Hawthorns Motorsport move to EERC Britcar
Discussion
EERC. BRITCAR
Press Release 6th June 2005
Hawthorns Motorsport have decided to withdraw from the British GT series and enter their BMW Z3M Coupe GT3 race car in the EERC Britcar Series, where it will be classified as a group 2 or 3 car and therefore be more fairly matched against fellow competitors. “We have loved the experience of British GT and although we felt that we were slightly frowned upon for not having the proper support equipment such as expensive trucks and awnings, they treated us well and welcomed our efforts”. “The fact is that unless you have the right sort of car with about 400bhp+ to start with, you have little chance of being competitive against the Porsches and Ferrari’s and that seems to be the sort of cars people prefer to run”.
“If you can’t beat them, join them, or withdraw and come back when you have a car capable of being competitive, our BMW Only develops 325/340 bhp, and when all said and done, it’s a converted road car whilst 95% of the cars in the GT Series are purpose made race cars. We could buy a 996 Porsche GT3 for the money we would have to spend to make the BMW competitive in existing company, so we’ve decided to call a halt for to continue with the further development of the car would not be a viable or sensible proposition.” The recent issue over the Main Tyre supplier to the GT series has little or nothing to do with our decision, mind you if we had been asked we would have had an opinion, as would all the GT teams. Some of the teams are not that happy about the way things happened, we on the other hand spent 7 years in the TVR Tuscan Challenge and were well used to being told what was going or not going to happen, there you were lucky if they allocated you a race number unless you pre agreed to tow the line, a sort of benign dictatorship, great days really.
We are looking forward to joining the Britcar series for the Brands Hatch round and hopefully for the rest of the season, for we are having detailed discussions with one or two of the existing successful preparation teams in the series that currently run BMW’s, we are sure that we will find a home fairly soon. Unfortunately, Colin Blower Motorsport are unable to run us in the Britcar series as they have pre commitments throughout the rest of the 2005 season, but we will part on the best of terms which is hardly surprising after such a long and successful association. We prefer not to run our own team as we used to do a few years back, it was hard work and took a lot away from the enjoyment that at our age we feel we should not be missing out on, life’s too short, let others do the hard work, we’ll do the racing!!
As to 2006, who knows, maybe we will re-join the British GT series if we buy a 996 GT CUP Car, there again we might love Britcar and become very attached to our ultra reliable Z3M coupe GT car and decide to live out our remaining race years in glorious Britcar style.
Rod Barrett & Jan Persson
Hawthorns Motorsport
Press Release 6th June 2005
Hawthorns Motorsport have decided to withdraw from the British GT series and enter their BMW Z3M Coupe GT3 race car in the EERC Britcar Series, where it will be classified as a group 2 or 3 car and therefore be more fairly matched against fellow competitors. “We have loved the experience of British GT and although we felt that we were slightly frowned upon for not having the proper support equipment such as expensive trucks and awnings, they treated us well and welcomed our efforts”. “The fact is that unless you have the right sort of car with about 400bhp+ to start with, you have little chance of being competitive against the Porsches and Ferrari’s and that seems to be the sort of cars people prefer to run”.
“If you can’t beat them, join them, or withdraw and come back when you have a car capable of being competitive, our BMW Only develops 325/340 bhp, and when all said and done, it’s a converted road car whilst 95% of the cars in the GT Series are purpose made race cars. We could buy a 996 Porsche GT3 for the money we would have to spend to make the BMW competitive in existing company, so we’ve decided to call a halt for to continue with the further development of the car would not be a viable or sensible proposition.” The recent issue over the Main Tyre supplier to the GT series has little or nothing to do with our decision, mind you if we had been asked we would have had an opinion, as would all the GT teams. Some of the teams are not that happy about the way things happened, we on the other hand spent 7 years in the TVR Tuscan Challenge and were well used to being told what was going or not going to happen, there you were lucky if they allocated you a race number unless you pre agreed to tow the line, a sort of benign dictatorship, great days really.
We are looking forward to joining the Britcar series for the Brands Hatch round and hopefully for the rest of the season, for we are having detailed discussions with one or two of the existing successful preparation teams in the series that currently run BMW’s, we are sure that we will find a home fairly soon. Unfortunately, Colin Blower Motorsport are unable to run us in the Britcar series as they have pre commitments throughout the rest of the 2005 season, but we will part on the best of terms which is hardly surprising after such a long and successful association. We prefer not to run our own team as we used to do a few years back, it was hard work and took a lot away from the enjoyment that at our age we feel we should not be missing out on, life’s too short, let others do the hard work, we’ll do the racing!!
As to 2006, who knows, maybe we will re-join the British GT series if we buy a 996 GT CUP Car, there again we might love Britcar and become very attached to our ultra reliable Z3M coupe GT car and decide to live out our remaining race years in glorious Britcar style.
Rod Barrett & Jan Persson
Hawthorns Motorsport
Saw you lapping at Thruxton the other weekend Rod, almost looked unfair 
.
BTW the inside rear was lifting on the first part of the complex a tad, can't help the traction out of it
.
Harry
edited to add....Might even have some video footage, I'll check.
>> Edited by HarryW on Monday 6th June 20:58
. BTW the inside rear was lifting on the first part of the complex a tad, can't help the traction out of it
. Harry
edited to add....Might even have some video footage, I'll check.
>> Edited by HarryW on Monday 6th June 20:58
Take a look at this link, two wheels off !!!
www.hawthornsmotorsport.co.uk/2005/round03.htm
then click on photo 027
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