually closing the gap to him, their battle was disrupted by the front running MK2 cars lapping the field and Jason was gone again.

Photograph copyright Sarah Wherry, reproduced with kind permission.

With a couple of laps to go, Hugh Gilmore #98 was now beginning to pressurise Karen. In the penultimate lap, whilst braking down for the hairpin, Hugh gave Karen a hefty tap from behind sending her straight onto the grass rather than turning into the corner! Karen recovered well enough to chase Hugh down the Kirkby straight where she spotted the last lap board. Thinking she was now in last place, Karen made sure to dispatch Hugh by beating him into the Lake Esses and she actually finished in 21st overall from 24. 10th place in Class A. (Production MK1).

A slightly disappointing finish, with the MK2’s seeming to distort the results and the racing itself thanks to having to make way for the lapping cars. There still seems to be an issue with Karen’s front suspension making itself evident through the left hander of Devil’s Elbow, which certainly lost her at least one place during the course of the race. The re-run of Race 1 was cancelled at the end of the day due to a lack of time before the racing curfew at 6pm.

Karen Phillips - Media Magnet.

2007-06-22T09:46:00.000Z

Karen's received her fair share of media exposure this month!

Issue 5 of MR2 Only magazine contained a special feature on the MR2 Challenge, two pages of which featured Karen's experiences at the Snetterton and Cadwell rounds so far. The editor has requested that the provision of such material for the magazine continue and so with any luck Karen's adventures through the season will be put into print. MR2 Only magazine obviously caters for all variants of the MR2/MR-S and is available via subscription only. Please see www.mr2only.com for details.

The July edition of Banzai also features a 1/4 page article on Karen's racing in the MR2 Challenge. It's a great little feature with some nice pictures of door to door racing at Snetterton, courtesy of Sarah Wherry. Please see www.banzaimagazine.com for details.

Mallory Park Practice

2007-06-20T14:54:00.000Z

Karen, Richard and their friend Lance attended a practice day at Mallory Park on Wednesday 20th June. The weather was dry and was also bright and sunny at times. Karen went out in the first session to check the car and generally give feedback on how it felt now it was back together. Once done, the remaining two sessions were used to try some different lines/techniques and improve her lap times.

Traffic was heavy, literally in some cases thanks to lumbering Jaguar XJ saloons that held up the nimbler cars in the corners and then hoofed past using the power of their V12's on the straights! Despite this, Karen managed to post some consistent times, and better her previous lap times by a couple of seconds. Usually, she improves her times again during race qualifying so we hope this holds for the races on Sunday.

Karen On Camera

2007-06-18T10:51:00.000Z

This video taken from the car of John Wilson #17 shows a battle with Karen at the beginning of Race 2 from Cadwell Park in May. Unfortunately for Karen she was fighting against the dislocated spring on the front passenger side wheel. John's video shows just how exciting the MR2 Challenge racing is.

Drilled, Tapped, Bolted.

2007-06-12T07:27:00.001Z

Drilling out the sheared bolt and re-tapping the bottom fixing mount for the wing took a matter of a few minutes. The wing was then finally fully bolted in place. Richard had assumed it was going to be a lengthy and onerous task consisting of broken drill bits and much swearing, so he quit while he was ahead for the evening!

Just the damage to attend to on the drivers rear 3/4 panel and the car will be ready for Karen's Mallory practice session on Wednesday 20th June. Here's hoping everything is ok ready for the races on the following Sunday.