Riley Phillips Its all happening.... hopefully just today and we will have a clear car tomorrow!!! Please!
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John Caudwell @JohnDCaudwell.Entrepreneur
I’m at Oulton Park this weekend for the latest round of the Fun Cup Championship season – 26 teams in a four-hour race around the circuit. As with Radical Sportscars, which I’ve been competing in for several years now, it was my brother Brian who got me into FunCup. The Caudwells and cars have always gone together, inherited from our dad. While both have four wheels on the track, Radical and FunCup offer immensely different driving experiences. Radical is a fierce, aggressive car, very very fast, with phenomenal roadholding. FunCup is best described as a glorified beetle. It’s fast – though not nearly as fast as Radical - and it’s fun just trying to keep it on the road. In some ways, FunCup is more competitive because of the tow (also known as the slipstream). There’s not much tow with Radical. That means, when you’re following the car in front of you, it’s very difficult to overtake. With FunCup, the cars are like blocks going through the air. If you’re behind someone on FunCup, you’re sitting in their vacuum, your speed increases dramatically, and when you pull out, it’s – whoosh! – you slingshot straight past them. So with FunCup, you’re overtaking all the time, and that makes it more interesting for the driver and the spectator. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- with 71000 followers on FB alone, this post has given great FunCup coverage BYFORD HAS SOME FUN
Former Class B British F3, Renault Clio UK, Mazda MX5, Super Coupe Cup and Britcar MSA Endurance Champion Martin Byford made his Fun Cup debut at Oulton Park, and just missed out on a podium finish Eddie Farrow’s EDF team were making their debuts in the Championship to, pairing Byford with former Fun Cup Champion Graham Roberts. Normally part of EDF’s Britcar line-up with the TCR Seat, Byford was delighted to finish fourth. “That was so entertaining, but very hard. The team are going to run in the Championship next year and I would love another go,” he said. “The hardest thing is knowing what’s acceptable and what’s not,” he added after taking the flag fourth. WINNERS!! (watch a montage here youtu.be/feDryq_v4lE)
Silverstone is well known for having plenty of run off and fast recovery, the average safety car deployment here is very low. This means that it favours teams that are quick across all the drivers, and staying on the lead lap on the national course is absolutely crucial, with no safety cars to bunch the pack. Before the weekend I predicted a top 5 finish, with a number of teams having great pace this year. We setup in the normal way and after Thruxton where the shear straight-line speed of the WASPP team had blown them to the victory in front of us, I definitely thought we had little chance of winning at another fast track. Chris Dovell started as usual with Kris second and myself taking the last stints in the rotation. Lets just say the race went like clockwork and the pitstops were phenomenal. Having escaped the rest of the pack with Harry Mailer in the 49 car in my first stint the team just steadily pulled away from the pack, lapping cars as we went. The 49 car fell back with a slower driver and that left us clear. In my final stint I had lapped everyone up to 3rd and was closing in on the battle for 2nd only 5 seconds behind when the flag came out, winning in Funcup endurance is hard enough, but winning by 1.05 minutes is total domination. So proud of the team an absolutely phenomenal display all round. Some quotes after the race that made me laugh:- "You should join in with our race next time" "Did you even stop for fuel?" Watch the highlights here https://youtu.be/JCMaGS_SOdw
Thruxton Round 3 brought a random draw of POLE for Axiametrics. Chris started again as usual and kept mostly out of trouble, which is tough at Thruxton a new track to Funcup, but with so many flat out corners it was always going to a bun fight to end all bun fights! Staying in the lead pack through the stints, it came down to final stint. We had broken away and had a few seconds gap. I pushed on and was pulling away after some rain had made things lively! 10 minutes to go and a 10 second lead.... surely this one was in the bag!! Not so as a safety car was deployed for a stricken car at the back of the track, bunching everyone up to the back of me this was going to be a last minute bun fight... On the restart I managed to pull a gap to UVio, but WASPP was flying on the dry track and caught and passed me down the back straight in the tow. 3 minutes left on the clock, so 2 more laps. I had a look up the hill but could get enough in the tow. Then the engine just died coming into the chicane and UVio had a go around the outside, pumping the throttle for all I was worth the engine restarted and we passed over the line to a surprise chequered flag. Apparently Thruxton's noise curfew was rapidly approaching and they had decided to end the race slightly early. This meant no chance to drag back past on next lap, but also allowed the engine issue to be found.... which was down to running out of fuel so a lucky P2 in the end! We live and learn... Riley Phillips I'd like to thank everyone who has taken part in the Virtual Funcup UK series, particularly our commentators Chris McCarthy, Andy McEwan and Scott Woodwiss who have given so much time and energy to the series. As racing has resumed and everyone is now busy, it seems sensible to stop at this point. To give some more value though, I will amend and upload the next track for that race weekend on the server and you can practise whenever you like. Since we haven't been to thruxton before I thought it would be a good opportunity, so the server is up with the track and car. If you need any help don't hesitate to message me. A winter series is also under consideration and I'll let you all know plans nearer the time. Thanks for allowing us all to have a bit of fun during lockdown and I'll see you all at Thruxton! Watch highlights of R1 youtu.be/lFz9seBbmqg
and R2 youtu.be/T2ASI74dtGs Finally got to go racing. Its a new team for this year, I've joined Kris Rose and Chris Dovell in team Axiametrics. First round is at Snetterton and its a Double header, Round 1 is a 1 hour sprint race and a Round 2 is a 4 hour endurance, Both with pitstops and driver changes. The format for round 1 was Qualifying would actually count and decide your starting position. The fastest driver would then have to start the race. This format seemed to favour the two driver teams, anyone with a quick driver in the pair would start and finish. It looked like teams like my old team Despatchbay would fair well with Marcus Clutton starting and finishing it would make them a force to be reckoned with. For Team Axiametrics I set the fastest time and put the car in P4 on the grid, just 0.006 off P3, but 2 tenths of Pole. I must be rusty! With all the fastest drivers in the first stint it was going to busy at the front for sure. I managed to hit the front early on, but it was a continuous bun fight with no escape from the drag-factor. Still I brought the car in P1 with a gap, Chris Dovell took over and managed to lead for his stint. Viking had put in a good stint and with fast pitstops they jumped in front. So Kris had to do battle over the last stint for the win. It was close, but a small mistake let Viking take the win with a valiant second place for Team Axiametrics. A great start to the season, and quite surprising given the format, showing that the team definitely had the speed to complete with the best of them. Round 2 Back in the car in the afternoon for Round 2 Chris start and I would be taking stint 3 and 6 to finish. Random grid draw gave us P15 on the grid, which is right in the mix. Chris would need to keep his witts about him to avoid mishap. Unfortunately there was quite a big first corner incident which dropped Chris to the back of the grid, it was a hard fought race with a number of unfortunate incidents on track, and despite the best efforts of everyone we could only manage P10 at the finish. On the whole, I am happy with P2 and need to celebrate that. It's a great way to start the season and its been fantastic to work with the new team. |
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