Category Archives: Automac

Automac Racing–Rockingham Speedway

Automac Ltd and all its suppliers would
like to offer their congratulations to Richard Bacon for his magnificent drive
at Rockingham Speedway on Sunday (11th August 2013) in his Class A
E46 M3 in a Vortex Exhausts sponsored round of the BMW Kumho Championship.

The 2013 season so far has been a struggle
after countless podiums in 2012, this year was supposed to be a move forward
for Richard and the team to challenge for race wins however the addition of a
new airbox, and other modifications to achieve power to weight a make the car
handle to Richards liking took time to sort for some circuits so far.  Rockingham would following a great test
session on the Friday prove to be the turning point.  After playing with different setups on the
Nitron suspension and the new front splitter confidence was on a high for
qualifying on Saturday.

The car was handling and braking well with
the Stoptech brakes and EBC pad combination, so Richard was in a good frame of mind
to move forward on the grid and get a good result.  For a change the weather and track
temperatures stayed fairly constant with the test day so the setups and tyre
pressures were then used for qualifying. 
Richard was able to put in good laps with different setups and ended up
a close third, only tenths behind pole, so a good solid result.

The race day again was dry and warm and all
went to plan from a team perspective. 
Starting from 3rd for race 1 meant that the last two years
champions Garrie Whitaker E36 Evo and Colin Wells E46 CSL were the only drivers
ahead of Richard and were again the benchmark. 
The start of race one saw Stephan Lanfermeijer get a great getaway but
then held up Colin, Richard and Darren Fielding for several laps, this allowed
Garrie to get away and he able to cruise to victory.  Richard finished 3rd which given
he had bent a wheel on the kerbs causing a vibration through the steering for
most of the race; fortunately the tyre had not deflated so he did well to
maintain a podium position.  So a good
result and set things up nicely for race 2.

Richard was again in a confident mood and
this was mirrored by the Automac team. 
The start of race two initially saw Garrie pull cleanly away with Colin
and Richard following.  Richard managed
to get past Colin early on and then try and give Garrie a race.  Unfortunately Garrie did not have the good
fortune Richard had in race one and suffered a puncture, so Richard inherited
the lead. Half way through the race there was a safety car which remained out
for several laps allowing the field to bunch up again.  Once the safety car pulled off Richard
managed to pull away, followed closely by Colin Wells and James Card all in E46
M3s.  However It was great to see Darren
Fielding E36 Evo who had started from the back manage to close up and take 3rd
and close of the leading two who were vying for the overall win, at times
appeared to only have a fag paper between them. 
Many including Garrie who was now watching the proceedings, commented that
it was the best race they had witnessed this year.

Richard managed to hold off Colin superbly
until the chequered flag for his first overall win in the BMW Kumho
championship.  Automac are very proud of
his achievement and his professional approach all year.  It was a great drive especially the pressure
he was under from last year’s champion Colin Wells.

It was noticeable that in parc ferme the
number of people that came and congratulated him on the win, in all it proved a
popular result and we hope it will signal the first of many.  

Thanks must go to suppliers and supporters Vortex
Exhausts, Superpro, TRS, Cobra Seats, AKG, Nitron Suspension, Custom Cages,
Eibach, EBC, Stoptech, ARP, Specialist Cars, Chipwizards and HRD Racing for
their help in recent years since Richard started in the championship driving an
Automac Class D hire car. Also to Pete and Barry who worked tirelessly to keep
the car in good shape all weekend.

But most of all Thank you and well done
Richard Bacon for making the team very happy and let’s do it again and again
its makes all the effort worthwhile.  It
has been a fantastic distraction to receive all the texts and phone calls to
congratulate the team and Richard on the success.  It’s just a shame that the next race at
Brands is over four weeks away.

Thanks for a fantastic weekend and great
result