Gareth in the a2b BMW120d
Dubai, Apr 15th 2011: Team Report Race Day IIIX: The a2b diaries of MotorSport: Well here we are at the last round of the Touring Car Championship and the last raceday of the season. After the unfortunate events at the last round at Yas Marina there were several cars missing from the grid. However, 2nd place in the Class 2 category of the touring cars was still up for grabs between Spencer and Rupesh. Unfortunately Willie’s engine, or to precise, the engine in his race Clio was not in good health. So despite the doctor (aka Gareth) identifying the symptoms, the required medicine (aka: parts) could not be acquired in time. So the team would running Spencer’s Civic, Colin’s Clio and Gareth in the mighty BMW.
We had the luxury of the event being a 2 day race weekend as we had the Middle East Porsche GT3 Cup series as guests. So Friday was practice and qualifying with the 2 races being held on Saturday.
Practice:
In order to find a bit more grip, wider wheels and tyres were fitted to Spencers car. After 2 laps Spencer pulled into the pits as he could smell tyre smoke. A quick inspection revealed that one of the rear tyres was rubbing on the bodywork. The team quickly fitted 2 normal width wheels and Spencer was back out on track.
During the session de-brief Spencer reported that the engine “would not pull the skin off a rice pudding”. The spark plugs looked fine but then the engine wouldnt fire up. The decision was made to fit Jason’s race engine (last seen in a race car at the end of 2010!). So the teams 3 mechanics started on removing the engine from Spencers car whilst Spencer went to go and get the engine hoist and Jason’s engine. Jason did mention that we hadn’t changed an engine all season at the circuit so the team could do with some practice so they don’t get rusty. Mr. O’Keefe we will not forget this next season when you are back racing!
As for Colin and Gareth all went well so it was simply a case of putting some fuel in the cars and carrying out the usual checks.
Qualifying:
Unsurprisingly Spencers car wasn’t ready for qualifying. Given the number of entries this wouldn’t be as such a problem as it would have been on a race day.
Gareth set a target time of getting in the 2 minute 5 second time band. As we all know Gareth is a man of his word and about 2/3rds of the way through the session he goes from a low 2:06 to high 2:05. Mission accomplished with Gareth alighting from the car with a mighty grin on his face.
As for Colin, his car went all Fernando Torres after his transfer to Chelsea. Yep, the car was miss-firing and is just as annoying as decline in the performance of the Spaniard. The team planned on changing the ignition system the following morning.
Spencer (Orange Clio) picked his way through the field one by one
Race 1:
Although Spencer started from the back of the grid, he soon worked his way past Colin and Gareth. Things went a little against the plan on lap 2 as Spencer had the mother of all spins, all caught on the rear facing camera (ed: when do mothers spin?). First the back went one way, then the other and then back the first way. Gareth had no option but to basically stop and wait for Spencer to stop spinning. Once Spencer had gathered his thoughts (ed: and possibly change his underwear) he set back in pursuit on Gareth and co. Eight laps later and Spencer finished 5th in class. This was not as bad as it seems as each driver must drop their worst 2 points scoring races during the season so this was going to be one of the 2.
After Gareth got going after watching Spencer impromptu in race entertainment he set about chasing down the other BMW in his class (ed: a 330 no less). Well stone the crows if slowly, (well at 3 seconds a lap) Gareth reeled-in the BMW and was straight passed it like a northern ferret on the way to a free buffet. 2nd in class in a BMW 120d that only puts out about 170 bhp. Oh how the team members on the pit wall shook their heads in disbelief. Podium time, oh we like this car.
Colin’s race unfortunately was a slow painful affair as the miss-fire returned. Although he finished the race, the team had no choice but to do a Carlo Ancelotti but retire the miss-firing striker car to the subs bench (aka the garage) for the second race.
Race 2:
There appeared to have been a spot of drama after race 1 as one of the cars finished the race slightly, and we emphasise ‘slightly’ underweight (we are talking about less than the weight of a womans small handbag, (ed: they exist?). As a result the car had to start at the back of the grid, not a real problem with their only being 10 cars on the grid.
Spencer settled into 5th place but just couldn’t quite catch the 4th placed car. Spencer didn’t want to make any excuses for finishing in 5th place, that job was left to the team manager. So over to Ian:
“Err thanks guys. Well given the fact the Jason’s engine is tired (his words) it is safe to say it puts considerably less than the 210 BHP at the wheels that we are allowed. We were running old tyres, each tyre having done at least 2 full race days oh and the sun, moon, stars and planets were not aligned correctly”.
After the race, Spencer was promoted to 4th place, due to the originally 4th placed car being under weight by the equivalent of a few large ladies handbags. Based upon our calculations this confirmed Spencer as runner up to Umair (congratulations Umair from the team).
Gareth had a completely uneventful race as the 330 BMW had major car issues on the race start (you could smell the clutch in the pit lane!). So that left him in 2nd place, again. So that is 3 race starts for Gareth this season which has resulted in one 3rd place and two 2nd place finishes. Add that to a finish in the Britcar 24hr last September and a 2nd place in class in the Dubai 24hr race in January, the car has built itself quite a reputation.
Conclusion:
So as the dust settles on another season, the team would like to thank the officials at the Dubai Autodrome and Yas Marina for all the work they have out into organizing the championship. To fellow competitors we will back next year and going all out to prevent a hat trick of class wins for Umair.
Time for the team to take a couple of weeks off from racing. Then we start the preparations for next season. Oh yes, we might pop over to Europe in late summer to another endurance race with the giant slaying whispering assassin that is the BMW 120d.
TTFN, the a2b team.
Report submitted by Ian Rodgers.
Results Here
