Torque October 2008

Issue 2 October 2008

driver focuspage 5/6

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flat outinterview w ith neil cunningham

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3rd year foundation degree students with the West-Tec Formula Fords during their September residen-tial

Welcome to the second edition of our up and coming motorsport newsletter. For readers of the first edition, welcome back, for new readers, a quick recap. We bring interesting and infor-mative news and articles on club, national and inernationl motor racing.

In this months issue we bring you new driver focus pages, on two rising stars of the Race Drivers Academy. Rodolfo Avila, on the front cover in his GT Ferrari is a 3rd year student on the Foundation Degree and has a wealth of racing and driving experience. The second driver focus is on Welsh rally driver Shon Rees. ShonShon is also on the foundation degree course, in his first year with the Race Drivers Academy.

We also have an interview with RDA lecturer, Le Mans legend and GT racing guru Neil Cun-ingham. We quiz him on his racing carer and his recent starring in the new James Bond film as a stunt driver. A new article on what to race with £25,000 completes this months highlights.

The first residentials of the year took place for all RDA drivers old and new, with succesful progress from both Loughborough and Silver-stone bases. On track excitement for year 1 Foundation Degree students, with their first driving assesment at Silverstone in Lotus Exiges. Second and Third Years had an exclu-sive opportunity with Team West Tec, testing two of thier Formula Fords.

The test day was in aid of a Data Logging ass-signment, where students critically analysed car and driver performance through the use of on-board telemetry. It is fair to say that this was a complete success and on behalf of all students involved we would like to thank Team West-Tec and in particular owner Gavin Wills for this opportunity.

With another residential for Foundation Degree students just around the corner, the racing season may be winding down – but our drivers are still flat out!

AASEAASE students (Advanced Apprenticeship of Sporting Excellence for 16-18 Year olds) are looking forward to a number of entries in their diaries including a Media Training day on the 20th October, assessments in Nutrition and Psychology and a day on track at Silver-stone in December. So the winter promises to be a busy one for the Race Driversbe a busy one for the Race Drivers Academy.

All that is left is to wish all RDA drivers the best of luck in both their racing and studies. Enjoy the Newsletter!

RDA NEW S


Flat outw ith neil cunningham

Neil Cunningham has raced all over the world in almost every race series imaginable. Formula Fords, For-mula Renault to GTs, Aussie V8s to DTM and LMP cars at Le Mans, Neil’s done it all and got the T-shirts. Upon meeting him it is clear why he has been so successful in life. What you are confronted with is an intel-ligent, charming and very friendly character whose experience and talent behind the wheel is unmistakable. His passion is Motorsport, but he’s also a keen surfer. We quiz him on his career as both a racing and stunt driver…

How did you get into Stunt driving?Through an old friend of mine - Terry Grant. I met him at a cir-cuit one day and we got talking and it started from there really.

What was your first stunt driving job?It was the MPH show a few years back in Nissan 350z convert-ibles. The next one was in the Vauxhall Monaro where we shredded over £12,000 of rear tyres in 10 days! That was a cool job.

What is it you enjoy about stunt driving?Stunt driving is fun, very nerve racking. When you’re doing shows you’ve got to be on your toes, everything must be at the right instant, the right mark and in time with the music the whole thing. The movie work can be quite stressful as well.

What sort of manoeuvres have you been asked to perform, and what are your favourites?Everything from the basic handbrake turns, to JEverything from the basic handbrake turns, to J Turns to full blown drifting.

In the Nissans we did a rolling burnout against each other where we set the throttles and climbed onto the backs of the cars and waved to the crowd with the wheels still spinning. You don’t want to get that wrong as the cars can unhook themselves and off they go. I also did a stunt in Holland where I climbed out of the car mid donut; I got a Mexican wave from 5000 crazy Dutch people!

What films have you worked on as a stunt driver?What films have you worked on as a stunt driver?The only one so far has been The Quantum of Solace, (James Bond) which I did the car chase scenes in. I did some work in an Alfa Romeo with a machine gun hanging out the side and you actually see me in the film as a police officer.

Did you meet a Bond girl then?Yes! I met Olga, who was a.... very nice girl.

Ahem, moving on then....Ahem, moving on then....

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Flat outw ith neil cunningham

What has been your most memorable race?ItIt’s got to be winning the British GT round in 2006 with Ben Collins. We beat the Ferrari team on the grand prix track, we were in 8th position on slicks on a very wet track but we knew the weather was going to change so I just soldiered on in pretty heavy conditions and in the last 3 laps on a dry line I came through to win it from 8th. Three laps from the finish I think I was 52 seconds behind the leaders! You couldn’t even go down the hanger straight without going sideways!go down the hanger straight without going sideways!

When did you first hear about the Race Drivers Academy? What got you involved?I heard about it through Seb King, I think the whole academy is exactly what’s needed for young drivers to get involved with motor sport. There’s really nowhere else you can go as a young driver.

What has been your biggest accident?Jeez. I’ve had so many! Probably the biggest one was actu-ally fairly recently at Silverstone in a Mustang at 142mph and it took me 620 yards to stop. The throttle jammed open at Maggots, I took out a Camaro, a tyre wall and went across the southern circuit which had school cars on it.

I ended on the hanger straight backwards. Another one I had years ago in a formula ford put my skull into my spine where I barrel rolled, that was a big accident.

Have you ever had any problems physically and mentally getting over accidents?PhysicallPhysically, the best thing to do is after about a week, go and see a chiropractor and get your neck and shoulders and ev-erything put back into alignment. It’s just like realigning a cars suspension, but it’s important to do for your full recov-ery. Mentally, I’ve never experienced any issues, although I know of drivers who have had problems getting back on the pace. I’m quite old fashioned and just get back in there, get on the loud pedal and get on with it! If you’ve ever got wor-ries about getting in a racing car then you shouldn’t do it.

What are you going to be up to for the rest of the year and 2009?I’m going to be working on the Top Gear Live show where I’m doing power slides in a Double Decker bus. Wow! That sounds crazy… Yeah, we couldn’t get anyone to sit on the top deck as it sometimes goes on two wheels! That starts next month in London and then heads to the NEC before featuring worldwide. I’m going to be racing a 550bhp 1969 Mustang in a few historic races, as well as a £1.5m Jag D Type and a ListerLister Chevy and also doing a lot of surfing in Ireland, UK, and maybe the South of France; it’s how I keep my fitness up.

Above - Neil follows his ‘strict’ fitness regime!Top Left - Neil prepares for his race in the Saleen S7R.

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Welcome to the second edition of Wide Open, with our honest and frank views on the world of Motorsport. In this issue we look at why judicial procedures in F1 are bringing our beloved sport into disrepute... and we bring news on the latest feeder series for F1, Jonathon Palmer’s Formula 2...

RichRich - For me, the biggest travesty in F1 this season has been the decision to penalise Sebastian Bourdais in Fuji. He was ef-fectively penalised for trying to avoid an accident between him and Felipe Massa’s Ferrari.

Olly - Definitely, that and a number of other controversies this season means that F1 fans have to wait for the stewards to review every lap of the race and penalise any driver errors that previously were just treated as racing incidents. SUCH AS Hamilton outbraking himself into Turn 1 at Fuji. This is a ridu-lous concept to penalise a driver for outbraking themselves, es-pecially at the first corner of a race, and especially as he didnt hit anyone.

Rich - I find it so hypocritical that F1 say they are trying to im-prove overtaking opportunities but then penalise drivers when they attempt overtaking manaeves that they don’t pull off. I can’t beleieve Lewis got penalised when it was actually Kova-lainen that forced Kimi off the track at Turn 1.

Chris - But of course it was Hamilton who was penalised, Kovalianen is not a threat to the Ferrari crown! Without judi-cial procedures intervening, Hamilton and Mclaren would have all but wrapped up the drivers and team championships at this stage.

Olly - Did you hear Brundle during the race? Even he said that F1 is becoming a nanny state and that everytime someone overtakes we’re all wondering whether it will be penalised. If the guys on the inside dont understand it then how is the public ever going to understand it!

RichRich - Lets just hope that next year this isnt a continuing trend and common sense provails before traffic wardens are sent it to the paddock and speed checks are carried out to make sure no unfair advantages are gained. F1 is going beyond a joke.

Olly - Ok so moving on to the new Formula 2 plans proposed by MotorSportsVision and Jonathon Palmer. The idea for it is a much cheaper feeder series to F1. The engines will be 1.8 turbocharged 400bhp Audi’s and the series will cost 190k all in. On paper, it seems really good, what do we think?

RichRich - I think it sounds really good for the money, as long as the proposed price for the full season doesn’t creep up. The cars sound like they will be very fast Formula Palmer Audi’s.

Olly - It’s also following some good series like WTCC and A1GP and they also go to some great tracks such as Spa.

ChrisChris - I heard that the top 3 in the championship will get a super license at the end of it and a test in an actual F1 car, which is a fantastic prospect for the 190k. Also the fact that the cars only weigh 620kg and have 400bhp, so with proper ground effect they will be really quick. With WilliamsF1 de-signed chassis, they should look fantastic aswell.

Rich - I think the main problem with the series is that its adding to an already oversubscibed sector of motorsport. Theres already GP2, Nippon, F3, Euro Formula Renault, Su-perleague Formula or even IndyLights! Thats a lot of competi-tion!

Olly - Yes, but the series does have some very unique features such as the proposed onboard camers on every single car. This will make telvision coverage brilliant, and it will also have some fantastic hospitality facilities, so it should be a very at-tractive proposition for sponsors.

I think we all wish them luck with the series, reducing costs can only be a good thing for motorsport, especially in the cur-rent economic climate.

Next month we’ll bring you more biased and opin-ionated views on International Motorsport! Remember, if you want to have your say on any In-ternational Motorsport events let us know, write to:[email protected] or [email protected]

w ide open

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Driver Focus(Rodolfo Avila)

About RodolfoRodolfoRodolfo is currently studying on the Motorsports foundation degree at Loughborough. Despite living in China, he is dedi-cated to his studies and his racing. He has competed in many di-siplines of racing, including British F3, Formula Masters and Asian GT’s. He is Asias’ leading racing driver and a hot pros-pect for the future.

What are your ambitions for the future?From this point on in my career, I don’t think I’ll be racing single seaters anymore, although I’ll practice from time to time in Formula Renault. For the time being, I’ll be focusing on GT’s as even though my targets were quite high this year, I still acchi-eved them and won the championship.

What are your major race results and notable acchieve-ments from your racing career so far?I was the youngest driver ever to race in the Macau grand prix. I was also the Formula Renault Asia/China champion in 2003. I was 4th overall in Formula 3 in 2005 and now I am a GT cham-pion.

Where was your last race and how did it go?My last race was back in August and it was at Malaysia where the weekend went well. There were no big incidents and I came 3rd in the first race and 2nd in the second race.

How did you become involved with the RDA?I found out about the RDI found out about the RDA whilst on the internet, I was search-ing for courses so that I could continue my studying. I liked the look of the courses that the RDA ran, as they compliment your racing with studying. With modules on Sponsorship and PR as well as others such as Race and Track Craft, it’s the type of course that can be applied directly to racing. I’m in my third year now and have seen the benefits both on and off track.

Sponsors Macau Government, Macau Slot, Sujika Crafts, BNU bank and Tsingtao beer.

Websitewww.rodolfoavila.com

Driver Name - Rodolfo Avila

DOB - 19/02/1987

Hometown - Zhuhai, China

HeHero - Aryton Senna or Gilles Ville-neurve

Occupation -Racing Driver / Student

Favourite Circuit - Macau

Favourite Car Driven - British F3

Championship -Asian GT

IInterests -Motorsport, Fitness, Music, Food, Facebook

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Driver Focus(Shon rees)

About ShonShonShon is a 1st year foundation degree student and started study-ing at Loughborough university in September 2008. He started his racing career in motocross, however at the age of just 12, Shon began to co drive for his dad on rallies. This started the ball rolling and by the time Shon was 16 he was rallying in his own 1000cc Seat Ibiza. Now moving on to bigger and faster machinery, Shon is certainly a driver to look out for.

What are your ambitions for the future?My overall ambition is to become a World Rally driver. At the moment I am focusing on sorting a drive in the Suzuki Swift Cup for next season.

What are your major race results and notable achieve-ments from your racing career so far?I was awarded young co driver of the event. In 2006 I com-peted in Formula 1000 which is for rally cars up to 1000cc en-gines and after a succesful year, I clinched the championship at the Cambrian rally. I finished 3rd in the 205 challenge in 2007 and also won my class at Pembrey which was my debut event running a rear wheel drive car.

How did your last rally go?ItIt started well and I was lying in 3rd place after the first few stages. We started to eat away at the leaders and finally with only a couple of stages remaining, we grabbed the lead. I had a 6.3 second lead going into the penultimate stage when we suffered a left rear puncture which cost us over 3 minutes in time. Overall we came 3rd so a podium was still a good result.

How did you become involved with the RDA?II got involved with the RDA when I saw an advertisement on the internet about their uni courses. I really wanted to continue my studies and as all the courses are motorsport specific, it was perfect for me and my rallying.

Sponsors Midway Motors

Websitewwwww.shonrees.com

Driver Name - Shon Rees

DOB - 04/12/1988

Hometown - Crymych, Pembrokeshire

HeHero - Colin Mcrae

Occupation -Racing Driver / Student

Favourite Event - Mid Wales Stages Rally

Favourite Car Driven - Escort Mk2

Championship -Suzuki Swift Cup

IInterests -Motorsports, Skiing, Watersports, Rugby

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race for..

In follow up to our last article on what to race with £7k, we bring you a new article exploring avenues for the next step up in terms of racing series and budget. It’s a bit of an odd one, but at £25,000 it allows us to look at some pretty exciting options!LastLast month’s article outlined a budget step onto the bottom of the club racing ladder. This month we’ve thrown caution to the wind and aimed it at someone who perhaps has competed at club level for a little while, earned their stripes and is now looking to raise their profile and launch their racing career. So, with £25,000 in our back pockets, we went racing… firstly lets start with a full years racing. What can you get for the money?!

Club Formula Ford 1600. The single most popular form of open wheel racing in the country! You look at any club listing BARC, BRSCC or CCRC and they all have FF1600 Kent races on the time table.The national championship comprises a make up of races from the 2 regional championships (Northwest and midlands/south)So you get to visit the majority of circuits through out the UK.

With power therefore potentially reaching 350bhp+ and the fact you run on road tyres, we’d recommend going rear wheel drive to let those poor front wheels concentrate on steering!With the budget this gives the opportunity to either build a car to a high standard or buy a prepped and previously raced car and still compete for the year. AsAs the rules are all pretty free the cost is how ever much you want to spend. But we reckon we could build a pretty rapid 3 Series for around £15,000!

Now let’s really go Racing!

We’ve looked at some championships where you can get a years racing out of your money. Now lets say you’ve been racing cars a few years, shown you’re a pretty canny peddler, don’t really need to race a full season and just need to prove yourself in this and that!What can you do?What can you do?

Well you’ll be happy to know that £25,000 will get you, if you play your cards right, quite a long way…

14 races over 8 race meetings, provides for a good seasons racing from March till September.The class provides the ideal 1st step on the open wheeler ladder and is the perfect lead to a full UK F1600 assault after a season or two! Cost-wise you’re looking at around £20,000 for the years racing including some (but limited) testing with a top team.WWith a little more added to the pot you could back the season up with a Formula Ford Festival appearance or a Walter Hayes Trophy outing!

CastleCastle Combe Saloon Car Championship. Again we come back to the Castle Combe Saloons, this time though looking at Class B for 2-wheel drive cars with engine size between 1801cc and 3000cc. In this class, taking into account forced induction equivalency ratios, you can run a turbo-charged 2ltr lump or a honking great 3ltr normally aspirated.

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race for..

As we’re looking at only selected rounds of championships, we can consider national and international events such as TOCA and FIA GT!

Let’s start national.

ClioClio Cup UK. For no more than £6,500 per race (any more and they saw you coming!), you can be competitive with the full allocation of tyres etc. With 25k you could do 3 meetings and use the balance to pay for that unavoidable touring car damage bill!

Now of course the higher the level you go, the fewer races you get. But what the heck, high profile races look good on the CV, don’t they?!

BTCC. Yes that’s right; you too can sit on the British Touring Car Championship grid in an S2000 spec car!ThisThis does use up the entire 25k in one hit with no prior testing unless you’re ‘in’ with the team. However, being on the UK’s most popular motorsport stage in front of the biggest crowds and then forever known as “ex BTCC racer” is, in our opinion worth every penny!

Now let’s look further afield!

FIA GT3. Yup the cars are 500bhp+, worth quarter of a million pounds, 1.2 tonne and capable of over 180mph! For around £12,000 per race you could be racing around Monza or Dubai in one of these monsters!PeoplePeople get put off GT racing, presuming it is horrendously ex-pensive, and to some degree this is true. But when you share the car with another driver you also share the cost. We don’t know about you, but to us, the appeal of sitting in an Italian piz-zeria in 35oC sunshine has considerably more appeal to it than a wet, windy and cold Knockhill in July!

The list of one off races could really go on here: LMS, French GT, Spanish GT, you could even do a single British F3 race. Or 2 in the Spanish championship!

There’s so many options, we’re sure you could spend your budget year in year out - as is the case with Motor Racing. We hope we’ve opened your eyes as to just what is within reach if you really want to raise your profile and kick-start your career!

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diary dates

It seems only a week or so ago since I was writing a small piece for the back page of the first edition of Toque in what has been a very busy and successful September for the RDA. Needless to say I might even have forgotton to write a piece for this months had it not been for a nagging in my ear from the Torque editors! Torque’s first edition has been a massive success, and has even been seen being read by some of Motorsports most influential men as they wait for a meeting here at the innovation centre! With praise coming from all corners of the industry, I am even more confident that Torque is set to be a great success.

The new FDSc 1st years have already showed great promise both in the class room and on the track following their September semester, with excellent feedback from the RDA instructors.AdditionallyAdditionally some great track work was completed by the 2nd and 3rd years (both in and out of the car) with Team West-Tec during their data logging assignments. In the class room they were lucky enough to have the Beechdean Aston Martin guys, fresh from their victory in the Brit Car 24hr (indeed they hadn’t even gone home from the race before they were talking to us!), to deliver a massively informative and successful Data Logging lecture. Thanks must go to the guys at Beechdean for their valuable time and ethe guys at Beechdean for their valuable time and effort. On the one day modules, November see’s the launch of our Media Training package – full details can be obtained by emailing the office on [email protected], with only a few dates left, interested party’s should call ASAP.

Finally, congratulations to our very own Dan Laddiman for clinch-ing the Radical title and thanks again to Olly, Rich and Chris for all the efforts in putting together this months Torque.

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Final Thoughts......

Seb King - Managing Director - RDA

Upcoming RDA Events

Shon Rees at Oswestry, Wales - 18th OctoberBulldog National Rally (Peugeot 205)

Ashley Simpson at Croft - 25th OctoberRallycross SuperPrix (Lotus Elise)

R.Puddle / C.Dymond at Silverstone - 2nd November WWalter Hayes Trophy (Formula Ford)

Olly Lewis at Brands Hatch - 9th NovemberBrands Hatch Open Race (Peugeot 106)

Chris Dymond at Dubai - 6th December FIA GT3 (Jaguar XKR)

RDA Student Dates

3rd year FD Students - 20-24th OctoberSilverstone & LoughboSilverstone & Loughborough

1st year FD Students - 20th-24th OctoberSilverstone

Provisional AASE Workshop - 15th November Loughborough

Provisional AASE Workshop - 3rd DecemberSilverstone

And thus ends Octobers issue of Torque. September was an extremely successful month for the RDA with Dan Laddiman adding to our championship tally by winning the Radical Supersport crown. Our very own columnist Chris Dymond also secured a drive with Jaguar for the remainder of the FIA GT3 campaign and Rodolfo Avila (see driver focus) wrapped up the Asian GT title. On behalf of all of us here at Torque, we would like to congratulate all those who have represented the RDA in their racing and we wish them all the luck for the future!

PleasePlease keep emailing in any issues you feel you would like to rant about, or that would make a good article in Torque. If you happen to agree (or disagree) with anything written by us then we would love to hear from you!

Torque October 2008

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