Tom Boardman Motorsport

Hungary 2013

admin — Sat, 18 May 2013 14:51:01 +0000

Slovakia WTCC 2013

admin — Sat, 18 May 2013 14:48:32 +0000

STR will not race in Austria

admin — Thu, 16 May 2013 15:00:00 +0000

Special Tuning Racing will not be taking part in the Austrian round of the WTCC this weekend at the Salzburgring. The team have taken the decision to return the car to the UK so that they can work to fully fix and test following the crash in Marrakech in April. The car was re-shelled after the accident back at the workshop in Forton, UK, but the engine was fitted at the Slovakiaring just prior to the races there. That weekend the new engine had issues that took the weekend to resolve. The car was still struggling for pace at the following round in Hungary. After much thought, it was deemed better to work to solve the issues in the workshop environment rather than on the race track.

John Boardman, Team Principal, commented “This is not a decision we have taken lightly, but after a couple of difficult and frustrating weekends trying to fix the car in racing conditions, I think the best course of action is to make sure the car is properly sorted and back to where we had it at the start of the season. We have the necessary tools to get the job done, and the best place to do this is back at base.”

The team will now concentrate on preparing the car for the Porto round of the WTCC before completing the series in the ‘”Fly-away” rounds.

Hungary 2013 WTCC Race Report

admin — Tue, 07 May 2013 09:00:00 +0000

Hungary is always one of the highlights of the season. The thousands of passionate fans that attend the event creates a unique atmosphere, and coupled with an exciting track, the weekend is always memorable.

The team arrived at the Hungaroring following a difficult weekend in Slovakia. That weekend three engines had to be fitted, and the final race was still very much a testing exercise. This weekend Tom needed to be racing competitively. For FP1 the team worked on the setup of the car. A good balance was found and this was taken into FP2. Here he posted ever quicker lap times, finishing up P11 with a time of 1:56:052. This was promising for qualification.

Tom went out in Qualification 1 looking for a repeat performance. In what was to prove to be a very close session he improved on his FP2 time. On his 5th lap he posted a 1:55:421. This placed him 20th at the end of the session, 00:00:691 off a spot in Q2. Luck however was still not with Tom and the team. While posting this time a part holding the flat floor of the car broke in the centre, and as a result, the floor bowed down. In scrutineering on the way back in from Q1, the fault was spotted and the car failed the ride height regulation. The punishment for this would be to start at the back of the grid for the second week.

Sunday and the crowds were in early chanting for Norbi. His every move was cheered to the rafters, and even down at the wrong end of the grid the noise was palpable. Tom was looking to make up places quickly from the rolling start, and as the cars past the start line he quickly made up three places. Ahead, an incident on turn 2 and Tom took advantage moving up the inside. As he prepared for turn 3, Hugo Valente in his debut WTCC race, moved across and hit Tom. This broke the front right wheel, and debris also went into the radiator. On lap 3 he was forced to retire and again in the most unluckiest of circumstances.

Ever philosophical about the situation Tom was determined to have a better second race. The car was pulled from Parc Ferme so that it could be fixed in time. This again would mean starting at the back of the grid. If he could get one of his trademark standing starts off though he knew he could quickly make up places. This he achieved, and he was quickly past Valente, Munnich and Kozlevsky. Ahead though, Muller and Tarquini had a coming together resulting in the Honda driver hitting the barriers. Tom just managed to avoid the tail end of the incident but lost ground and places doing so. The safety car was deployed and Tom was in 20th. On lap 4 the safety car went in and Tom set about making up places. On Lap 6 he managed to pass Valante and Kozlovsky again, then on lap 8 he managed to pass the SEAT of Marc Basseng. He then went to chase the next SEAT, that of Monje. He caught and passed him on lap 9, and with Freddie Barth having a drive though penalty he was now in 16th and chasing Pepe Oriola. On Lap 12 he passed the him and was now surprisingly the second placed SEAT. Rob Huff in the All-Inkl.com SEAT went on to take the win, the first this season for the reigning world champion. Tom finished 15th, 8th independent, and from the back of the grid again, this was a decent result.

After the race Tom commented “I really needed to get some track time in the car. Not having driven competitively in the past two events I felt I was just a little off the pace, and coupled with the run of bad luck we are on, it was important for me and the team to put in a solid performance and complete the race. Although not brilliant in terms of points, I think the last race achieved this. I am now looking forward to Salzburg, and I really hope we can improve our position and have just a bit of luck”

The team will travel to the Salzburgring for rounds 9 and 10 on the weekend of May 18th and 19th

Testing Weekend in Slovakia

admin — Wed, 01 May 2013 09:00:00 +0000

The team headed to Slovakia for the 5^th and 6^th rounds of the Championship having carried out major works to repair the car following the coming together with a wall at Marrakech. The car also required a new engine which SEAT Sport duly delivered on the Thursday prior to the event for fitting. The team and SEAT Sport engineers worked hard to fit the engine in time for FP1 on Saturday.

Early Saturday morning and Tom prepared to go out to try out the new engine. From the outset the performance seemed sluggish and this was also evident in the data. Tom came in for a tyre change. On his next run though the engine failed and Tom was forced to park up and wait for the session to finish. On its return to the garage it was clear that an engine change would be required and the SEAT and STR mechanics made the change and had the car ready to go out again for FP2.

For FP2 Tom was looking for the correct set up that had seen him race at the Slovakiaring so successfully in 2012. Although he was in the diesel at that time, he finished in P9 starting from the back of the grid. With the second engine of the weekend fitted, Tom went out to try and set a time. This however was not to be, as the second engine also failed in a similar fashion, and the cause needed to be found fast.

SEAT Sport and the team worked tirelessly for the rest of the day, and long into the night, looking for the causes. It was decided to fit a third engine, and make further changes to the car, to eliminate all possible causes of the failures and then run Sunday as a test in order to make sure the issues would be sorted for the following week in Hungary.

Race day arrived and Tom went out cautiously in the Warm Up to try out the latest engine. He put in 5 laps, coming in regularly for data reads. This went to plan and for race 1 he started from the pit lane and ran an agreed six laps. Again the car finished this. Finally for the last race of the day, Tom started from the back of the grid and completed the race finishing in P18.

Commenting on the weekend’s experience Tom said “This is obviously very frustrating for all involved. Not knowing fully the cause of the failures makes it all the more difficult. Both SEAT Sport and our team have worked very hard over the weekend to fix it and for that I am very grateful. I am sure the changes that were made for Sunday will enable us to run properly in Hungary next weekend”

The team will continue to work with SEAT Sport to resolve fully the engine issues in time for the next round at the Hungaroring on 4^th and 5^th of May.

Marrakesh 2013

admin — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 19:31:33 +0000

Marrakech WTCC 2013

admin — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 11:00:00 +0000

After a promising start, the weekend was brought to a scary and abrupt end for Tom and the Special Tuning Racing team on race day.

The test session planned for the Friday was cancelled due to adverse weather. Torrential rains washed out the day and the team worked to prepare the car for FP1 the next day.

Saturday brought better weather, and Tom was quickly on the pace in FP1. He briefly topped the timings 10 minutes into the session, but was quickly out done by the following Chevrolet of Tom Chilton. To be successful on the Circuit Moulay El Hassan, a tow is required from another car. Two car teams have the advantage here, and with out a team mate Tom would have to look for a tow from another driver. Another feature of the track this year was the new curbs put in place since resurfacing work had taken place. These curbs where more prominent than in recent years, and caution was required at first to gauge how to drive over them. Tom pushed to improve his time and on the last lap of FP1 he took a more aggressive line through the chicane and over the curbs only to have the top mounts break on the front right of the car. The car was duly returned to the garage and the team set about fixing and strengthening as much as possible the mounts.

Tom then went out for FP2 with a different set up to try and combat the curbs. This set up did not work for him so he came in early in order to safeguard the car and set it back to a more similar setting for qualification.

Qualification started with Tom posting a lap time putting him in P13. He would have to push to make the top 12. The Honda of Monteiro then had a coming together with the wall. This brought out the red flag. When the session resumed Tom fell to 17th as he could not find a tow. When he eventually found the BMW of local hero Medhi Bannani to gain a tow, the Moroccan spun thus putting paid to that lap. Tom came in for one last go and a new set of tyres. This time he put in his fastest two sectors and on the third was an eighth of a second up coming down to the last hairpin bend. He was looking to get well into the top twelve when the BMW of D’Aste spun blocking the track and forcing Tom to take evasive action to avoid a collision. The lap was ruined and his path to Q2 ended. He finished in 19th and would have much work to do on race day to make up places.

Sunday morning and the team had worked late into the night to fix an engine issue. Tom went out for the warm up session and the team’s hard work seemed to have paid off. Tom was the fastest SEAT and the car felt good. He improved on his qualifying time and was working on getting the best out of the car for the race. He eyed Alex Macdowell ahead in the Chevrolet Cruze and looked to get a tow behind him. As he came into turn 7 he hit the breaks at his usual breaking point to find no front breaking. He then turned to avoid the Chevrolet, downshifted as fast as he could to try and take off some speed, hit the high curbs, missed Macdowell, just, then hit the wall at 110 kmph. The impact was great enough to dislodge the concrete wall and break the tv camera cables. Tom was taken to the medical centre then onto the Marrakech military hospital for checks. To the relief of everyone, although very sore from the impact and the safety harnesses doing a great job, he returned to the circuit in good spirits.

The car was not in such good shape as one would expect when you hit a wall at over 100kmph. The extent of the damage is still being assessed, but the team will be working hard to get the car out for the next round in Slovakia

Monza 2013

admin — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 14:59:01 +0000

Monza Mayhem

admin — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 13:00:00 +0000

The opening round of the 2013 WTCC Season again saw the team at the historic Monza Circuit just north of Milan. With no pre-season testing being completed, Tom and the team would have to work quickly to set up the car and get on the pace.

On a bitterly cold yet dry day, the newly liveried STR SEAT went out for Free Practice 1. With some upgrades to the car over the off season, Tom would need to feel the effects of the changes in order to maximize the benefits. Consistency would be the order of the day. The team worked on the set up in both the free practices and Tom was 14^th quickest in both sessions.

For qualifying, the team knew that only a couple of hundreds of a second would need to be made up to get into Q2. Tom went out and again found consistency in P14. This he held until two minutes to go he dropped to 18^th. Tom went out for a final effort and put in his best time but could only manage a tantalizing 13^th, with a time of 1:59:116, which was 0:00:070 outside Q2. In the end he was P14 but moved back to P13 with the withdrawal of the Lada team due to damage.

A very wet day greeted the team on Sunday. Race one started behind the safety car. Tom immediately moved up to P12 passing Engstler as the rain worsened. Lap 5 and a safety car came out after D’Aste spun off. Tom was waiting to move and did so as soon as the safety car was in, making up two more places. He then got into a great battle with Rob Huff as they fought for ninth place. Tom out braked Huff into the chicane forcing the World Champion to go straight on but the position was not conceded. Huff went on to take James Nash and Tom then went to pass. Overtaking him on the outside Nash moved across and contact was made ending Tom’s race. The damage was a broken sub frame and drive shaft. The car was also marooned in the middle of the track, but after the race it was brought back and the team were forced to pull the car from parc ferme to try and fix for race 2.

The team worked hard and with 1 minute to spare Tom was out and waiting to join the race from the pit lane. He quickly caught up with the pack and made up a couple of places. By lap 5 he was up to 15^th and looking to pass Freddie Barth. Pushing hard though he caught a curb and spun. He rejoined in 17^th and then chased after Monje. He could not catch and would eventually finish 16^th overall, P8 independent.

After the races Tom commented “I am hugely disappointed with the result of this weekend, yet am encouraged by our performance both on and off the track. My race pace was good and I am also very pleased with the way that the team worked to get the car fixed for race two. We have to concentrate on those positives and I am looking forward to getting to Marrakech where hopefully I will also have luck with me as well”

The team now make the journey to the only WTCC stop in Africa for the second round on 6^th and 7^th of April.

Macau 2012

admin — Sun, 23 Dec 2012 20:33:26 +0000