2015 Race season begins

Jack Rawles at Cadwell Park

Ready, Steady, Race

The 2015 race season kicked off with Jack Rawles racing an Ariel Atom at Cadwell Park. Cadwell Park is located in Lincolnshire and is nick named ‘The mini Nurburgring’, due to its mix of challenging corners. The circuit is 2.25 miles long. It is twisty, undulating and winding, passing through open park and woodland. It famously features sharp changes in gradient, including a section called the mountain.

The first round of The Atom Cup took place on Saturday 18th April 2015.

What is an Ariel Atom?

An Ariel Atom is a road legal, light weight, high performance sports car made by the Ariel Motor Company based in Crewkerne, Somerset, England. The Atom began as a student project by a Coventry University transport design student and was developed by the university. The car was  first shown publicly at The British International Motor Show at the NEC in Birmingham in October 1996.

The Atom Cup

The Atom Cup is into its third race season. It is a truly competitive, growing race series. It is a single marque series, which means the cars are matched with sealed drive trains, controlled tyres and dampers and a safety specification that exceeds regulations. It runs alongside other motorsport series as part of the MSVR package. There are 8 rounds, consisting of 5 traditional 20 minute sprint races as well as 3 long distance races.

Round 1 – Cadwell Park

On the Thursday evening, seventeen year old Jack took himself off on a 200 mile road trip to the circuit. On Friday 17th April 2015 Jack took part in the practice session. The two and a half hour practice time that Jack managed to complete was of up most importance, having never driven the track or the car. Unfortunately Jack was not provided with a lap timer so he had no idea how he compared to the other Ariel Atom drivers.

Saturday 18th April started with the qualifying session. Jack had a good session and was pleased with his performance. At one point in the qualifying session, Jack was running in pole position. He dropped to 5th but managed his fastest lap on the last lap of the qualifying session. This fastest lap put him in second position on the grid for the first race of two. It was only one tenth of a second slower than pole position.

Unfortunately no new tyres had been allocated to Jack for the actual race. The only competitor going out on old tyres did put Jack into a disadvantages position. Jack said “I started the race badly; I spun the wheels as I gave the car too much power and ended up going from 2nd to 5th”. Jack fought back up the field and not only achieved the fastest lap of race 1 but it turned out to be the fastest lap of the weekend, 1:36.250. Jacks first race came to an end when making a move, out of a bend called Charlie’s. Running alongside the car in front, the driver of the other Atom, moved across to defend. Jack hit the brakes doing 130 mph and managed to slow the car enough. Sadly both cars spun on the grass, back across the track and narrowly missing a collision with the barriers on the other side. With a burst radiator Jack had to retire from race one of the weekend.

The team worked hard to get Jack back out on track for race two. Race ones finishing position determined the starting position for race two. So starting at the back of the grid, a lot of hard work and determination was required if a good result was to be achieved. Jack managed to battle his way round the tight, twisty, undulating track to finish fourth.

Jack said “for my first time racing at Cadwell Park, in a car I have never raced before I am pleased to have achieved the fastest lap, I was disappointed with race ones result, satisfied with 4th in race two but naturally I would like to have done better”