Motorsport Finance News

Saturday 9th November marked the end of a fantastic and exciting season for the MINI Challenge teams and this was celebrated at Whittlebury Hall near Silverstone, Towcester.

The evening was flooded by guests anxiously waiting to see if they had scooped up some awards, and those that had won their class and couldn’t wait to take their trophy!

Fran & Simon from Credo presented a few trophies to some well deserved winners and congratulated everyone on their successes this season.

Fran Brown, Head of Credo Motorsport Finance said “I am thrilled to be part of the Championship again this year, and continuing to build relationships with teams and their drivers. There has been some fantastic racing, and the last round at Snetterton in October was a particularly exciting one, with just a few points seperating the top spots! Can’t wait to see what happens next year”.

Credo Motorsport Finance has sponsored the MINI Challenge Championship in both 2018 & 2019 and have now signed up for the 2020 season. Simon Gray, Director said “Sponsoring the MINI Challenge has been great fun. The events are brilliantly put together and it has in-turn given us a chance to sponsor some young racing talent across the country. This has led us to finance several race cars for competitors and has proved to be a great entry point for our move into Motorsport Finance. It’s been a fantastic relationship so far and we’re very much looking forward to continuing it next year”.

The Canaryball Rally was a fantastic success with 17 cars starting from the Nest in Norwich on Wednesday 9th October, waved off by the legendary NCFC player Jeremy Goss.

We all started our journey well down to the M11/M25 and then past the Dartford bridge. We were delighted by a shout out on Zoe Ball’s Radio 2 show which gave everyone a further boost. However, we were stopped in our tracks by an incident on the M20 and sadly, due to the nature of the incident the road was closed and we sat there for nearly 2 hours before the traffic started moving. We were going to miss our train! However it didn’t dampen our spirits and the Whatsapp group chat commenced in gusto!

Our trip to our first stop Arnhem was a very wet one with the locals even pulling off the side of the road as the rain was torrential! Most of the teams arrived later than expected, but we were all happy to grab a beer and some food and to talk through our experiences of day one.

Day two started off really well, with mostly everyone meeting at Vitesse Arnhem’s stadium. A great team photo taken and we all set off for Munich!

The scavenger hunt is well underway now and the teams are battling it out for points! Team 4 ‘Milan or Bust’ manage to get an interview with Chris Evans on his breakfast show which was a real treat for everyone and that earned them a well deserved 1000 points, but they were soon overtaken by Team 1 ‘Team Credo’ as they spotted an Eddie Stobart lorry which was also worth 1000 points!!

Great day had by all, and after the visit to the Olympic Stadium, we all got to the hotel safe and well, but it became a bit of a habit that we were waiting for Team 7 ‘Lunch Club on Tour’ as they had to charge their Tesla every few hours. In fact it was a real challenge for them to actually find electric charging points, so they were given extra points for this!

A fun night proceeded in Munich city centre where we really got to know the locals, and there were a few sore heads in the morning!

Day 3 was a shorter route and the most picturesque, as we travelled through the Alps and into Italy to see the San Siro Stadium.

Day 3 ended with the Gala dinner at our hotel in Switzerland where all the points were gathered for the scavenger hunt and spot prizes were given!

All teams were fighting for the Canaryball Rally Trophy, but only one could win it..

And the winners of the Canaryball rally 2019 were Team UPukki! Anita from the team said thank you to everyone and said on behalf of the team they would be presenting the trophy to Mr & Mrs Powell in memory of their son David who was tragically killed in August. David was supposed to be travelling with Team UPukki and was so excited for the trip.

Day 4 was a long drive back up to Nurburg in Germany and many stopped off on their way up to see different sights and places of interest.

Day 5 was the day of thrill seekers! The Nurburgring was not for the faint hearted and a few of the rally teams took their cars onto the legendary track.

Thankfully everyone came away from the track unscathed and we started our long journey back home.

The Canaryball Rally has been a huge success, not only for everyone involved in the rally itself, but the Community Sports Foundation #buildthenest campaign will be benefiting from the amazing amount raised, which so far is nearly £70,000! We are hoping that by the end of the year this figure will have gone up to our target of £100,000.

Norwich City Football Club has just announced that they have pledged to match-fund every pound CSF raise up to a total of £500k! So already our £70k is worth £140,000 to the Nest! Let’s keep donating and get this figure up!

Donate here

Toby Goodman who we sponsor in the Cooper Pro class in the MINI Challenge, had a very exciting weekend!

I asked Toby his thoughts of the weekend..

Friday Testing – Yet another wet test day started the weekend off. However, unlike the others, this one offered very useful practise for the two race days which, we had been assured, were going to be very much wet as well. With this in mind we spent the day testing the cross over points for tyres and getting to grips with the greasy conditions. A successful day, and we were looking good for the races!

Saturday –Qualifying was dry! And very cold. This created a very tricky situation for us drivers, as none of us had any testing the day before in dry conditions. After putting new tyres on, I headed out, conscious of the challenge ahead. Surprisingly, throughout the session I began to struggle with understeer, which is a rare occurrence with new tyres, however I managed to put in what felt like a decent lap to end the session. P5 was the end result and three tenths of pole. Post session we found the cause of the understeer, turns out the front tyres never got into their working temperature and pressure window due to the cold temperatures. Not a bad result given the circumstances and all to play for in the race!

The lights went out and we headed into a dry turn one for the first race of the weekend! After a couple laps, I managed to gain a position, then gain another two with some late braking to put me up to P2 and with 10 minutes left of the race. All was looking good as I closed the gap to P1. We entered the second half of the race separated by a hair width and the race was really heating up as I began to look for a way past. Then, within a fraction of a second, I lost all power unexpectedly and the engine went into “limp home mode”. After a few seconds of confusion, I restarted the car, and the power returned. Unfortunately, I had now dropped to P6, but with a substantial amount of time left of the race, I got my head down. As we entered the closing stages of the race, I sat P5 after a move on 6^th and was right behind the fight for 3^rd. It was great racing and, after going 3 wide into a few corners, I crossed the finish line in 3^rd position! Great result given out mechanical mishaps, and two more races to go!

Sunday – The rain had arrived! However, it chose to do so while we were all on the grid ready to race……. on dry tyres. Contrary to the race prior, we headed into turn one very gingerly and hoping the rain would hold off. It didn’t. After a couple laps to get used to the conditions, I had moved up to 2^nd place and, with a move round the outside, gained the lead going into the second half of the race. It was now all about keeping it on track, which I managed to do…. Just! However, the keener eyed of us drivers saw the massive black cloud heading our way, and chose to put on wet tyres at the start of the race. This was the correct choice. And those who did so came storming through the field and were right on my bumper going into the last lap. After some very near misses with the grass, and some slight moments of sideways action, I crossed the finish line in 1^st place. Great race once again, and another wet one was on the cards for Race 3!

This time we were on wet tyres, and headed into turn one slightly less gingerly than the race prior. I had a great start, and was into second position by the end of the third lap. 1^st place was driving brilliantly however, and it took me some time to close the gap. Once I did so, I saw a gap and made a move down the inside. This however created a difficult situation, as they now had the benefit of the increased grip on the outside of the corner that is present in wet conditions. After getting the move done initially, they came back round the outside and our paths met, with contact made. Unfortunately, in these conditions any slight contact can be disastrous and the contact was enough to send them into a spin. I gained the lead, but not through the way I would have liked. On a positive note, I managed to pull a gap to second place and maintained it, to bring the car home to take another win. A slightly scruffy performance on my behalf, and a shame the lead was taken through contact, regardless if it was a racing incident.

All in all, a great weekend! 2/3 wins and 3/3 podiums has given us a nice haul of points going into the last round of the championship. Nothing to lose! All to play for!

Well done Toby for another successful weekend – next stop Snetterton!

Toby Goodman is edging closer to that Championship title after a fantastic Round Five at Cadwell Park this weekend. Toby gives us his version of events from testing, qualifying and winning another 1st on the Podium.

Friday Testing – Another wet day’s testing (it’s getting a bit silly now) started the weekend off. Any running in the early sessions was pointless as a 0% chance of rain was promised for the racing on Saturday. However, in the afternoon, the track dried up and we managed to get just enough running in to scrub some tyres and get my eye in for the important stuff the following day!

Saturday – Due to the race meeting being a one-day event, qualifying and two races had to be completed by 5pm on the Saturday, causing a very tight schedule. This also meant that the tyres would have more work to do in a shorter period of time, leading to more wear and degradation than we are used to. With this in mind, I headed out to qualifying hoping to do a few flying laps, then park it early to save some life in the rubber. This plan lasted all but a couple minutes, as I soon realised the grip levels were much beyond what I had anticipated. Lap after lap the rest of the field were setting faster and faster times, well surpassing the lap record from the previous year. I gave it 100% and eventually managed to put in a time good enough for pole, however picked up a black flag for track limits while doing so! Luckily the lap was allowed but it was a thorough warning going into the race.

A good start had me leading the race by the end of lap one. However, any gap I managed to pull through to corners I lost on the long straight due to the following cars having the benefits of slipstream. It became apparent very soon that It was going to be anyone’s race, as 1^st to 5^th were separated by just a few seconds. After briefly losing the lead mid- race I took a couple laps to cool down my tyres and brakes, before attacking once more. With a couple laps to go I regained position, and crossed the line P1. Tough race, and a top five reverse grid meant I had some work to do in Race two!

Its never easy to make up many positions within the first few corners of the race, especially at Cadwell Park. With this being said, a good start and a touch of patience had me briefly in third place, before a big hit from behind sent me onto the grass and facing the tyre wall. Luckily, I managed to keep it more or less facing the right way, and re-joined the track in close to last place! With this happening quite early on in the lap, I was still within the drama that always occurs in the first part of any race, and a slight incident ahead allowed me to slip into P5, and then P4 a couple laps later. As we headed into the closing stages of the race, I was right in the contention for a podium spot, and with a few corners to go in the race, I sent it down the inside to gain third place with success! Very much a race of damage limitation and recovering from what could have been a disaster, but an additional “fastest lap of the race” award gave me a great haul of points going into the penultimate round of the season at Donnington Park in a couple weeks time!

Well done Toby, looking forward to seeing your next race at Donington Park 28th & 29th September.

This weekend the 17 year old we sponsor in the MINI Challenge, Toby Goodman, earned the opportunity to take part in the Lotus Cup Europe support race for DTM at Brands Hatch after a space became free in the team. It was a one-off race, but a great experience and a full on weekend in front of a packed Brands Hatch crowd.

Practice – To say that the Lotus is a bit different to the Mini I’m used to is a bit of an understatement! Left hand drive, mid-engine, supercharged, rear wheel drive and just about double the horse power. Nevertheless, I was looking forward to the challenge and getting back out on the Brands hatch circuit. The first session was wet and apart from being great fun, drifting the lightweight sportscar out of most corners (very enjoyable but not the fastest method of lapping any circuit in the wet) we couldn’t really get an idea as to how the car was like to drive in the dry. Second outing was much more helpful; however, the car was running a very unique set-up which didn’t sit well with my driving style, and after a few set-up changes we ran out of time for any clear running.

Qualifying – I crossed the line at the end of the session in P6, which wasn’t a bad result after only 25 minutes in the car. The data showed that I was losing most of the time in two corners which, if I fixed, would have given me a lap time only a couple tenths of a second off the championship contenders. Head was held high as we left the track, and I was thoroughly looking forward to racing in front of the DTM crowds the following day.

Race 1 – A rolling start for race one was another aspect to the weekend that needed adjusting to. The races in Lotus are much longer than in the Mini’s, being 30 minutes compared to 20 or sometimes 15. This meant pacing yourself and managing the tyres were even more important than usual. After an average start and dropping a couple positions, I managed to work my way up to 5^th and maintain position for the remainder of the race. Even though the race itself wasn’t the high octane, “door to door dogfights” I am used to in the Minis, it was still challenging to maintain the pace and consistency amongst the faster V6 and 211 class cars that were lapping us throughout the race.

Race 2 – A great start this time, and after the end of lap one I was up to 4^th and was chasing down the podium spots. Unfortunately, a red flag was brought out early on due to a fuel leak in one of the faster cars which inevitably lead to them having a very fiery departure from the race. After the restart, a small mistake on my behalf caused me to compete in a bit of rallycross temporarily before re-joining the track. A couple positions were lost, however I managed to reverse the damage done and regain the positions after closing down the two second gap they had. We crossed the line with another P5 and were bang on the pace by the end of the weekend. Two great results and with a little more seat time, who knows where we would have ended up…

Toby gave huge thanks to ESMotorsport and Lotus Cup Europe for the opportunity.