Mike Catlow has had a shakedown session at Brands Hatch in his freshly restored Ralt F2, powered by a Connaught 2.0litre Ford BDG. Mike has recently been racing sports cars in Orwell Supersports and Classic Endurance Racing.
The car was on old rubber for the test and still managed a respectable time of 48.4 on the indy circuit.
The Last race of the season in the classic endurance racing series produced some fine racing in the new grid split of proto 1 and proto 2 cars. Proto 2 excitement started in the assembly area when a downpour of rain left some people swapping from slicks to wets. The race was delayed 10 minutes and the Majority of cars started the race on slicks on a very slippy track. Jean Luco in his Ligier had a tremendous drive, starting on wets – coming in for a tyre change then his mandatory stop and still went on to win the race! Doug Hart led for a good majority of the race, with the thought of running out of fuel in his head; in the end the battery going flat meant he limped across the line to finish in the top ten. Congratulations to Russel Buust on his second place overall.
This weekend is the last in this years popular Classic Endurance Racing Series. The series returns to Circuit Paul Ricard in the south of france, this meeting uses the full 1.8k back straight unlike earlier in the year. This will test the engines of the cars, it will be a long time on full throttle. This meeting is also the first one when the cars will be split into proto 1 and proto 2 races. This will definately help the slower cars.
Kevin Wilkins and Mike Catlow will be there in the very competitive Lola T296 of Kevin Wilkins. They are hoping to repeat the success of Silverstone, finishing 5th overall. The car would have certainly been in the top 3 at the end of the race as it was in P1 as the car came in for a driver change. Unfortunately the car was clocked at 68k instead of 60k and the Wilkins / Catlow duo got a drive through penalty. This put them back to 5th.
The ex Jorg Obermoser toj sc 3.0litre sports restoration has car has slowed to a virtual standstill. We are trying to get the car as original, finished in the warsteiner colours. We have just found out after several weeks that wheel manufacturer BBS, no longer have, or make the wheel centres in the pattern that is desired. They don’t even have the original moulds. So, what is to happen now?
We are having to track down a pattern / mould maker to make a buck in the original style. we will then have to take this to a casting shop to get the centres cast in magnesium. All in all a very time consuming, project slowing hold up. At least we will be able to supply other people.
That is the question on our lips at the moment, we want to keep the toj sportscar looking original and will be bringing it out in the original Warsteiner livery. The whole project looks like getting delayed because we can not fnd anyone to make the wheels! Any one got any suggestions?
It was good to hear that Phil Price of Connaught Race Engines will be at snetterton this weekend to support the Classic Clubmans series. If you are round that way saturday night Phil will be at the BBQ. He will be the one with a bottle of Leffe in his hand.
The guys from Dorset Sports cars will be out this weekend with their well prepared Porsche 996 GT3 Cup car. This is the first outing for the team for a while and they hope that they can perform as well as they did (series winners) the race is a support race to the superleague series, the GT CUp is run by Bute Motorsport.
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The UK round of the very popular Classic Endurance Racing series comes to the popular Silverstone circuit. The entry is just over 50 cars and it is interesting to see that the Jean-Marc Luco has decided not torace his usual steed and is entered in what looks like a very nice Ligier JS3 DFV cosworth powered sports car. The grid is strongly supported from the usual entrants. The Wilkins Catlow Lola T296 is entered and hopefully they will be able to do the whole race this year. Last year John Sheldon rubbed his Chevron B16 against the Lola front wheel causing it to retire. The Wilkins team where not put off though! they drove down to Kent and Picked up Kevin Wilkins other car, The John Lepp Chevron B19. The Classic Endurance series is a support race for the Le Mans series 1000km of Silverstone
It is good to see that another toj sports car sc30 has come out of someones garage. This car was advertised in Autosport and I think is in europe. These cars are going to need a lot of parts and patience to get them back to their former glory. From memory this car was the factory 3 litre toj. The new owner has a lot of work ahead of him / her / them. the car will be worth it though, it was a shame to see the Bmw powered sc202 get crashed at le mans classic. The good news is with the cars now becoming desireable those difficult to find parts should? become available
