Rockingham 2008

Team “Cuisine de France / SPAR” win Rockingham six hours.

Team “Cuisine de France / SPAR raced to victory in the first round of the 2009 Fun Cup UK series at Rockingham on Saturday 4th April in their new TDI diesel Fun Cup car run by Solutions Racing.

The new diesel car was tested by Richard at Silverstone on Monday, before Ian and Marc had their first drive in the car in practice on Friday. Richards F1 engineering experience really showed through as he concentrated on the set up work. Sure enough the changes helped the car go quicker, culminating in a stunning 1.37.5 lap in qualifying by Marc to take the fastest time of all 27 cars. However, the actual start grid is drawn from the hat, so we then had to start the race from 25th place!

Ian started the race and had a great start coming by on lap one in a 11th place. Marc tool over for hour two and moved the car into 3rd, while Richard running hour three, took the lead in his stint, when JPR 1 fell foul of a minor collision and dropped some places. They recovered well to 3rd by the end.

Thereafter all three drivers kept up a quick but steady pace to hold the gap to Team RAM in second. However, the car felt so smooth to drive that by the end of the six hours we had actually extended our lead to over a lap, when Richard took the chequered flag. We took the 2nd fastest lap of the race.

This was our first race victory since Croft in 2007 and the first ever-Fun Cup victory for Solutions Racing and the first ever race win for a Fun Cup diesel TDI car.

Team

Thanks to Pete, Steve, all the Solutions Team who did a fantastic job running and preparing the car.

Thanks also to Marvin, Mike and Nick from Connell Racing for their help on the pit wall and refueling.

2009 Fun Cup

Fun Cup is the first motor racing series in the UK and Europe to be promoting the use of the environmentally friendly TDI engines. They are a 1900cc TDI, 160 bhp, VW diesel engine, produce approximately 30 % less pollution, 40 % less noise, and emit no visible smoke from the exhausts.

The Fun Cup TDI diesel engines are a step forward in motorsport technology. Powerful, clean and “green”, they have low amounts of sulphur in the diesel fuel and burn cleaner and discharge less nitrogen oxide. They have a lower emission of CO2 and are less damaging to the environment.

TV Coverage

The race will be televised on Sky Sports and Motors TV in a few weeks. I will advise you of the transmission dates when I have them.