Dubai: A2B Team Blog – Latest news catch up from the local Dubai team

Dubai, Oct 22nd – Its been almost a month since local team A2B returned from UK in their 24hr BritCar challenge at Silverstone. We caught up with the team boss and the resident drivers for a quick summary of the last two rounds of the UAE Touring Car Championship. 

Circuit Pro Digital: So Gareth tell us about the forthcoming season for a2b Motorsport & Garage

Gareth: This year we are running the same three cars as last year (2 Honda Civics & 1 Renault Clio) and assisting in the preparation, testing and running a the Fun Cup cars.

Circuit Pro Digital: How did Race Day 1 go, a few weeks ago?

Gareth: Overall it was a bit of a mixed bag. We had a 1^st and 3^rd place in the two races which was very satisfying but we had niggling issues with all three cars. The two week break between the races will be used to resolve the issues and will be running at full health at race day 2.

Circuit Pro Digital: What off season preparations did you carryout?

Jason: Well we have been so busy working on customers cars (which is a good thing) that we didn’t have the time to any work other than changing the lubricants and the windscreen on my Honda. So basically the car is in the same condition as we finished the last race season, we have not had time to even get the car repainted. We did take it out for a shakedown (ie: blow the dust off the car) on a track day.

Circuit Pro Digital: How did Race Day 1 go for you Jason?

Jason: We had slight issue with the gearbox in qualify, well slight as in being we had no fourth gear. So as you can imagine going from 3^rd to 5^th didn’t help the acceleration. As points make prizes it was simply a case of making do and bringing the car home 5^th in race 1 and 3^rd in race 2. I am not sure how that happened but another trophy for the cabinet isn’t to be sniffed at.

Circuit Pro Digital: Any plans for car development before the next race day?

Jason: The main development will be trying to have all the gears working, other than that we will try and get the car painted into this seasons colour scheme. With the car it seems as through the old adage of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” seems to be the best coarse of action.

Circuit Pro Digital: What off season preparations did you carryout?

Spencer: The gearbox and differential were sent back to the UK for a refresh / rebuild, a new fuel cell was fitted (part of the new regulations) and a full nut and bolt check was carried out. We also painted the car in it new striking orange livery.

Circuit Pro Digital: How did Race Day 1 go Spencer?

Spencer: As a result of moving the fuel tank forward in the car, we used the practice and qualifying sessions to evaluate the change in handling and then make adjustments to the suspension settings. As a result, qualifying didn’t go as well as it could have but the race was something else. The changes we made to the car helped and by about mid race distance I had caught the leading cars. The car felt really good so I kept pushing and I was able to overtake the other cars in class and win the race.

Race 2 started well, but within 200m of the start a water temperature warning light came on the dash board. I backed off the pace to see if the temperature came down, which it did, so kept going at a reduced pace which enabled me to finish in 5^th place. So overall it was a very good day at the races.

Circuit Pro Digital: Any plans for car development before the next race day?

Spencer: First of all we need to get to the bottom of the water temperature problem, which is most likely just to be a faulty sensor and then to finish the new car livery.

Circuit Pro Digital: So Gareth how did race day 2 fair for A2B Motorsport

Gareth: We were busy trying to resolve the issue of why the Clio wouldn’t run properly which we believe identified and resolved as the car ran fine on the practise day. At the same time we had to change the gearbox in Jason’s car and find the reason for the spurious water temperature reading on Spencers car. All this had to fitted in around working on customers cars. So overall we have been very busy as the timeframe has been quite short. All being well the cars should run fine and we are looking for some more podiums.

Circuit Pro Digital: How did Race Day 2 go Jason?

Jason: Well we changed the gearbox after the last race day so at least I will be starting with all 5 forward gears this weekend. A couple of vehicle administrative issues had to be sorted out before the practise session, which we were able to resolve. Qualifying went ok, although it was a rare sight to be out qualified by Spencer. We somehow managed to miss getting to the grid on time, but during the race the car was running really well and I was able to get into 2^nd place and catching the leader. Then the car developed a miss-fire which dropped me back to 4^th place.

During the short break between our racers we thought we had identified the problem. However despite the car running fine at the start of the race the same problem reared its ugly head. As a result I decided to retire from the race just in case the problem developed further and damaged the engine.

We have two weeks to solved the problem so the boys will start the diagnosis problem tomorrow, won’t they Gareth…….

Circuit Pro Digital: How did Race Day 2 go for you Spencer?

Spencer: We stripped and re-soldered the water temperature sensor in the hope that it was a dodgy connection that caused the erroneous reading during the last race. As a result of the win and 5^th place at race day 1, we had to fit 5kg of success ballast. Thus a 5kg weight disc was bolted where the passenger seat would normally go. In addition, a DL1 Data logger was fitted to measure the engine performance. More of which later on.

Although I felt rough as houses, qualifying went really well with a great battle with Umair for class pole position. He just piped me for pole but second place should give us a great chance in the race….. Race 1 was disaster as we managed to miss getting out of the garage before the pit lane closed. After qualifying second this was a bit of a kicker. All I could do was drive flat out and finish as high up as possible. When the chequered flag came out I had been able to get up to 5th place, with a lap times faster than I had gone in qualifying….Not sure what caused this but we will be having words with the team manager in the break….

For race 2 we managed to get onto the grid in time (guess the “pep” talk with the team manager worked!!!!). The early laps were their usual frantic self (all clean racing though) and I managed to work myself up into 1^st place in class. Unfortunately as the race approached its conclusion, fumes started to build in the car, so I backed off, which let Umair through for the class win. Still a second place sort of made up for the “b@lls up” earlier in the day.

As a result of the data downloaded from the data logger the car will be going for a rolling road test to verify that the engine isn’t producing more than 210whp. I don’t see there being any issues but at the end of the day it is better for an accurate check to be carried out.