[RADICAL] Radical head to the Island

by Sean Henshelwood



After an impressive season opener at Wakefield Park in early April as part of the 2011 Shannons Nationals, Radical Australia Cup heads to motorsport mecca for round two of their five round championship, at the iconic Phillip Island Grand Prix circuit.

Radical head to motorsport mecca..
Rnd#2 Radical Australia Cup
Phillip Island, May 28-29

After an impressive season opener at Wakefield Park in early April as part of the 2011 Shannons Nationals, Radical Australia Cup heads to motorsport mecca for round two of their five round championship, at the iconic Phillip Island Grand Prix circuit.

“Of all the circuits we travel to in 2011, without question the most revered, and in some cases feared, is Phillip Island,” reigning Radical Australia Cup champion Peter Opie admitted.

“In 2010 Radical Australia Cup was contested predominantly on circuits we all knew and were all comfortable with,” he added, “but for 2011, we’re competing on a number of circuits that are ‘alien’ to us, and Phillip Island is the one we’re all looking forward to most of all.”

As part of the 6-Hour Production Car event scheduled for the weekend, Radical will conduct their first ‘Biduro’ event of the year, where professional drivers are invited to compete alongside the series regulars in two 50-minute endurance events.

Despite being a ‘Pro-Am’ where drivers such as Greg Murphy, Mat Sofi, Neil McFadyen, Ben Barker et al have driven alongside the Radical regulars, many of those series regulars have been reluctant to invite a professional team-mate so that they can enjoy the full Phillip island experience themselves.

Not so Peter Opie, he has enlisted the services of experienced open-wheel and sportscar pilot Barton Mawer, whilst Radical Clubman Cup star, Richard Bloomfield has taken on the services of young Formula 3 sensation, Bryce Moore.

For Opie, enlisting Mawer provides him with some firepower to combat the combined strength of opening round victors, Tim Berryman and Jonathon Miles - the series debutantes who ran away with the endurance race win at Wakefield Park - but it comes at a cost.

“Part of the reason we’ve invited Bart is to use his immense knowledge to help us all collectively as a group,” Opie acknowledged. “Anyone paired with a ‘pro’ driver the calibre of Barton or Bryce, automatically receives an additional 30 second penalty during the compulsory mid-race pitstop [for driver change only - minimum 60 second stop, 90-second minimum for ‘Pro-Am’ teams], so that makes it far more challenging to contend for an outright win.”

“The benefit though is gaining data from guys like Barton and Bryce, both of whom will extract the maximum from the SR3 and it’s that data we can overlay against the series regulars to help them improve their overall performance.”

Whilst pre-event favourite Tim Berryman was surprised to win first time out at Wakefield Park, he was also taken by the number of teams who ran the 50-minute race with a single driver. “I thought it would be a lot harder physically,” he admitted post-race at Wakefield. Despite that he was clearly not interested in breaking a winning combination as he’s chosen the same driver lineup for Phillip Island, a circuit he has raced on in the past in Formula 3.

Aside from new drivers in the Radical Australia Cup series, and drivers new to the Phillip Island circuit, there will also be two brand new 2011 model Radical SR3RS entries; one for Radical Event’s Tony Palmer, the other for Radical Australia’s Chris Medland. Both these cars feature the latest evolution aero package, and have a couple of other minor additions over the 2010 model.

“Outside of some aero ‘tweaks’ the modifications are essentially safety modifications,” Radical Australia team-manager Garth Walden confirmed, the local test pilot having just returned from a trip overseas to contest the radical Masters Cup at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium, placing second in the 46 strong field.

“It was a great experience,” he said, “and to run on an iconic circuit like Spa was a dream come true, as it is for a lot of drivers competing this weekend. Without doubt Phillip Island is one of the best circuits in the world, and we’ll be on hand to help our guys get through the weekend in one piece and enjoy that awesome run into turn one..”

Peter Opie may have taken the early lead in the Radical presentation stakes with his beautiful, Jeff Koons BMW art-car inspired livery, but he may well be upstaged by Chris Medland’s new car, which has been completely vinyl wrapped in chrome, in what is quite likely a first for a racecar on Australia soil.

Medland and Palmer won’t be the only 2011 SR3s on the grid though, with Peter Opie and Greg Smith also contesting the latest model.

Tony Palmer’s former mount has been given a thorough ‘going over’ by Walden and the team at Radical Australia HQ, with Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge regulars Jan Jinadasa and Dean Koutsoumidis joining forces for their first foray into Radical competition.

“I drove one at Eastern Creek earlier in the year, and I just couldn’t stop smiling,” Jinadasa admitted on the eve of his Radical competition debut. “The Porsche is a big powerful brute of a thing that’s very physical to drive hard, whereas the Radical has enormous grip. I knew from the moment I first drove it that Phillip Island would be magical behind the wheel of a Radical and when they told me about this round I signed on immediately..

“For now my focus is Porsche, but that will depend on the weekend, if it’s half as much fun as I think it’s going to be, I’ll want to own one myself..!”

Rnd#2 2011 Radical Australia Cup, Phillip Island Circuit
Event schedule

Saturday, May 28, 2011
9:25 P1 Radical Australia Cup Practice - Driver A (15 mins)
10:30 P2 Radical Australia Cup Practice - Driver B (15 mins)
11:40 Q1 Radical Australia Cup Qualifying - Driver A (20 mins)
13:25 Q2 Radical Australia Cup Qualifying - Driver B (20 mins)
15:30 R1 Radical Australia Cup Race 1 (50 mins)

Sunday, May 29, 2011
9:45 R2 Radical Australia Cup Race 2 (50 mins)
10:40 Radical Australia Cup Presentation

Rnd#2 2011 Radical Australia Cup, Phillip Island Circuit
ENTRY LIST
1. Peter Opie/Barton Mawer (Radical Australia)
4. Ed Singleton (MPA Projects)
5. Simon Haggarty (Haggarty Race Team)
6. Tony Haggarty (Haggarty Race Team)
7. Steve Shelley
9. Chris Medland/Bill Medland (Radical Australia)
11. Robert Baird/Gary Walker (Radical Team Melbourne)
16. Phil Anseline/Oliver Smith (WT Partnership)
21. Brett Sutton
32. Sue Hughes (Navybox School of Motorsport)
33. Tim Berryman/Jonathon Miles (Volvo Cars Australia)
44. Glyn Edis (Interior Developments)
57. Richard Bloomfield/Bryce Moore (Key Produce)
70. Tony Palmer (Radical Events)
71. George Davis/Francois Jouy
77. Jan Jinadasa/Dean Koutsoumidis
78. Greg Smith/Byron Smith (Radical Australia)

Round #3 for the Radical Australia Cup will, be run at Winton Motor Raceway on June 24-26 as part of the 2011 Shannons Nationals. For more information on Radical Australia or the Radical Australia Cup, please visit their website; http://www.radicalsportscars.com/au

The Radical Australia Cup is proudly supported by MPA Projects, Industrie clothing, Travelplan Holidays, Shell Racing Solutions and Dunlop.

2011 Radical Australia Cup – calendar
Rnd#1 - Wakefield Park, NSW (April 2-3) - Enduro
Rnd#2 - Phillip Island, VIC (May 28-29) - Biduro
Rnd#3 - Winton, VIC (June 25-26) - Enduro
Rnd#4 - Eastern Creek, NSW (July 16-17) - Biduro
Rnd#5 - Morgan Park, QLD (August 13-14) - Enduro

www.radicalsportscars.com/au




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