So after 7 gruelling months and 12 rounds it came down to the last meeting for the 2010 XR2 season. The weather forecast was for a clear if cold weekend but the sun decided to make an appearance on Saturday.With Marin still running on by now well worn tyres, laptimes were not the main aim but to just check the car was running fine. The 1st session went incident free but carburettor troubles in the 2nd session meant a switch to the spare carb again (probably more dirt in the original carb)
Sunday came and with the XR2 being last on the timetable it was a relaxed start to the day. Qualifying came and for the 1st time this season Martin had very little traffic issues yet strangley achieved his lowest qualifying of the season in 8th place with a 65.239 laptime.
Race 1 arrived on a dry track. Martin got a great start and probabaly the best of the season and into Duffis had managed to pass Alex Shaw and Steven Gray to gain 2 spots straight away. The fight between Martin, Charlie Cope and then Peter Cruickshank who'd had a disasterous qualifying was quite close but then coming out of the hairpin on lap 7 Charlie and Peter tagged when fighting over the smallest peice of tarmac and Martin slipped by on the inside while Peter was sent off into the barrier. In the closing laps Martin was catching Finlay Adams in 4th place but was never close enough to consider a last lap lunge.
Race 2 brought rain with quite a vengance and so all the competitiors were on fully gay suspension settings (fully soft). Once again martin had a poor start and was gobbeld up early on but lap after lap positions were made up thanks to Alex binning it at McIntyre's then Finlay and Charlie having an incident which stopped the awsome show of Finlay's sideways XR2. Martin was sitting in 4th but quickly caught up to Russell Milloy in 3rd place and the racing was very close, Martin did manage to nose ahead with the help of an ST upto the hairpin but Russell was clever enough to counter this and so Martin finished in 4th and just missed out on another podium finish for the season.
A strong finish to the season with a 5th and 4th place finish leaving Martin 7th in the overall championship and 5th in the newcomers. Congrats to Tim Sleigh on both titles in a dominant season and also to Russell for his pace in the last 2 races, the badger force was definetley with him!
As for 2011, Martin may or may not be racing depending on 'finance' reasons.
Tuesday 26 October 2010
Friday 15 October 2010
Rounds 13 and 14 Preview
End of the season has now arrived, amazing how time can fly by so quick.
Tim Sleigh has clinched both championships and the biggest fights are probably for 2nd in the overall championship with Charlie Cope leading Peter Cruickshank by 19 points but if the wet weather arrives on Sunday Id put my money on Charlie. Elsewhere in the newcomers its Martin up against Russell Milloy and Wayne MacCauley for 3rd place in the newcomers title.
Tim Sleigh has clinched both championships and the biggest fights are probably for 2nd in the overall championship with Charlie Cope leading Peter Cruickshank by 19 points but if the wet weather arrives on Sunday Id put my money on Charlie. Elsewhere in the newcomers its Martin up against Russell Milloy and Wayne MacCauley for 3rd place in the newcomers title.
Tuesday 21 September 2010
XR2 Race Report - Rounds 11 & 12
Rounds 11 and 12 of the Scottish Fiesta XR2 championship took place on cold, foggy and very wet Knockhill. Conditions made the track treacherous with rivers forming on track and powerboats seemed more suited than cars.
With having the honour of being first on track, the XR2's and ST's were the first to experience the lack in grip and with the ST's having wet tires it made it harder for the XR2 runners. Martin calmly got into a good rhythm on what he considers to be his favourite weather and ended up 6th on the grid even with persistent traffic problems.
Race 1 saw little improvement in the weather and after an aborted start the race was underway, Martin got a good start but by being too cautious into duffis was unable to capitalise. With the ST's already coming through the field, Martin was in a close battle in 5th against Dave Colville when the safety car was deployed. This bunched up the field but in the remaining laps Martin was unable to make a move and finished in 6th.
Race 2 brought a slight improvement but with tyres well past their best Martin was in for a tough race. After a bad start, Martin attempted an ambitious move into duffis which didnt pay off and let both Greg Graham who was having a super drive and Russell Miloy through. The order remained until McIntyres on lap 2 when Dave C spun gifting 7th place then with some luck on the next lap Martin was up to 5th when firstly Greg spun at Duffis followed by Russell at the chicane. The safety was brought out again but troubles with a newcomer lead to Martin and Peter Cruickshank being held up and unable to catch the leading 3 cars. 5th was to be the final result and brought Martin up to 3rd in the XR2 Newcomers
With having the honour of being first on track, the XR2's and ST's were the first to experience the lack in grip and with the ST's having wet tires it made it harder for the XR2 runners. Martin calmly got into a good rhythm on what he considers to be his favourite weather and ended up 6th on the grid even with persistent traffic problems.
Race 1 saw little improvement in the weather and after an aborted start the race was underway, Martin got a good start but by being too cautious into duffis was unable to capitalise. With the ST's already coming through the field, Martin was in a close battle in 5th against Dave Colville when the safety car was deployed. This bunched up the field but in the remaining laps Martin was unable to make a move and finished in 6th.
Race 2 brought a slight improvement but with tyres well past their best Martin was in for a tough race. After a bad start, Martin attempted an ambitious move into duffis which didnt pay off and let both Greg Graham who was having a super drive and Russell Miloy through. The order remained until McIntyres on lap 2 when Dave C spun gifting 7th place then with some luck on the next lap Martin was up to 5th when firstly Greg spun at Duffis followed by Russell at the chicane. The safety was brought out again but troubles with a newcomer lead to Martin and Peter Cruickshank being held up and unable to catch the leading 3 cars. 5th was to be the final result and brought Martin up to 3rd in the XR2 Newcomers
Friday 17 September 2010
Round 11 and 12 Preview - Sunday 19th September
Back to the usual Sunday racedays from now on. Tim Sleigh looks set to clinch the title very soon with a 70 point lead over Charlie Cope and with only 100 points left it would take some unbelievable bad luck fro the title to go elsewhere. Elsewhere the battle for 3rd is hotting up with Antony Leese, Peter Cruickshank (the man on form with 3 wins out of the last 4 races) and Barry Holmes all in contention.
In the XR2 Newcomers, Tim Sleigh needs only to start to clinch the title with Antony Leese 100 points behind. Following that, Russell Milloy and Martin Buchan are only separated by 3 points but with Russell maybe not racing on Sunday this could help Martin into the top 3.
The grid looks to have some more new faces joining the series and the ST numbers are ever improving.
Martin is looking to keep up his recent speed that he has shown in recent meetings but is hoping to stop the trend of the last 2 DNF results and score some big points to consolidate 3rd place in the Newcomers championship and try to close the 47 point gap to Antony in 2nd place.
In the XR2 Newcomers, Tim Sleigh needs only to start to clinch the title with Antony Leese 100 points behind. Following that, Russell Milloy and Martin Buchan are only separated by 3 points but with Russell maybe not racing on Sunday this could help Martin into the top 3.
The grid looks to have some more new faces joining the series and the ST numbers are ever improving.
Martin is looking to keep up his recent speed that he has shown in recent meetings but is hoping to stop the trend of the last 2 DNF results and score some big points to consolidate 3rd place in the Newcomers championship and try to close the 47 point gap to Antony in 2nd place.
Monday 26 July 2010
XR2 Race Report - Rounds 7 & 8
After a break of almost 2 months, the Scottish Motor Racing scene returned to its home of Knockhill Racing Circuit after the well appreciated away round at Cadwell Park that was given a glowing reference by all those who took part.
Unfortunately for local driver Martin Buchan, he was unable to take part due to financial constraints but was back in action on Sunday for the 4th meeting of the Scottish Ford Fiesta XR2 Championship. Due to missing the last meeting Martin had dropped from 2nd in the overall championship down to 7th and from 2nd in the Newcomers championship to 3rd equal so there was plenty of ground to make up.
Testing took place on the Saturday and with not having driven the car in anger for almost 2 months, Martin took the sessions as an opportunity to find the limits once again and gain good mileage before race day hoping to continue his recent good form of having been in the top 6 in each race he has competed.
Race day took place under an overcast sky but thankfully come qualifying the rain had stayed away leaving a dry track for all the competitors. With Martin having fitted fresh tyres to the front of the car looking for more grip, he set off with high expectations of a good qualifying time. With a lot of returnee drivers coming back to the championship the track was quite congested and finding a clear track on which to set a fast time would be a hard task, martin started off behind his two team-mates hoping that with their speed he could gain a good speed advantage up the two straights and not be held up by slower cars. The plan worked well for Martin with a qualifying time of 1.04.971 which was good enough to qualify 5th in the XR2 class and 3rd in the newcomers but soon after Martin was promoted to 4th on the grid thanks to the 2nd placed qualifier having his time removed for his car being declared under the legal weight after the qualifying session. This put Martin on the 2nd row of the grid but also on the outside going into turn 1 which isn’t a personal favourite of Martin’s.
After the customary warm up laps, Martin took his place on the grid and with the 5 red lights going out he made his best start of the season and coming to turn 1 was challenging for 3rd. Unfortunately he was then passed for 4th position at turn 3 and was embroiled in a 3 car battle for 4th with Martin managing to pass up the main straight but losing the place soon after. The order was maintained until lap 5 when Martin managed to gain 4th place up the main straight once again but was able to fend off the challenges from behind and set off after the top 3. While the leading 2 cars had cleared off into the distance, Martin began to decrease the gap between him and 3rd place and on lap 8 managed to get alongside and completed the pass up the main straight to put him in a podium position. The order was maintained and Martin crossed the line to achieve his season goal of getting onto the podium for the first time in his racing career. Once the obligatory podium and interviews were completed the car was taken to scrutineering and deemed legal and the 3rd place stood.
With the podium achieved, Martin had high hopes for race 2 in being able to keep the 3rd place and achieve a double podium race weekend. The first few laps were hectic with martin being pressured from behind by 3 other cars and was almost taken out on the 1st lap when he cut off a rival going into Carlube and contact ensued but Martin was able to save the car with very little time lost. The frantic action ensued with the championship leader joining in the mix after his recovery from a poor race 1 result and the positions swapped several times during a single lap and on lap 7 Martin was still holding onto 3rd place but approaching carlube corner, Martin went to grab 4th gear and instead made a mistake in grabbing 2nd and with that the engine called it quits and Martin’s first retirement of the season was the end result. A disappointed Martin climbed out of the car and watched the final 2 laps before being towed back to the pits to await the customary jokes and sighs of more engine damage.
So after the joy of race 1, Martin was brought back down to earth with his retirement in race 2. With the podium in race 1, martin claimed 16 points in the main XR2 championship and 20 points in the XR2 Newcomers cup by finishing 2nd in the newcomers class. However news came through on Monday that the 2nd place finisher in race 1 had been disqualified which gave Martin an overall 2nd place and top of the newcomers’ class for race 1 which meant 20 points in the XR2 main championship and
25points in the newcomers.
After 4 race meetings, Martin currently stands 9th in the main XR2 championship with 68 points and 4th in the XR2 Newcomers table with 93 points.
The next meeting at Knockhill takes place on Saturday 21st August. Coverage of the series can be found on Motors TV (Sky 413, Virgin 545 XL Package) with the latest episode being broadcast on 26th August at 20:10hrs with repeats throughout the week.
Unfortunately for local driver Martin Buchan, he was unable to take part due to financial constraints but was back in action on Sunday for the 4th meeting of the Scottish Ford Fiesta XR2 Championship. Due to missing the last meeting Martin had dropped from 2nd in the overall championship down to 7th and from 2nd in the Newcomers championship to 3rd equal so there was plenty of ground to make up.
Testing took place on the Saturday and with not having driven the car in anger for almost 2 months, Martin took the sessions as an opportunity to find the limits once again and gain good mileage before race day hoping to continue his recent good form of having been in the top 6 in each race he has competed.
Race day took place under an overcast sky but thankfully come qualifying the rain had stayed away leaving a dry track for all the competitors. With Martin having fitted fresh tyres to the front of the car looking for more grip, he set off with high expectations of a good qualifying time. With a lot of returnee drivers coming back to the championship the track was quite congested and finding a clear track on which to set a fast time would be a hard task, martin started off behind his two team-mates hoping that with their speed he could gain a good speed advantage up the two straights and not be held up by slower cars. The plan worked well for Martin with a qualifying time of 1.04.971 which was good enough to qualify 5th in the XR2 class and 3rd in the newcomers but soon after Martin was promoted to 4th on the grid thanks to the 2nd placed qualifier having his time removed for his car being declared under the legal weight after the qualifying session. This put Martin on the 2nd row of the grid but also on the outside going into turn 1 which isn’t a personal favourite of Martin’s.
After the customary warm up laps, Martin took his place on the grid and with the 5 red lights going out he made his best start of the season and coming to turn 1 was challenging for 3rd. Unfortunately he was then passed for 4th position at turn 3 and was embroiled in a 3 car battle for 4th with Martin managing to pass up the main straight but losing the place soon after. The order was maintained until lap 5 when Martin managed to gain 4th place up the main straight once again but was able to fend off the challenges from behind and set off after the top 3. While the leading 2 cars had cleared off into the distance, Martin began to decrease the gap between him and 3rd place and on lap 8 managed to get alongside and completed the pass up the main straight to put him in a podium position. The order was maintained and Martin crossed the line to achieve his season goal of getting onto the podium for the first time in his racing career. Once the obligatory podium and interviews were completed the car was taken to scrutineering and deemed legal and the 3rd place stood.
With the podium achieved, Martin had high hopes for race 2 in being able to keep the 3rd place and achieve a double podium race weekend. The first few laps were hectic with martin being pressured from behind by 3 other cars and was almost taken out on the 1st lap when he cut off a rival going into Carlube and contact ensued but Martin was able to save the car with very little time lost. The frantic action ensued with the championship leader joining in the mix after his recovery from a poor race 1 result and the positions swapped several times during a single lap and on lap 7 Martin was still holding onto 3rd place but approaching carlube corner, Martin went to grab 4th gear and instead made a mistake in grabbing 2nd and with that the engine called it quits and Martin’s first retirement of the season was the end result. A disappointed Martin climbed out of the car and watched the final 2 laps before being towed back to the pits to await the customary jokes and sighs of more engine damage.
So after the joy of race 1, Martin was brought back down to earth with his retirement in race 2. With the podium in race 1, martin claimed 16 points in the main XR2 championship and 20 points in the XR2 Newcomers cup by finishing 2nd in the newcomers class. However news came through on Monday that the 2nd place finisher in race 1 had been disqualified which gave Martin an overall 2nd place and top of the newcomers’ class for race 1 which meant 20 points in the XR2 main championship and
25points in the newcomers.
After 4 race meetings, Martin currently stands 9th in the main XR2 championship with 68 points and 4th in the XR2 Newcomers table with 93 points.
The next meeting at Knockhill takes place on Saturday 21st August. Coverage of the series can be found on Motors TV (Sky 413, Virgin 545 XL Package) with the latest episode being broadcast on 26th August at 20:10hrs with repeats throughout the week.
Tuesday 1 June 2010
BREAKING NEWS: Cadwell is off for Martin
Due to finncial contraints, Martin is unable to compete in the away races being held later this motnh at Cadwell Park.
This means tht martin will miss out on the oppertunity to compete at the famous track and also lose vital bonus points for racing at the meeting.
This means tht martin will miss out on the oppertunity to compete at the famous track and also lose vital bonus points for racing at the meeting.
Monday 10 May 2010
XR2 Race Report - Rounds 3 & 4
After a strong start to the 2010 season, Local racing driver Martin Buchan had high hopes going into the high profile British GT Championship meeting at Knockhill which meant exotic cars such as Ascari’s , Ferrari’s and Porsche’s would be taking to the twists and turns of the Knock-hill track. Testing for the event commenced on Friday 7th May. Keen not to repeat his errors from the previous test session, Martin decided not to push the car too hard so as to look after the engine and also keep the tyres in a good condition for qualifying and the 2 race sessions. However the test session was not with out its little incidents with a broken door handle, broken mirror and fallen off exhaust giving Martin and his team of mechanics plenty to do before race day.
Race day on the Saturday brought clear skies and on the program was qualifying in the morning followed by the first race of 2 in the afternoon with the second race taking place on the Sunday afternoon. With the XR2’s being first out onto the cold track the first few laps were taken at a more cautious pace until the tyres were up to temperature. Once the qualifying session was over, Martin had qualified in 9th position with a lap time of 1.04.788 but with the Fiesta ST’s that run alongside the XR2’s having the advantage of proper racing slick tyres, this gave Martin 4th in the XR2 class and 2nd in the newcomer’s class.
Race 1 took place in near perfect conditions and once the grid was assembled the 5 lights went off and the race was underway. Starting on the outside, Martin didn’t have the best start and coming to turn 1 he was under pressure from a lot of the drivers behind him. As the field turned into turn 1 Martin was still on the outside but then one of his team-mate’s misjudged his braking point and slid into the side of the Martin’s car slowing both drivers down as they approached McIntyre’s. Half-way around the first lap Martin had lost 2 positions off the start but then the red flag was shown stopping the race after an earlier incident at the first turn had left a fellow XR2 competitor upside down in the gravel, thankfully both car and driver came out with no injuries. Once the incident had been cleared up, the field took to the grid again for a shortened 8 lap race. Martin got a much better start and was able to move to the inside of the track thus only losing a single spot into turn 1, from here the rest of the race was spent battling for 4th spot and although setting slightly faster lap times than his rival, Martin could not get close enough to find a way past and had to settle for 5th position and 3rd in the newcomers category.
Sunday brought more glorious weather to the Knockhill track and with the late start time for the 2nd XR2 race, Martin was able to do lots of work to the car in an attempt to increase his speed including switching his front and back tyres around in an attempt to increase grip at the front end. Starting from 5th on the grid, Martin had the advantage of being on the inside into turn 1 meaning he could defend any passing attempts from behind but also attack the drivers on his outside. The lights went out and Martin made a much better start and safely kept his 5th place going into the 1st turn, at the end of the lap the driver directly ahead of Martin had a problem with his gear linkage and up the main straight Martin took full advantage ducking up the inside into the 1st turn and grabbing 4th place but with the top 3 cars having set a blistering pace there was nothing Martin could do except to keep pushing and guarantee a 4th place finish which is what he did. The 4th place finish meant Martin was 3rd in the newcomer’s championship once again and for the 2nd race meeting a solid batch of points. However the next day, news filtered through that the driver who had finished in 2nd position for race 2 was disqualified for a Technical Infringement meaning that Martin was now classified in 3rd place thus scoring his first ever podium finish in his racing career.
Martin now currently stands 3rd in the overall XR2 Championship with 48 points and
2nd in the XR2 Newcomer’s championship with 68 points after two race meetings.
Coverage of the races can be found on Motors TV (Sky 413, Virgin 545 XL Package). Coverage of the first SMRC meeting is to be broadcast on Thursday 20th May at 20:10 with repeats being shown throughout the week.
Due to financial constraints, Martin’s next race will be back at Knockhill on the 25th July which means missing out on the opportunity of competing at the infamous Cadwell Park (known as the mini Nordschleife) on 5th June and a guaranteed 20 points for competing in the event.
Race day on the Saturday brought clear skies and on the program was qualifying in the morning followed by the first race of 2 in the afternoon with the second race taking place on the Sunday afternoon. With the XR2’s being first out onto the cold track the first few laps were taken at a more cautious pace until the tyres were up to temperature. Once the qualifying session was over, Martin had qualified in 9th position with a lap time of 1.04.788 but with the Fiesta ST’s that run alongside the XR2’s having the advantage of proper racing slick tyres, this gave Martin 4th in the XR2 class and 2nd in the newcomer’s class.
Race 1 took place in near perfect conditions and once the grid was assembled the 5 lights went off and the race was underway. Starting on the outside, Martin didn’t have the best start and coming to turn 1 he was under pressure from a lot of the drivers behind him. As the field turned into turn 1 Martin was still on the outside but then one of his team-mate’s misjudged his braking point and slid into the side of the Martin’s car slowing both drivers down as they approached McIntyre’s. Half-way around the first lap Martin had lost 2 positions off the start but then the red flag was shown stopping the race after an earlier incident at the first turn had left a fellow XR2 competitor upside down in the gravel, thankfully both car and driver came out with no injuries. Once the incident had been cleared up, the field took to the grid again for a shortened 8 lap race. Martin got a much better start and was able to move to the inside of the track thus only losing a single spot into turn 1, from here the rest of the race was spent battling for 4th spot and although setting slightly faster lap times than his rival, Martin could not get close enough to find a way past and had to settle for 5th position and 3rd in the newcomers category.
Sunday brought more glorious weather to the Knockhill track and with the late start time for the 2nd XR2 race, Martin was able to do lots of work to the car in an attempt to increase his speed including switching his front and back tyres around in an attempt to increase grip at the front end. Starting from 5th on the grid, Martin had the advantage of being on the inside into turn 1 meaning he could defend any passing attempts from behind but also attack the drivers on his outside. The lights went out and Martin made a much better start and safely kept his 5th place going into the 1st turn, at the end of the lap the driver directly ahead of Martin had a problem with his gear linkage and up the main straight Martin took full advantage ducking up the inside into the 1st turn and grabbing 4th place but with the top 3 cars having set a blistering pace there was nothing Martin could do except to keep pushing and guarantee a 4th place finish which is what he did. The 4th place finish meant Martin was 3rd in the newcomer’s championship once again and for the 2nd race meeting a solid batch of points. However the next day, news filtered through that the driver who had finished in 2nd position for race 2 was disqualified for a Technical Infringement meaning that Martin was now classified in 3rd place thus scoring his first ever podium finish in his racing career.
Martin now currently stands 3rd in the overall XR2 Championship with 48 points and
2nd in the XR2 Newcomer’s championship with 68 points after two race meetings.
Coverage of the races can be found on Motors TV (Sky 413, Virgin 545 XL Package). Coverage of the first SMRC meeting is to be broadcast on Thursday 20th May at 20:10 with repeats being shown throughout the week.
Due to financial constraints, Martin’s next race will be back at Knockhill on the 25th July which means missing out on the opportunity of competing at the infamous Cadwell Park (known as the mini Nordschleife) on 5th June and a guaranteed 20 points for competing in the event.
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