VdeV UK, Brands

[Suze]

Went down to this yesterday, thought was a little disappointing overall. The VdeV race had 14 entries but only 13 starters, and the support races had low entries too [9 for the two open sports and saloons race and 20 which was better for the Classic Clubmens]. The VdeV race itself had a few twists and turns with both leaders retiring but it needs significantly more entries before going to the longer races next year. There was a low number of marshals and spectators there as well, but I hope it'll take off like the French series.

[bickers]

I was there for the first race and i have to say i was impressed,when you consider britsports has been going for a number of years now and still doesnt atract that many numbers.This is going to kick off big time,its exciting to watch as there are proper regs and have a guy who seems to know what he is doing running it!I'm also sure that Eric would not have given permission to use the name if he didnt think that it could be made a sucsess over here.
I think that teams will soon realise that this is where drivers want to be racing and will be snapping up cars,(at the moment there are more drivers than cars)
Disapointment for the day was the lack of cn radical(we all know why that is,i think radical might be a wee bit worried about this series taking over their endurance series)
Keep an eye on this series its gonna be massive!

[johngee]

Wish I'd have known you were there Suze - it would have been good to say hello. I was a Club Steward with absolutely nothing to do!!!!

[Suze]

Ah....I was the only person in the media centre, bar the Phillips! Where were you? I did watch a little from elsewhere when things got really to dull to bear....back at Brands a couple of times in July if you're around John.

VdeV should take off as a great series if the French one is anything to go by - but they really need to get more people about before thinking about the longer format races for next season.

[johngee]

I was in the next office!!!!!!! I'm sure we'll get to meet eventually....I'm clerking the HSCC Superprix this weekend if you're around then

[minimangler]

Stupid question;
what is VdeV, and how does it differ from Britsports et al?
I'm uneducated.

[zac510]

Originally Posted by bickers

when you consider britsports has been going for a number of years now and still doesnt atract that many numbers.This is going to kick off big time,

I know I've part-quoted you, but how does the latter work based on the former?
At this stage it appears the only thing that would bolster the grids would be international entries.
However I do have VdeV Snet pencilled into my motorsport calendar

[bickers]

Basically the main area that Britsports got wrong is the lack of regs,nobody wants to watch a juno with a monster engine walk away with it cause they have no competiton!Where as the cn regs are great,it ends up being a lot closer racing.Britsports have now altered it to be more like vdev but they have totally alienated most of the drivers and teams already.
As i said earlier there are more drivers wanting to race in this than there are cars,the numbers will get bigger and bigger.
vdev will actually attract teams where as britsports attracts mainly club compettitors.also the guy running it actually knows what endurance racing is,not like the EERC(european endurance)with races of an hour are hardly endurance!

[Suze]

Originally Posted by johngee

I was in the next office!!!!!!! I'm sure we'll get to meet eventually....I'm clerking the HSCC Superprix this weekend if you're around then

Oops...I'll be there for F3 and also the Vee weekend in July so let me know if you're going

minimangler - VdeV is sortof like an LMP3 series, if such a thing actually existed and was formally recognised as such. There's a website at http://www.vdev-uk.com/

[SebringMG]

People want value for money - hour long race is a little short IMO especially if you have 2 drivers. CN rules very good - perhaps they ought to be ratified as LMP3 ?

[ss_collins]

Seeing as its in the USA, UK and France its not too far off being called LMP3 plus the ACO quite like it I hear

[brandspost4a]

Originally Posted by johngee

I was a Club Steward with absolutely nothing to do!!!!

John, It was even quieter down on 4a. only visitor #99 in the Vde V race and he was so polite when I explained that he should stay in the car and we would have him tugged out and send him on his way. So no contentious report to write and disturb your rest.

I hope the series will take off as it was quite a good race despite the low number of cars. Also many thanks to MSVR, Gary Ward of V de V Uk, IF Motorsport and Bryce Wilson for giving three Marshals a great lunch break prize of a ride in one of the cars. I was one of the lucky ones to be picked from the hat and thoroughly enjoyed it. Must admit that I have never the pit lane as fast as we did .

See you at the weekend.

[Suze]

I know who you are now then too

The 99 car spun and got stuck in the edge of the gravel before being towed out....and IIRC you had one of the cars from the sports and saloons pass through the gravel too? That's all I recall....

[brandspost4a]

Originally Posted by Suze

I know who you are now then too

The 99 car spun and got stuck in the edge of the gravel before being towed out....and IIRC you had one of the cars from the sports and saloons pass through the gravel too? That's all I recall....

Damn! Will have to get false beard etc out now! Yeah one of the sports saloons played the "lets pebble dash the marshals" game.

[Antoine]

Hi there,
I was one of the few spectators there.
Those Open Saloon/Sportscars races were quite useful as I had been out the night before and at least caught up on 40 minutes of sleep!
I thought the VdeV's were very entertaining and looked great.
Spent time taking pictures at Druids and Surtees with most drivers pushing very hard.
They definitely need more cars if they plan to run three hour races next year but I thought it was encouraging for a debut and I hope it does succeed.

[andy97]

Originally Posted by bickers

As i said earlier there are more drivers wanting to race in this than there are cars,the numbers will get bigger and bigger.

Perhaps a Class B or "VdeV2" could be introduced for the former Vauxhall Supersports cars - there are a few of these cars about and would be great value if they had somewhere to race. Maybe a bit down on power compared to a VTEC Honda but still good cars. Duratec Sports 2000's might also work well in this class or in their own Class C ("VdeV3"). It would be good to see a full grid of cost effective endurance sports car racing available in the UK.

[minimangler]

3 Hour races? There has to be a lot of cars, with only half a dozen even an hour would drag. But, i think it does have potential if it can get tacked on as support for something, say LMS?

[ss_collins]

vdev france is huge and I think the uk will go that way too but I think there should be a grace class for old Vauxhall Supersports, S2000, VD 281 (DP04/FX) and similar for a couple of years until the girds big enough to be pure VdeV rules. Gives firms like ADR, Chiron, Jade, Lynx etc to get a CN developed

Lola have decided against doing a CN

there were pretty mich all the uk CN cars out at brands

[Suze]

there were pretty mich all the uk CN cars out at brands

Too - although only 13 starters there were 14 cars at Brands [with there being 16 CN cars in the UK - I think the two missing were the Spirits...]

[bickers]

vdev france is huge and I think the uk will go that way too but I think there should be a grace class for old Vauxhall Supersports, S2000, VD 281 (DP04/FX) and similar for a couple of years until the girds big enough to be pure VdeV rules. Gives firms like ADR, Chiron, Jade, Lynx etc to get a CN developed

Lola have decided against doing a CN

there were pretty mich all the uk CN cars out at brands



Im pretty sure that the adr already conforms to cn regs,chiron are in the process of making 3 cn cars,the body work was at brands and looks very smart(good work Henry)I hear Jade are making a new car but it sounds like they are sticking to the v6's rather than cn spec,there will be a new Bicknell out next year but probably only in the french championship.
I'm sure that the old supersports cars could run fairly well,the only problem being fuel stops!If they had a class 2 for old supersports we could bring the old beut out to play to!

[Suze]

chiron are in the process of making 3 cn cars,the body work was at brands and looks very smart(good work Henry)

Actually four as far as I know....

[bickers]

oh right Bill and Henry didnt tell us about that then!looks like things are on the up for them with some backing they have just got!
its certainly gonna be interesting next year,new chiron,2007 norma,the juno and ligiers oh and dont forget the bicknell coming in to spoil the show!

[andy97]

I think that the CN cars are the spiritual successors to the 2 litre Group 6 cars, and that's a good thing IMHO.

[ger80]

Are the problems with CN cars in VdeV solved? Think Norma had some problems with the new car at the begin of the season in VdeV-F.