We Have Trophies!

 

 

What a weekend!. This was the final proof, if any more was needed, that taking over the running of the car in house was the best decision we could have made.

 

After 3 years of struggling to finish a race with an external team, ALP Racing was on the podium in only their second outing of the season – a fantastic result for all of the team and testament to the engineering skills of Steve Brown, Chief Race Engineer.

 

The testing on Friday had gone well – a minor issue with an oil pressure sensor giving only a small headache – and the mood was positive for Saturday.

 

Race day started early and the usual rituals were undertaken during free practice – scrub in new brakes and tyres, check settings, etc – and the lap times looked competitive.

 

David Brise then went out to qualify the car and set a blistering lap to put the Saker 3rd in class and 5th overall, meaning we were starting on the 3rd row of the grid.

 

David drove brilliantly to keep in touch with the leaders, but a stray Porsche on lap 8 compromised a corner, allowing one of the other Sakers in the race to squeeze past into 3rd. Still, we had the pit stop to try and turn things around, and Alan duly obliged (despite a little hiccup with the Map settings!) to bring the car home 3rd in class – our first ever trophy. We are a winning Race Team at last!

 

Receiving the trophy has to go down as one of the best feelings ever – we had started a race team, built a car, got 2 pretty good drivers (well at least 1!) and we had now battled through to win a trophy!

 

The second race was not without incident, due largely to some confusing rules regarding when pit stops could be taken relative to what was happening on track.

 

There was a safety car incident after 15 minutes when we were lying 2nd overall (another brilliant drive by David) but we were not able to pit straight away, so by the time we had carried out our driver changeover, the car was in 9th overall with more than half the race to go.

 

Oulton Park is a narrow, twisty track, not best noted for its run-off areas and easy overtakes.

 

Still, after 30 minutes of battling Alan got the car back in 5th overall – and 2nd in class.

 

And guess what - another trophy!!

 

To add to our excitement and success, David Brise won the Sunoco Driver of the Weekend title, for which he received a beautiful glass trophy and rather fetching cap!

 

What a great weekend, what a great car and what a great team!

 

Well done ALP Racing.

 

And a big thank you to all our sponsors who help to make this all possible:-

 

·       Capital Consulting International

·       Failure Analysis & Prevention

·       Buchanan Clarke Schlader

·       Fello

·       Jed Wulfe Design

 

 

 

Our next race day is Saturday 8th September at Snetterton.

 

As always, everyone is welcome.