Brands Hatch 4th May

Race 2

 Everyone was still on an amazing high following team Hartech’s brilliant performance in race one (and possibly after the large amounts of espressos, Monster and Hobnobs consumed in the 5 hour wait!). We still had good grid placements for this race with Tom still on pole, Marcus slightly further back still surrounded by the 911’s and Stuart on row 10, a row ahead of Gary.

Marcus got a great start off the line making up two places past Kevin Harrison and John McCullagh following through Richard Ellis giving him a good boost going into the first corner. Taking Ellis on the second he had got himself up to 7^th place in just 30s. Unfortunately Tom didn’t have such a successful race start with Sumpter getting a stunning launch into the race leaving him leading the pack into Paddock Hill.

This race was again subdued to great delays following a car being stranded at Druids due to suspension damage. The safety car remained out for a further 6 laps!

Tom came out, following the safety car, to set the fastest lap and took on Sumpter at Druids. The pair spent the remainder of the race redefining the pace with Tom trying to shake of Sumpter but at the same time dealing with the back markers he was catching up to.

The cars had again split up into a series of packs with Gary and Stuart placed further back stuck and hassled by other members of class 2. However they both finished in respectable positions with Gary coming 14^th in class 1 and Stuart finishing 5^th in class 2.

Marcus managed to hold off hard-charging local man James Hilliard to finish in 6^th place. Two great results for him over the weekend considering this was the first time he had raced for team Hartech at Brands Hatch.

Tom fought off Sumpter for the remaining laps to gain his second win of the day. Another fastest lap completed his “full house” and was a great achievement for him and the whole team.

For one Race Meeting not one of the cars suffered any damage so the team should be all set to take the grid by storm at the next rounds at the now familiar Donington Park on 1^st June.

Brands Hatch 4th May

Race one

After a long wait from qualifying we finally got round to race one at 12 pm. Tom was set at the front of the pack ready and raring to go however he was placed within a breath of Sumpter so he knew the battle would begin instantaneously. Marcus running in 7^th position was well placed on the right hand side of the track to take the first right corner but being surrounded by 911’s was bound to cause an issue at some point in the race.

Sumpter unfortunately took Tom into the first corner but within a lap he had regained his rightful first place through out braking him coming into paddock. Marcus got a good take off the line ,except due to the traffic out in front of him he was held back but by lap two he had regained the pace and began to climb.  He’d also had a great view of the frantic paint-rubbing battle between Pete Morris & Adrian Slater at the start, and then on the run down from Druids, where Morris slewed sideways and as Slater slowed to avoid him Marcus was able to mug them both, only to over-cook it slightly at Graham Hill bend, allowing Slater back past.  Morris went off & then had to pit due to a broken tyre valve, ending his chances of challenging the front runners.

Unfortunately Chris Dyer’s Cayman having been tipped off at Clearways on lap 4 caused the deployment of the safety car which was there to hold up the race but not just for 1 or two laps for 6 laps (due to a mishap of judging which was the leading car)! Practically restarting the race when it was taken back in, Tom was left with the job of widening the gap between him and now Mark McAleer in a 996. However the holdup caused was beneficial further back allowing places to narrow between each of the drivers giving Marcus a chance to make it up to make it up to 6^th place.

From this point on Marcus was left tailing McCullagh Class two leader closely (that close he could see McCullagh’s tail pipe dragging on the floor almost), who’d managed to get past him out of Paddock Hill.  Marcus was putting down some great lap times during this pursuit (proving he had better pace) and nearly managed it past at Druids but McCullagh made it up on the following straight and just got away from the Boxster.
This was the end of what had now become a leading pack, the 2^nd pack were having their own battle slightly further back. Five 911’s were fighting in Marcus’ tracks. Following them were the other two Hartech members Gary and Stuart having their own battle constantly interchanging places throughout the race. Gary just swept past Stuart on the last lap putting him in 11^th place when the flag came out. However despite the external crusade with Gary, Stuart kept a great pace through the whole race and went from 4^th to 2^nd place giving him his first ever podium in the championship.

Marcus held on to the place he made up during the race after some great defending skills were shown meaning he finished 5^th in class.

Tom held off McAleer and won the race giving him his first win of the championship to go with his pole position and the fastest lap of only 51.9 s breaking the record for the Porsche club at Brands.

Brands Hatch 4th May

Qualifying

After a long LONG drive down to brands, and a test day the previous day for most of the team, we had a very early start on track for scrutineering and qualifying. Thankfully the addition of an urn to the catering equipment allowed large amounts of coffee and Bolton-strength tea to be produced to keep all the drivers awake (and a few of the technicians). The test day was very successful with each of the drivers putting down some good times and it also gave the drivers confidence on this technical winding track.

Practice evidently made for perfection with some incredible qualifying times even on the packed grid of 32 cars. Marcus found some good space on lap 17 and put down a great lap time of 52.9s putting him at 7^th place on the grid surrounded by some fierce 911 competition. Tom took the grid by storm leading the pack and gaining pole position for both races. Gary came in with a respectable 17^th place on grid, he unfortunately found himself in numerous build ups of traffic. Stuart gave the team a great boost qualifying 4^th in class 2 a great achievement for him and the car.  Overall the session went well and we felt we were on for a good day! 

Brands Hatch Rounds 3 and 4

Time for the second meeting of the season already! The Hartech Team will be trekking down to Kent in force for this weekend’s Racing event. After the great performance by each one of the drivers at Donington Park Circuit, we have high hopes for this race.

Marcus, along with Stuart and Tom, will be going down to the track early for a final test day in order to fine tune the cars and the drivers, hopefully helping to get both onto podium positions in their respective classes. Gary, being the more seasoned driver in the team and an instructor to, has visited Brands Hatch more regularly than the other drivers however will be joining them for the afternoon session of the test day.

This will be the first time Marcus has raced for Hartech on this track, as last year he was still recovering from an arm injury that prevented him from racing.  Although this is not Marcus’ favourite track he has had some great results here in the Porsche Club Championship,  including coming 3^rd overall in 2007 (in a class 2 car!) and 2^nd overall in 2010 (the last time he raced here).

The fault that caused Tom to retire from Race 2 at Donington has now been fixed so with the car under him that took Hartech’s sole Boxster S race win in 2012 he should be in prime condition to take on the current leader Pete Morris once again.

The day will be another early start for the team with qualifying at 9:00 am race one at 12:35 and race two 5:05 pm.

But overall the day looks set to be a good one with sunny weather forecast and plenty of Hob-Nobs packed, what a great way to spend the Bank Holiday weekend!

Follow us on Twitter @gooseracing  for on track updates throughout the weekend. 

Donington Park Saturday 6th April

Race 2

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By 3:15 the track conditions had warmed up a lot giving the team a chance to show off our new racing polo shirts oh and it was also beneficial for the slicks and drivers as it meant less time and fuel had to be spent warming them up.

 Marcus got another good start but was boxed in at Redgate by Craig Wilkins and John McCullagh forcing Marcus to nudge Tom slightly on the entry to the bend, never a good idea to have contact with your team mate but in this unavoidable situation it could not be helped. 

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The bump had not put off Tom and he kept right with Sumpter from lap five, and finally made it past on lap 12. In pursuit of Morris, Tom managed to again set the fastest race lap as he was closing in. Just as the Team Hartech were clinging on to the pit wall barriers in anticipation, Tom slowed and rolled in behind us on the pit lane. As the cabin doors were opened reams of smoke poured out and it was diagnosed an exhaust issue was reducing his power and the car had gone into “limp home mode”.

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Craig Wilkins in car 91 continued to hassle Marcus throughout the race with the pair constantly battling. They traded places a few times but this was usually due to one or other of them being hampered by backmarkers. Following the last race’s events Marcus was understandably nervous about trying a pass at the Old Hairpin again but they were on the last lap and he was close enough to Wilkins for a successful pass so had to give it a go. It worked and after a fantastically controlled overtake he managed to hold on to the place till the chequered flag, finishing 5^th position, ahead of where he started the race and a far better result than race 1.

Both Garry and Stuart also came in with good results for the team with Garry finishing in 13^th and Stuart finishing 5^th in class two a great improvement on last season’s results.

The team of Hartech technicians will be busy for the next few weeks ensuring that the cars are in their usual tip-top condition and hopefully we will be out in force at the front of the pack at Brands Hatch on “Star Wars day” - May 4^th be with you!

Donington Park Saturday 6th April

Race one

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The Porsche club weren’t alone in the paddock there was a grand array of Mazda MX5’s, Citroën 2cv’s and BMW’s to name just a few but, however entertaining this made the day it did push our races rather far apart. With our first race at 12:15 we had plenty of time to get to grips with the nespresso machine and test Elaine’s delicious homemade cakes just to make sure they didn’t affect the car weights when consumed by the drivers.

We had great hopes for this first race after the fantastic qualifying times produced by all the drivers and with reports coming back from each one of them that the cars were performing much better following the adaption’s made by Hartech after the last test day at Donington.

Marcus got a good start into the race quoting “seemingly I have mastered launching the car on the new tyres, but quickly I found how much slower my car is on acceleration.” But once the race was on and the cars were speeding down the straight he soon leaped up a place putting him right behind Tom. Marcus managed to close in on Tom once or twice but with both drivers reputation at stake nether could afford to drop back or leave room.

Marcus lost pace on lap 11 with a “tank-slapper” at the chicane exit so had to fight back. He saw the Old Hairpin (his favourite overtaking spot) as a prime place to do this, unfortunately due to pressure he overdid it....cue barrier! 

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Fearing what damage this may have caused, Marcus attempted to get the marshalls’ attention to see if it was ok, getting stuck on the grass at the same time, this unfortunately wasted 20seconds or more and put an end to any chance or hope of regaining any lost places. Marcus persevered for the final stretch of the race putting down some good lap times allowing him to finish 14^th in class one.

The Hartech team had a wide spread of results with Garry finishing close to Marcus in 10^th place, Stuart finished 6^th and Tom put us on the podium finishing 2^nd after a tense battle throughout the race with both Mark Sumpter and Pete Morris.

When Marcus’ car came in the team feared for the worst for the body work and came running plasters at the ready but thankfully it turned out the barrier had been much more forgiving than presumed. The Hartech team did a great job of sorting everything out before the second race giving us plenty of time to work through a giant bag of cookies.

Donington Park Saturday 6th April

Qualifying

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For the first race of the season it was incredible to see the vast turn out parked up in the paddock on Saturday morning. All teams were working away on the final preparations for qualifying with Hartech’s main priority being the stickers, the sheer amount of Autoperform and Pirelli could have easily pushed the cars over weight! But looking perfect, the quartet rolled onto the starting line for the first qualifying session of the season.

There were many factors threatening to make qualifying difficult, the short session, the freezing cold track, the new slick tyres (both to the cars and the drivers) and most prominently the enormous amount of Porsches out on track. Each driver had to battle for space in order to even attempt to lay down some good lap times.

Marcus, while jammed in the traffic, followed some tips picked up on Anglesey and primarily focused on getting the tyres into racing mode with a little F1style track weaving. Unfortunately the packed track left Marcus running in 10^th position for most of qualifying but towards the end of the session the pack began to spread out and Marcus made it to 5^th position on what he thought was his last lap, but the flag wasn’t out so he kept “on it” although just as he was on the final stretch of what would of been his fastest lap someone was in his way again.

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Marcus qualified 5^th and 6^th highly respectable positions given the level of competition. Tom gave the team a great boost qualifying in 3^rd place, Garry qualified in 11^th and Stuart qualified 6^th in class 2.

Countdown to Donington

The start of the 2013 season is fast approaching with the first round at Donington Park this Saturday (6^th April).

Following cancellation of a track day at Donington Park (due to snow & ice!) we recently  took Car 99 on an Easter day trip to Anglesey allowing Marcus to familiarise himself further with the new slick tyres and the adjustments made following the previous test. The first few hours of the day proved to be very productive - we got through a whole packet of Hobnobs and set up our new toy, the shiny new Nespresso machine! The car, however, began to struggle following a spin and it was decided to pull it off the track and get it back to its Hartech home. The issue would have been easily resolved at a race meeting but with fewer spares (and pairs of hands!) this wasn’t possible, but Marcus’ car is now back on top form and ready to race!

The Porsche Club Championship has rocketed in popularity with 38 cars registered for the Championship and 28 entries so far for the Donington Park round. This season will see numerous change which could prove to make competition fierce. As previously mentioned the championship has Pirelli contracted as their tyre supplier this season and for the first time the cars will be racing on a full set of slicks, a change causing many drivers to adapt their driving style and strategy. The grand entrance of the Cayman S, newly eligible for the championship, has got many teams questioning whereabouts it will land in the pack.

The series has a set of strong entrants with the return of former champions including Mark McAleer  Mark Sumpter along with reigning overall champion Alex Eacock moving to Class 1 in a 996, alongside the similar car of class 1 champion Pete Morris, who is also run by Alex’s family business. Hartech should be highly represented throughout the race with running 4 drivers, 3 in class 1 and 1 in class 2. Each driver has been chosen for their own successes, driving skill, and specific experience so the Hartech team will be marked as one of the elite to keep an eye on throughout the season. Hopefully Marcus, Tom, Gary and Stuart will achieve excellent results in this race and all those to follow and we wish each one of them the best of luck (but mainly Marcus!).

The Donington park round commences on April 6^th. Qualifying is at 7am followed by two 25 minute races at 12:15 and 15:15. The second race at 15:15pm will be televised live on Motors TV, coverage of the meeting starting from 13.30 (Sky channel 413, Virgin Media channel 545).

We're about to try and put updates on over the course of the meeting - why not follow us? @gooseracing

Pirelli Test Day 15th February

The team were up bright and early at Donington park circuit on the 15^th February, the first test day on The Goose’s car of the 2013 season. The ever organised lads managed to bring nearly everything to this test day, a great improvement on last season, so the kettle arrived safely but they did manage to forget the mugs!!! After a quick sprint to the café this problem was soon resolved.

Over the winter the Team have been developing the Boxster S making various adaptations to improve handling and weight. These improvements instantly paid off when we took the car out on track with Marcus, fuelled by HobNobs, producing faster lap times than anyone in the championship has done before, on his old Michelins tyres.

The main purpose of undergoing this test day was to address the issue of a change in tyre brand. This change to Pirelli slicks is a challenge for the team as this will require a lot of research and a considerable amount of testing to get the cars back to optimum set up.

Pirelli sent a professional tyre engineer along to this specific test day to assess performance and provide advice, very useful when the team have very little experience of slick tyres!

The day showed that the car can be improved to work better with the new slick tyres, which have much more grip and it was noticeably quicker on them.  The car has gone back to the workshop for further development and we will have another test day shortly before the first round of the championship at Donington.

Hartech 2013 line up

A considerable amount of changes are happening in Team Hartech this year and we are undergoing some in depth development.

The Team has spent the winter focusing on improving the original Boxsters’ times through various adaptations in areas they felt could be improved following last season’s racing.

The improvements will be put to the test at a Donington Park test day in the near future. In addition to our personnel changes The Porsche Club’s tyre contract has ended so this year everyone will be running on Pirelli tyres. This includes a swap to slick tyres but this has presented a challenge to Team Hartech as it requires further research and a large amount of testing to get the cars back to optimum set up in these new conditions. Much to Marcus’ delight we are also giving each car a set of proper race “Wets”, allowing all the cars to be best prepared for the great British summer weather!

The Hartech racing family has grown and now in addition to the two Boxster S’ we will be racing a 996 and another Boxster.

In Order to make the team as successful as possible there has been many discussions and meetings on the best possible drivers for the cars. Ben has decided to take a season off in order to focus and develop his own business, Hartech boss Barry Heart said “He is our only winner and has given 2 great years service to the team and remains fondly in our hearts and minds with the possibility always of a return in the future.” We have hence had to widen our search for our drivers and the final decisions are:

Marcus Carniel is in the Green-trimmed Boxster S, the same one as he was racing in the previous season however the much improved version. Barry stated “He has been a great ambassador for the team and gradually gained confidence in the car as we improved the handling finally getting a podium at Silverstone.” Hopefully Marcus will start off this season where he left off last year and add to his history of great results.

Gary Marsh will be racing an all new 996. Over many seasons Gary has raced consistently and competitively in sports cars and single seaters achieving many Podiums, Race Wins and a Championship Win. Gary is a great asset to the team with experiencing in instructing he will hopefully be able to pass on some good hints and tips to our other divers and technical knowledge of engineering he will be able to give the team some excellent feedback allowing them to develop the cars to the highest standard.

Tom Bradshaw who will be racing the other (orange-trimmed) Boxster S for us. Tom moved up from racing karts (aged 16) to win 10 of 13 formula ford races and the Championship. In 2008 he finished 2nd in the Formula Palmer Audi Championship and in 2009 was chosen by Porsche for support and training racing in the Porsche Carrera Cup and later in the Professional Class racing in the 2011 Speed Euro Series in a prototype car. He and his father also run an incredibly successful business Road and Race Restorations, a well known and highly regarded body shop and authorised repairers for our local Porsche and Mercedes main agents. They beat 99 other contestants to be awarded Bodyshop of the Year in 2012.

Stuart Ings will be racing his own Boxster which has been run in the Porsche Club Championship for two years now.  In 2011 he qualified 4th in his first race finishing 6th in class and in 2012 he finished the season 4th in class with a best result of 4th in all 3 races at Silverstone having qualified 3rd. Due to the changes with the power to weight ratio rules Hartech have put a larger engine into the Boxster to improve his performance, but it will remain a Class Two car. Along with this he will be undergoing some driver development with the Team.

Hopefully all these changes will allow us to achieve all our aims and ultimately go for a Class and possibly even Championship Win!