UK Racing Review #2 - Birmingham

Another week has flown by for team here in England. Scott and Rob spent the early part of the week repairing the left-hand side corner of the front bumper, which was considerably damaged after the meeting at Northampton International Raceway. There were a lot of positives that came from the meeting, and although the setup wasn't 100%, Scott was only 0.5 seconds off the fastest lap set that night. Not bad considering the 'Red Arrow' is primarily built to race on shale.

Scott and the NZ52 car had another test day on Wednesday, this time at Birmingham Wheels Raceway before Saturday nights meeting. After a few setup changes, Scott and the car made drastic improvements throughout the session, even though it was raining quite hard. British F1 Stockcar racer Tom Harris was also at the session to lend advice, and offer a few tips. He himself had a run in the car, pointing out a few issues with regards to the brakes. The car was struggling to get enough front brake, which wasn't allowing Scott to take the corner at faster speeds. The issue was soon resolved the next day after making a few brake line adjustments.

Roll on Saturday night, and there were two Joblin brothers racing at Birmingham, with the inclusion of NZ62 Adam Joblin driving the 258 Rob Harrad car. The 'Red Arrow' had an up and down night. The car went from having a huge exit push at Northampton, to being extremely loose coming off the turns at Birmingham. Scott suffered a DNF in the consolation race, after an on-track skirmish left the NZ52 car with a badly bent rim and a flat LF tyre. Although he made it out for both the Final and the Grand National, the lack of drive on the LR tyre caused it to heat up badly, and subsequently disintegrate. With only half a lap remaining in the Grand National race, Scott was forced wide into the back straight wall. The heavy contact bent the right-hand corner of the bumper and the over-rider bar, leaving the team with a busy workload before Monday nights racing at Belle Vue.

Adam had an enjoyable night in the 258 Rob Harrad car. He managed to qualify for the final, and finished a creditable 16th out of 32 starters. Although he failed to finish the Grand National due to engine issues, the NZ62 car made considerable improvements throughout the night. Many thanks to Rob for the opportunity to race the car, and the team for all of their help throughout the night.

NZ52 Race Results - Birmingham Wheels Raceway

Heat 1 - 14th
Consolation - DNF
Final - 14th
Grand National - 18th

NZ62 Race Results - Birmingham Wheels Raceway

Heat 1 - 17th
Consolation - 12th
Final - 16th
Grand National - DNF

As mentioned above, the team are hard at work repairing the damage to the 'Red Arrow' sustained at Birmingham, while also converting back to the shale setup for Belle Vue and Coventry. Stay tuned for another update within the next couple of days as we count down towards the main event of the trip, the '2010 Brisca World F1 Stockcar Final'.