UCLan Racing

Nice but busy weekend at Anglesey with Jaap and Brian.
Jaap got a second and a win after having a cracked front bulkhead repaired. Thanks to Neil Robinson from NRM Fabrications for the welding - we wouldn't have made the races without you :)
Brian continued to make good progress in his second outing with us and finished 5th in race 1 and 6th in race 2, with lap times improving all weekend.
The results were good but the real triumph was the students having Jaap's car in so many pieces (twice!) and rebuilding it to race-winning standard. It made the long hours worth it 😀

Some great photos of yesterday's action by Agata Rogalska Photography

Once again the motorsport engineering students from UClan Racing provided a perfect car for Jaap Blijleven to race at Oulton Park, and he produced his best ever lap time of the International circuit. However, Jamie Jardine was supreme at the head of the Pre 90 field, setting a pole time a massive 0.9 seconds faster than Jaap's best, and Jaap had to settle for 2nd place in qualifying and also in the race.
Next weekend sees us race at Jaap's home circuit of Zandvoort in Holland at the Marcel Albers Memorial Trophy where we'll be looking for local knowledge to give us an advantage.

Photos courtesy of Agata Rogalska Photography

UCLan driver Jaap Blijleven made a solid start to the race season with two 3rd place finishes in the opening rounds of the Avon Tyres Formula Ford 1600 Championship at Oulton Park today.
The first race meeting of the year is always a steep learning curve for the new students and this weekend was no exception. Friday’s testing was going to plan until Jaap’s car required a new clutch to be fitted over the lunch break – a task that can easily turn out to be far from straight forward. However, it turned out to be a fairly routine procedure on this occasion and the car didn’t miss a minute of testing, going on to post some very competitive lap times in the afternoon which put the team in a confident mood for Saturday’s races.
Jaap was on provisional pole position for most of Saturday’s qualifying session but was pipped by Jamie Jardine in the dying seconds. Just one tenth of a second relegated Jaap to 2nd on the grid! Jaap dropped to 3rd at the start of Race 1 as a great battle took place between pole man Jamie Jardine and 3rd-placed qualifier, Callum McHale. Jaap soon found his rhythm and started to close the 2.8 second gap to McHale with a string of fast laps, but couldn’t find his way past and crossed the finish line 0.1 seconds behind. However, he did get fastest lap of the race for his efforts.
Race 2 was another close encounter, this time in increasingly tricky conditions as the forecast rain started to fall. The lead changed hands a couple of times between Jardine and McHale, with Jaap in close contact in 3rd, before Jamie made a break and established a small but comfortable gap at the front. Jaap was again setting fastest lap times in his pursuit of Callum, but a half spin at Lodge corner on the penultimate lap put an end to his challenge for 2nd place, and Jamie claimed the fastest lap of the race on the last lap.
Today’s races are a promising sign that this year’s championship will be close and hard fought, hopefully in UCLan’s favour, and there’s no doubt that the latest student recruits to UCLan Racing are up to the challenge.
The next race takes place at Oulton Park on May 7th.

A great weekend at Silverstone running Stuart Jones in the Walter Hayes Trophy. He was running inside the top 10 in the Historic Final before a spin dropped him to 13th. Not bad after being out of the car for over a year! Next stop is Anglesey on November 22nd for the Anglesey Winter Raceday where we'll have Jaap in his Reynard and Barry Linley in our Van Diemen.