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Tracktorque Talk

Tracktorque boss Clive Reay-Young was a welcome visitor to the Britcar stand at last month’s Autosport International show, using it as a base to discuss potential plans for the 2013 season with a number of interested parties. Those plans, if not fully-rounded, are now well in place, and Britcar’s Steve Wood caught up with Clive to see how the new season ahead is panning out.

 

Such was the eloquence and detail of Clive’s response to a few key questions, that it is best to give him the floor, and quote hi verbatim.

“Since completing our first season with Britcar we have been busy re-directing our efforts.

As you may know we have been involved in both the Porsche Open and Funcup prior to Britcar. After a couple of years with Porsche we decided that GT/Endurance racing is where we wanted to be, so Funcup provided us with the perfect place to learn our endurance craft., and  in 2011 we were running up to six cars at each Funcup round. Last season we ran cars in both Funcup and Britcar, and realised pretty quickly that Britcar was the perfect spot to ply our trade in the future.

In 2010 we had purchased three chevron GR8 challenge cars that we ran for one season in the Chevron Challenge.It taught us a lot about the cars, and gave us enough insight to know that if we wanted to compete seriously in GT events that a lot of changes needed to be made to the chassis and aero in particular, while turning an eye to the engine as well.

In 2011 we took all three cars off the road for a season and carried out a bunch of modifications to strengthen and improve the chassis, and did some preliminary work with Tommy Field on the engines. At the end of that year, when we had made up our mind to get involved with Britcar, we sold one of our cars to Jensen Lunn and used the cash to plough into engine rebuilds with Tommy and further aero work, enlisting the services of the brilliant Peter Stephens. Effectively that is the car we ran last year, which was very competitive, very fast through the corners but lacking in torque being only a two- litre. The car however was brilliantly driven by Chris Hart and Tommy Field aided and abetted by great drives from Nick Jarvis and Matthew Parr, and to be honest achieved some results that were beyond its capability purely as a result of their driving skills.

For 2013 we have committed totally to the British Endurance Championship, so if you know of anyone looking for Funcup cars, send them to me!

 

We have in preparation both of our Chevrons which are undergoing further mods to the chassis and we are transplanting the Cosworth lump for a Nissan V6. The principle behind this is to have the same power but at lazy revs and a bit more torque. The Cosworth was always running on the edge last year.

One Chevron will be driven by Chris and Tommy for the full season, the other has been signed up to by Richard Fearns and we are talking to a couple of other drivers in regard to the second seat in that car.

Alongside the Chevrons we plan to run a Seat Leon Supercopa in the Britcar Production Cup. As yet we have not confirmed drivers for the Leon but hope to do that soon; again if anyone wants to dive in and commit we would be very happy

 

From a business point of view while we are at the track we should do as much as possible, and we enjoyed the British Endurance Championship so much last year that it is the perfect place to put all of our attentions.

I guess what sticks in the mind about Britcar is the professional organisation and attitude of getting drivers on track, combined with driving of a high standard with respect for co-competitors and machinery, it is the perfect entry point to GT racing. I am hoping that with three cars running we can also show the full image of Track Torque complete with artic and awning; we have always run the team on the basis that a race weekend should be as much fun in the paddock as it is on track. We love to get families and sponsors involved with what we do so the awning gives us a great focal point for drivers to relax and make everyone involved part of the team.

 

Having come second in class to Bullrun last season, we would love to go one better this year, and ideally put the two Chevrons in the top five overall ( with one winning overall of course!). To be honest with the mods we have made and the drivers we have in the cars, it should be possible. Whatever the outcome we plan to enjoy it”.