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Richmond Racing helped Team RAM to their best result
For 2009 Richmond racing have only one goal, to win a Fun Cup race, having won in every category they’ve entered previously the first Fun cup win has alluded them after two years of trying the best result so far has been third British car at the 2008 Spa 25hrs and a third in the UK series.
In 2009 Richmond racing are once again running the Team RAM car with drivers Richard Ince, Austin Reynolds and Mark Owen.
Austin spent the winter getting fit and focused, Richard went on holiday and Mark, well we are not to sure what he was doing and thought it better not to ask!
Over the winter the team fitted 160bhp TDi engine, winter testing was used to iron out installation problems, we knew it would be a struggle at the 1st round as a good set up seemed very difficult to find.
Team regulars Paul and Jimmy were on hand to run the car in testing at Rockingham on the Friday. This turned out to be a very difficult day as the team set about solving outstanding issues, the pair worked late into the night to solve the issues and apply a set up that they thought would work. Team boss Richard arrived early on Saturday to give extra help.
Free Practice/Qualifying
The three Drivers rotated through the car evaluating the changes in set up and declared themselves very happy with the teams work. The car ended up being the fourth quickest TDi engined car, whilst it was good to confirm the team’s pace this ended up being of no use, as the grid is drawn from a hat, lady luck shines as the team draws a front row grid slot.
Race
Six hours is a long race by any standard, and starting driver Richard Ince made every effort to lead from the front however, great defending from the pole sitter meant being hung out on the outside and Richard lost a place. The race then started to settle down with the RAM car in the lead pack running third. As the team made driver changes the car stayed in third but was slipping away from the leaders. During the third stint Mark had a ‘moment’ just prior to a safety car period and the team lost a lap to the leaders. On the restart Mark pushed hard to regain the lap, but what was needed now was another safety car period, of course they are like buses! However the good news was that the leader of the race was directly behind us on track and fighting with another car, in the end they had an incident which would drop them behind us for good. Now Paul "numbers" decided to work the strategy to get us to finish in second place, all of the Team RAM drivers did their bit driving with a blend of speed and precision. Austin’s winter work outs were now paying dividends. Mark Owen took the final stint with a thirty second lead over the third place car of last years number 1 car. It was going to be a thrilling last hour as the Paul Rose car made a huge effort to catch Mark up, however in the end Mark bought the car home in second place over twenty seconds ahead of the third place car. So the first outing with the TDi and a podium finish, the team are now fired up to go for victory in the most difficult series it has so far encountered.
With more news to follow.... Watch this space!
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