Racing Club News
24/03/2010
Very Fast and Very Furious
The AAA (AJEC AWD Academy) Saloon Cup kicks off its debut 10-race season with a double-header at Castle Combe on Easter Monday as almost 7000 bhp races into Quarry from a rolling start.
The series will feature the most famous Mitsubishi Evo in the world - Simon Norris' 900 bhp 2-door Evo IX SWB Bogie. Regular Combe spectators will be familiar with his outings in the 2009 Castle Combe Saloons in his ultra-fast Evo III. However his bright green Monster Evo - rumoured to have cost over £100,000 to develop, has never actually raced before and Simon says he's looking forward to some door-to-door action.
And several Evos will be fighting to rub door handles, led by Ajec Racing's Laurie Kilby, a regular front runner in last years Combe Saloons and the current lap record holder for the series, who will start the season in his race winning 600 bhp Evo IX, before switching to his Evo X when it's been fully developed.
Other rivals for the front row include Gary Prebble - another Ex-Combe Saloons regular - keen to show the potential of his new 2.2L Evo engine, Simon Deaton in his shocking pink 550 bhp Evo VIII and Richard Jones, whose Launch Motorsport Evo, which he used in Time Attack last year, has been treated to a full winter rebuild at Ajec Racing, and is now fitted with a 650 bhp 2.2L engine.
However the Mitsubishi front runners will face some stiff non-Mitsubishi competition in the shape of a powerful and race-proven Escort Cosworth with Nick Williamson behind the wheel.
Group B is limited to 400 bhp and includes three drivers making their race debut; Freddie Leatham and Martin Thomas in Evo VIIIs, and Richard Nicholls, the Editor of Japanese Performance magazine who will be strapped into the AJEC Racing 'guest' Evo for the day. Richard only passed his race driving test last week!
At the other end of the race experience scale is Malcolm Stevens driving his Mitsubishi GTO who will be hoping his decades of race experience will counteract his power disadvantage while Steven Liquorish is hoping that his two years racing a Cooper S in the Mini Challenge will have been good training for getting behind the wheel of his brand new Mitsubishi Evo X.
At just 21 years old Dan Thackeray is easily the youngest driver in the series, but don't feel sorry for him because he's held a racing licence since he was just 15 and has already clocked up pole positions, race wins and fastest laps in several events over the years, most recently in the VW Cup. Completing the mixture of Group B cars are Angus Gorringe - he made his race debut at Combe last year in his bright orange BMW M3 - who will be racing an Audi S2 and Dave Harries behind the wheel of his Subaru.
This new series has already attracted huge media interest with Motors TV confirming that they will be broadcasting a 25 minute programme from each of the 10 races. Full details about the series can be found at www.aaasaloons.com and on Facebook.