Nippon challenge race report - contain video

[DixcelBrake]

Nippon Challenge Race report – race 3,4 and 5.

 

 

After our last race at Snetterton, we understand our car didn’t have the power we expected when we saw our competitor from our class pulling away from us on the main straight. We didn’t want to push more power from the engine because we wanted to keep it reliable, so to make us more competitive we have to focus in upgrade the other area, we decided to upgrade the aero package on our car because we understand no one on the grid focusing in this area and specially on a track like Pembrey a good amount of downforce will give us abit of advantage.

 

Qualify –


Its my first time to go out with this aero package, so in the first few laps I was just trying out how the car behave compare to before, the different is huge, the way the front end turn it is completely different now. I managed to go almost 3 secs faster than last year (ref- 1mins 8.8 last year and 1mins 6.1 this season) and remember now we are on R888 instead of A048, if its was with the right tyres the different could be more than 3.5 secs. So we qualified 2nd overall, surprisingly in front of the GT500 class RX7 by 0.2 secs

 

Race 1 –

Had a pretty good start, but lose the place to the RX7 and Kris Civic because I was trying too hard trying overtake the RX7 on the outside of the hairpin, but Kris found a gap there and I didn’t want to repeat the accident like last year, so I was taking it easy because I still not 100% sure how the car going to behave with the new aero package with cold tyres so I stay behind Kris for a few laps, it was a really good race between me and Kris EK civic, we both pushing 100% and at lap 4 we both drift into the last corner, that’s how hard we are both trying! This is definitely one of the best race ever.

 

Managed to take a good line and brake later for the hairpin at lap 6, so I overtook him from there and start pulling a gap from him after a few laps and cross the finish line at 1st place without any problem with the car.

 

So here is the first race result –

GT250 class

1st Dixon Cheng (3rd overall)

2nd Kris Dunlop

3rd Michale Clark (well done for the first race)

 

Video of Race 1 -

View from Kris car - http://www.vimeo.com/4717132

 

Race 2

Had a great start and thought it will going to be easier than race 1 as I took a defensive line to hold Kris behind me but lost a place to the Subaru from the start as I was too defensive holding the position in front of Kris. So in the next 6 laps I was following the Subaru until he made a small mistake on the last corner before the main straight then I took the slipstream and outbrake him into the hairpin and gain the position.

Just 2 laps before the finish line, the front splitter drop on the main straight due to too much downforce and the wood couldn’t withstand the high pressure, the car was suffering massive understeering straight away at every corner and the back is catching up, but luckily I have pull abit of gap from the back so I crossed the finish line at 1st place again.

 

Video of race 2 -

View from Kris car - http://www.vimeo.com/4718503

 

 

 

1st Dixon Cheng (3rd overall)

2nd Kris Dunlop

3rd Michale Clark

 

 

Race 3 –

Had a bad start suffer with bad wheel spin due to the wet weather and running Semi slick so got overtook by a few cars already, after 1 lap the front splitter drop again due to the rain thought the night and it soften the wood, car was understeering and we lost the straight line speed as well. After 2 laps we have got a black flag from the marshall as they saw spark coming out from the splitter so we got DNF in the 3rd race.

 

It would be a perfect weekend if we didn’t have the splitter problem, the car was running very reliable without any problem and we had a really good race with the others, now we will focus in develop a new Carbon splitter so it should able to withstand high downforce, you will see us with a new aero package at Silverstone in 3 weeks time.

 

 

DMF performance – K20 forged race engine


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


Carbonetic – carbon 1.5 way clutch diff, twin plate clutch


DM Carbon – custom carbon diffuser, panel


Dyno Tech – Dyno tunning


Artech Tuning – for supply K pro ECU and mapping


Buddyclub - Wheels


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 - http://www.dmsracingltd.com