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The 2012 PCGB Club Championship

Sorry Mark. But its looking like itl be a wet friday....And poss a dry Saturday...But as ever the forecasts are "changable"...[;)][:D]
 
I see from TSL timing that PaulF got disqualified in qualifying so had to start at the back of the grid for the first two races with 10 second penalties. However, he came through to get second in class in both races! Brilliant work Paul. Keep it up in race 3 [:)][:)][:)]
 
Some fantastic racing at Silverstone today,well done to Alex E and Mr F,a season of fantastic and consistant quality racing between the two of you,was a pleasure to watch first hand. Looking forward to the awards dinner[:)] When the races are broadcast on Motors TV I hope they get my spin in the second race today was a close one ,hope it was captured on film,taking avoiding action at speed on a straight at fairly high speed certainly focuses the mind!
 
Full report here for the 3 Silverstone races by the PCGB press man...... [link=http://www.porschesport.com/Eacock%20eses%20to%20Porsche%20club%20title.html]Silverstone race report[/link] full results here: http://www.tsl-timing.com/eerc/2012/123863pcb.pdf Congratulations to Kevin, Alex, Pete and all involved with EMC .......... they had a rather good weekend didn't they! I might get round to a few words from my own perspective in a day or two. In the meantime I would like to thank the following people for helping me to have a cracking season: Michael Rowe and his girlfriend Emma for being my constant paddock team. Andy & James at Ninex, who prepped the car at their workshops in Maidenhead, they've done it so well it never skipped a beat all season, finishing all the races. Chris at Center Gravity whose geo. set up made the car easy and quick to drive. No one better IMO. Ian Gardiner at IG Racing for his superlative work on dampers. Ben Demetriou for the encouragement he gave me whilst having debates on lines, braking points etc at each circuit. Mark Koeberle for being my paddock buddy in Class 2 as we shared the events of our 2012 campaign. Also, not forgetting many of you on here who have come to races, perhaps taken photos and made posts, it has been a real privilege to have been part of the story. Small footnote ........ It is now my intention to sell my orange 968 racecar. In my opinion it is the perfect vehicle for an assault on the Class 2 Championship of PCGB. Does anyone want to have a go at that in 2013?
 
Again,well done Mr F,been a pleasure to share the whole racing experience with you,from your post I guess we won't have another race together in 968s which I can understand as you probably want to try something fresh and new,but from a selfish perspective I am sad as on the occasions last year and this year when we have had a little race it has been such fun,a memory I will genuinely treasure. Call you in the week when you have had some peace and quiet for one of our chats.Best of luck with the sale of your Superb Orange car it is a fantastic machine and looks fantastic and stable in full flight an experience to which I have been lucky enough to witness from front row seats.Someone wanting to give PCGB championship a try and wants to buy a proven car couldn't do better.
 
What a fantastic end to the Championship! Great racing all round and an amazing couple of performances from Paul Follett who was forced to start from the back of the grid twice after a penalty in qualifying but still finished 2nd twice, plus a 3rd, only to be pipped to the Class 2 championship by Alex Eacock. #90 Paul Follett by hockeyshooter, on Flickr Mark had three podiums. #87 Mark Koeberle by hockeyshooter, on Flickr Ben and Marcus both did pretty well in the Hartech Boxsters with Marcus landing a season best 3rd in the third race - having shoved Ben out of the way! The Hartech Boxsters by hockeyshooter, on Flickr Full results on TSL (PDF file) http://tsl-timing.co...2/123863pcb.pdf And all that was followed by the Britcar 24 where I was a guest of Rogue Motorsport who ran both a BMW and Toyota MR2. Sadly the BMW was forced to retire but even though the MR2 had to have an engine swap after a fire at dawn on Sunday, it still managed to cross the line. Oh - and it rained a bit! #67 Alric Kitson by hockeyshooter, on Flickr Can't believe how quickly the season seems to have finished - I guess time really does fly when you're having fun!
 
Paul as I said to you a couple of days ago and will now share on here, you have performed at a level this year the rest of us aspire to. Even if you didn't win the championship your performances over these past 2 seasons are something to be proud of, you quite literally engineered yourself into a competitive race driver.
 
One of the favourite things I picked up from my race buddy is "quasi wet settup" I love that phrase[:D] Still coming to terms with the fact we have probably had out last race in 968s together[:(] Almost in mourning and I am not joking when I say that. Hopefully have a glass of something fizzy at the do to have a celebration of a certain big birthday..?
 
Mark....... don't go all sentimental on me now !! Just get out there next season and win Class 2 ......... let your talent shine through AND get loads of Michelin winners' hats into the bargain.
 
"I feel gutted for Paul - such a tough call and what a deflating end to a great class 2 season between the 968's. Well done to the EMC team and Pete and Alex - a great result. I too am looking forward to the opportunity to meet up again at the end of season bash - and the chance to chew over a few issues - not the least of which is bound to be the power to weight advantage the 968's had in class 2 and the 996's had in class 1 - and what Porsche Motorsport intend to do about it for 2013. There is a natural reluctance to be thought of as a bad loser or party pooper - and I do not feel comfortable writing this - so let me make it clear that I have no problem at all with the drivers or teams who all exploited the rules as they were to their best advantage - by choosing the right cars to build and race in the most advantageous classes - and I wish we had done the same. However we need to plan what we are all doing for 2013 and need to find out about any changes that are needed to make the declared aim of the Club seen to be followed - to make the rules so every model has an equal chance of winning in future from any class. It is difficult when different driver abilities and technicians capabilities (and indeed finances) - all make the same models run at the back, middle and front - but it is possible to do a better job than was done for 2012. I just looked at some of the lap times of the front runners in class 1 at Silverstone this year and last year - for Pete Morris (968 and 996), Mark McAleer (968 and 996), Ben Demetrio (968 and Boxster), Mark Koeberle (968), Paul Folllet (968) and Kevin Harrison (964) (just a random selection - not targeted for any unfair advantage). Taking averages over all three races - those driving the same car both years managed a very consistent improvement of 1.669778 seconds (probably due to partial resurfacing and track changes). Paul was on average 1.543667 faster (slightly less than the average due I suppose to the minimal 968 weight increase for class 2). Ben improved by 1.95 seconds (or 0.280222 seconds better than average - as we finally got the handling of our Boxsters working). His previous performances this season mainly being the same or slower in the Boxster than his 968. The 2 * 996 drivers improved by an average of 3.9655 seconds (Pete by 4.022667 seconds). This means that by comparison with the drivers and teams abilities and cars etc the 996's were 2.0155 seconds quicker than all the other cars. Before the race season started I wrote to the Club and provided several graphs and explanations that they had got the weighting wrong. We then had a season in which several competitors were complaining about the weightings, some pulling out and other sponsored cars questioning their future involvement. There was a lot of disillusionment among the competitors at Silverstone that the result would be so predictable and clearly unfair - something recent commentators and even the TV presenters could see for themselves. We ended up with a depleted field of de-motivated teams all due to the inability to correct the weightings to make the races fair for everyone. It is all very well for the Club to announce that they accept they made some mistakes over the weighting now that the season is over and the results stand - but at a time of financial constraint when they have already lost one series and the Brit Car 24 hour race competitor list was down by over 50% - the Club should be doing everything in its power to make our race series flourish - and this kind of mistake must simply not be allowed to happen again. We do need new models to be introduced but we also need full fields and that means older cars wanting to compete again in 2013 as well - which this kind of mistake will not encourage. Please do not think this is all "bad form" and the moaning of a bad loser - I have every confidence in our team to build a competitive car and in our drivers to keep them at the front but I want to see exciting close fair racing next season FOR EVERYONE AT EVERY LEVEL and right now have no confidence in that being the outcome. Before the season started I provided evidence that the 996's were far too light, the 968's for class 2 are also too light and the 993's slightly too light (based on analysis of torque in the gears to weights and power to weight ratios and computer simulation runs round racing circuits and in straight line acceleration - using predictive racing simulation systems) - all of which provided consistent performance variations and conclusions. I accepted that the organisers may not be experts at this kind of dynamic analysis but there are many that are and could have reached the same conclusions. There have always been arguments about the rules and I accept it is very difficult and will never be perfect but the strange reluctance of others involved to have the guts to voice their feelings seems to have given the false impression that all is well with them and the Championship - which it is not - I just seem to be the only one prepared to comment publically about it. We will be questioning our own continued involvement in 2013 and I do not think we are alone. We need to be confident that the rules will be fair and if they are found not to be that they will be corrected quickly and fully and not weakly and too late. If something is not done - we may well not get sufficient competitors to continue the series in future years. Personally I don't think there should be any adjustments made just because one team or another can prepare their car to handle better or brake better or be more reliable - if there is nothing to gain from improving the cars there will be no incentive to try and do so - but it is absolutely wrong that a model can just drive past other models just because it has a naturally better torque curve compared to the weight it is allowed to carry. There seems to be a move to allow every other model (except I presume a 996) to be built much lighter for 2013. This is also very unfair because it simply means that everyone else has to find huge amounts of money (when their cars are already reasonably competitive with each other) just to redress the present imbalance with just one model - when a simple addition of weight to the small number of cars presently unfairly weighted would do the same at little cost to them and is easily adjusted later if the outcome is still not absolutely right. I understand that there is a move to avoid this simple solution by claiming that extra weight would make them unsafe - what utter rubbish - if that is the case they should stop all cars with two passengers! So - in conclusion - we have a lot to celebrate - we never expected to do so well in our first season and all the team had a great time and enjoyed their participation. We appreciate the organisation of the series - which was superb - well done for that - all the team back at PCGB Motor Sport. However - among all this euphoria - there has been a serious problem left to fester for far too long and while we have the chance to chat together let’s make some positive and proper progress to make our series provide more exciting racing to encourage the fullest fields with old and new Porsche's all competing fairly together in 2013. On behalf of all those to scared to voice there opinions I hope this gets sorted out properly and quickly. Baz"
 
I agree Baz. I said right at the start of the season that Alex was a dead cert to win the championship. As it turned out Paul deserves a lot of recognition for making him fight for it right down to the wire. You guys put in a stunning performance at Castle Combe where your lap times were pretty amazing for a lower power car. In class 2 some of the arguments surround previous performances in the S2 which we have already debunked on here. The record books say it clearly, even the best performance such as Marcus at Donny last year were a clear second behind the best 968 performance. The main point of contention though and its maybe a fair point is that the 968 is more difficult to drive consistently fast and thus taking a 99% effort more average lap time closes the gap to the S2. Some have different opinions on this though so its not really clear cut but seems to be a line of thought used for this question. Graham Knight put in some fantastic performances at the weekend in his S2, he has really come on a long way this season since we testing together at Brands and is really flying now. His car though was ISTR about 50 or 60 Kg lighter than mine so would be well under the class 2 weight limit. For me personally I have already been saving for next year by not entering at Silverstone. No idea yet though what the plan will be until I can see where I am with the car in the spring.
 
Congratulations to Alex and Pete but hard luck to Paul. Also congrats to Baz and his team in achieving 4th in class 1 with the Boxsters. I am really happy with 4th in class 2 in my Boxster and joint 9th in the championship. Baz, In reply to your most welcome post, I called for a meeting with Steve Kevlin at Silverstone as most of the 944S2 drivers and myself felt that our individual complaints about the 968 were not given the time of day. We were told there would be time for a chat but when that time did come there was only Paul Ward and myself around (a mistake on our part). We attempted to put our point across but Steve was having none of it saying that he had plenty of data from previous years when S2 drivers competed with 968 drivers, he was also adamant that nothing will be changed for next year. His explanation for the gap in times between the 944S2, Boxster 2.5 and the 968 was that we were not good drivers. In July I sent Steve a letter (see below) complaining about the 968 and to date have not had an official reply. Porscheshop Prepped my car for this season and on Monday I sent Ian a thank you email for his work, I also followed it up with my thoughts about the 968 (see below) I do not have permission to show his reply but I can say that he shares your opinion’s. I have enjoyed this season immensely, made many friends and cannot thank enough the teams of Hartech and Strasse for helping me out when things went wrong but sadly with things staying as they are there is no place for me and my Boxster in the PCGB championship so I will be going elsewhere for next year. Look forward to meeting up again at the awards, Regards Stuart Postal letter to Steve Kevlin 15 July 2012 Dear Steve, REF- Class 2, 968 Model On speaking to people at this year’s Auto sport show and since then when the matter arose, to many people the 30kg extra weight to bring the 968 into class 2 was not enough. Having no evidence on the matter I thought that I would leave any judgment for a few races to see what the outcome was. From the first race it was clear that the 968 had an advantage over the 944 and Boxster 2.5. Now after 6 races the advantage is more evident with the 968 holding the top four positions in class 2 and the top two positions in the overall Championship. The class 2 968 is regularly lapping faster than many class 1 cars and has been recorded as the second fastest in a speed trap at Donington. As I was a spectator at Donington I could see that there were 3 classes of cars, class 1, a group of class 2 968`s and then class 2 proper. It is obvious to me that several 968`s will be at the top of class 2 of the championship at the end of the season and it is also obvious that at least one if not two will have the most points of the entire Championship so what is the point of people entering and developing new models to make the grid look more interesting only to have a tried and tested model put down into class 2 with an apparent unfair advantage and winning the Championship outright. After the awards were given at Brands Hatch you said that you would look into any cars with an apparent advantage, I hope this is still the case and maybe you already have it in hand. Yours sincerely email to Porscheshop 25/09/12 Hi Ian hope you, your family and team are all well. Thanks for all the work that you have done on the race car this season. The last 3 meetings have seen a vast improvement in my lap times mainly down to my confidence in the car. At Castle Combe I Qualified 5th in class and finished 5th in both races but Silverstone it was all fours, Qualified 4th in class, finished 4th in all 3 races and out of 17 competitors in my class I came in at 4th in the Championship and really happy with that. It has been reported that I am probably the only person racing a 2.5 Boxster in the UK. It has been really difficult starting the process of having a Boxster prepared and developed with no benchmark or data to go by and without your enthusiasm and encouragement I probably would have given up with my belief that the 2.5 could be competitive. Once again thanks for your help and support. Kind Regards Stuart Ings. On A different note and nothing to do with you although you do sponsor the championship. Most of the 944 s2 drivers and myself have been complaining to Steve Kevlin about the 968 in our class during this season, in June I sent him an email complaining and predicting that at least 1 if not 2 968 drivers would finish up on top of the Championship outright. That prediction has come true with Alex Eacock Championship winner(968 class 2), Paul Follet 2nd(968 class 2) and Pete Morris 3rd and class 1 winner. Mark Sumptor and the entire Paragon team were not at Silverstone and roomer has it that what was the point in turning up. At Silverstone this weekend we were approached by the organisers of Britcar as they are starting a Championship that the older Porsches will be able to enter and the drivers will be looking into moving into that. It also looks like I will be going over to the Deutsche Mark series next year as they have a structure based on the car not the driver. Although the PCGB Championship looks like it is based on the car all Steve`s data in his argument is based on DRIVERS PERFORMANCE and this is what myself, some of the drivers and some team managers are not happy with. It is sad that I will not be racing against some of the drivers as we have had some great battles but we had a meeting with Steve at the weekend and he is adamant that he will not change anything. In his defence there was a 944S2 in the invitation class that did very well, Steve said it was on weight but different tyres. Best regards Stuart
 
Hi Stuart, welcome to the debate of the minority with the guts to say what needs saying - such a shame so many seem intimidated - they should remember it is actually OUR CLUB and the members decide ultimately what goes on and who runs it. For some decades it has been very easy to calculate the performance of a car. If you know the gear ratios, tyre dimensions, frontal area and weight - it is possible from the rate of acceleration to work out the bhp and torque curve within about 3% (or usually closer) -or alternatively to work the other way from the bho curve to predict the acceleration. Racing is all about aceleration, cornering and braking - all easy to analyse. I have used these sytems for years and they provide bhp and torque graphs identical to those from engine or roller dynos. I used this to analyse the cars in the competition before the season started and to inform the Club that they had made mistakes in some of the power to weight ratios. When this failed I used a computer system that works out the lap times of different cars (from an internal file of all the car's details) round International circuits. This provided exactly the same differences - again sent on the the Club. Bearing in mind that as a general rule a car with a bigger cylinder capacity will pull greater mid range torque (and a car with greater capacity than another will also pull greater mid range torque) they will always pull better initial acceleration out of corners - so it is inevitable that a power to weight ratio control should penalise bigger engine'd cars slightly from the average ratio of the other cars. Instead the adjustment went the other way - giving them a power to weight advantage. This is easily seen if you just draw a graph showing the weight allowed on the vertical axis and the power limit on the horizontal axis - and join up the points. The more powerful cars should be proportionally heavier - so a curve should look concave from the bottom axis - but be almost a straight line and smooth. This was also sent to the Club together with a considerable amount of calculations and evidence. It also allowed me to predict that it would make little difference at the short "scratchers" circuit of Brands Hatch, more difference at Donington Park and that at Silverstone a big difference. Throughout the season all predictions proved accurate and the clear advantage of some cars was ignored for too long and then only minor irrelevant corrections were made. It would be unethical to reproduce all that "personal" correspondence but it was professional, accurate and technical. The question we have to ask is WHY was nothing done? Answering this could bring into the open a number of different explanations - some of which would be uncomfortable to discuss. We are now also looking at alternatives because the reluctance to act or it seems take any notice of anyone, the reluctance to even answer or reply to correspondence etc and the disregard for the principles that the events are supposed to be organised for - combined with the delays in coming up with the rules for the next season too late - do not give rise to any confidence about the fairness under which we would race next season. I could easily keep quiet and simply build replacement 996's for next season (that may well be a better advert for our booming engine rebuild services) - but I want to be in a fair race and now I know just how much it costs - I want to help all the others who cannot afford to do that (but fill our grids) - to feel they have a fair chance to succeed. If nothing satisfactory is done I will be taking this all the way within the Club and if there seem to be repercussions Hartech will also no longer race in this series. We had a great year learning the ropes of track craft - with a car that we also found extremely difficult to understand and get handling well. We did manage that in the end and apart from the failure of a new experimental clutch plate - had a 100% reliability record for both cars all season (engines, gearboxes, suspension, brakes etc). We achieved our objectives of demonstrating our capabilities and learning a lot about track set ups (including what the problem is with the Boxster and how to overcome it) but I think now we could reproduce this at a high level in almost any event with any model. The actual races were extremely well organised and run and I do not expect the organisers to be experts at analysing car performance - but when the power to weight rules are so important to the main principle of racing different models of different capacities with an equal chance of success - the calculation of these limits should now involve experts who should be brought in to advise the organisers how to create some equality - and the outcome should be something made public in time to help people make the right choices in time for the following season and any competitor should then feel comfortable about challenging the results. Baz
 
ORIGINAL: rsy944 In his defence there was a 944S2 in the invitation class that did very well, Steve said it was on weight but different tyres. Best regards Stuart
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I was in the garage with Graham all day long back at Brands. Unless he has gone and put a stack of lead in that car prior to this race its way under weight, not massively but enough to make a considerable difference. How on earth does Steve know the weight of a car that is neither registered in the championship or racing in the championship? Anyway apart from all that my primary concern with the introduction of the 968 into class 2 is cost related. It used to be possible to do reasonably well on a shoe string with a more cheaply prepared and run car. Paul Seagrave for example has been a great advert for doing Porsche racing on the cheap and I am sure must have got a few ppl interested in doing it based on his penny pinching exploits. That rug has been pulled unfortunately and now to compete in class 2 is going to cost as much as class 1 did a few years back. I think everyone that knows me understands my cost constraints, as things stand I am priced out of the Porsche club championship but wouldn't have been if I had started a few years earlier. If this is what ppl want then fine, however most ppl including long term club members have no idea how expensive this lark has become and its only getting worse. Stuart I am very interested in that Britcar development, can you keep me in the loop for that off line mate. I hadn't heard anything about this development until you mentioned it the other day. A small number of big events is much more my focus going forward. I also like the technical mechanisms they use to try and create performance equivalence, its not perfect but a bit more advanced than anyone else is doing without over regulation.
 
ORIGINAL: rsy944 It also looks like I will be going over to the Deutsche Mark series next year as they have a structure based on the car not the driver. Best regards Stuart
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Boxsters (2.5, 3.2 etc) will be welcome in CSCC next year (as this). There is already an up to 2.5 litre class and i'd have thought a Boxster (or indeed a 2.5 944, which don't seem to race much anymore) would be very competitive in that.
 
Big subject this one....... and I am finding the debate open and indeed refreshing. A few quick observations and points of fact: - Sumpter was offered a drive in a 6 hour race at Spa in a classic 911, so that was why he was absent. Purdie may of had another view, having dropped out well before Silverstone. - Britcar are always floating the idea of new race series and fair play to them as they are looking for a larger slice of the racing cake. BUT keep your eyes wide open. Remember if something does get off the ground, the races will probably be longer and that does ramp up the cost considerably, especially when small grids further ramp up the entry fee cost per hour on track. - I spent a few moments looking at 944 S2 times from Silverstone 2011, Dyer and Carniel were battling it out AND both of them got down into the 2m 32's at some stage over the weekend. They would have been at least a second faster this year with the extra grippy track re-surfacing from Brooklands to Maggotts. So well sorted cars and drivers in a 944 would in my opinion have challenged at the top of C2 in 2012. - I appreciate the power to weight ratio issues raised in earlier posts and feel sure SK will make refinements. I make no comment, save that it would be very good news if the draft 2013 Regs appeared within a month, so that everyone can plan accordingly. It is my hope that the size of the grids will be maintained or indeed grown in 2013 as a consequence of such refinements. - I recognise the issue between 'full on' entrants, probably with larger budgets, and the privateer doing things on a shoe string ...... if there was a way of giving the latter category something meaningful to race for that would be great. In Carrerra Cup for example they have 3 categories, reflecting the differing driver standards -- so an idea might be to run Class 2 over the season like now BUT introduce a new annual award for the three top scoring entrants who have never managed a class 2 podium. This would encourage folk a lot and help to spur more drivers on to greater things. Make no mistake 'our' Club Championship is one of the premier racing series in the UK. If we can all work to make it even better and indeed fairer in 2013, how good would that be?
 
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