NEWS 

Ian, driver 992, is trying to remove the usual boring image of accountants by entering the gladiatorial arena in a stock car.  Having always wanted to race cars, he has decided to race a Brisca F2 stock car this year.  

These purpose built machines have nearly 300bhp per ton and race at speeds of up to 80 mph around a 1/4 mile oval track.  To increase the tension they are allowed full contact with each other.  The bumpers are for more than just show and plenty of cars end up in "the fence" as a result of kissing bumpers.

Ian is hoping that his usual drive to compete and win at whatever he does will help him in this endeavour.  It may not be in the first race, but he is not someone who likes losing, he likes the winning too much and hopes to be on the winners rostrum sooner rather than later.

Sunday 2nd March - Smeatharpe, Taunton

Ian's first taste of the arena did not go completely according to plan.  Whilst he was able to finish all the races, this did involve him spinning on several occasions as he was "tapped" by the other drivers, and meant that he did not score any points.  Relatively unscathed, he looks forward to the next race where he hopes to put into practice the lessons from this first outing.

Sunday 9th March - St Day, Cornwall

A little more successful with an appearance in the final, but that was short lived as the wheels came off the wagon, literally.  As the picture shows, both the front and rear wheel came adrift after an altercation with several cars.  This was soon fixed for the next race thanks to parts and help from other drivers and their teams but sadly to no avail.  Home to the workshop for serious TLC to the car.

Monday 24th March - Smeatharpe, Taunton

A tale of woe as the steering wheel comes off in practice resulting in an altercation with the wall, which unsurprisingly the wall won!  The damage was too much to repair in time for any racing to take place, so back to the garage for more TLC.

April & May

April and May saw more forays into the lions den that is the race track.  The steering wheel was fixed, and the next meeting at St Day proved to be more successful, with the first points being awarded for finishing fifth in heat.  Further point scoring heat finishes have resulted over the following few weeks.

Not surprisingly given that this is full contact racing, there were also a few crashes in this period as well, some due to inexperience, but most due to being in the wrong place at the wrong time.  The worst of these occurring on the May bank holiday weekend, which saw the stock car chassis bent into unimaginable angles.  Once all the parts were stripped, this revealed a chassis that had twisted 2 inches upwards and sideways.  fortunately this can be repaired and once all the other parts have been replaced should be ready for racing again on June 8th.  To be continued.........