Rockingham Travel News: *Important*
*Please note that there will be a complete closure of the A14 at Bar Hill, north of Cambridge, from 9pm on Friday 14th September to 6am on Monday 17th. These closures normally cause chaos and long delays, so if you are going to Rockingham you are advised to avoid the M11/A14 route if at all possible.*
Rockingham Notes
We have been allocated 5 pit garages at Rockingham – numbers 4 to 8 inclusive – and also the inner paddock spaces behind them, so anyone testing on Friday should locate themselves accordingly to avoid having to move. There are power sources all along the side of our allotted area. Allocations are proposed as follows:
Garages 4 and 5: Bianco
Garage 6: 1 Bianco car + Dave Messenger
Garage 7: Paul Webster and Scott Austin
Garage 8: Peak Alfa (2 cars)
Drivers can sign on Friday afternoon between 4 PM and 6 PM and on Saturday morning in the Race Admin office. Scrutineering will not be available on Friday. Scrutineering will take place in our pit garages on Saturday morning.
We are asked not to park private vehicles in the Inner Paddock, even on the test day. There will be space available off the roadway leading to the Outer Paddock. Stephen Green will, I understand, be on hand to organise the space.
Our Driver Briefing will be held at 10.20 AM on Saturday in Garages 35/36 but I’ll see if I can get that changed to one of our own garages.
Festival Italia Postscript
We had our biggest grid of the season at Brands Hatch for the Festival Italia event on 19th August. It was our chance to show the many thousands of people at the event some excellent and exciting racing and we grabbed the chance with both hands. The standard of racing was first class – close, clean and exciting with lots of overtaking and no contact at all between cars bar a couple of very minor errors of judgement in the thick of the action; exactly what we are striving to achieve. Huge credit goes to all our drivers and their preparers and supporters. My thanks to you all!
MiTO Project
At Brands I had a long conversation with David Faithful. David is the Contact for the MiTO Register of the Owners’ Club and a committed MiTO enthusiast. He has formed a project team to build a Power Trophy class MiTO to run in the Championship next year and is eager to learn everything he needs to know to plan the project meticulously. We are giving him all the help and advice we can, and are looking forward to seeing a MiTO back on the track for the first time since Dave Peddie’s car took to the circuits a few years ago.
The MiTO they will be developing was parked near the end of the Bianco awning, still in road car guise and boasting some 203 BHP at the moment, but with much work needed to make a fully fledged race car out of it. It looked very innocent and unsuspecting about what was in store for it, if that’s not too fanciful a way of describing a car. All power to David’s elbow!
MiTOs and Giuliettas
Speaking of MiTOs, the Panel has been discussing establishing a new Production class for MiTOs and Giuliettas, although it doesn’t look like we’ll have the necessary specification for it ready until the 2020 season. Impatiently, I wanted it to establish it for next season but time is needed to develop a car and decide on a detailed specification using proprietary components to ensure a level playing field for the prospective class. Both models are now coming within an affordability range to use them as a basis for race-prepared versions at Club racing level and I see it as important to keep the Championship updated with newer cars as well as maintaining our established ones, in particular the very successful Twin Spark Cup, variations of which have been established in Holland and Australia.
It is likely that we will specify a version of the pre-MultiAir 1.4 Turbo engine but we need to confirm which one, and we need to specify the required ECU, plus suspension, brakes, and other standardised components. It is an exciting development but needs careful preparation to make it work successfully. Watch this space! In the meantime of course both models are eligible for the Power Trophy and Modified classes, hence David Faithful’s exciting project described above.
Power Trophy Cars: Rolling Road Tests
To date we haven’t pressed hard for all Power Trophy entrants to have their cars tested as we have been keen not to put too many obstacles in the way of improving the number of drivers entering the class. Some cars have been tested – front runners in particular, but not all. However, we will require all cars to have been tested at either of our nominated rolling road providers before the start of the 2019 Championship season. We will provide the remaining drivers with the details of where the testing is to be done together with the (modest) cost details.