Rocky comes out of retirement

by **Houdini** » Thu May 15, 2008 9:04 pm

Some of you may remember that earlier this year we bought a Rover 220 Tomcat to do some track days in, and this was designed to save the precious metal on the scoobs on the track in the event of something unfortunate happening.

Well, things have gone ever-so-slightly 'turbo' and as a consequence we have just had the good fortune to be allowed a late entry in to a competitive real race. So, as long as the gods smile on us, we are entered to race the car at Mallory Park this Sunday 18th May in the Pre '93 Touring Car Championship. There are a few things to get straightened out between now and then but we should be on the grid :wink:

There are a few from here already going so if you fancy cheering us along then you will of course receive a warm welcome indeed!

http://www.classictouringcars.com/pages/cscchist.asp

Looking forward to seeing you.

by **Houdini** » Mon May 19, 2008 2:53 pm

We qualified in pole position (with Tom Dunstan driving) only to have a complaint against us (unjustified, we feel). We lost our pole and Tom had to start from the pitlane. From there, we came fourth!!!!

We would have been third with one more lap :shock:

A super day, all-in-all.

by **WR1 Bro** » Mon May 19, 2008 3:05 pm

How many cars were in the race?

by **Houdini** » Mon May 19, 2008 3:17 pm

WR1 Bro wrote:How many cars were in the race?

15

by **WR1 Bro** » Mon May 19, 2008 3:19 pm

Nice result from the rear. Good team work.... or is this Tom doing his magic?

How does the performance level of the Rover stack up against the other cars? Seems Tom did well?

Are prize funds involved? I'm just wondering if the car could be self financing?

by **Houdini** » Mon May 19, 2008 4:08 pm

WR1 Bro wrote:Nice result from the rear. Good team work.... or is this Tom doing his magic?

How does the performance level of the Rover stack up against the other cars? Seems Tom did well?

Are prize funds involved? I'm just wondering if the car could be self financing?

Well, everyone has a part to play so of course this is a good result for the team, but really it does come down to Tom's driving. We've seen the times and speeds on the results sheet, and it would indicate that Rocky is by no means the quickest car out there. Tom did say that cars were pulling away from him on the straight, so it's racecraft that has got us the positions through the bends rather than performance on the straights. The two other tomcats that were there were both similar in pace, even though ours was complained against for suspected illegal parts (which cost us a race win, really).

Prize funds are involved, though we don't yet know what they are. Self-financing can be considered as Tom's pace is such that he is getting good exposure from this. The commentary on the race yesterday was almost exclusively about him, plus he got 'driver of the day', plus Autosport came over after the race to interview him.

The fact that no other driver came over to congratulate Tom on his drive suggests there are a few ruffled feathers out there. I, for one, am pleased about this. It tells me we're getting noticed and as the idea out of all this is to get Tom exposure that can do no harm.

by **WR 1mposter** » Mon May 19, 2008 5:10 pm

Well done "rocky racing" :woohoo:

by **WR1 Bro** » Tue May 20, 2008 6:53 am

Keep us posted.

Robin's interpretation on events would be great too.

by **POESY** » Tue May 20, 2008 7:42 am

Nice one fraz - sorry I couldnt come and watch on sunday, ill explain later.

Sounds like Tom and Rocky did you proud - this being a team owner is a piece of pi$$ hay :lol:

by **RobinSherwood** » Tue May 20, 2008 11:43 am

WR1 Bro wrote:Keep us posted.

Robin's interpretation on events would be great too.

Will do as soon as I have had a chance to look through the MST timing data.

Robin

by **The Swede** » Tue May 20, 2008 9:51 pm

by **danr55** » Wed May 21, 2008 7:40 am

Glad the car is getting used. Fingers crossed for the rest of the season :wink:

by **RobinSherwood** » Tue May 27, 2008 6:49 pm

WR1 Bro wrote:Keep us posted.

Robin's interpretation on events would be great too.

Hi again,

Been a bit busy hence the delay in coming back to this!

Unfortunately the data MST post up for this championship is not as detailed as I am used to from Formula BMW or the G50 Cup and they don't give any sector times or any speed traps which was what I was hoping to look at and compare the data car to car.

What we do know from Tom's feedback is that he struggled in terms of straight line speed against some of the other cars as Fraser has said and video evidence on Youtube would back this up.

The organisers said Tom and the Rocky were 'visibly quicker' which I think is a dangerous benchmark as it can be tricky to judge. Ten days or so ago when were testing Silverstone I thought he 'looked slow' as he came onto the pit straight only to find when I clicked the stopwatch that it was his quickest lap of the day up to that point......

In the end I believe the car is no faster than the other competitive cars in that championship and that it is the driver that made the difference and I think most people would agree especially bearing in mind other evidence such as Tom's performance at Scooby Shooutout.

Kind regards,

Robin

by **POESY** » Fri May 30, 2008 9:11 am

At the end of the day Tom did the business when it mattered. That will get noticed, no matter what the organizers try to do with the legality of the car.

Im looking forward to some tips on monday :wink:

by **Houdini** » Sat May 31, 2008 12:20 am

Can't wait

Just need to get the car sorted first. This will be a cracking day.


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Rocky comes out of retirement

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