Our MD entered his RAGE buggy into the Castle Combe GT & Sports car Championship, a new series for 2014. The RAGE is powered by a 1400cc Kawasaki engine and would therefore be in class G whilst all other classes use a mixture of car derived engines of all types.
The busy Easter Monday schedule would see qualifying at 11.30 am which would be his first time on this circuit and the race following at 5.05 pm. The weather was bright and sunny all day which brought good crowds to the circuit and would add extra pressure to the MD’s second ever race meeting.
He used the 15 minute qualifying session as a practice to learn the circuit and posted a fasted time of 1.21 seconds placing him 8th out of 15 cars for the race. The RAGE was receiving plenty of attention from the media and it was certainly the first time a RAGE has raced at Castle Combe, which almost left the commentator scrabbling for words to describe its alternative appearance!
The 15 lap race started very well gaining 4 places of the line and holding 4th place around the first corner. The buggy has very good acceleration (0-60mph < 3 sec) however the top speed is compromised especially in this company therefore it was always going to be difficult trying to keep much stronger cars behind. By the end of lap 1, he was back in 9th place and was jostling with a Darrian T9 Vauxhall race car but throughout the race 3 cars retired leaving a race long battle for 5th place, however 6th place was the best we could achieve.
All in all, a great day was had by finishing the race most importantly, but pleasingly this meant a 1st in class trophy and a sticker for the MD in his first dry race in the RAGE. He managed to improve his lap time by 3 seconds and thoroughly enjoyed the circuit and occasion. Lets hope this is the first of many for the Disklok RAGE buggy.
To see on board footage of the race click here
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