30/05/2007

Three drivers from the UK (Avo Anmahouni, Scott Nettleton, Phil Jones) and two from Ireland (Ian Campbell, Clive Connelly) went to Slovenia to contest the 8th IC track European B class championships. To say it rained on occasion would have been like saying “It looks ok Noah don’t bother with the ark”.

Storm clouds brewing in Slovinia

Practice

The best way to describe the circuit was a mix of Crystal Palace and Aldershot but bigger. A very technical circuit to drive with a very narrow grip line. Overtaking without someone letting you past was very, very hard.

Over the few practice days we had record high temperatures (30 C +) and this in a mountain area meant huge thunderstorms in the afternoon. So the routine was pretty much practice in the morning spend the afternoon in the beer tent. Perfect really.

For the opening ceremony and concourse Avo pulled out another immaculately prepared Yellow body shell. However try what may we could not get them to recognise it as a potential concourse winner.

Team UK Scott, Avo & Phil	Team Ireland Clive, Ian and the crew..

Concourse winner How can this be better than the yellow peril ?

Qualifying

By the time qualifying started no one really felt they had the best setup. This was due to the rain that kept cleaning the circuit, not enough track time and a hard circuit to set the car up for.

Ian and Clive from Ireland looked to be on ¼ final pace, but Ian was struggling to make time on fuel. Eventually he had to compromise some speed to make time and finished up 2 seconds behind the time he needed in 39th. Clive just made it direct into the ¼ final in 32nd.

Team England were struggling a bit more. With one round rained off and running out of fuel in the previous rounds Avo had one last chance. Unfortunately his steering servo went flat so he would have to drive from the back and bump up. Phil got his act together and put in a fast clean run just missing his target of a 17 lapper by .082. This put him in 78th. Team Manager and part time driver Scott pushed too hard after his banker heat and could not improve on his overnight position of 85th.

It just stayed dry for 2 rounds of qualifying

To give you some idea of how close the qualifying was, the first 30 positions were covered by 15 seconds, the next 30 by less than 7 seconds and the last 30 by 13 seconds.

Finals.

1/128th - Avo
Luckily for the Saturday finals the day stayed dry. Under strict instructions from the team manager Avo took a steady, clean but fast enough run to easily bump up into the 1/64th final.

1/64th Avo, Phil, Scott
In the 1/64th A final Avo and Phil lined up on the grid 9th and 2nd. Phil planned to have a clean race at qualifying pace to bump up and Avo’s would have to match the pace to have any chance. Luckily for Avo he had just got the car very good with an awesome clutch and bottom end.

With reaction times that any drag racer would have been proud of, Avo launched from the start. His perfect clutch and bottom end eking out every possible piece of JP power into his Mugen chassis.

Unfortunately there was a stalled Serpent on the 2nd row of the grid and Avo hit it at around 200 MPH. The pope in Rome heard the resulting bang. He hit the Serpent so hard that as he went under it turned the flywheel, started and drove off. We picked up Avo’s car and parts with a metal detector. Avo was picked up with a big bear hug from his new Hungarian friend and a few Schnapps. The most tragic part of the accident was that Avo missed it completely. He was looking for his car going into the first corner but it never arrived.

Meanwhile with all the carnage happening behind him Phil got off well and was soon settled into a good pace. With a very good drive Phil managed to just sneak into 3rd place in the last few minutes to secure him a place in the 1/32nd final the next morning.

Scott drove a very good second half of his final but just missed out on 3rd by a few seconds.

Some very innovative ideas to keep the cars running	Its better to be a driver than a pit man when it comes down

Sunday 1/32 – Phil
At the start of the day it was raining and the track was wet but no standing water. Phil tried a few tyres and settled on caps. The 20-minute final was a real challenge trying to see how fast you could go as the conditions changed every minute. After a 20 minute struggle Phil finished a well-deserved 6th place.

In the 1/16th final it really rained. It was amazing to see how good some of the drivers and cars were and the perseverance of the teams. We have a lot to learn about racing in the rain.

With the right tyres and engine the cars worked really well	The marshals deserved a medal

1/8th Final – Ian Campbell
In torrential rain Ian Campbell set off in his final at a pace around 2 seconds a lap faster than anyone else. After 4 minutes Ian was already a few laps up. Unfortunately then the motor started to bog and no matter what the team tried they just could not get it go. A disappointing end to a week that had required a huge effort.

Clive Connolly chose not to run in his ¼ final due to the heavy rain.

Then it got really wet!!

The final
During the rest of day the rain continued to fall but fortunately for the final it was no longer torrential. Local driver Jernej Vuga made a good early decision to stop for some Kiss rain tyres and took the lead after 5 minutes and held on for a very popular win.

The final 10 were:
1. (1) Jernej Vuga (Slovenia) - Mugen/Novarossi - 99 Laps in 45:24.196
2. (3) Giuseppe D'Angelo (Italy) - Mugen/Boss - 96 laps in 45:03.102
3. (6) Andreas Hammerl (Germany)- Kyosho/Novarossi - 96laps in 45:12.693
4. (9) Manuel Gremlica (Austria) - Kyosho/Novarossi - 92 laps in 45:18.891
5. (4) Michele Romangnoli (Italy) - Serpent/Max - 87 laps in 45:20.758
6. (2) Philip Eberle (Germany) - Serpent/Mega - 80 laps in 44:52.672
7. (10) Sebastian Brixner (Germany) - Sepent/Mega - 74laps in 45:02.652
8. (7) Ales Dobnikar (Slovenia) - Mugen/Novarossi - 73 laps in 36:58.459
9. (5) Andreas Giesa (Germany) - Serpent/Mega - 43 laps in 30:17.405
10.(8) Mirko Morgenstern (Germany) - Serpent/Mega - 24 laps in 25:48.748

Its all over and it stopped raining

On Reflection

Due to the rain and start line incidents the final results don’t really reflect the pace our team went so I would summarise it using a good quality BRCA national as a guide. Ian Campbell ran a mid A main pace, Clive Connelly a top A main pace, Phil bottom of the A, Scott top of the B and Avo mid B main pace. So we all did well in the circumstances.

Planning.

For anyone else planning a racing trip in Slovenia here are a few do’s and don’t that may be useful.

Don’t – make your mate (the Alfa test driver) drive an Opel 1.4 in the mountains.
Do – Take a fire extinguisher and new brake pads for your Opel. You will need to stop and put the fire on the brakes out.

Do – Make new friends. Pick new friends based on their willingness to share their local schnapps with you.
Don’t – Ask your new friends why the Schnapps smells the same as the body cleaner.

Don’t – Get tense before qualifying.
Do – Drink local Hungarian schnapps before qualifying

Don’t – Try and speak in your schoolboy Italian to everyone.
Do – Just eat what you are given if the waitress looks scarier than Dracula.

Don’t – Just park anywhere in downtown Slovenia, you may get a fine
Do – Give the fine to the Avis office and ask them to deal with it. They seem to have a unique Slovenian way with these things.

Quote of the week.

Avo - “I had no idea that when the team manager said just park here its valet parking, what he actually meant was just park here and then pay the fine”

And finally

All at team UK and Team Ireland want to thank everyone from EFRA and the Tolmin club for organising such a great event. We are looking forward to Schnapps and Schnitzel in Austria next year already

The Vuga family put in a huge effort to help organise the event and to win the event.

Pictures courtesy JP Racing, Avo, Oisin Copyright BRCA