Blencowe back on form at Croft

After the mis-fortune and subsequent apology from SEAT Sport after Thruxton’s races left Alan with a lack of power in the car, Croft was looking good until power problems hit Alan again, but after hours spent under the bonnet and looking at electronics, Triple R and Alan believe that they have found the problem and proved it by being back on form in Race 2!

Qualifying a disappointing 9th and 10th respectively On Saturday, Alan and his team were still frantically trying to source the power problem with the car and working closely with SEAT Sport tried a variety of different tactics to improve Alan’s power.

RACE 1:

Alan had a really good start and although bogged down by the front-runners by those in front of him ended up battling with Welch, who had started 10th on the grid. Alan’s car was still obviously lacking power as his competitors were pulling away from him on the straights, but Alan managed to get some good lines on track and could out-break them coming into the corners meaning he was right behind them at the crucial moments.

In defence Welch smashed into a set of tyres on the apex of ... and sent them dangerously flying up in the air and subsequently crashing down on Alan’s bonnet – critically damaging the front end of Alan’s car and snapping the front anti-roll bar in the process! Alan wasn’t about to give up and kept on the heels of Welch, but due to the damage sustained, Alan finished the race a respectable 6th place, but successfully overtaking Whyte on the line, which the team were exceptionally pleased with considering Alan had struggled for the remainder of the race with a lack of power and a snapped anti-roll bar.

In between races, the team worked on repairing Alan’s race-car and sourcing the power problems. With no more time in the car, the team and Alan were making changes to the car, which meant that they only had one chance to trial it and that was in the race.

RACE 2:

Alan and the team were in positive moods, having made alternations to the car and successfully repairing the damage he sustained from Welch’s impact in Race 1. As the lights went out on the start line, Alan made a really good start, going into the 1st corner in 5th place as opposed to 10th, which is where is started on the grid. Battling with Oli Wilkinson for 4th place Alan managed to follow him going into... And drove straight down the inside of him coming onto the start-finish line. The top 3 cars had already pulled out a lead on the rest of the pack, Alan finished 4th place on the grid, just behind 3rd place, setting the 3rd fastest lap on the circuit and pleased with how improved the car was in the second race.

"I’m very happy with the car now, after our problems at Thruxton, we were sure that we have rectified the problems, but testing on Friday proved that we were still battling with a lack of power which we couldn’t explain. Qualifying didn’t go so well for us as we still couldn’t find the fault and after a few changes to the car, I think we’ve got it back on form."

"The SEAT Sport Technical guys have been really helpful this weekend and the team have worked really hard to get the car to where it is now. I would also like to say thank you to Stewart Whyte and his team as they allowed us to use his data from qualifying to help find the fault with the car."

"I’m looking forward to Oulton Park and hopefully we can have some wins again!"

The next two rounds of the Cupras take the teams to Oulton Park in Cheshire, on the weekend of 23-24th June..

2007 Blaupunkt SEAT Cupra Championship
Provisional results after round 8

1. Jonathan Adam...144pts
2. Fulvio Mussi...93pts
3. Alan Blencowe...88pts
4. Carl Breeze...83pts
5. Neil Waterworth...82pts
6. Gareth Nixon...76pts