Praga Cup UK Round 1
Silverstone: 12 - 03 - 2022. Race 1 & 2.
Tom Canning and Alexander Connor win the opening Praga Cup UK round in the Idola/Arden car.
Well, it’s been a long time coming and an extremely busy few months for the team to prepare for rounds 1 & 2 of the inaugural Praga Cup UK. The team back at base have worked weekends and long days to get the 5 cars ready for the Silverstone GP circuit races. Idola Motorsport rolled into the paddock on Thursday with Eleanor, Bridle, Blade, Goldie and Arden on board with a growing sense of excitement for our first event under the Idola banner.
Friday was pre-race testing and a chance for drivers, mechanics and cars to get properly aquainted, for setups to be tweaked to extract maximum performance and the best lap times. A very successful day all round.
Saturday started gloomy and the conditions were looking pretty unpredictable – so tyre and setup strategy would be key to achieving the best grid slot. Qualifying started in damp conditions and everyone opted for wets with an option to change to slicks towards the end of the 30 minute session. A number of spins across the whole field indicated the slippery conditions and the call for slicks had to made right at the end – and for some too late to achieve a quick lap on that tyre. But Idola came away in a good place with Arden on the front row.
For race 1 it would be slicks all round and when the green lights went out for the rolling start it was an exciting start! With the pro drivers starting the race, the sight of the field of Pragas running nose to tail down hanger straight on the opening lap was a sight to see. For lap after lap the pro drivers pushed each other and the leading cars were nose to tail. Idola achieved their goal of winning the opening round with the Arden car, and the Raw Motorsport entry 1.5 seconds behind. Goldie came in 4th, Eleanor 5th. Blade unfortunately had an off which meant the car could not continue and the Bridle car retired with an electrical issue.
Sunday qualifying stayed consistently wet, and this suited the Arden boys placing their car on pole (but due to this car being in the invitational class had to start from the back of the grid), Eleanor placed on row 2, Bridle row 3, Goldie row 4 and Blade row 5.
Into race 2 and it was clear the Arden car had an issue from the start, contact at the end of qualifying caused damage to the gearbox which would lead to a retirement. Blade scored highest for Idola in 7th position. Eleanor had a series of intermittent issues, ending in a smokey retirement. The Bridles car unfortunately had a vibration throughout the race which was eventually traced to a tyre issue but by then had dropped them down the field. Goldie retired ater contact with the Silverstone curbing.
So quite a mixed bag for us, highs and lows which is the nature of Motorsport. The team worked round the clock all weekend and whilst solving the majority of the issues that came up, the results were not coming our way.
But we head into the next round at Oulton Park with a positive outlook and the work has already started back at the workshop to get the cars ready.
See you next time!
