Atom Cup 1st race 27/28th April Silverstone

[Rob Evans]

What was the result from the second race?

[John Scherrer]

Doh ! - I kind of missed out that important bit Rob !

Jean-Pascal Burguet (Monza) won by a 'Country' mile in that race too ..

From where we were watching, he seemed to be very consistent, always took the same line through the same corners and just seemed to be able to carry so much more speed through the corners ..

The videos and TraqData should reveal hopefully ....

[Paul Donkin]

What a weekend, where do I start.

It really must be the boys are Ariel, Jim & Tom especially for looking after me like a family through the weekend.

Nerves all weekend having never done any of this before! While pole was a great feeling, I was constantly looking in my mirrors on the first lap, making loads of mistakes etc etc. Finally brought her home second through good consistency, catching JP at the end (though I am sure he lifted off toward the end!).

Second race & I was onto another podium then a stone hid my rad & punctured it, no idea who did threw it or when but that's racing guys! I did drop some coolant & apologies for that but It was not my intention as you can imagine.

JP is a true gentleman, you will struggle to find a nicer frenchman. I had a good few laps with Matt Prior ,again, a top top bloke.

I would love to do the next one but it's all down to funds , we shall see.

Thanks once again & I hope all you guys that were there enjoyed it.

Paul

[smokin]

I'll post a few more when I get chance

[Monza]

Great WE at Silverstone for me , not only because of the results, but because most of all, meeting nice british guies is always a very good moment
Organisation was very good : Mark and his team has made a great job, even the food was very good, incredible !
Ariel with Tom and his guies were as sympathic and helpfull as usual  It was very nice to see some knowned Atom owners faces coming from every where dispite the cold weather  even i have spent most of my times with the 7 other Atom Cup drivers. Each of them are real gentlemen with lot of humor like my old friend Richard 
I had a very nice dinner friday evening with Nick and Jonathan, trying to change Jonathan mind who was full of Clio jumping around him ! 
Paul and family were very cool even when Paul was so unlucky after the second race. Next one will be the good one for him !
Now the atom Cup, the track and the Races :
I has not plan to do friday training considering that i normaly learn tracks quick. I was concerned by this Atom with a RHD position, so the gear level is on my left hand : problem for me !
The practice on saturday morning were really much more difficult than expecting for me : this track is very difficult to learn because so particular with high speed corner where we can't see the apex beacuse of rail or because of curves combinations on a totaly flat area where we don't see exit : i was nowhere asking myself each time where am i on the track ! and very worried with the gear change of course ... Well that was much more difficult than expected. The Atom itself is very sharp with this setting (big camber in particular for more corner speed) but not the main problem for me.

Qualif : i have decided to make consistant laps with no cooling during all the qualif because most of all i need driving and learning the track instead of making 1 cool lap (for tyres) before pushing for better lap. At the end of the 20 minutes i have learned 90% of what i needed so it begans to be correct times, but still with a lot of mystakes during each laps. For the first time, i was able to make a complete lap in my head after this qualifying, i begin to be old ... Paul and Nick were pushing hard in front, so P3 was good at this time. Richard has made a very nice lap to, certainly with puting his brain in the passenger seat ! 

Race 1 : have decided to start in second, but was not the good decision for me : i'm to used of doing it in Atom 300 and it was not a success  there with this 245 ... i had nice time with Paul and Nick during the firsts laps and my races experience helps me a lot : i know that some pressure will be difficult for them , it's logical, it was their first race so they need to have thicker skinn and no doubt they'll have it after several races : impossible to learn this without real races experience like this one.  after Nick spin, i have made cool laps, not pushing to much for my tyres, and it's only when i saw Paul coming and reduicing the distance that i decided to push more on last lap. Not possible to be quiet to the end with Paul pushing so hard ! 
This great young guy Paul had made me real laugth under my helmet 2 times during his first race (sorry paul i can't keep it secret  ) : . we came out the grid in position, waiting for the start for the warming lap : the guy on the passerel had shown the green flag, but Paul didn't move at all  we wait during something like 3 or 4s, i was near to use my horn when i decided to start slowly sothat Paul can see me and (eventualy) decide to start this warming lap. 
. on the podium , the emotion was to high for Paul who doesn't succeed to open his bottle of Champagne. I give him mine ! You have to seriously train for that Paul ! 
This is typicaly first race fun that i'm quite sure Paul will keep in his mind all his life.

Race 2 (from P5 because of inversion of the 5 first places) :
normal start but loosing time compare to Brits when changing gear so position 5 after cops, i overtake Rich and Matt and there was still Nick and Paul playing in front of me , when beginning the second lap i overtook Paul when enterring Cops and Nick some hundreds meters after. As there was still some fight on the back between them, i create a nice gap very quick so made the last 5 or 6 laps on cool rythm but trying to be concentrate because stupid mystakes can always arrive on such a great fast track !
Nick will do all meetings as Rich and Jonathan and so they will cumulate a usefull experience after each race  , easier for me to win now than at the last race of the year.

The Atom driving was very fun, as usual, with some nice slidings (my videos will be on youtube next week) and no technical problem at all. 

I hope to be able to come a second time but this will depend of funds ... perhaps Brandshatch GP, to see again all my new or old friends.
If some one of you want to try to make a race one time in his life, try Atom Cup, you'll have fun and it'll be a real great experience for you ! Don't be affraid, every one has to have a first time 

[Kezzie]

Jean-Pascal 

Considering the issues you were having on Saturday with adjusting to sitting on the correct side of a car and fiddling with the gear stick, I tip my hat to you Superb race craft and deserving of all the accolades too.
Hopefully we'll see you competing again later in the year.

Adrian

[Paul Donkin]

I am almost crying with laughter

[jpswift]

je reckon that vous avez excelled votre self jp

bien done 

[speedmachine]

hmm looks like a great event!

As almost every car had some GoPro's on the car and it was broadcasted in television, will there be an online place to see some of the material for us oversea Atom owners?

[toms]

Here's a quick video we've done...... 

AtomCup Silverstone Round 1

[wasp]

Really good short vid Tom, thanks for uploading.

I hope you get nice full grids for the rest of the season, it's great seeing Atoms at such close quarters!

Cheers,
Stu

[Paul Donkin]

Interestingly, I am watching that video thinking, what the hell am i doing.

As a racing rookie, the pressure is on with 7 cars behind you, mistakes are made, I hope to overcome this as I move forward.

[speedmachine]

cheers for that vid, looks like serious fun

[Andrew300]

Great line up before the race

[Andrew300]

And a few more