Team Falken GB - 2006 Events

EVENT	DATE	CIRCUIT	EVENT REPORT
D1GB Media/Test/Licensing	April 15th - 16th (Sat - Sun)	Donington (Donny Show)	Read Report
D1GB - Round 1	May 28th (Sun)	Rockingham	THIS PAGE
D1GB - Round 2	June 17th (Sat)	Silverstone (National)	Read Report
Max Power Live	June 30th - July 2nd (Fri - Sun)	NEC Birmingham	N/A
D1GB - Round 3	July 1st (Sat)	Knockhill	N/A
Festival of Speed	July 7th - 9th (Fri - Sun)	Goodwood	N/A
D1GB - Round 4	August 20th (Sun)	Silverstone (National)	Read Report

Event Report - D1GB Round 1, Rockingham Speedway

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Team Falken have had some highs and lows over the last couple of weeks. Firstly, lets fill you in on round 1 of the D1GB held at Rockingham Motor Speedway near Corby, Northants.
The team were keen to put on a good show over the weekend for the first round of the series, this was our first real chance to go head to head with the other teams and drivers and the D1 organisers had persuaded Tiff Needell to driver their guest car for a forthcoming feature on Fifth Gear.

Practice on Saturday was a mixed bag with the organisers changing the course on each run making it difficult for any of the competitors to get consistency with their cars and build up their efforts. Everyone went into Sundays race meeting with concerns over speeds, gears, initiation and transition points as these were all crucial on the course which traversed from the banking to the flat, back onto the banking before skimming the wall and heading to the infield.

The Team Falken drivers were also suffering from car problems with Garry Kennedy's car experiencing boost problems and John Chambers car experiencing fuel starvation high in the rev range. This hampered both drivers and meant they really struggled to get enough entry speed into the first corner. In their efforts to make up the deficiencies both drivers had to lay it on the line but disaster struck for both with John spinning and hitting the outside wall and Garry spinning into the inner tyre barrier both damaging the rear of their cars.
The both fought on, John in particular having a hard time with his bent exhaust filling the car with fumes, but both just missed the cut in final qualifying and were unable to advance onto the Tsuiso best 16 round.

Whilst all competitors agreed this was and extremely difficult circuit it also highlighted the level of the competition to be high and that no one will be able to compete unless they have a car beneath them that is 100%. With style, speed and accuracy being such important judging factors it is not possible to drive round problems.

After the Rockingham round both cars were repaired and their engine dramas were looked into. A faulty airflow sensor was discovered on Johns car which when replaced removed the fuel starvation issue and Garry's boost problems were traced to the Turbo with a new unit due to be fitted before the Silverstone round.

Team Falken GB Launch New Falken Tyre

Before the cars were shipped off to Silverstone, however, they went to Bedford Autodrome to take part in the launch of the new Falken FK452 high performance tyre. The Falken dealers enjoyed a day driving different vehicles fitted with the new tyre flat out around the circuits and finished off their afternoon with exciting passenger laps in the Team Falken GB cars to experience drifting first hand.