ITCC

A new direction for me in 2010 is the newly formed Irish Touring Car Championship
This new series has developed out of both Irish Time Attack and the need to have a decent Saloon car series in Ireland.

The class is open to any make and model of saloon or hatch back car. The openness of the rules means the first race will boast a grid consisting of BMW, Peugeot, Mazda, Honda, MINI, Volkswagen, Mitsubishi, Subaru, Ford, Renault and other well known marques.

I am now the official photographer for this series so regular coverage will be found here

The B-Racing K20 Civic doing some testing, with a best lap for now of 1.02, expect more from this car

Round 1 is at Mondello Park, this weekend - April 4th

Time Attack 2008 Round 1 - Donington

Its back!! Time Attack 2008 will be bigger and better. More tracks, more entries and much more interest all round! An interesting weekend, for Round 1 at Donington Park: dry,windy, rain and then snow, it had it all!

Pro Class
The day was eventually won by Duncan Tappy in the Autosportif/TEIN Subaru Impreza with a time of 1.20.550 in the damp but had earlier set a time of 1.12.758, the fastest of the day overall

Not far behind was Olly Clark in the Roger Clark Motorsport Subaru Impreza, with 1.22.691 in the final, easily the loudest car of the entire weekend with its side exit exhaust, visible just infront of the real wheel

Third was Jamie Stanley in the RC Developments Evo 6, with some great drifting at times even though its Time Attack! His final time was 1.23.114

One of the most improved cars in round 1 was the Scoobyclinic Impreza, driven by Andy Harvey, with a strong 6th place in the final
Not long back from its trip to Japan and Tsukuba was Fensports Celica running a new sequential gearbox, eventually finishing 9th

Stanley and Darren Robinson in the Whifbitz RX7, in the snow

Club Class
1st in the Forced Induction class was Kev Horsley in the Scooby Clinic supported car with 1.28.569

1st in the Normally Aspirated class was Paul Hughes in the Buddy Club UK Honda Integra Type R with a 1.36.185

Fastest overall club class lap was 1.18.286 set by Barrie Rycroft in the Distinctive Cars York Mitsubishi Evo 7

Not every day you see a Renault Clio (briefly) leading a R34 GTR

A few offs and crashes but this is the only 1 I caught on camera

And to end this overdue update, 2 of the more interesting cars running in club class:

Craig Winstanley's Mazda FD3S Rx7 -with a Chevy v8 transplant

and the Apex Performance Skyline R33 GTS - also with a Chevy V8

Time Attack - Round 2

The 2nd round of the UK Time Attack series took place recently at Silverstone, in glorious weather but it would have slight imperfections in terms of grip and performance for some cars, but still it wouldnt put people off!


The overall winner was the RC Developments Evo 6 driven by Clive Seddon with a 1:01.455 laptime, if the weather had been a little cooler this time would have been faster again


2nd again was the Roger Clark Motorsport Subaru Impreza WRX driven by Olly Clark,not even a second off 1st place


And 3rd again was the Gugliemi Motorsport Lotus Elise, again just 1/1000ths of a second off the fastest time


1 of my favourites from the weekend,Dave Ellen in the Prolex UK Toyota Aristo Vertex V300, running with full leather interior,aircon and stereo, along with a 2JZ-GTE with automatic transmission with the steering wheel paddle shift controls, and it didnt finish last either!


Winner in the Club Normally Aspirated class was Nadine Gearys Dodge Viper,easily the most menacing car on the track,coupled with the soundtrack provided by the 8 litre V10 engine, which set a winning class time of 1.06.312 which was a comfortable 4 seconds ahead of..

Dixon Chengs DC2 Honda Integra Type R who was just ahead of....


Simon Miskellys newer J's Racing Dc5 Integra Type R which proves my own theory that loads of revs and no torque are no substitute for higher engine displacement,lower revs and high torque levels, or maybe its just Im not a big Honda fan!!

2 in a row for Ron Kiddell in the RK Tuning R32 Skyline GTR who once again placed 1st in the Club Forced Induction (Turbo) class

And finally Andy Middlehurst who won the British Saloon car championship in the R32 GTR in the 90's,aswell as introducing the GTR to the UK market was driving the Trackday Performance R32 GTR in the pro class, which was very quick but a few mechanical gremlins got in the way of things,so should be interesting to watch in Round 3 as only minor problems put the car out

Round 3 takes place at Knockhill in Scotland on July 28th