[frickinben]

Some of the newbies may not be aware that since 2010, the UK Time Attack Series have had MINI's competing. There were three teams competing for the Club Class championship in 2010, those being Nigel Brown (Brownpants) of Rooster Racing (you can see their thread at the top of this sub-forum), David Bayliss of Bayliss Racing and MiniTorque Racing consisting of myself and David Ward (Jove). To date we're the only two teams that have competed for the championship trophy (although there have been a fair few One Hit Wonders (OHW) as they're known, trying to smash some lap times at various events, but their results although sometimes spectacular, don't count in the championship).

In 2010 Minitorque Racing piloted by Jove came 2nd in the championship and Rooster Racing piloted by Brownpants came 3rd. it was great having the podium dominated by MINI's. It took another two years before MINI's would once again compete for the trophy but this time in 2012 it was just MiniTorque Racing competing whilst Brownpants built-up his car to compete in future (and I'm sure you've all seen his amazing build on here). In 2012 we only managed 3rd position in the championship having been beset by reliability problems trying to chase power so although it was nice to get on the podium, 3rd was obviously not the position we were looking for.

Historical Results - Fastest MINI Times - Cadwell Park:

2010 - Conditions, Dry:

Adam Foster (OHW), R50 MINI One (Supercharged + NOS) - 1:41.21
Nigel Brown, R53 Cooper S (Supercharged) - 1:43.48
Tristan Tomkins (OHW), R53 Cooper S (Supercharged) - 1:44.90
David Ward, R53 Cooper S (Supercharged) - 1:44.91
Richard O'dwyer (OHW), R53 Cooper S (Supercharged) - 1:48.26

2012 - Conditions, Dry:

David Ward, R56 Cooper S (Turbocharged): 1:44.22
Richard O'Dwyer (OHW), R53 Cooper S (Turbocharged) - 1:44:75

Fast forward to 2015 and we now have two MINI's once again fighting for the championship - Richard O'Dwyer (O'Dwyer Racing) and Time Kite, both turbo R53 MINI's built by 1320 and both cars/drivers are certainly not newbies when it comes to Time Attack and track action, with both of them having competed as OHW before and having completed plenty of track days and getting good results in testing.

So as each round happens we'll update the forum with how they're getting on so you can give them your support - both Jove and I know first hand how hard it is to compete at this level whilst also trying to better fastest times set by MINI's of old at these tracks. But, at the end of the day, it's what happens at the end of the season that matters, 2nd and 3rd place in the championship have their names etched in MINI TA history, so give them your full support as they both try to win 1st place in the championship in their respective categories, Club and Pocket Rocket (new for 2015), classes explained here:

2015 Fastest Dry MINI Times - Cadwell Park:

Richard O'Dwyer, R53 Cooper S (Turbocharged): 1:44.42
Tim Kite, R53 Cooper S (Turbocharged): 1:46.14

The fastest top 5 FWD times on the day in Club Class were:

Daniel Clark, Vauxhall Astra: 1:38.66 (this time broke the FWD lap record set previously by our friend Romain Levesque)
Neil Wrenn, Honda Civic: 1:39.77
Marc Donnelly, Ford Escort: 1:39.94
Martyn Henry, Vauxhall Astra: 1:41.66
Richard O'Dwyer, MINI Cooper S: 1:44.42

The fastest top 3 FWD times on the day in Pocket Rocket were:

Stewart Summers, Citroen Saxo: 1:41.59
Robert Oldman, Ford Fiesta ST: 1:45.85
Tim Kite, MINI Cooper S: 1:46.14

The Club class final which Richard O'Dwyer was in was abandoned due to serious rain so usually that means the results from qualifying stand as the final results leaving O'Dwyer in 5th.

The Pocket Rocket final did run but it was wet so no faster times were set, but Tom did set a time of 2:02.61 putting him in 5th place with the fastest time going to Stewart Summers in the Citroen Saxo Turbo with a wet time of 1:52.49, Stewarts fastest time of the day being a 1:41.59 in the dry so we suspect he might get moved up to Club Class.

The overall fastest time of the day was set by Andy Demetriou in the Black Mamba EVO who was only two tenths of a second off the lap record with a barely believable 1:26.78!

So, in short, the MINI's have got their work cut out for them going forward but as I've said already, this is only round 1, a lot can happen in the next few rounds... time to turn up the boost and hone the handling/braking to start bringing those times down.

If you have pictures, please post, I'll post mine from those I know at the track as soon as they're sent through.

Looking forward to the rest of the season :thumbup1:

P.S. If any of the times above are incorrect please let me know and I'll update.

 

[Pau1]

Tim actually competed at Brands Night Timeattack in 2014 with a sprintex supercharger.

 

[frickinben]

Tim actually competed at Brands Night Timeattack in 2014 with a sprintex supercharger.

Nice one, I'll add his times from there to the Brands Hatch report. MiniTorque Racing will be attending that round.

 

[frickinben]

Photos copyright: John Stewart

 

[frickinben]

Jon Ellis running in Clubman FI Class

Photos copyright: John Stewart

 

[frickinben]

Copyright Rich Sams

 

[Revolution Mini]

Apex's are your friend.............

 

[scraggles]

... with the fastest time going to Stewart Summers in the Citroen Saxo Turbo with a wet time of 1:52.49, Stewarts fastest time of the day being a 1:41.59 in the dry so we suspect he might get moved up to Club Class.

The second place SCC Performance Fiesta is a bit dubious too. Coming from the owner of a tuning shop, shouldn't it be in a Pro class?

 

[brownpants]

They are testing a turbo kit out so it can be sold to customers he said.

 

[scraggles]

That Saxo sure is fast. Rotrex power FTW! Cadwell Park is his home circuit though so will be interesting to see his times on the other tracks.

... to the Brands Hatch report. MiniTorque Racing will be attending that round.

Is that Jove with his Honda?

They are testing a turbo kit out so it can be sold to customers he said.

Sounds to me like a definite candidate for promoting to Pro, he even has his company logos embroidered on his race suit.

 

[frickinben]

That Saxo sure is fast. Rotrex power FTW! Cadwell Park is his home circuit though so will be interesting to see his times on the other tracks.


Is that Jove with his Honda?


Sounds to me like a definite candidate for promoting to Pro, he even has his company logos embroidered on his race suit.

Yes Dave and the Honda. If they don't shuffle people around after this round I'm sure they will after the next, with some of the times set a few should probably be in Club.

 

[Lee]

Expected the times to be lower. Since read that Richard had a failing turbo. Dont know about Tim's car though, as its higher spec than the cars of 2010 but still 3 seconds slower than them... Bigger balls required

 

[CSMatt]

This isn't going to turn in to yiu digging out 1320 isit! Well done to those involved wish you all the best. On a side note Richards car I looking fucking amazing

 

[Rn1988]

I was there and they did look good ,thinking about entering mine next year too.
What's the reason so many people seem to have a dig at 1320?

 

[Jack P]

I think his turbo is around 5 years old and 2nd hand so it's past is unknown.

 

[Timmayk]

Thanks for all the nice comments me & Rich were certainly giving it a good go yesterday but Rich was having tyre trouble as his car was chewing his soft compound Kumho's. Myself I'm simply needing more seat time as I've only done Brands Hatch in this years race calendar. I still had another 2 seconds in the bag for the final but the heavens opened which ruined my time. I just needed that one extra lap to probably knock 10 seconds off my final time as the track was just drying out enough for my semi slicks to come into their own.

Hopefully will have a forged engine by the 3rd round so we can turn the boost up more and I'll hopefully of had a few track sessions under my belt as the cars changed so much since last year.

Thanks All
Tim

 

[frickinben]

From 1320s updates I thought Richards engine just had a refresh and went well in testing so presume it must have been tyres then as I know first hand what a difference getting those setup can do to lap times.

Tim your MINI looks the tits in the photos - seat time is always key, did you get track time at the practice session? Worth doing those before each event but can add ££££ to the yearly racing budget?

 

[frickinben]

I was there and they did look good ,thinking about entering mine next year too.
What's the reason so many people seem to have a dig at 1320?

Historical tuner wars - ignore it.

 

[Timmayk]

From 1320s updates I thought Richards engine just had a refresh and went well in testing so presume it must have been tyres then as I know first hand what a difference getting those setup can do to lap times.

Tim your MINI looks the tits in the photos - seat time is always key, did you get track time at the practice session? Worth doing those before each event but can add ££££ to the yearly racing budget?

Rich's Turbo did fail in qualifying but as it has been mentioned it's quite old now and was due to be replaced anyways.

I was mid 148's in practice and knew I could make up a lot more time if the weather stayed. Qualifying went well but my passenger window blew out on the straight going over the mountain due to the hatch being closed so lost concentration.

Snetterton should be better as I'm trying to get more practice in as all of these tracks I've never done before. My biggest problem is theirs no track days available on weekends as I'm at work during the week. Fingers crossed something pops up. The car ran almost faultless apart from a throttle position sensor error which screwed up a lap but easily sorted.

Huge thanks to Tom & Scott at 1320Mini who were their with us giving us advice and checking the cars over after each stint.

 

[frickinben]

Just checked the trap speeds, Richard is trapping at 117mph, the same as 2012 and Tim at 111mph so good trap times considering we only managed 106mph. Power isn't the issue by the look of it so yeah seat time Tim and getting the tyres sorted on Richards.