MotorsTV UK Official Blog

Just a quick update for you all ahead of my home round. It’s such a great track and I have nearly 200 friends, family and sponsors here to watch me race, so no pressure! I have done so many laps around this place and know it like the back of my hand, which sometimes is not the best thing as you ride around areas of the track that you might think will be a problem but others are oblivious to.

It’s important to me to have a good result as a huge thank you to all my fans and sponsors that support me so well all year, and its always special at your home track.

We have a week at home after this round then at the weekend we go to Goodwood Festival of Speed which is always a great event, there is so much to see and the Ball is fantastic. The last couple of years Lord March has hired Cirque de Soliel and Debby Harry to perform, so it’s not to be missed.

Hello everyone,

Sorry for my slightly late update after Silverstone.

Well, what a weekend…. it all came together for me and I finally scored my first podium on Saturday and then went and got another on Sunday!

With the weekend being my home race there was a lot of media attention beforehand. On the Wednesday evening before the weekend BMW asked me to attend a BMW UK Motorsport evening where all of the BMW UK employees attended to see Robert Kubica, Troy Corser, Andy Prilaux….. and then me being interviewed by Murray Walker about our own racing seasons and how we are getting on and more a bit about us as people.  It was just great for me because Murray Walker is one of my TV heroes and I have stared at him on the TV interviewing the F1 greats and now he was giving me an interview! It’s another very special moment. He was really good fun and had a great way about him to keep you relaxed so it all went very smoothly.

Also, on the Friday morning after free practice and just before qualifying myself and three other drivers went and did a BBC Radio 5 Live interview…. now I really should have got the clue in the name of the radio station but I had no idea it was a full on live interview until the last few seconds when we went on the air to the whole country!! It was all done upstairs in the Brawn GP motorhome in the F1 paddock and, well it was another pretty scary thing to begin with but it all just went very smoothly and we could just have a great laugh and a conversation really! I think the BBC were happy with the job we did. The funniest part of all though was we kept on having to stop talking to cut down to the F1 paddock to hear Bernie Ecclestone but I felt quite sorry for the reporter because this is what he said… ‘Hello Bernie, we are live on the BBC what can you tell us?’… Bernie: ‘Tell you about what?’… BBC: ‘The problems going on with Max Mosley at the moment’.  Bernie: ‘Max is having problems? I didn’t know that’. At this point they just gave up and cut back to us all looking very angry. I don’t think my laughing helped!

Now, my racing. Free practice went very well indeed – 2nd place – and then the rest of the weekend followed suit. In qualifying my car was so good but I got blocked on my best lap. Still, 6th and 3rd on the grid was satisfying enough. I really had to fight hard in the first race for that first taste of champagne. Lifting the trophy for the first time was definitely very special for me and when I scored another podium the next day it did not feel half as good!

After the very difficult start to the year it was really satisfying to come and score a weekend like that, especially as it was my home race which made it very special indeed. We have had the pace to be on the podium all year and would have been last weekend if not for my penalty at Zandvoort. But importantly, I have now proven my potential and shown it so that makes me very happy. It is very easy for people to doubt you when you are struggling sometimes but many people always believed in me and this really is important to me to show them that they were right to do that.

I have been all over the place since the weekend, not really knowing what to do with myself! I have just been training in the sun and flying my planes but today I will see my friends for a BBQ so I am looking forward to that … but next weekend I get to go to the Goodwood Festival of Speed which is just awesome because it has been three years since I last went and so I cannot wait. You get so close to the greatest cars from the greatest races.

I hope this has been interesting and I just cannot wait for my next race weekend.

Thanks everybody and I look forward to updating you soon after my next race at the Nurburgring in three weeks.

Rupert

Hello again and welcome to my third blog for Motors TV. Two weeks after my last race at Rockingham near Corby I travelled to the Knockhill circuit in Fife, Scotland for rounds 7,8 & 9 of the 2009 MSA British Formula Ford Championship.

Qualifying didn’t go exactly to plan and it left me down in seventh on the grid. One tenth of a second separated the top seven though and it would remain this close all weekend. The nature of the track kept the grid so close and this meant for some very exciting racing. Qualifying was decided mainly by who got traffic and who didn’t. With twenty two cars on a fifty one second lap there wasn’t much space to find a rhythm and get the job done, my 4th or 5th lap was going to be my best and for sure it would have been pole but I caught my team mate in the top chicane and that was that. It was a great session for the Kevin Mills Racing Team with my team mates Alex Jones and Daniel Erickson third and fifth with Alex taking pole for race two, my second best lap was good enough for 5th which confirmed that I had underachieved a little in the session so I was a little disappointed.

Race One of the weekend took place Saturday afternoon in warm and sunny conditions. Starting from seventh I immediately dropped to eighth by the first corner, a classic Cammish start, but I was getting better. I battled hard for the next twenty minutes and found myself in third with two laps to go. I then managed to pass team mate Daniel Erickson with a mega overtake at the end of the pit straight with just lap to go and held on until the Flag. Second overall, the best finish of my three meeting-old single-seater career.

Race two came on Sunday morning in similar conditions to the first. I started from fifth and quickly made my way up to third behind Erickson. My KMR Spectrum chassis was working well around this Knockhill circuit and I was feeling confident of a win. Unfortunately my confidence was short lived. At turn three Erickson just clipped the tyres on the inside which were meant to stop people from cutting the corner. The tyres bounced into the air and landed on my right front steering arm bending it and making the car very difficult to drive. I dropped to sixth by the flag which was a good recovery but I struggled to see any positives as it could have been my first win.

Race three was on Sunday afternoon, a quick but torrential downpour had wet the circuit earlier but it was fully dry by the time we came to the track. I was starting fourth as I managed to post a quick lap time in race 2 before the car sustained damage. The times were so close with still only a couple of tenths between the top runners. I made a good start and held station in fourth. Carnage at the first corner ensued when front row starters Gary Findlay and Josef Newgarden locked wheels going into turns 1 and 2, I took to the gravel to avoid the spinning Findlay but recovered to 3rd on re-joining the tarmac. A few laps later I was absolutely amazed to see Findlay in my mirrors after I last saw him facing the wrong way and spinning into the middle of the pack. He passed me a lap later and I was demoted to fourth when I lost traction on gravel spread across the track at the hairpin. The race for me was fairly boring from here on, I managed to gap the chasing pack by a good few seconds but Findlay, Dan Erickson
and Chris Palmer had done the same to me. However I could see them beginning to squabble as the race drew closer to the end and I found myself right in the thick of the action as the last lap board came out. Down the back straight we went with the top three all driving down the inside of the track defending as best they could. At the last minute Findlay pulled left to take the racing line up the hill and I darted into the gap. I just about managed to stop the car on the apex but unfortunately was right in the blind spot of team mate Erickson. As he accelerated he drove over the front of my car and span into me causing damage to both cars, his was terminal. I recovered to take fourth but couldn’t hide my disappointment. Of all the people it had to be my team mate and I was gutted for Dan and the team.

So that was my weekend at Knockhill. With second, sixth and fourth place finishes I came away still third in the championship but having closed on leader James Cole and also gained lots of points on Josef so that was a bonus. I once again won all three scholarship races giving me nine wins from nine races.

My starts were slightly better than that of Rockingham but in truth it would have been difficult for them to be worse, but I’m learning. Now with six signatures on my license I can remove that novice cross from the rear of the car so another milestone reached, hopefully I can move to the top step of the podium at the next round at Snetterton. Also I have a trip to Germany coming up for some slicks and wings action but that’s for another blog.

Cheers

Dan Cammish

It’s been a nice couple of weeks, I have been out in Italy for a week now as I had some meetings with sponsors and it’s been great. The weather has been awesome and it’s been really good for my training. Myself and Westy have been running and cycling everyday and in this heat it’s pretty tough.

The last time I raced Misano was in 2004 and the circuit went the other way around so it will be like racing a new circuit, but I’m looking forward to it. It’s so hot here today but I think it is forecast to rain really heavy Saturday and Sunday so we should get some excitement this weekend.

Last night we had a press event at Frankie Chili’s beach where we played some beach tennis with some pros and some canoeing against some journos and the FG Sport guys. It was great fun and even better as I won both events over all. I won a huge Sarano Ham which myself and the team will enjoy this weekend.

My team as always have been working so hard this week trying to find some improvements for me so we can really push to be up the front again. I have a feeling there is going to be some good racing.

Back in touch after the weekend.

Leon

Hello everyone,

After a difficult first weekend at Brands Hatch, I took the road to Silverstone in order to participate in the Formula Palmer Audi’s 4th, 5th and 6th rounds.

For once, it was easier to learn the track thanks to the hours spent on the video games. Also, having been rocked during my childhood by watching the fights between Prost, Senna and Mansell – which often took place at this track – I had some reference points about the overtaking opportunities!

Behind the scenes, Brazilian friend and fellow competitor Thiago Calvet and I decided to use the fantastic communication product that is motorsport to send a message of support to the families of the Air France flight Rio-Paris. We hope this message can reach them and can give them some comfort.

On track, we didn’t have any major surprises. Faithfull to its reputation, Silverstone served up its typical weather, rocked by wind and rain interrupted by rare sunny times. A very difficult situation for choosing the car set-up, because of track conditions changing very quickly. The decision between setting the car for the rain, for the dry or for an intermediate situation was quite difficult.

During free practice on a dry track, my car responded excellently. After a few reconnaissance laps, I could start to push a bit. I quickly jumped to the top part of the classification, only two tenths of a second from the fastest time. A real relief after Brands Hatch, and above all a performance that boded well for the rest of the weekend. Silverstone is quite a fast track though, and I immediately felt comfortable into the fast corners. My team and I worked on the balance of the car in these parts, while maintaining a good set-up for the slow curves.

But on Saturday morning and the last free practice, our efforts were ruined by a rainstorm. With so little experience in these conditions at the wheel of a car with a turbocharger and 360bhp, I must confess that I was a little apprehensive about the idea of challenging this wet track!

But after a few laps, when my mechanic Chris Roberts showed me the P1 board – moreover with an advantage of half a second over my nearest competitor – I realized we were on to something good. I decided to use this free session in order to try to exceed the limits of my car in these conditions. “Brake later, accelerate earlier, more violent with the gas pedal without being surprised by the sudden power from the turbo”. With this driving style, my times improved considerably, until I made a tiny mistake and finished in the gravel trap only three minutes from the end of the session, while I was still at the top of the ranking. Nevertheless, I had no regrets because there was no damage done to the car, and I had been able to find the limits.

Unfortunately, faced with the weather changing, we then made bad choices with the set-up for qualifying. A challenge that did not work and which did not allow me to do better than 9th and 12th on the starting grid.

The races would be tough, but nothing was lost. About the races, there is much to tell. F2 driver Jolyon Palmer’s scary accident, who lost control of his car on the brakes at over 230kmh, and who then hit the two cars preceding me. Or the long battles that I had with Paul Rees, Ash Babbra and Adam Foster, with wheels touching and overtaking on the grass! The races were very exciting, and I eventually was able to bring my car No. 14 of the Team Biotech International in the top 10 twice.

A positive weekend then, even if my practice results have proven that I can place higher. Snetterton will be a good chance to confirm these performances!