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7 Apr 2008, 20:22 (Ref:2172632) | #1 | ||
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VdeV this weekend.
Hi guys,
Just wondered who will be making it down to Donington this weekend,looks like it's going to be a good meeting with FPA, the gt cup having full grids,the lotus on track races,VdeV expecting high grids,classic touring cars and classic clubmans it looks like a good meeting. We will be there with the new Bicknell PS7 with Ben clucas and Rachel Green driving in VdeV,in testing at snet last week we did a time in heavy traffic that would have put us on the front row in last years race so things are looking pretty positive. Will have to wait till the weekend to find out though,I can't wait now! Matt |
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8 Apr 2008, 07:31 (Ref:2172909) | #2 | ||
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Hi Matt, I will be there as I'm marshaling this one and I cant wait! Looks like a good programme of races so a bit for everyone. Good luck with the car and if I get a break I'll try to get to the garage and say Hi!
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There goes My Hero. Hes ordinary.....(Dave Grohl c1995) An I/O's brief should be like a miniskirt, short enough to hold the attention but long enough to cover the important bits! |
8 Apr 2008, 12:14 (Ref:2173105) | #3 | ||
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Cool,come down and have a look at the car if you find some time,hopefully you wont be picking the car out of the kitty litter haha!
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8 Apr 2008, 12:48 (Ref:2173142) | #4 | |||
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__________________
There goes My Hero. Hes ordinary.....(Dave Grohl c1995) An I/O's brief should be like a miniskirt, short enough to hold the attention but long enough to cover the important bits! |
8 Apr 2008, 12:58 (Ref:2173150) | #5 | ||
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Just looked at the weather,doesn't look terribly good,I was thinking of camping and having a few drinks in the club house on the sat night.I may go home though!
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8 Apr 2008, 13:54 (Ref:2173179) | #6 | ||
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I was thinking of camping but the Mrs talked me out of it! Got a B&B in Melbourne, so a comfy nights sleep!
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__________________
There goes My Hero. Hes ordinary.....(Dave Grohl c1995) An I/O's brief should be like a miniskirt, short enough to hold the attention but long enough to cover the important bits! |
8 Apr 2008, 14:53 (Ref:2173214) | #7 | ||
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I will be there with the Lotus guys so hope to bump into you over the weekend
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8 Apr 2008, 15:07 (Ref:2173226) | #8 | |||
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__________________
There goes My Hero. Hes ordinary.....(Dave Grohl c1995) An I/O's brief should be like a miniskirt, short enough to hold the attention but long enough to cover the important bits! |
8 Apr 2008, 15:12 (Ref:2173232) | #9 | ||
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I will be running around the Lotus area all weekend, possibly in my orange overalls, depending on whether I'm safety car observer again this weekend.
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8 Apr 2008, 15:16 (Ref:2173236) | #10 | ||
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I've just discovered there is a Sean Bicknell racing in the lotus,I'll have to track him down and see if he's a distant relative!
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8 Apr 2008, 15:46 (Ref:2173255) | #11 | |||
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8 Apr 2008, 16:13 (Ref:2173274) | #12 | |||
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There goes My Hero. Hes ordinary.....(Dave Grohl c1995) An I/O's brief should be like a miniskirt, short enough to hold the attention but long enough to cover the important bits! |
8 Apr 2008, 16:19 (Ref:2173279) | #13 | ||
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'fraid not, I'll be working nights all weekend. Oh joy.
Shame, though, 'cos I've been intrigued by the VdeV/GT Cup idea. I'm interested to know what kind of lap times VdeV will do around Donington. |
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8 Apr 2008, 16:37 (Ref:2173291) | #14 | ||
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Anybody got an idea what sort of times vdev cars have done around the gp circuit,I know what times we have done today in testing!
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9 Apr 2008, 13:41 (Ref:2173865) | #15 | |||
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__________________
There goes My Hero. Hes ordinary.....(Dave Grohl c1995) An I/O's brief should be like a miniskirt, short enough to hold the attention but long enough to cover the important bits! |
9 Apr 2008, 14:29 (Ref:2173894) | #16 | ||
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Coming down from North Yorks for the weekend - only my 2nd year as a marshal and usually based at Croft so looking forward to the new experience for me of being at Donington. Not been there before even as a spectator! The programme looks a good one.
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9 Apr 2008, 18:19 (Ref:2174038) | #17 | ||
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Hi Gary, its a good circuit and the posts are fun depending on which one you get! I've only done Coppice so I dont have much to add, other than the guys and gals are freindly as we have come to expect, so wear your best smile, bring your sense of humour and enjoy!
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__________________
There goes My Hero. Hes ordinary.....(Dave Grohl c1995) An I/O's brief should be like a miniskirt, short enough to hold the attention but long enough to cover the important bits! |
10 Apr 2008, 10:00 (Ref:2174400) | #18 | ||
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We know some times now,I wasn't able to make the test on Tuesday with my Dad,apparently there were a couple of Normas there doing 1.32/3's.I wont say what we were doing!
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10 Apr 2008, 20:20 (Ref:2174796) | #19 | |||
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There goes My Hero. Hes ordinary.....(Dave Grohl c1995) An I/O's brief should be like a miniskirt, short enough to hold the attention but long enough to cover the important bits! |
10 Apr 2008, 20:22 (Ref:2174800) | #20 | ||
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Leaving for Donington tomorrow eve so see you guys bright and early Saturday morning. I will be with the Lotus guys all weekend.
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10 Apr 2008, 20:26 (Ref:2174802) | #21 | |||
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There goes My Hero. Hes ordinary.....(Dave Grohl c1995) An I/O's brief should be like a miniskirt, short enough to hold the attention but long enough to cover the important bits! |
10 Apr 2008, 22:44 (Ref:2174901) | #22 | ||
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Well we're a modest bunch down at Bicknell motorsport!We will wait and see what happens come Saturday!
Matt |
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12 Apr 2008, 21:12 (Ref:2176074) | #23 | ||
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Join Date: Apr 2005
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After a week of very little sleep due to nerves and excitement, the action finally got underway today.We have just got home from a rather mixed day of emotions,it was first race with the new car,our expectations were fairly high due to possitive testing, but you never can be quite sure till it gets competitive.
Morning practice went very well with both Ben and Rachel posting decent times,we got pipped to fastest lap on the last lap of the session,Still 2nd fastest on it's first outing is pretty damn good going,our expectations were not too high after all. We then headed into qualifying in the afternoon.The weather conditions turned somewhat for the worst,Rachel started in the car and went 3rd,the car had never been out in the wet in anger so we were happy with that.It started drying out pretty quickly so we got her in put some slicks on,changed some settings and sent Ben out,immediately he started flying in these conditions and went 2 seconds quicker than anybody else.The track was drying out and the times were coming down.Now it was getting exciting,could we really get pole first time out? But then the drama came to spoil our day.With 15 mins to go Ben came in saying he couldn't change down,unfortunately the gear change cable had came lose and had fouled on the exhaust causing it to break.Some sterling work by the team meant the car was able to get back out ,but to no avail as he was still struggling to select gears. We are certain that pole slipped through our fingers as we didn't get a time in as the track was at its dryest (in testing we were over a second quicker than pole time) We ended up qualifying 9th. With a 3 hour race and a replacement cable we are looking forward to what will be an exciting race tomorrow afternoon,watch this space. |
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17 Apr 2008, 22:45 (Ref:2180253) | #24 | ||
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Join Date: Apr 2005
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Well I guess I should let you guys know what happened in the rest of the weekend...
After 2 years of hard work by Rob Bicknell on the new Bicknell PS7. A one off car to take on the might of the manufacturers of Juno, Chiron, Norma and Ligier ,no easy task. The action finally got underway at Donington Park in the first VdeV UK race. It was a rather mixed weekend of emotions, our expectations were fairly high due to positive testing, but you never can be quite sure till it gets competitive. With Ben Clucas and Rachel Green driving we knew we had a strong driver pairing, this was confirmed in Saturday morning practice as the car went very well, only getting pipped to fastest lap on the last lap of the session. Still 2nd fastest on its first run is pretty damn good going; our expectations were not too high after all. We then headed into qualifying in the afternoon. The weather conditions had turned somewhat for the worst; the car had never been out in the wet in anger so we were unsure on how the car would act. Rachel started in the car and went 3rd we were more than happy with that. It started drying out pretty quickly so we got her in to put some slicks on, changed some settings and sent Ben out, immediately he started flying in these conditions and went 2 seconds quicker than anybody else. The track was drying out and the times were coming down. Now it was getting exciting, could we really get pole first time out? Then the drama of motorsport came to spoil our day, with 15 minutes to go Ben came in saying he couldn't change down. Unfortunately the gear change cable had come lose and had fouled on the exhaust causing it to break. We are certain that pole slipped through our fingers as we didn't get to set a time in as the track was at its driest (in testing we were over a second quicker than pole time) We ended up qualifying 9th. With the car now repaired and ready to go we eagerly awaited the race knowing we had the pace to go well, Rachel started the race and was going really well getting up to 7th and setting very good times. It started to drizzle and in these conditions Rachel was flying, even being quickest on a couple of laps, unfortunately bad luck was to strike again, this time the exhaust was damaged. To what extent to we were not sure, we decided to take a gamble and leave her out there to stand a chance of a good result as her times were still good. Unfortunately we ran out of fuel just as she was due in, this meant we lost a lot of laps before being towed in. The damage to the exhaust was worse than we first thought and causing consumption to be a lot higher. We discovered that 2 pipes had come apart at the joints on the manifold; still we had to soldier on. After refueling we sent Ben out and he put in a blistering performance posting lap times just a fraction off the leader, looking at the data we would have easily set fastest lap by some margin if we didn’t have the manifold problem. We eventually finished the race in eleventh, second fastest just 3 tenths shy of the works Norma, the main thing was we finished, despite the problem with the exhaust and with better luck we are certain we would have been on the podium. The future of the car is not yet known, but I’m sure we will be seeing the unique Bicknell PS7 at the sharp end of the grid in VdeV. Rob Bicknell said after the race"I’m gutted that we had the problems with the manifold, but for that to be the only problem on its first outing and to set the times we did shows the potential of the car. It certainly didn’t go unnoticed and we got some lovely comments on the car from fellow competitors” He added. “Rachel really enjoyed her first outing in this type of car and was very impressive in the dry but sensational when it started raining in the race, Bens pace is well known but he was fantastic all weekend and felt sure we would have been quickest without the problems.” Ben was also positive saying"It was always going to be difficult given the short time frame to get everything ready, and the team all did a great job to be as competitive as we were. The car was really quick the whole weekend and it was just a shame we weren't able to show it's full potential. Given the problems we had during the race, I think to set the lap times we did despite them just shows how quick the car would have been if we hadn't those little niggles (3 tenths off quickest). Overall though it was a really fun weekend and I would love to have another go.” I have to add that Gary has done a great job setting this series up over here and it looks like it is going to be every bit as good as the French series.Also I was pleasantly surprised today to discover than Marcus Pye had written about the series,our car and my Dad. It's nice to discover that people appreciate how much work he puts in to what is essentially a hobby that he happens to be bloody good at. Obviously I'm talking as an immensely proud son but to be able to take on the manufacturers and produce a car that in its firs race posted second quickest time with 2 manifold pipes hanging off is pretty impressive. Anyway enough of that the modest old man wont like it! |
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18 Apr 2008, 08:13 (Ref:2180450) | #25 | ||
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Very well done Bickers! I didnt get the time to come over to the garages and see you all, however Anglesey is a totaly different place and I'm positive I will get to meet you all there! Hope you have a good gazebo type structure as there are no garages at Anglesey! The weather is fairly unpredictable too, usually horizontal when it does arrive but if its fine its absolutely gorgeous! I intend to be there for the test day on the Saturday too so I'm really looking forward to seeing you then!
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There goes My Hero. Hes ordinary.....(Dave Grohl c1995) An I/O's brief should be like a miniskirt, short enough to hold the attention but long enough to cover the important bits! |
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