March update from Ancaster Leisure

Well I am just home from holiday and Nik has been busy with the Farm, the Fertiliser sales business and yet still found time to get Allen Timpan into the ex-works car fitted with the Griffin Motorsport Duratec engine at Silverstone. Allen was quickly settled into the car and after a second test yesterday, has decided to enter the series in collaboration with Graham Hathaway motorsport. Allen was impressed with the drivability and lack of vices with the car and just loved the power.

Allen finished with a best time in the 1.01s, and was pleased to get there so quickly with traffic on the circuit. Rain fell in the afternoon and curtailed fast times, but Allen still lapped confidently and quickly. A note of thanks to Van Diemen who fitted the engine in the car so quickly, and it ran almost faultlessly, with only a small wiring problem on the first lap of the first day. Mike Turner was a great help with the first test day and we thank him also.

Dave Mountain is getting his engine ready for his new car, which is being built at the moment. Dave is ex Global Lights and is a championship winner. Graham Hathaway will also run David as their two- car team to help logistics and they will be a great combination. Graham and David both came to Silverstone to see Allen run his car, David is just itching to get out and test but I think he will get little time before the first race. Van Diemen are building three more cars at present, one for David Mountain, one for David Ferguson in the US and the third for us to sell or for Nik, as his car has been reserved by Lydia Austen, who hopes to test it this year and race it in the series in 2004. Lydia has raced T-Cars and Formula Ford, although Lydia is still only eighteen she may well give a few surprises if she does race with us.

I said in my last news-letter, that we may have some exciting news, well this is it. Nik will be racing in the USA this year. We have decided to take the opportunity to race the Pinto car we have in the USA, and to see if Nik can qualify for the Runoffs in September. Eric Purcell of Earthbond Flying Machines will prepare and transport the car to the various races needed to qualify. Eric has our full trust as we have seen him operate, I would not want to undertake this series without the expert help and knowledge of local conditions and tracks in the USA that Eric has. Nik will commute to these races from the nearest airport. We have some support via Eric from Ohlins, Hoosier Tyres and Quicksilver engines and CDS. Testing will be limited but we hope to keep him race fit with the Duratec car in the UK series or the Pinto series. He will miss the odd event in the UK as some dates clash, but it will be our main aim to get to the Runoffs and so the UK series will for this year take a back seat. This should be wonderful news for some competitors in the series as it will open up the championship, don’t get too excited though as I will be polishing off my helmet and coming out to play!!!.

Les Johnson