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06-11-2009 - Team News England's James Ewens joins Team Ecosse to compete in the new V8Thunder iRacing Trucks series - welcome to the team James! 03-09-2009 - BeRacing BeGTCC Today Team Ecosse is happy to announce their cars for the remainder of the BeRacing BeGTCC 2009 season. Team Ecosse will field two Chevrolet Corvette's C6-R racers, to be driven by Davey Zoutenbier and Gino Martens. Both drivers are looking forward to the first race for Team Ecosse at Brno. Davey said: "I'm really looking forward to jump in the car at Brno after I've tested the car earlier on Laguna Seca where we are still to drive in BeGTCC. The car felt good from the first moment, and I believe we can score some points this weekend. And about my team mate? He's a good driver, and focused to get good results this weekend. He had a good career in NASCAR so I know he can deal with the power of the car, and with that come that he's no stranger for me as I drove against him in the V8Thunder Inters and Trucks series." Gino had no time to tell how he's feeling about this new team and car for the upcoming race, as he was fitting his seat in the C6-R.
Further on is announced that Davey Zoutenbier will drive the first car of the team under number 18, and his teammate Gino Martens will take place in the 07 car. The end of season standings saw Erik finish as the best-placed Team Ecosse driver, in 11th place. Alan was four places behind him, with Paul and Richard outside the Top 30. The team standings saw Team Ecosse - BMW in 7th place, quite a drop from last season's runner-up spot. Having said that, it was still the best RWD outfit. Team Ecosse - Lexus were 21st, the mid-season switch away from the Renault Megane bringing no change in results. A frustrating season for the team, then, with Alan and Erik already announcing they will not be returning to the series. The weekend started good for the Hondas and also the Chevrolet of Jack Keithley. It initially looked like an easy win for Keithley in the opening round, but there was more opposition then expected. After the practice session it was obvious that Keithley would not get this win for free. Kyle Schoeman, who was surprisingly fast had beaten Keithley in practice, just missed out on pole position. Schoeman started second, followed by Valentino Adams with his BMW on the second row. The first race was quite calm - Keithley drove away from the start followed by Schoeman and Adams. However in the backfield some drivers where struggling to find the grip and a good race pace. Daniel Johnson had a bad weekend at Brno, and he crashed out in Turn 1 and fell back to 15th spot. There where also some exciting fights between Mike Daish and Ryan Mortimer. Towards the end of the race, Adams lost 3rd place to Davey Zoutenbier. With the Top 8 reversed in Race 2 it promised to be an exciting race with a lot of cars overtaking, fighting and swapping paint. At the start, it looked like Zoutenbier was napping and he lost several positions. On the contrary, Joeri Blootacker raced to 2nd place behind Gav Barker, who had problems to find the pace this whole weekend in his Alfa. In the backfield there was a lot going on - Johnson got spun around by one or two cars and Timo Verhoest also got pushed off the track. Russ Palmer and his Honda Accord Euro R managed to pass many drivers, but at the end bad luck struck him when he drove into a BMW that had spun in front of him, causing a puncture on his tyre. Meanwhile the Top 5 was separating into two groups with Blootacker, Zoutenbier and Barker. Barker made a mistake, therefore he missed out on a podium finish. Further fighting went on between Blootacker and Zoutenbier, which ultimately went in favour of Zoutenbier. He brought his car home for the win, followed by Blootacker on two seconds and Adams. The next round promises to have another two exciting races. With success ballast added, other drivers will make steps forward for the podium and again paint will be shared and there will be more fighting for positions! As with everything, and everybody, the economy has taken its toll on the Team Ecosse Stock Car division. This winter saw painful losses to the Inters team, with Dave Luoto's very noticeable absence, and Thomas Hendrickson being forced to run a part time schedule. Despite the team's struggles and absences, Steve Smith and Jonas Marquez tried to root the team as best as possible, with Derek Howe providing some very needed support when possible. There were some brilliant highlights to the winter season, with Team Ecosse taking the win at both superspeedways, the first going to Jonas - his first win in V8Thunder - and the second going to Steve. Unfortunately those would be the only wins for the season, though Thomas would score two second places. The season came down to the final race to determine the driver and team champions, with Steve just 50 points out of first going into the final race, and the team only 10 points out. Alas, it was a heartbreak for the team to miss the title by 5 points, so many little things ended up making a major difference. The future for the Inters team seems very shaky right now, however veterans like Steve and Derek can always surprise us all.
As for Trucks, the season had plenty of ups and downs. As always, the competition provided the usual wreck avoidence as the primary race strategy. The greatest highlight of the season had to be the return of Davey Zoutenbier, with his clean and consistent finishes. It would seem that the more relaxed and cautious Davey, is attributed to his new crew chief and girlfriend. In a related story, there seems to be a shortage of M & Ms in the Netherlands, strangely coinciding with Davey's return to stock car racing! If Davey and his new crew chief are back next season, the team has something to look forward to! The evening got underway at Knockhill, and there were wins for Alan, Paul and Steve, with Alan and Paul coming out on top overall. Then it was time for the quirky Cowdenbeath short oval where, bizarrely, Paul was comfortably the best, winning two races (Steve won the other) and defeating all the team's so-called oval specialists. Finally, Loch Rannoch, where Thomas and Neil won the first two races, and Paul and Steve went head-to-head for the overall title at the final race... Except it didn't quite turn out that way. With his second win of the evening, Thomas came from nowhere to pip Paul by one point overall. A most unexpected end to a great event enjoyed by all. For full details, see here. The first race didn't start well for the team boss, as he lost both wings before even getting to the start-finish line on the opening lap! A long pitstop to fix the damage meant a points finish was never going to be on. Neil had a better run, and brought his car home in 13th place, last of the points-paying positions. The second race was an improvement for Alan, and he pretty much had an incident free run to a Top 10 result. Neil couldn't repeat his points finish of the first race, not helped by a first lap spin. All in all, it was a reasonable event for the team. The standard of driving in the series seems to get higher every season, and so any points will be well deserved. At the half-way stage in the season, Alan is 13th in the points, Erik 17th, Paul 27th and Richard 30th. Last season's team championship battle seems a long time ago... Unable to keep the fast FWD cars behind him, Alan gradually slipped down the field, eventually finishing 9th. Erik completed the race two places further up, in 7th. Paul was 23rd, but made up for it in the feature race, bringing his Megane home in the points, in 13th. Ahead of Paul were the two team BMWs of Erik and Alan, both picking up Top 10 results. A decent enough event for the team. It would be fair to say everyone is beginning to get to grips with the S6 cars. Things are looking up. Qualifying for the sprint race suggested they could be on for some good results, but technical difficulties during the race (and the odd mistake) meant all three drivers finished outside the points. Things improved somewhat in the feature race, though, with solid drives all round. Erik finished inside the Top 10, and Alan and Paul also finished in the points. This gives the team some momentum for the next round at Portland. As the cars took to the track things looked good but, in what seemed an eerie premonition of things to come, Sergey Rebrov tangled with the aprons time and time again. The cautions soon began to fly, and the carnage ensued. It soon became a race of avoidence, until finally it was a five way fight between SRD's Simon Topham and Jack Keithley and Team Ecosse's Derek, Steve and Jonas. The two teams lined up, SRD on the inside lane, and Team Ecosse on the outside. Both squads showed great team work, racing side by side, lap after lap, swapping the lead back and forth... until Topham tried a block and once again the caution would fly. On the final caution, Topham chose to pit, giving the lead to Jonas. Despite a charge on the restart, and a bump into turn three on the final lap, Jonas held on to the end for his first V8Thunder win! Race one delivered all it had promised with some fantastic racing right the way through the field. Jack made a good start but was not able to shake off the Seat Leon of Davey Zoutenbier who showed yet again that the diesel powered car is more than a match for its petrol rivals. Valentino Adams grabbed the final place on the podium. John Gordon managed to pip Daniel Johnson to eighth place on the final corner to take the all important pole for race two. Could race two deliver the same door to door action that race one delivered? Of course it could. Gav Barker made the most of the BMW's better traction to launch off the line into first position. Gordon followed Barker for most of the race whilst Davey Zoutenbier, Jack Keithley and Joeri Blootacker battled it out for the remaining podium position. In the end an error from Barker gave Gordon the lead and he dropped back into the clutches of the hard fighting drivers behind. In the end Gordon held on for his first race with Barker making another error on the final lap to hand Zoutenbier second and Keithley third. On to Monza next for what is shaping up to be a thrilling championship. Will we have another winner in round four?
Race report courtesy of BeRacing Practice and qualifying went well for the Dutchman, and he finished both races in the points with a 4th place finish in Race 1 and 2nd in Race 2. It could have been even better, though, as Davey was smashed into the side on the final lap - that cost him the win! Speaking after the dust had settled, Davey had this to say: "In the first race, I had a pretty good start. However I thought it was not the way the start was meant to be. It was a bit confusing. But still I managed to pick some spots, and my car turned out be great, really a different drive than previous sessions. I was very happy to finish 4th. The second race had some nice fights, here and there. Then I really found the pace in that TDI and, to be fair, it surprised me like hell - it was so fast on the straight line, I could clearly see that I gained tenths of seconds, only in corners it turned out to be little bit slower. Then I got in a battle with Jack Keithley for the win. Made some nice moves, he overtook me, I overtook him and so on. On the last lap, though, he braked a little too late with worn tyres and smashed into my side, which put me into the gravel! As a result, I ended up 2nd. But shit happens. Let's move on. The season is long, and there's definitely more to come from me!" Individually, the two drivers were fast for most of the season, but struggled at some tracks. Alan finished eighth overall, with one pole, one win - BMW's only win - and ten Top 10s to his name. Erik finished just behind his teammate in ninth, with four podiums and ten Top 10s. The team is now looking forward to GRCL6 and trying out the new cars for the new season. While it is likely the team will stick with the BMW, nothing is guaranteed. The opening race saw Alan line up second on the grid, with Erik four places behind him. A great start for both drivers resulted in Alan being first and Erik third by Turn 1! The lead was soon relinquished, however, as Mark Tiller was in unstoppable form in his SEAT. After that, it was a battle between the two Team Ecosse drivers and Jan Haak for the remaining podium positions. Starting the final lap, Alan was looking good for second, but Erik was running fourth having been passed a couple of laps earlier by Jan. Amazingly, though, the race leader got tangled up with a backmarker on the final corner of the final lap, which let Alan through to win! Not only that, Erik was also promoted to third, making it two teammates on the podium. A fantastic effort from the team. The feature race didn't go quite as well. Erik, in particular, struggled after a mistake in qualifying, but eventually managed to bring his BMW home in the final points-paying position. Alan's race was also far from perfect, and he finished 7th. All in all, though, a good night for the team, and one which shows Team Ecosse can just about compete with the best in Division 2. In practise Morten was at the front, together with Steve and Thomas, which suggested a good race for the Team Ecosse drivers. David and Davey struggled with their cars during practice but by the end were looking pretty good. However, Davey took a risk and made last minute changes in Happy Hour which resulted in rev limiter problems on the straights. The other Team Ecosse drivers were at the back of the field, patiently waiting for the right time to commence their move to the front. Thomas managed to stay there and eventually took 2nd place from Martin Buchan in a thrilling fight! Davey managed to hold the vMaxSR drivers behind him and ended up 4th, despite his problems. Unfortunately for Steve, his engine blew during a restart. As the flag dropped, the team began to patiently work its way through the field, keeping a close eye on the newbies that were an unknown factor, and an even closer eye on some of the veterans known for their 'destructive' nature. Davey would show great pace, working his way towards the front, in what would end up being a roller coaster night for him - on the track, and emotionally. As the race progressed, the carnage began to ensue, with Davey and Thomas find themselves the proud owners of bent sheet metal. Once again Davey's crew worked tirelessly, unwilling to give up, patching up his battered truck. Meanwhile the sly veterans, Steve and Derek, had very quietly worked their way to the front of the pack. As the laps ticked off, and the field thinned, the silence on the team channel was broken when Thomas declared the expiration of his engine. The green would fly again, and Steve would take his #09 Subway truck the the front of the pack... but the yellow would soon come out. Leading the pack to the final restart, the #09 would quickly get pressured by Ian Smiff's #06, after pulling to Steve's outside, Yosh would pack Steve spoiler with air, making him loose into Turn 1, and shuffle him back to 7th a place finish. Derek would stick to Ian's bumper and hold on to a second place finish, while Davey, seemingly coming out of nowhere, would race his way to third (after restarting at the back of the pack 10 laps earlier) and Jonas would round out the top five in his #65 River Restless Silverado. As it turned out, he finished a comfortable 4th, and so Team Ecosse was crowned the team champions. This is the team's first such title outside of the V8Thunder NR2003 league, so congratulations to Alan and Brian for their efforts! The opening race was predictably frantic, but both Team Ecosse drivers started well and moved into the Top 10, only to hit problems later on. Alan finished just outside the points in 17th, with Erik further back in 22nd after having to make a stop for fuel. The feature race was much better for the team, and the longer duration allowed Alan and Erik to move up the field and show what they were capable of. Despite starting from the back, Erik brought his E90 home just inside the Top 10, while Alan also picked up points in 12th. An unspectacular start for the team, but reasons to be confident for the second round at Mid-Ohio. | ||
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