Nippon Challenge Race Race 10 and 11 – Snetterton Race Report
25th August 2009
After our last race from Cadwell park we have switched to a few new parts on our DC2. First special thanks to Buddyclub for providing us with a set of Asian Touring car cams to try out on our race engine, it made 242bhp with the new cams with only a stock intake system so we are very impressed with the results.
We had a bit of drama just a week before the race, first our Vtec switch decided to stop working on the dyno so we had to order a brand new one from Honda and it didn’t turn up until Wednesday so it was a bit of rush for us. A major problem occurred as we broke the Carbonetic 1.5 way diff, probably due to my practice launching with cold gearbox. So we took the gearbox out on Friday morning to swap back to a stock EP3 open diff, we didn’t get to the track until 11.30pm on Friday night.
Qualify
We started out with a bit of traffic and also needed to re-learn how to drive the car again with an oem diff. The car’s behaviour was completely different with the stock diff and our qualifying time was 2 secs slower than our first race at Snetterton back in March. At the same track so we are pretty disappointed with the result aswell as being stuck in traffic, we knew we were in for a tough race.
So we qualify 2nd in our class with Kris EK civic in front of me.
Race 1 –
After qualifying, we made some fine tuned the suspension and tyre pressures for race one.
We made a pretty good start and overtook a few car ‘s but Kris shut the door at turn one so I had no where to go but to sit behind him. After 2 laps, the safety car was out and stayed out for the next 6 laps. After the safety car, we tried to find to speed and gain on the cars in front but we were really struggling with straight line speed, so I just tried to relax to re-learn the car with the OEM diff and we started to find some speed again. We managed to bring our lap time down to 1mins 21.7, which was 2 secs quicker than our qualifying time.
Race 1 result –
1st EK – Kris (4th overall)
2nd DMS DC2 Dixon (5th Overall)
Race 2 –
Had a really good start and Kris tried to defend his line at the start so I got push into the pit lane exit to overtake him before the first corner, so we got to first place for the next 2 corners, back to the main straight due to the high downforce setup We seems struggle with straight line speed, Kris took my slipstream and jump to my left and overtook me before the left hander and I got push to run wide so I got stuck behind him at 2nd place again in the 2nd race. We did almost the exact same lap time almost everylap when we look back to the data.
It was a very hard weekend for us and the car was very difficult to drive due to the stock EP3 open diff. We are going to skip the next race at Mallory park so we will have more time to get the car ready for the final race at Brands hatch, we will come up with new Aero package, diff and some other small update with the car. Hopefully it will bring us a win in the final
Race 2 result
1st EK – Kris (4th overall)
2nd DMS DC2 Dixon (5th Overall)
Great thanks to our sponsors, without any of their support we won’t have a successful season like this –
Need to special thanks to Buddyclub for the Touring car cams and Artech tuning to get our car map in the tight schedule
Buddyclub – Asian Toruing car cams and wheels
Artech Tuning – for supply K pro ECU and mapping
Carbonetic – carbon 1.5 way clutch diff, twin plate clutch
Camskill – tyre support
Opie oils – engine oil, gearoil, brake oil
Dixcel brake, for our full carbon disk and pad
Hybrid racing – full K swap conversion kit
HEL – Brake hose
Dixon Motorsports for the whole build and race car setup
Team support -
Japanese performance
Wincy Horological
Car built, prepared and developed by Dixon Motorsports
Thanks
Team Dixon Motorsports
