VTEC Challenge does Silverstone 2015


Jonathan F

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Nov 29, 2010
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Silverstone National: April 4th/5th 2015
(Rounds 1 and 2 of BRSCC Honda VTEC Challenge)


We’re back!!!!!!

It has been far too long since the grids reverberated to the sound of that famous VTEC howl!

6 months to the day since the end of the 2014 season, and the VTEC Challenge was ready to kick off the year in style at the famous circuit of Silverstone in Northampton, using their 1.639 mile “National” layout.

Would Richard Voaden’s lap record of 1.07.003 from 2012 still stand after the weekend, only time would tell?

There has been a great deal of activity since the series closed its door on 2014, with fresh cars being built and others being fettled with the new season in mind.

A track day/pre-season test was held at Castle Combe back in February to allow drivers to blow off the cobwebs, catch up with friends and to introduce new drivers to the series. All in all a fantastic day was had and everyone was left with their appetites whetted for the season to get underway.


Entrants:

08 – Andy Poole – S2000 – Production
10 – Matt Walker – EK9 Civic - Tuner
14 - Daz Smee – DC2 Integra – Production
20 – Craig Smith - DC2 Integra – Production
31 – Phil Wright – Accord Type R - Production
39 – Rob Burkinshaw – DC5 Integra – Tuner
55 – Peter Venn – DC2 Integra - Tuner
66 – Paula Webb– EP3 Civic Type R – Production
68 – Martyn Kemp– EP3 Civic Type R – Super Tuner
73 – Stu King - DC2 Integra – Production
100 - Will Watkin – EP3 Civic Type R - Tuner
666 – Neil Holden – EP3 Civic Type R – Production


With this being the opening round of the season, it was great to see a healthy grid, made up of series regulars as well as a good selection of first timers.

It was a pleasure to welcome Craig Smith, Peter Venn, Martyn Kemp, Will Watkin and Neil Holden to their first VTEC Challenge race.

Working all the hours possible leading up to the event, Neil from TDi North was faced with a lengthy “to do” list, which was further added to when the Civic’s head gasket was found to have failed.

The prize for “furthest distance travelled to get to the event” went the way of Peter Venn, who having travelled from Holland, picked up his new race car on the Friday and headed to the circuit Saturday morning.

Without any prior testing of the Integra (which has been raced previously by Simon Jessop and Richard Voaden in the VTEC Challenge), qualifying would be the first opportunity for Peter to get to grips with the car and make any necessary adjustments to suit his driving style.

Qualifying:

With a late morning slot for qualifying, the VTC entries collected in the assembly area before heading out on track. With both the air temperature and track temperature still hovering in the single digits, generating heat in the tyres would be a priority in order to extract the best lap times. Unfortunately cold rear tyres got the better of “Production” class entrant Daz Smee, and a spin exiting Luffield dropped him down the pack as they led out for the session.

After a couple of laps to familiarise themselves with the circuit, the drivers got down to the task in hand and began work on setting their quickest times.

Showing a great pace after sitting out 2014 to concentrate on building up his engineering business was Matthew Walker in his K20 engined EK9. Having gone up a tyre size to help the handling and carried out some performance upgrades since it’s last time out on track, the “Performance Autoworks” tuned Civic was soon on the pace and hunting down fellow “Tuner” class entrant Rob Burkinshaw.

The DC5 of Burkinshaw was ahead on pace and took pole by a fraction over a second after a trouble free session.

Running in “Production” for 2015, was the popular combination of Phil Wright and his Accord Type R, affectionately named “Kato”. Putting in consistently quick lap times, the pair qualified 3rd overall and first in class. However the session was to be cut short when an issue with the cars ignition system forced a retirement out on track.

Another returnee to the series was Stu King, with his “Production” class DC2 Integra which was only finished in the week leading up to the event. In spite of this and a limited amount of seat time during his sabbatical from the series, Stu settled in quickly and was soon posting consistent lap times alongside the similar spec’d DC2 of newcomer Craig Smith.

Although suffering with brake bias issues, Venn in the H22 engined Integra was soon up to speed and using his 30 years race experience to begin to extract the best from his new steed.

Super Tuner entrant Martyn Kemp was getting to grips with his supercharged Civic in his first ever event, however clutch issues hampered progress in what was an otherwise successful session.



With the rest of the grid completing the session, everyone returned safely to the paddock.

Pole: Rob Burkinshaw
2nd: Matthew Walker
3rd: Phil Wright

Back in the paddock and the investigation into the issues with the Accord of Wright got underway.

With a new coil pack and a second hand ignition coil module fitted to the distributor, the car barked back into life and was declared “fit to race”!

Race 1:

With race time upon us, all drivers made their way to the assembly area to take up their positions. Joining the track at the entry to “Luffield”, Burkinshaw led the field around to the grid in preparation for the race.

With one short green flag lap, getting heat into the tyres would be the key to a good start. Following the lap the drivers re-took their positions and waited for the off.

With the 5 second board shown and the red lights on, everyone began the count down as the rev’s began to rise.

Race time!

Whilst Burkinshaw hooked up cleanly on the outside of the circuit, Walker in the 2nd placed Civic missed the gear change into 2nd, which allowed Wright and King through to take 2nd and 3rd respectively.



Making a monumental start was Neil Holden in the red EP3 Civic, who launched from 8th up to 6th by turn 1, alongside Smith in the DC2 who had also made up places at the start.

Kemp left the line hard, but excessive clutch slip meant the grid swallowed him up, leaving him to get back up to speed. Once the clutch recovered, he was able to make steady progress through the field to finish in 6th place, showing the Civics potential.

Everyone safely negotiated Copse and made the run down towards Maggotts. With the top 5 cleanly through, trouble hit Smith as the rear tyres on his Integra broke free, pitching him into a slide. Although quick to collect the slide, the car suddenly snapped back and speared back across the track, making contact with Venn and causing both cars to retire.

Recovering from his problems on the start line, Walker was soon back in contention and hunting down King and Wright to retake 2nd place behind Burkinshaw.



Wright maintained a gap back to the chasing pack and was comfortably able to retain 3rd overall and 1st in class for the remainder of the race.

A monumental race long battle played out between King and Holden as both cars tried to occupy the same piece of tarmac, lap after lap! The racing (whilst breathtakingly close and heart stopping at times!) remained incident free, with both drivers respecting each other and aware of where the other was at all times.



Holden filled the mirrors of King at every available opportunity and in spite of passing the company director from Gloucestershire on a number of occasions it was King who emerged the victor at the time of crossing the finishing line.

Smee in the camo wrapped DC2 was another driver to benefit from a great start and was soon alongside the lead pack as they rounded Maggotts. However with the more powerful cars of Kemp and Watkin closing, Smee was unable to hold his position out on track.



Paula Webb and her freshly prepared Civic was busy putting in consistently quicker lap times than her qualifying session and in doing so was having a race long battle with the S2000 of Andy Poole. A spin by Poole at Copse allowed Webb to take the position, although having quickly recovered Poole began to hunt down Webb during the closing laps and retook 9th place at the time of the chequered flag.



Burkinshaw remained at the head of the pack to take the first win of the 2015 season.

1st Rob Burkinshaw
2nd Matthew Walker
3rd Phil Wright

Class wins were awarded to:

(P) – Phil Wright
(T) – Rob Burkinshaw
(ST) – Martyn Kemp

Fastest lap: Rob Burkinshaw 1.06.294 lap 3 of 14

With Venn and Smith recovered to the paddock, each car was inspected to assess the damage.

Despite the best intentions to help repair the DC2 of Venn, the damage proved to be too much and with a heavy heart, his weekend was run.

It looked to be the same problem for Smith, however the damaged suspension components that he required (track rod end and an upper control arm), happened to be in the parts box that is taken to each round for instances such as this.

With the parts replaced, bodywork straightened out and the tracking redone the car was ready to take part in race 2, where he would start from the back of the grid.


Race 2:

Race two took place straight after the lunch break, which itself had been cut short due to a number of incidents in the morning sessions. All drivers headed to the assembly area and then out onto the track for their warm up lap.

Looking to get a better getaway for race 2, Walker took his position on the grid on the inside of Burkinshaw.

On pole following his race 1 victory, Burkinshaw got clean away as the lights went out to keep his lead through Copse as Walker slotted in behind to give chase. The pair pushed hard and pulled away from the chasing pack, with Burkinshaw working hard for the second lights to flag victory of the weekend.



Starting from 3rd, Wright was unable to put together a repeat performance second time around. The Accord left the line to give chase, but a sudden unexplained loss of electrics caused the driver from Exmouth to move off the racing line and declare himself out of the race and wave the rest of the grid to come past.

With Wright side-lined, Holden and King had an epic straight out drag race down the Wellington Straight, with the pair going door handle to door handle around the entire length of Luffield. King emerged ahead by the smallest of margins, but Holden eventually wrestled the position from King and in a reversal from race 1, King proceeded to fill the mirrors of the Honda’s On Track sponsored “Arrive & Drive” EP3 Civic as the race unfolded.

Coming through from the back of the pack, Smith closed up on the S2000 of Poole (who was suffering with a lack of brakes and grip) before overhauling the Civic of Webb who also benefitted from Poole’s circumstances. Although closing on Smee, Smith was unable reach the fellow Integra driver before the race came to a close.



Managing to carry out a better start on the second time around, Martyn Kemp rose through the pack from 6th to 3rd overall, showing a growing confidence in his first weekend of racing.

Will Watkin in the second of the “Panic Link Motorsport” prepared EP3 Civic’s, again put in a strong performance on his racing debut to take another 3rd in class.

It was a nail biting end of the race for King and Holden as after almost a full 15 minutes of battling for 4th place and 1st in the Production class, King placed his Integra on the apex of Luffield and proceeded to drive on the inside of Holden to take the position in the final seconds of the race.

1st Rob Burkinshaw
2nd Matthew Walker
3rd Martyn Kemp

Class wins were awarded to:

(P) – Stu King
(T) – Rob Burkinshaw
(ST) – Martyn Kemp

Fastest lap: Rob Burkinshaw 1.06.219 on lap 10 of 14

So in answer to the question posted at the beginning of this report, there is now a new lap record for the VTEC Challenge on the National circuit. Well done Rob!


Summary:

Although the conditions were less than ideal, thankfully we had the benefit of having two dry races and some fantastic close fought on track action.

A huge show of thanks goes out to everyone that attended, no matter what their capacity. From driver, to crew to spectators alike, each and every one of you helps make this series what it is today.

Thanks to the series sponsors: Toyo Tires, Competition Clutch, Ultra Racing, Performance Autoworks, Eurospec, Honda’s On Track, 6TWO1, Honda Tuner and MOTORV8 MEDIA for their support.

In recognition of his efforts before the event in getting his car prepared and in producing two stunning races, Neil Holden was awarded the first “Spirit of the VTC” award, an award to be presented at each round in 2015.

The Honda VTEC Challenge now heads to the Rockingham Speedway on the 16th/17th May and we hope to see you and more there.



Words: Jonathan Fletcher
Pictures: Lindsey Fletcher & Jonathan Fletcher
 
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