Welcome to the November 2023 JB Data Engineering Newsletter.
Welcome to the JB Data Engineering November newsletter.
Can you believe that the UK racing season has almost finished? The last few weeks have flown by with October being a particularly busy month. JB Data Engineering supported teams in the TCR UK Touring Car Championship, the GT Cup Championship and the Fun Cup Endurance Championship as well as supporting the British Endurance Championship in our role as Data Scrutineer. Along with supporting our regular clients and supplying our extensive range of data and video analysis equipment, it made for a frantic few weeks!
As always at this time of year, our focus turns eastwards towards the Asian Le Mans Series, the Gulf 12 Hours and Hankook 24H Dubai. If you need support in Asia over the winter, please do call us to check our availability. With many UK and european teams travelling out to Asia and the Middle East, there will be increased demand for data analysis and we would hate you to miss out for the sake of a phone call early this month.
If we can help you in anyway, please contact us on +44 7717 562169 or by email.
GT Cup Championship
JB Data Engineering joined Morpheus Racing for the final weekend of the 2023 GT Cup Championship season at Snetterton and we were delighted to see the team finish first and second in the GTH (GT4) standings.
With a typical GT Cup race weekend consisting of practice, qualifying and four races, every team member is under pressure across the two days and Snetterton was no exception. The #69 Mercedes AMG GG4 piloted by Stephen Walton and Chris Hart took two second-place finishes in class and a fifth to take the GTH title with a margin of 39 points over the sister #96 entry driven by Jon Currie and Phil Keen. Morpheus Racing’s success shows how effective a testing programme outside of the race weekend Friday sessions can be. All the Am drivers made great progress during the season, largely due to seat-time away from the pressure of preparing to race.
JB Data Engineering Managing Director Jordan Bird was delighted to have been part of Morpheus Racing in 2023. “We would very much like thank Ben, Chris and Steve for the opportunity to work with the team this season,” said Jordan Bird. “It has been an absolute pleasure to work with each and every one of the team! To finish first and second in the GTH class goes to show the hard work that we all put in. I hope that JB Data Engineering can be part of the team that defends that title in 2024!”
TCR UK Touring Car Championship
JB Data Engineering was delighted to be present at Brands Hatch for the final weekend of the 2023 TCR UK Touring Car Championship, providing data analysis support for Carl Boardley, Jenson Brickley and Matt Wilson as well supporting teams throughout the paddock on what was a thrilling finale to a fantastic season.
TCR UK shared the weekend with the BRSCC Formula Ford Festival, a championship in which many professional race car drivers first cut their teeth. Scheduled in late October, the weather can often be unpredictable and so it was with torrential rain on the Saturday. Sunday, however, was fine and dry and with five drivers in contention for the title led by Carl Boardley in the #41 CBM with Hart GT Cupra, track action was always going to be highly competitive.
Jenson Brickley, at the wheel of #246 Cupra, took pole for the first of Sunday’s two contests, lapping the 1.9 kms of the Indy circuit in 48.283 seconds, just over a quarter of a second ahead of Callum Newsham. Alex Ley, sixth in the championship standings going into the final weekend, completed the top three.
Brickley was unable to take his position at the front of the grid due to a mechanical problem so Callum Newsham led the field away with Carl Boardley in fourth. Boardley was passed but only needed to finish in the top six to take the title so drove a considered race as Chris Smiley and Alex Ley battled it out at the front.
Smiley retired with a power steering issue and, as the chequered flag came out for Alex Ley, Boardley was in fourth and took sufficient points to ensure that the Ipswich-based businessman was crowned the TCR UK Touring Car Champion for 2023
Race Two saw some very unfortunate contact on the run down to Graham Bill Bend on the opening lap, resulting in a lengthy red flag period as cars were recovered. Thankfully nobody was injured but two slow formation laps before the restart meant that cold tyres caused more off-track moments and retirements. Jac Constable brought the #11 Rob Bostin Racing Gen II Audi RS3 home for the win, followed by Jenson Brickley in the #246 Cupra. Alex Ley completed the podium finishers.
2023 has seen the bar raised in TCR UK competition and the racing has been extraordinary. JB Data Engineering has been proud to have been involved in the championship and supporting this season’s champion Carl Boardley. We very much hope to return to the paddock next season.
Fun Cup Endurance Championship
The Fun Cup Endurance Championship reached its season finale at Oulton Park for the final weekend of October. JB Data Engineering was back supporting EDF Motorsports with its three-car entry. Simon Coles and Robert Croydon piloted the #212 car while Vlad Vassiliev and Matt Dorkings shared the driving duties in the #246 entry. Victor Kara and Gary Summers completed the trio of entries in the #104 car.
Although always busy, the grid was enhanced with the addition of two guest entries in the form of the #97 GT Radial entry which was crewed by four volunteer motorsport marshals. Two 19th-place finishes was a creditable result for a driver line-up who had only recently passed their ARDS tests. The second guest entry was the #99 JPR Young Guns driven by Luke Hilton, Gracie Mitchell and Jack Noller. Hilton has just completed a successful season in Fiesta Juniors this season, Noller has been competing in the MX5 Championship and Gracie Mitchell is proving a very competitive karter.
EDF Motorsports had mixed fortunes over the two races. In Race One, Vlad Vassiliev and Matt Dorkings brought the #246 car home in 12th place overall and 6th in the Masters category, the #104 and #212 cars finishing 10th and 11th in class. In Race Two, Simon and Robert finished 6th in class, one place ahead of Vlad and Matt in the #246 entry.
Despite the championship’s title, Fun Cup cars are not necessarily easy to drive so the results we came away from Oulton with were very creditable. Thank you to EDF Motorsports for inviting JB Data Engineering to be part of the team in 2023 and we very much hope to return in 2024.
The marque has its own championship, the Ligier European Series, where JS2 Rs compete alongside Ligier JS P4s, the company’s easy-to-drive and accessible sports-prototype car.
The Snetterton test was an excellent opportunity to work with Derek Holden’s team and get to grips with their Ligier JS2 R and we look forward to building on that relationship in the months ahead.
British Endurance Championship
JB Data Engineering was back in the British Endurance Championship and ROWE Britcar Trophy Championship paddock over the weekend of the 14th and 15th of October at Donington for the season finales of these two hugely popular GT championships. We were providing data scrutineering services with the early autumn weather presenting the predicted challenges of showers and bright, sunny conditions for the two grids, both of which were bolstered by a number of invitational entries.
The #67 Team BRIT McLaren 570S driven by Paul Fullick and James Whitley took pole position for the British Endurance Championship two-hour contest but it was the #9 PB Racing Audi GT3 of Peter Erceg and Marcus Clutton who took the race victory, followed by Ameeth Naran and Sam Cooper in the i#108 Breakell Racing McLaren. Mike McCollum and Sean Cooper in the #62 KTM GT4 completed the overall podium positions.
Brad Thurston and Daryl Deleon’s 10th place finish in the ##28 Team HARD Porsche 991 Cup entry was sufficient to give them the overall championship, just four points clear of Neville Jones, Chris Jones and Matt George in the #21 Venture Innovations GT4.
The two ROWE Britcar Trophy Champion ship races saw victories go to Marco Anastaasi in the #4 Datum Motorsport Ginetta in race one and the invitational #40 Intersport BMW M3 E46 driven by Bryan Bramson and Jas Sapra in race two. Rhys Lloyd and Jack Meakin, drivers of the #66 Dragon Sport Renault Clio Cup car secured the title by a margin of 16 points ahead of William Puttergill’s CH Racing Honda Civic Type R.
JB Data Engineering was honoured to supply data scrutineering services to Claire Headley’s Britcar team, ensuring that competitors could compete confident that the technical regulations were being applied fairly and consistently across the large grids. We very much hope we can join the Championship again in 2024.
Ecumaster PMU-24 DL - Power Management Unit
PMU-24 DL is a new and enhanced Power Management Unit featuring all the benefits of the PMU-16 but now with 24 high-side outputs and internal data logging memory as standard. All output states, voltage and current information are transmitted via CAN bus to a dash display to inform the driver of potential problems. All logged data can be downloaded from the device for later analysis.
The Ecumaster PMU-24 DL Power Management Unit includes:
170 Amps total continuous current
10 x 25 Amps high-side power outputs (PWM capable)
6 x 15 Amps high-side power outputs
Up to 16 analogue inputs
24 x tricolour LED for each power output state
256 MB data logger memory
Real-time clock for data stamping
3d accelerometer / gyroscope
JB Data Engineering can not only supply the Ecumaster PMU-24 DL , we can also install the system and provide training to you and your engineers.
Click here to see the packages on offer and place your order.
Planning for 2024
With many national and European series now finished, the JB Data Engineering team is now firmly focused on post-season work and preparing for what promises to be an incredible year for prototype and GT racing around the world in 2024. The Asian Le Mans Series gets underway at Sepang International Circuit on the 2nd of December and JB Data Engineering is planning to be there. With the popularity of racing in Asia and the Middle East at an all-time high, the competition will be as fierce as ever so if you want to have that extra competitive edge on the pit-wall, call JB Data Engineering and let’s discuss how we can help you achieve your racing goals. Please contact us on +44 7717 562169 or by email.
If you’ve hung up your race suit for 2023, we hope you enjoy the post-season and your preparation for 2024. We will be attending the inaugural BRSCC ‘Driven By Racing’ event at Silverstone on the 18th of November so if you would like to meet to discuss your plans, please contact us. All the best, JB Data Engineering
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