Marcos Mantis GT Experience
Charlotte Osborn writes:
"An impromptu introduction. We are a race team competing
in the Britcar Endurance Championship with our Marcos Mantis GT car, which
raced last year in the British GT Championship driven by myself and Andrew Davies.
We also compete in the TVR Tuscan Challenge. In addition to our race team we have
a corporate motorsport division and aswell as a range of other race cars, the
Marcos Mantis GT car is driven by clients on corporate trackdays.
"I was hoping that you would be able to promote our Marcos
Mantis Race Car Experience to Marcos owners and enthusiasts. The Experience costs
£500.00 plus VAT per head based on four people."
Melindi Scott of Gold Track Racing says: "I've known these
guys a while and can vouch for their service. I use them for my company and wouldn't
hesitate to recommend them."
For more details please contact Charlotte Osborn.
[20020807]
5th Marcos Euregio Meeting
Sunday 8th September - Kasteel Baexem, Holland
Details have been announced of the 2002
Euregio Meeting in the sounthern Netherlands. All Marcos, Mini Marcos,
Mini Jem and Kinfisher Sprint owners are invited to participate.
[20020601]
Mini Marcos Amongst the Prizes at Wet IMM
-
Erik Wijn from Hengelo in the Netherlands was awarded the
first prize in the kit car section of the Show & Shine at this year's
International Mini Meeting for his Mk. IV Mini Marcos. Stiff competition
came from other Mini Marcos and a nicely presented Jimini 2.
Frank Morskate, also from Hengelo, won the "Spirit of the
Show" award for his Mini Marcos Mk. III, which he had decorated with the cross
of St. Andrew and "IMM 2002" on the roof, plus a Saltire (Scottish flag)
and a Loch Ness Monster toy inside. The awards were sponsored by Mini World
magazine.
The IMM was run in damp conditions by the Caledonian Mini Club
at Kinross in Scotland. Heavy showers on the Friday and Saturday morning turned
much of the site to mud and despite some drier periods and sunny intervals it never
really dried out. The trade area was particularly muddy, and a large JCB brought in
to assist stuck lorries made conditions worse.
The booking-in procedure proved to be somewhat inefficient and
resulted in delays of one or two hours to participants arriving on Friday afternoon.
However our sincere thanks must go out to the CMC Stewards who braved the wind and
rain for two days to show campers to their allocated pitches.
Few daytime activities had been arranged, and the "Mini Highland Games"
were poorly supported. The "Show and Shine" on Sunday was popular, and the prizes
were presented during the afternoon. This resulted in the final party being something
of an anti-climax.
Live musical entertainment was provided on three nights and on Sunday afternoon.
The "Presentation of Clubs" on Saturday night was followed by a Ceilidh and Scottish
country dancing exhibition by a group of school children accompanied by a piper. National
dress was well in evidence, and not just Scotsmen in kilts. The Irish Mini Owners had as
always entered into the spirit of things and dressed up as leprechauns.
[20020529]
New Policy on Ads
-
Following the 2002 AGM the club is adopting a revised policy
on car ads on the web site. From now on cars advertised in the magazine may be
advertised on the web after distribution of the magazine. This will give club
members first bite of the cherry, and ensure that cars advertised in the
magazine are not already sold by the time the magazine appears.
Please note that ads submitted to the web site will not be
forwarded to the magazine unless specifically requested, or vice versa.
[20020529]
Calum Lockie to lead Ferrari UK GT Team
-
Run as an official Ferrari UK entry, Veloqx Motorsport will
run a 360 GT Modena in the GTO class of the British GT Championship. Calum
Lockie is the lead driver, with his partner to be announced later this week.
Veloqx Motorsport is new to the BRDC British GT Championship
and run by businessman Sam Li, a life-long Ferrari fan. "We are delighted
to have the backing of Ferrari UK," said Li. "It is a great honour to
help Ferrari UK recreate the glory days of the 250GTOs driven by Graham Hill and
Jackie Stewart to win the Tourist Trophy. It is our goal to recreate GT history
for Ferrari UK.
"We are most impressed by Calum's experience in the series,
and his approach to winning the championship, together with his pace in the car.
All those hard-fought wins of 2000 and those of previous years are best
proves of Calum's dedication to British GT and his champion quality."
"I have always dreamed of being a Ferrari driver,"
said Calum Lockie. "This is fantastic and I just can1t wait to drive the
car and be part of the championship. To drive a Ferrari, especially a
race-winning car, is something very special."
The 360GT is a proven platform in all forms of GT racing, as
the outright champion of FIA GT series, winner of five races in 2001. The car
also proved to be competitive in the Nations Cup in Australia, winning two
races already in March. As the F360GT is now present in FIA GT, ALMS,
Nations Cup, and all major 24 hours races, this is a good time for the
car to challenge all the other highly competitive British entries.
The car will start the season white but will be repainted
in 'Rosso Marlboro' with the traditional Maranello Concessionaires 'Cambridge
Blue' nose at a later point.
The opening round of the BRDC British GT Championship is at
Brands Hatch on April 1.
We're sorry that Calum will no longer be recreating the
glory days of Jackie Stewart in a Marcos GT, but this is obviously a very
good career move and we wish Calum a very successful season with the Fewrrari
Team. Thanks as always to Melindi Scott for the press release. -RP
[20020319]
Server Problems
- Our web site hosts, Freedom2 apologise
for any inconvenience caused by the recent server problems. You may have
noticed some delayed updates and broken cgi scripts. One persisting problem
is that the automatic last-updated dates show "1st January 1970"
and will continue to do so until I next update those pages. -RP
[20020317]
Daytona Race Report
- Here's Calum Lockie's Daytona race report kindly supplied by Melindi
from Gold Track Driving.
Former British GT champion Calum Lockie was denied second
place in the GTS category in the Daytona 24 hour classic last weekend.
Partnering Cor Euser in the Marcos Mantara, Lockie was
contesting his fourth 24-hour race. Despite handling concerns, they were on
target for second in the GTS category when worsening engine problems forced
them out at the mid-point of the race.
Heading into the race weekend, the team had to tune the car
to suit the Goodyear tyres they were using for the first time. "We had
to set the car up on them to see how they worked," explained Lockie
after the opening qualifying sessions. Importantly, their best time in the
Thursday qualifying session was good enough to secure 22nd slot on the
grid, fourth fastest amongst the GTS cars. Ahead of them was the eventual
class winning Jaguar, the Porsche 911GT1 and the leading Saleen.
Despite being well placed on the grid, the team knew that
getting the set-up of the car right for the race was all-important.
"We worked away at the set-up. We had bags of understeer and it was
very nervous at the rear end, but we eventually found quite a nice
set-up," reported Calum.
Into the race, with more than 80 cars taking the start,
Euser took the opening stint. However, having been expected to charge, the
Dutchman was not able to make progress and slipped to seventh in class
during his 90-minute stint, which included a rare spin.
Lockie took the second stint, racing hard for two hours in
the warm afternoon sunshine. "I had some real handling problems and I
was getting oversteer in every corner," said Calum. The increasing
oversteer led to a scary 120mph spin, with the car stopping just inches
from the wall. "The handling was quite evil," said Lockie after
that particular drama. To add to the excitement of his two-hour stint,
Calum had the bonnet bodywork fly off at speed, but it didn't hinder his
progress.
Despite those dramas, Calum's performance had taken them up
to third in class and 14th overall by the time he pitted to hand over to
the third driver, Dutchman Duncan Huisman. "We made some ground by
plodding on," said Calum, playing down his considerable performance in
an ill-handling car.
Huisman and Euser then took driving stints before Lockie
took over again at 8.45pm for his second stint. This would be a challenging
three-hour session, taking them through to almost midnight. With the mix of
pace and consistency demanded by endurance racing, Calum took the car up to
a fine eighth overall, still third in class with only the lead Jaguar and
the Porsche 911GT1 ahead of them. However, as his stint progressed, Calum
knew that all was not well.
"I had oversteer everywhere, even on the way up the
banking!" he reported. But that was not the only problem. "There
was a real drop off in performance," said Calum, and it soon became
clear that the handling problem was not their biggest concern as the engine
was starting to go off. Huisman rejoined the race, but the engine problem
got worse and worse and by 2am the team engineers elected to retire the
car. Continuing would probably have resulted in complete and very expensive
engine failure.
"The engine fuels mixture was leaning off all the
time, and it was going to blow up if we'd continued," said Calum.
Frustratingly, the Porsche 911GT1 later retired, and so second place in the
GTS class would certainly have been their result had they been able to
finish the race. "Second would have been very nice. But we showed well
again, and I got some more fabulous 24-hour experience," said Calum.
Now, Lockie has turned his attention to the 2002 racing
season and he is working to put together a full season of GT racing.
"There are some fantastic possibilities from all over the world, so I
hope to announce my plans shortly."
[20020208] (Photo: John Brooks)
New Meeting for South Devon Members
Club member Keith Preston who
runs Maverick Minis South West
has invited any Mini Marcos owners to the club's meetings which are held
at the Mayflower Inn, Ernesettle, Plymouth from 7:30pm on alternate
Fridays. Telephone 01752 319871 for details.
[20020120]
