What a race !!!
Following a decision to withdraw from the BARC Praga Cup UK Brands Hatch round due to lack of entries, Idola took the decision to enter the BRSCC Sports Prototype Cup/Zeo Prototype Cup (a combined championship event). This would pit the pragas up against a mixture of prototype cars, and would be the first time they have competed head-to-head against the Revolution contingent. Competition would be strong, with the new 500bhp Revolution coming out to play against us!
The format of the racing was quite different; one driver per car, 30 minute races and no pit stop. Qualifying and 2 races in one day would also prove to be quite a challenge. Idola entered 3 cars with Ruben Stanislaus, Will Stowell and Rodolfo Gonzalez as pilots.
Action started early on Thursday as Will was spending the day testing car 114 - great progress all day and a setup was gradually refined. Friday saw Ruben and Rodolfo testing cars 32 and 106 respectively. Again we made good improvements throughout the day, and were able to compare driver data from previous events to check that we were on the pace. An issue with a newly installed engine in 106 put an end to proceedings for Rodolfo after lunch but Ruben continued to circulate and gaining experience for race day. The engine issue turned out to be terminal and the team set to work on an engine swap that was completed at 12.01 in the morning - a long night for all but good to get it all done.
Saturday started early with qualifying and Ruben went straight to the top of the timings, just behind Mike Jenvey in his super light ‘Jenvey Gunn’. Rodolfo took things steady with the new engine coming in 6th and Will (who suffered from a loose boost hose) placing 10th. With a grid of 23 cars we were pretty happy at this point!
Race 1 started just before lunch and turned into a terrific scrap at the sharp end between Mike Jenvey, Ruben, Rodolfo and Jess Hawkins in the University of Wolverhampton Praga. The lead and the order changed lap after lap, with all drivers taking the lead at some point. In the end it was Mike who took the win, closely followed by Ruben (fastest lap in class) and Rodolfo. Will did a fantastic job of going from 10th to 6th - really getting to grips with the car on only his 2nd race event.
Race 2 followed very soon after and we thought Rodolfo’s car may have an issue with the new engine - and so it was that he would not complete the race, the newly built replacement engine suffered an issue pretty much straight away so the team will investigate this in due course. Ruben had a technical issue on lap 1, fixed by a power cycle but he had a lot to make up. Will started down the order but made up places lap after lap and really got the team cheering him along finishing an amazing 3rd place to get all our drivers on the podium across the 2 races. Ruben got up to a top 6th position before a boost pipe issue forced him to pit - finishing down in 14th for no fault of his own.
So a great collection of trophies, a few mechanical issues were all that prevented us getting even more - but this has proved that the decision to move championships was definitely the right one and we look forward to joining their grid at Donington Park in June.
But in the meantime…..anyone fancy a trip to Spa???
