VTEC Challenge does Brands

[Jonathan F]

Brands Hatch: September 21st/22nd 2013 (Rounds 11 and 12 of BARC’s VTEC Challenge)​

For rounds 11 and 12 of the VTEC Challenge the series headed to Kent and the famous circuit of Brands Hatch.

Brands Hatch History​

Located in Kent, Brands Hatch is one of the world's most iconic motor racing venues and it’s a popular favourite of fans and drivers alike. From its humble beginnings as a dirt track cycle circuit in 1926, Brands Hatch has continued to grow, and ran the British Grand Prix between 1964 and 1986 and today it hosts many British and international car and bike events.

Originally used as a military training ground, the first circuit was carved out of the dirt in 1926 for local cyclists.

Within a few years, the circuit had grown to allow the running of motorcycles, which ran a ¾ mile anti-clockwise track in the valley.

Brands Hatch remained in use during the 1930s, but after being used as a military location, it was subject to many bombing raids during World War II.

Since the 1950’s, the circuit has seen the likes of Stirling Moss, Ayrton Senna, Nigel Mansell and Jenson Button race and win here and now it played host to the VTEC Challenge.

Brands Hatch offers two layout configurations, and for our penultimate event of the season, we would be running on the shorter 'Indy' layout (1.2079 miles). This is located entirely within a natural amphitheatre which provides excellent spectator views of almost the entire circuit.


Entrants:

14 – Matthew Le – Production – Integra (DC2)
24 – Richard Voaden – Super Tuner – Integra (DC2)
26 – Rob Williams – Production - Civic Type R (EP3)
31 – Phil Wright – Tuner – Accord Type R
39 – Rob Burkinshaw – Tuner – Integra (DC5)
64 - Richard Chilton – Production - Integra (DC2)
85 – Stewart Hutchinson – Invitational – Integra (DC2)
86 – Nick Holden – Invitational – Ariel Atom

It was a pleasure to welcome back Richard Voaden to the grid following his absence at Rockingham as well as a Stewart Hutchinson who has been contesting the “Quaife Motorsport News Saloon Car Championship” this year.

Matt Le was back with his Integra having had “Performance Autoworks” swap out the damaged engine following bearing failure at Rockingham, and Rich Chilton was back after sorting his gearbox/clutch issues last time out.

Also attending as a “OHW” was Nick Holden in his Honda powered Ariel Atom. A contestant in the MSVR “Atom Cup” Nick approached the series to see if he could get some extra seat time to learn the Atom, following racing a supercharged MR2 in the “Nippon Challenge”.

Carefully reviewing Nick’s lap times from other circuits, it looked like he would be at the sharp end and providing added competition to the series front runners.


Qualifying:

Qualifying got underway slightly earlier than scheduled, but everyone made the trip to the assembly area in good time.

After a couple of laps to get their “eye in” the drivers began to look for what worked in order to set their quick times. A number of the drivers had tested on the Friday to familiarise themselves, so the likes of Phil Wright, Rich Voaden, Rob Burkinshaw and Rob Williams were not hitting the circuit “blind”.

After setting his quickest ever qualifying time around the “Indy” circuit, Stew Hutchinson decided he could do no more and ended his session at the halfway point.

With his lap times beginning to fall nicely, trouble struck Richard Voaden and his DC2 Integra when he lost VTEC and the ecu cut the rev limit. Thinking it could be a temperature protection issue (as encountered by Andy Smith at Rockingham) Rich cooled it off for a lap and pulled into the pits to reset the ecu. However the fix was short lived as the problem reoccurred moments later, ending his session early.

Thankfully all other drivers had a trouble free session without any further problems.

With the times announced, it was the “Invitational” driver Nick Holden who had taken pole position with a PB, closely followed by Rob Burkinshaw who were both in the 53’s.

Pole: Nick Holden
2nd: Rob Burkinshaw
3rd: Stewart Hutchinson

Back in the paddock and Rob Burkinshaw found his clutch slave cylinder to have begun to fail, however he was fortunate enough to be able to use a 2nd hand item donated by Rob Williams who’s EP3 Civic shared the same part as Rob’s DC5.

Richard Voaden began to trace his fault ahead of the race and after reviewing data on the laptop he believed he had fixed the issue by removing the temperature cut, but only time would tell.


Race 1:

With Nick starting on pole he had (on paper) the best line into “Paddock Hill Bend”. Known as one of the most fearsome corners on any circuit, any advantage would be useful as with an eager chasing pack, but nothing would be clear cut.

Following the green flag lap, all of the drivers lined up to begin the first of the weekends races. It was all too apparent to Voaden that his attempts to fix the Integra had not been successful as he was still without VTEC.

With the lights out the charge towards PHB began with the Atom rocketing off into the lead as Burkinshaw bogged down a little before gathering momentum.

Voaden still managed a great start and was alongside Burkinshaw from his 2nd row grid position as the group headed for turn 1, which is where it got “interesting”

The train of cars began to drop down though Paddock in readiness to begin the climb up “Hailwoods Hill” and up to “Druids” and the tight hairpin.

Forced into making a last minute move to avoid rear ending a slowing car up front, Stew Hutchinson collided with Rich Voaden which resulted in the director of “Performance Autoworks” travelling sideways down Paddock Hill as the rest of the grid scattered to avoid him. Collecting the slide, Rich rejoined in next to last place ahead of Matt Le, in his now battered and bruised Integra.

With this all happening behind them, the Atom of Holden and the Integra of Burkinshaw began to command the race, with Williams slotting through into 3rd in his “Production” EP3 Civic. (A position held until lap 10 when the quicker and lighter “Tuner” Integra of Hutchinson caught Williams and took the slot)

Crossing the line for the start of lap 2 and Burkinshaw got a great run into “Paddock” which when combined with the Atom going wide provided all the opportunity Rob needed to go for the pass.

Slipping down the inside as the pair headed for Druids, the Integra emerged from behind the trees in the lead, (much to the rapturous applause and cheers from the grandstand).

Despite giving away @500kg to the Atom, Rob drove superbly and pulled out a comfortable gap until some of the slower cars allowed the Atom to close up and then it was a 6 lap hard sprint to the finish line where the driver from Sheffield took the win in his Integra.

A recovering Richard Voaden began to scythe his way back up the pack, having some great battles along the way with much reduced power due to the missing VTEC “Yo!” of the H22 engine. Despite his best efforts, the 3rd place of Stew Hutchinson was too big an ask and had to settle for 4th overall.

Matt Le was showing improved pace in his Integra following his exit from Rockingham. Sitting on new suspension and with his refreshed engine tucked under his bonnet, the driver from Texas was showing man and machine working in harmony.

Phil Wright’s Accord made up a place following the first corner melee and battled closely with Voaden on his run back through the pack, however once through the Integra pulled away from the Accord, Phil was left to drive his own race as the two Integra’s of Le and Chilton where outpaced by the Accord.


1st: Rob Burkinshaw
2nd Nick Holden
3rd Stewart Hutchinson

Class wins were awarded to:

(P) – Rob Williams
(T) – Rob Burkinshaw
(ST) – Rich Voaden
(INV) – Nick Holden

Fastest lap: Nick Holden 53.581sec on lap 19 of 23


Race 2:

Assessing the damage on his Integra, Rich began by trying to locate the source of the lack of VTEC. This was finally traced to a fault within the ecu which required some changes to the map and a manual bypass of the VTEC controller. This was achieved by rewiring a manual dash switch which would have to be operated during the race!

With a slight pull on the rear wheel arch, the rest of the evening was spent straightening the steering and suspension in the hope of having a vaguely drivable car come race time.

With the last race before lunch on Sunday, all drivers made their way from the paddock and under the track to the assembly area. From here it was just a short hop to the grid to be lined up.

The start of race 2 saw the Atom of Holden rocket from his 2nd place on the grid and nip in front of Burkinshaw to get the line through Paddock.

Voaden came through from 4th to get alongside Rob as the pack got underway, but as there was not enough of an advantage to risk a move around the outside, Voaden tucked in behind to take 3rd place.

Phil Wright had moved up alongside Hutchinson, closely followed by Williams, Chilton and Le.

It was the turn of Williams to feel the wrath of PHB this time around as the cold rear tyres pitched the Civic into a spectacular spin, causing Le and Chilton to take avoiding action.

Down at the back of the pack, Williams rejoined and began his fight back, taking positions from Chilton and Le to claim another “Production” class win.

With Holden out in front, it was Burkinshaw, Voaden and Hutchinson who began to break away, with Phil Wright driving the doors of the Accord to try and stay in contention.

Firmly focussed on the Atom, Burkinshaw managed to put a little distance between himself and Voaden while at the same time closing on the leader. However pushing this hard began to have the opposite affect as the front tyres began to drop off which when combined with coming across the slower traffic allowed Voaden to mount an attack.

As the pair approached “Clearways” they closed up to lap Rob Williams and with some nifty slip driving, all drivers crossed the line three abreast on the run into Paddock.

With enough momentum carried, Voaden had the line into the Paddock and took the 2nd place spot from Burkinshaw, who was already mounting an attack to retake his spot as the pair ran up to Druids. Unfortunately Burkinshaw carried too much speed into the hairpin which meant he missed the apex and allowed Rich to retain the position without incident.

Still running with his ghetto VTEC fix, Rich knew he could expect Rob to come back at him hard and fast, and Rob didn’t disappoint!

On the following lap as the pair rocketed up to Druids, Rich locked up a rear wheel, which pitched the Integra into a big slide and allowed Rob to retake 2nd place and put Voaden back behind the Civic of Williams.

Despite all efforts to close up the gap, the clock was against Rich and he was unable to catch Burkinshaw in the remaining laps.

Hutchinson raced the remainder of the session un-troubled as he had pulled away from Wright, but was unable to close up on the two white Integra’s that where sat in 2nd and 3rd place and crossed the line in 4th place overall.

Wright bettered his previous PB lap time of the event by well over half a second and dropped into the 55’s which was a great achievement for a car of this size and weight.


1st Nick Holden
2nd Rob Burkinshaw
3rd Rich Voaden

Class wins were awarded to:

(P) – Rob Williams
(T) – Rob Burkinshaw
(ST) – Rich Voaden
(INV) – Nick Holden

Fastest lap: Nick Holden 53.175sec on lap 18 of 23

The “Apex Trackdays” award was presented to Rob Burkinshaw for his sterling efforts in taking a saloon car into the realms of “Super Car” baiting! Arguably two of his hardest fought races, both under immense pressure. Well done Rob.


Summary:

Yet again we were blessed with two dry races and fantastic racing. The short circuit led to some of the best racing we have seen and leaving the spectators at a loss of where to look as there was something going on all around!

Thanks to the series sponsors: Dunlop Tyres, Performance Autoworks, Banzai, Honda Tuner, Apex Track Days and R-Motion for their continuing support.

Also, thanks go out to the drivers and their supporters for making the effort to come out on the day.

The Honda VTEC Challenge now heads to its final event of the season at Silverstone on the 13th of October where we hope to have our largest turn out of cars to see the year off in style.

Hope to see you all there – spread the word.


Words: Jonathan Fletcher
Pictures: Lindsey Fletcher & Jonathan Fletcher