>Major Website Update Summer 2008

As some of you may have noticed we have updated the website considerably again this year adding 9 new pages and editing several aspects on each page. The most improved areas are the Gallery and the Links page which has now become the Sponsors page.

We have also added a page about the NuVinci hubs which can be found here.

We also hope to be adding a video clip page soon, time permitting.

-Luke

>Rockingham 08 Race Report

Still a little bit tired from the event just 2 days prior we made it up to Rockingham for our 4th event of the season and the 3rd round of the new F24+ catergory.

Having put in such a good performance at Goodwood we arrived at Rockingham with high hopes but with cars such as TSR-4+, Continental DC and Y-Pod, we weren't expecting an easy race.

We lined up on the grid with 5 other cars and sped away as the flag was dropped we quickly moved up in to third place but the others weren't far behind. "Twin Cambs" fell back slightly over the first lap whilst "Continental DC" and "Twin Cambs Too" seemed to just get bigger and bigger in my mirrors.

Bentley's "Continental DC" overtook both myself and "Twin Cambs Too" at the end of the first lap as we crossed the Start/Finish Straight, whilst TSR-4+ pulled out a comfortable lead over the field.

The fight for 4th then began as Twin Cambs Too and I started swapping position sometimes up to 3 times a lap, we lost ground in to the wind but coming out of the wind I was able to wind the NuVinci flat out.

This continued for the whole of the first hour, until it seemed to become more and more difficult to overtake again, it was about this time that the drivetrain seemed to get louder and louder.

We finished the race a dissappointing 5th place managing 10 miles less than we had just two days ago. Initial pre-race inspection highlighted that the chain had worked it's way really quite loose which caused the noise, we can only assume that this is where the energy was being absorbed.

Congratulations once again to Joshua Evans and team TSR on a 3rd straight victory, and congratulations to both Team Bentley and Chipping Sodbury on they're well deserved podium finishes.

So, it looks like a long summer of modifications awaits us! Then on to Bedford with Laura at the wheel!

-Luke

>Goodwood 08 Race Report

It wasn't until the two days before Goodwood that we decided to compete, but we managed to pull in a few favours and Laura and I headed down to Sussex in the A.Smith Gt. Bentley Toyota Dyna early Sunday morning. Making it to the track in good time we found ourselves next door to our fellow F24+ competitors and good friends, Trinity School Racing, with our "New Look" Whoosh which had come out of the ASGB paint shop the day before.

Scrutineering was over in good time to make a few small (tape based) aero tweaks before the race.

We headed out on to the track and lined up against some rather impressive looking cars.

Laura pushed Whoosh off once again, and I quickly claiming 3rd placed then on to 2nd. 1 lap down I was the 2nd to enter the chicane after Joshua Evans in TSR-4+. In the remaining 17 laps Luke & Whoosh put in some fast lap times to secure 2nd place. Barry Shears dropped the flag, we'd finally got our 1st podium place! This made the past seasons efforts, all the hard work & man hours that had gone into Whoosh seem truely worth it!

After watching some impressive & exciting racing between TSR 4 & Evo 4, we proudly collected our award. We swiftly made our way home to make some tweeks in the short two days we had before Round 3 at Rockingham.

- Luke & Laura

>Castle Combe 08 Race Report

Having endured a 4-hour early morning journey, we’d reached Castle Combe. After unloading we went took the car for a rather thorough scrutineering, finishing with very little time we scrambled to the grid for the F24+ start.

I pushed Luke & Whoosh off for 90mins of racing. It was clear that a lot of the cars were suffering problems due to the strong head wind, which had left a few cars on the side of the track. The wind also caused whoosh’s bodywork to move about and act as a brake on the two front wheels. Other wise the race so quite successful, with Whoosh finishing 4th only 3 laps off of 3rd place, which was taken by Continental DC from Bentley Motors.

With the permission of Greenpower, we were allowed to test during the F24 race, which proved successful in isolating the areas that need attention & reconsideration. Overall our trip to Castle Combe proved a success scoring 5 points towards the F24+ constructors championship. 

-Laura

>ASGB Horsfall Racing at the Corporate Challenge

With the 10th season off to a start, we headed down to Goodwood for the Corporate challenge with the anticipation of racing against teams such as Bentley, the battery vehicle society and Blue Peter with our (ASGB Horsfall Racing) new creation dubbed ‘Whoosh’.

With a proposed 1:00pm start, we patiently waited for on the grid for the Blue peter team to finish recording the grid, then the as flag was waved and I had the honour of pushing Whoosh off on her maiden race.

Whoosh sprinted around Goodwood’s 2.4mile circuit, and gained 5th place.  After striking up a few more laps, it was clear to Luke the gear lights weren’t working and weren’t going to work anytime soon.

After doing 3 pit stops within 3 laps, we decided to carry on regardless and try to keep the motor within a certain temperature. The 3 pit stops caused us to fall steeply down the grid to 17th, But for the rest of the races we remained reliable and finally placed at 15th, but 3rd out of the corporate cars entered, a definite improvement on last season.

We all were extremely pleased on how Whoosh ran on her first outing, now it’s time to reflect and improve for the next race… bring on Castle Combe! 

-Laura

>2008 Update

Work on the second Horsfall Racing car is now well underway, with very little work left before it's a rolling chassis, we are on target for the Corporate Challenge in April.

For the Corporate Challenge we shall be running our new car under the A Smith Gt. Bentley moniker. One of the worlds leading coachbuilders whose projects include the Ferrari F1 Hospitality Units, Ducati Moto GP Units, Mobile Operating Theatres/recovery wards/modular endoscopy units etc and they are also responsible for some of the worlds leading TV stations Outside broadcasting units.

They have donated some materials to aid the construction of the new car.

For more information on A Smith Gt Bentley please visit www.asgb.co.uk

-Luke