Pics C/O Nigel Wallace

What a brilliant venue for the finals of what has been a brilliant season of Time Attack, Brands Hatch.

Being just 30 minutes from the Sumo workshop both Rob Barnes & Mark Lemmer had driven the track before and were hoping for good times, the weather and crowds were brilliant and things were looking good from the start.

In the warm up session Mark piloted the 350z over 8 laps, hitting a 53.737, 4th place in the session while Rob was getting to grips with the evo an put in a 56.902, 9th, the practice session which followed just after lunch saw both drivers pick up the pace slightly, Mark seemed to be getting comfortable in the Z cockpit and drove 10 laps and making a 53.580 chipping away at his earlier time, Rob times jumped too from a late 56 second lap earlier to a 54.053, if the boys could get cracking we could have some quick laps to come. No problems, glitch free running, a first so far this year.

In the Pro class there are only 10 spaces in the final so with qualifiying  at 14.30 on the day they knew they had to get stuck in and chip away even further at the times they had under their belts.,

Mark ran for 4 laps of the 20 minutes session, coming back into the pits after hitting a 53.240, enough for 7th place qualifying, Rob hit his fastest time of 53.939 in the third lap but continue for 5 more to try and get higher up the ladder, he managed to qualify 10th and guarantee a place in the final.

The competition was amazing between the top 10 drivers, Zens impreza came out and posted a 49.771 lap which proved hard to beat, Mark plugged away for 10 laps, his fastest coming on the 7th lap with a 52.621 his fastest time of the day.

Rob too kept at it, he ran for 15 laps, his fastest coming in the 8th with a 53.016 just 0.395 seconds behind Mark, such a close competition, Mark's time saw him finish in 7th place, the highest finishing position for the 350 this season, Rob in 9th and a much needed 2 points giving him overall series position of 6th.

Considering the competition and the high level of driver and cars out there this year Sumo are extremely pleased with this final placing and look forward to a healthy 2008!

Pics C/O Rich Sams

Good weather, Europe's hottest aftermarket tuned cars and a 51,000 crowd in attendance were the right ingredients to ensure that the opening round of 2007 was one to remember!

A few teething troubles with the 350Z  meant that Andy was not up to full steam, although we had done some testing previous to the competition, gremlins in the suspension set-up and a boost issue meant that the full potential of the car was not achieved and although Andy still managed to set some quick times for its first outing as a Time Attack car, unfortunately the they fell just outside of the top 10 in qualifying for the point scoring finals.

The same gremlins were having fun under the hood of the Evo on Saturdays practice sessions, getting their little hands on the boost outlet pipe from the turbo and pulling it off every time the gas pedal was pushed into the floor, saturday came and went and the car was running fine for the first session and qualifying for the point scoring finals saw the evo ranking fifth overall with a 1:18.114.

The finals saw Rob post a respectable 1:17.323, good enough to secure 5th place overall and gain the first step into the points table for the series!  The full results can be found HERE

A 1100 miles (1760kms !) round trip for Team Sumo as the 3rd round of the Time Attack series hit Knockhill in Dunfermline last weekend.

The weather at Knockhill seems to be so unpredictable that even the locals are never sure whats coming in 5 minutes time, the warm up session just after midday was perfect conditions, a little sunshine, dry track yet not too hot which was a problem we encountered in round 2 at Silverstone, with 4 or 5 laps done a Ford Focus in the Pro class suffered a damaged transmission and the session was black flagged.

The first practice session came and the weather was still nice and dry, both the Evo and the 350Z were running well, both Andy & Rob took this sessions to check out and changes on the track from our previous visit and also try to find the perfect lines, by the end of this session without too much stressing on the cars we had managed to post up a 58.344 in the Evo and a 59.563 in the 350Z, things were looking up!

The heavens opened for the superbattle qualifying session and the track was seriously wet with puddles forming here there and everywhere, after we had posted 3 or 4 laps the conditions were deemed as dangerous by the organisers and the action was red flagged, back to the pits with still very little track time under our belts.

It was still touch and go for the finals with the rain still hammering down out of the skies, the decision was made to run at the very last minute, we had no time to change our tyres to wets so competed on R888 dry tyres, Andy managed to put in a 1:07.642, Rob managed a 1:05.550 before a trip into the gravel trap mean his session was over.

We are learning all the time in varying conditions and varying tracks, roll on our local circuit of Brands Hatch 02.09.07

Tickets are available for the final round at Brands on the Time Attack website www.timeattack.co.uk

Pictures courtesy of Ed Fahey

What was forecast as a wet & miserable weekend weather wise turned out to be nothing of the sort as temperatures soared play havoc with track conditions & power, The 350Z & Evo 8 were both ready for action after Round 1's set backs and the team were in good spirits, confident that we could make up some points on the rest of the pack.

The track conditions were anything but suitable for Andy in the 350Z as he tail slid almost every corner during practice, trying to get the Z to play ball. Suspension adjustments & a change of springs helped Andy's times in qualifying by 4 seconds but the car still wanted to drift and given the stiff competition we were unable to get the car into the top 10 Super Battle final.

The Evo was having its fair share of trouble too, the boost pipe gremlins had moved home and plagued Rob with problems as the team tried to keep the silicon on the throttle body housing, it looked like it was going to be an early bath for the evo as the pipe blew again in qualifying but with just a few minutes to go before the end of the session we managed to get out on track and post a 1:03.889, good enough to qualify 9th.

With a huge clamp now in place on the throttle body the pipe was going nowhere and Rob managed 5 laps before an oil line worked loose and cover the engine in oil, with the car back in the pits the Sumo team managed to clean up the spillage without any drama but ran out of time to get the car back out on track, a 1:04 lap time was not good enough to secure a high position in the final and we were awarded 8th place and 3 points towards the championship points table.

Current standing in the series for the Evo is 6th with 9 points, Andy and the Pink beast are yet to score but that will all change!

More information visit the Time Attack website www.timeattack.co.uk