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Big-R Motorsport April 2010 – Special Issue!!!!!!

Out with the Old and In with the New!!!!!!

It‟s the Big-R Motorsport New Car Issue

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Contents

Item Page #

News 3 -4

Rally Trinidad Report 5

Editorial – Laggerz Every Month 6

Interview with Graeme Finlayson 7-9

Staff Writers 10

Question of the month 11

Letters to the Editor 11

For This Month‟s Pictures we thank

Greame Finlayson

Rally Trinidad.com

The Editor (Johnathan Alleyne)

Dominic Linton

Flickr

Facebook

An Extra Special Thanks goes out to Mr.Graeme Finlayson for this Month‟s Interview.

Staff

Editor: Johnathan Alleyne

Sub Editor: Dominic Linton

Research Department: Tremayne Jemmott,Jaleel Osbourne

Consultants: Graeme Finlayson, Dominic Linton

For further information, or to ask our opinions

Contact us @: jmcalleyne@hotmail.com

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Motorsport News

Harold „Doc‟ Morley has acquired the ex-Ipatec Racing Porsche 911 GT3 and hopes to

dominate the Super Modified 11 Class in this years rally Barbados.

Ryan Champion hopes to return to drive this year‟s Rally Barbados,and better his

previous year‟s performances, after he dropped out on the first day last year and won

Production-4 in 2008.

John „Penti‟ Powell hopes to contest all of the 2010 Barbados Rally Championship in his

Subaru S12B WRC .He also competed in Rally Trinidad this year, in which he beat

former British Rally Champion Mark Higgins, for the win.

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Top Bardadian driver Dean Serrao has suffered a terrible loss-his brand new Subaru

Impreza WRC S9.It burnt on the very first stage in Rally Trinidad.

On somewhat happier news, except for the four wheeled drive boys whom he will be

beating, Adrian Linton, member of the Kick Astra Rally Team, has débuted a wonderful

new Vauxhall Astra GSi. This year he will go for broke, to win the title of the Virgin

Atlantic Rally Champion, a title he has held twice before. The previous Astra was written

off on the final night stage on day one of Rally Barbados last year, after hitting a cut rock.

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Rally Trinidad Report:

This years Rally Trinidad was extremely exciting for real rally fans. There were no less

than 3 World Rally Cars at the event this year, but most people expected the Rally

Winner to be Trinidad based regional competitor John „Penti‟ Powell in his Subaru S12B

WRC.

Paul „The Surfer‟ Bourne from team Barbados, one of the expected top performers had a

good start, but unfortunately, in true World Rally Car fashion, his Ford Focus,

encountered mechanical problems, and he was out of the rally. Neil Armstrong in his

Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution 6 was leading Trinidad‟s Group-A class, but when a

problem struck, he was relegated to second in the group. Ian Warren in the ex-Sean Gill

Suzuki Swift was in fine form, leading the 2 wheeled drive class by over a minute.

Ryan „Woodie‟ Wood came second in his group and Stuart „Whitey‟ White came third,

both in Toyota Starlets.

Mark Hamilton also came second in his group in a MK2 Escort.

The highlight of the final day was a display of skill by British Rally Champion Mark

Higgins in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution 9; he came second in the event, which was

phenomenal in a Group-N car.

Third in the event was Ainsley Lochan, also in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution 9.

Dean Serrao and his navigator Michael Worme were out on the first stage in their Subaru

S9 after it burnt.

Harold Morley came third in Production 4 in his Subaru Impreza N14.

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Editorial- Laggers ® Every Month

VS

Most people believe that to win, or even to be competitive in a rally, you need a vehicle

with big power (or four wheel drive); I don‟t agree. It has not been proven that big power,

nor is a four wheel drive car necessary. It is the skill that is necessary. There are many

problems associated with these big power cars.

The Barbados Rally Championship has rarely been won by a car with big power or 4WD,

because of the cost of running these machines, consistently, for an entire season is great.

The car‟s gas bill is higher than the clouds and the costs of rebuilding that High-Tech

engine wouldn‟t be too low either.

The best thing to have when trying to win a championship is a reliable car. A World

Rally Car is built for one season in the WRC, so no matter how much you rebuilt the

engine, there is still a risk, so it would be terrible for the car to do yet another season, or

two, in a country without high-tech WRC training.

Dominic Linton:

I agree with him totally. My dad (Adrian Linton) has won the title in 2002, 2006 and

2007, Josh Read won it in 2008 and Sean Gill won it in 2000 and 2003.

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Mad Man Reports: Tremayne „T.J.‟Jemmott

RB26 VS 2JZ

This is something long disputed. Both engines sound great no matter the chassis in which

they are installed and they are rumored to make massive amounts of power on stock

blocks, internals and etc. The 2jz gets a bit better spool on the turbo due to the fact that it

is 3.0L opposed to the rb26 at 2.6L but the rb26 is said to be easier to maintain and make

more reliable horsepower. Both engines are famous for being able to make a 1000HP in

full race trim and a large turbo. They are also infamous for their stroker kits. The biggest

displacement I‟ve seen is the 3.4L titan motorsports kit for the 2jz, the supra in the fan

photos uses this kit. There is also 2.8L manufactured for the rb by various companies.

There is however on the rb's side the rb26/30. This is the stock 3.0l bottom end from an

r31 skyline converted to DOHC using and rb26 cylinder head. A pic of this is also on the

fan photos. Here in Barbados there are a few 2jz Supra‟s. There are also a good few

Skylines but there is only one high powered one with an rb26 engine. It is housed in the

engine bay of Steve King's circuit skyline. This car is also posted on the fan photos.

These engines aren't everyday common in Barbados which is surprising considered that

they can be crammed into cheap Nissan S chassis cars whose populations growing here.

You may be wondering why I said "they" and not just the rb. Well that's because people

actually put the 2jz into Nissan S chassis cars. The most internationally famous has to be

the Driftworks S15 Silvia drift car which is in the fan photos. Hopefully these engines

will be seen in Barbados soon. Whichever u prefer, have fun driving it.

Joke of the month:

2 JZ engine; with a shot of NAS injection. It made us laugh anyway…

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Interview with Graeme Finlayson

I’m here with Graeme Finlayson, one of the foreign drivers who will be contesting the

majority Barbados Rally Club’s season this year , in an Evo, again.

So Graeme, you were born where?

Graeme Finlayson-Well I was actually born in Germany, I was raised in Scotland, England and

Belize, the benefits of being a forces child, my father was an air force pilot so we moved around an awful lot, but I kind of got hooked on Barbados and the motorsport here and this is where I am

trying to stay for the rest of my competition life.

So you’ll be living here for a while then?

That‟s the plan, that‟s the plan, I want to live here with the car, but at the moment it‟s just for the

competition and then we‟ll see what we can do long-term.

So your best rally and result would be?

I think the first year we moved to four wheel drive was very rewarding, that was in the group-n

Evo; we came out here and got second in group-n, which was probably the best result that we‟ve got, I think the best finish result that we got was about 13

th overall in Rally Barbados, but the best

rally result was 2nd

overall last year‟s Sun and Stars, I would probably say that the most

rewarding was the Peugeot 205;that was 3 months of hell,2 days of driving hell in Rally Barbados, and I think that we finished near last but just to finish, finish alive, was rewarding that

year, that was me and Damien Yearwood (Logic) ,that was exceptional just to be in one piece,

never again.

So your worst rally memory would be?

Oh God, Worst rally memory I think was the last year we ran the Westfield up here; we had put

in months of work, a lot of money, had to miss Valcluse , we did the rally and three stages in, we blew the engine, and that was done, all that work, all that effort and we did about 3 miles of

competitive driving, that was a good year spectating ,we landed on a corner with a couple of

people from Zhaust, and within 30 seconds of stepping out of the car and the extinguishers going off, I was handed a beer; so the spectating that year was excellent, the rallying was awful.

And your favorite rally would be?

Having competed in, let me think, I really enjoyed Sun and Stars this year, I actually didn‟t drive that, I was navigating for Martin Atwell the entire time but it was very rewarding because we

were making a car on bad rubber run at front running pace, it was very rewarding, just a shame

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that it was cut short with the stages but that was very rewarding to navigate and compete in, it

was very well ran.

And your biggest or worst accident would be?

It was probably in a go kart, I had a big gearbox-kart crash, those things were pretty damn quick,

and that was a 250cc engine and it went into a wall, but the biggest one was probably on this island, and we got away with it actually, it was at the end of 2004 I think it was, me and Jamal

Braithwaite in the Westfield, we had run the whole rally, just quite conservatively, we just wanted

to finish and give an average result because we couldn‟t push too hard, we got to Valcluse ,we right, said lets go for it, we want the fastest time around Valcluse ,the car was on too much

pressure in the tires and I was probably a bit too keen, crested the hill into the hairpin, tried to pull

for sixth gear but I should have been braking, I went into the wall pretty hard, then I looked at Jamal and said “Are you ok?”,he said “Yeah ,I‟m ok” ,I tried to reverse it out of the wall; the

whole front of the car was bent up, and they‟re still rumors going around that we rolled the car

and all that nonsense but it‟s just that that car took a front end impact pretty well. And it‟s just as

well really, that was probably the worst accident we‟ve had so far.

And, are you nervous when you come up to the start line?

Yes, yes generally, I‟ve had a couple of rallies last year that I was relaxed on for some reason,

which is unusual, normally if you are not nervous-if you don‟t have adrenaline, then something‟s wrong. You know, it also sharpens you up, the adrenaline in your body makes your reactions

quicker, your reflexes quicker, everything work quicker, so if you don‟t have any it‟s a problem,

and a couple of them last year, I wasn‟t that really fussed about and it showed in the results, but I‟ve got the bug again now, so yeah, its back and I can‟t wait.

And you said that you might’ve been switching from the Evo?

We‟ll see, we‟ll see, at the moment, we‟ll see what‟s going to happen there. The Evo I actually have up for sale, I‟m conscious to the fact that I‟ll never get a quicker car for the money, but the

Group-A cars, even this level of Group-A is very expensive to run, especially for Four wheel

drive: the tires and the fuel, they just eat them .I don‟t know, but we‟ve got some ideas in mind, two specific ones and if the car sells I would go down that route otherwise it‟s the Group-A Evo

all year long. Group-A is getting a little quiet but Group-N had one or two cars these last few

years and we‟ll still see three or more competing, and its nice to be at that sort of speed level, I

don‟t want to go slower, so hopefully we‟ll keep it for a while.

Well, how do you think you would feel in a smaller vehicle, well how have you felt in a

smaller vehicle like the Fluke or the Westfield?

I love them! I came from karts you know, all my racing in the past was karts, by no means am I a rally driver, I‟m a circuit driver and a kart racer, so I‟m much more at home in the Westfield or

the Caterhams or something like that. Even something light and rear wheel drive, oh I mean the

Starlets are at the back of your mind, the MK II Escorts, but there is a couple of times, well for

me that you hook up the corners perfectly in a four wheel drive car, nothing beats it, nothing beats it, but the rear wheel drives are much easier to get to that level of sideways action or movement,

where you know, with four wheel drives you have to be so aggressive, so hard and you‟re going

so fast that if something goes wrong, it‟s going to hurt, it‟s going to be expensive. In the rear wheel drives you can get to that level of fun a lot earlier, but you know, we‟ll see what happens,

at the moment I still consider myself a rear wheel drive driver I‟m not a four wheel drive driver,

we might get there one day.

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So about your current car, is there any history there?

Yeah, it‟s got a good history that car, it was effectively a factory build by Quick Motorsport and

they were very well known. They built Micey‟s Evo 5 amongst other well known cars, they‟re a proper professional outfit, it ended up in the hands of a guy called “Mad” Mick Jones, who is a

legend in the U.K. he is absolutely insane, he is ballistic, he was beating Perez in the forest, he

was handing it to WRC cars in this car, he now runs a MK II Escort with a Honda S2000 engine punching well above its weight, so we bought the Evo from him after it had been successfully

campaigned. We had a few teething problems most notably on Rally Barbados last year the Dog-

Box being the main one, but since changing back to a standard RS box, a rebuilt one, it‟s been faultless, absolutely faultless, the car is fantastic, so we hope to continue his results, which is

doing well now. We had a lot of Group-A wins last year, and on more than one occasion we were

quicker than Armstrong, so the car‟s got the potential.

And, you prefer; front, rear or four wheel drive?

Well, I‟m between four wheel drive and rear wheel drive. Naturally I‟m a rear wheel drive driver,

but, you know naturally I still have it. The first stage, the first time you through the car into a corner, if the back steps out I lift or feather, which is something you do not do in a four wheel

drive car, then after maybe the first time that happens, four wheel drive mode kicks in and your

brain kicks into four wheel drive and off you go. But a couple of times I‟ve done gravel tests where you hook up all four wheels, foot flat to the floor, car‟s just skating around ;in a four wheel

drive car its exceptional, but rear wheel drive when you‟ve got to balance the front and the rear,

your hands are doing the front wheels, your right foot‟s doing the rear wheels, it feels a bit more

natural, but I want to give four wheel drive another go yet!

And last but not least, why Evo’s? Reliability, costs, those are probably the main things and I do like the shape, it‟s always a through

up for me between the early Evo‟s like the three, I like the five, I like the six the six and a half

and I like the old Impreza‟s I don‟t like the shape of the new Impreza‟s. But I look at an Impreza

engine and I just don‟t understand it, I couldn‟t change the spark plugs on one of those things, whereas the Evo to me is a normal engine and you know, the Evo‟s have a better reliability for

me; very easy to work on, very easy to source parts and the early Evo‟s are very nice cars to

drive, so I‟ve kind of gone down that route, got the knowledge, got the parts together, got a spares package and we‟ve stuck with it for now, well you know we started with a standard-esque Evo

,gone to a Clubman Group-A, and now we‟re in kind of a Factory Group-A car. If it doesn‟t sell it

would be a good one to stick with for me, it‟s very quick, easy to work on cheap to run and fun to drive, so that‟s the plan for now.

Thanks a lot man, but we will be back dude!

Anytime!

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Question of the month:

Why are these new Super 2000 cars becoming so popular?

T.J.: Well I don't know anything but it could be that they're umm, how to put this nicely,

fast as hell. They will beat a Group-n car (provided it's piloted by a good driver) and

sound good doing it. Watch one on YouTube and you'll see why they're popular.

D.L.: They are cheaper than World Rally Cars and put out similar horsepower and

torque, 4wd, revving over 8000rpm, as quick as a World Rally Car in straight line

without the use of turbochargers, if I had money, I would buy one too!

Big-R.: Well, it is proven that some can beat group-n cars but as World Rally of Mexico

has proven; the traditional group-n cars are better and cheaper!

Letters to the Editor:

Dominic Linton

-Everyone assumes that to win your car needs a dog box. What is your take on dog

boxes?

Well I‟m Pretty neutral on them. They can be good and they can be bad, just like

anything else. If a car has the special gearbox I don‟t think it would be any faster anyway.

The majority of race cars come with them standard nowadays. But I could say that to get

the real feel of racing, go for the original H- Pattern box.

-Big-R Motorsport