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Streetpower Time Attack
March 14 2010, the season opener took place at the legendary racetrack of Zandvoort.
This was our first official event as Ape-garage and especially our first real race event because both kel's accord euro R and Stefan's b18 civic competed in the time-attack part of the streetpower event.
Both cars competed in the starter class especially for street legal cars. Both cars did some track events before but both the civic and accord got some serious updates.
The civic received a complete new brake system. The accord suffered a more dramatic change and transformed to a complete racingcar in a couple of weeks. Both cars needed some tuning and preparing with less than 12 hours prior to the first testing session on saturday but both cars made it to the grid.
On saturday we had a full hour to test our car and run the track as much as possible. The civic performed perfectly and no problems occured. Stefan managed to run 50 minutes and even did some fine laptimes on his first effort at the track. The accord ran absolutely fine until the exhaust cracked and Kel was forced to abbort his session.
Raceday started awfully early because Kel had to repair and weld his exhaust. A dramatic race against the clock followed and we even made it to the technical inspection and briefing in time. Warm up session worked out perfectly and no problems for both drivers. Stefan had a great battle with an old 310 hp Opel and finished the session in 4th place clocking a laptime of 2:15.606 . Kel's car ran fine but Kel wasn't happy and confident with it's behaviour and finished 21th lapping in 2:21.576. The finals were extremely exiting in our class. 4th to 9th place finished within less than half a second and putting Stefan on P9 lapping in 2:12.850 which is quite a good performance considering the fact it's the first event at Zandvoort. Offcourse we're very happy with this performance but Stefan is somewhat disappointed because the car did suffer some engine problems. The engine stalled on some flying laps. He only managed to do 5 or 6 flying laps which destroyed the rythm. Overall the performance was fantastic and very promising for the future. Kel's lack of confidence and feeling in the car were absolutely valid. The car's subframe came loose so the complete front suspension was swinging around but we discovered this after the race and Kel was very lucky no accidents occured. Still Kel managed to beat his first laptime and finished P22 lapping in 2:21.112.
Overall were very happy about the results but somewhat disappointed. We're very motivated to upgrade our performance for round 2 of the Time-attack series at Assen.
See you there and thanks for your support at Zandvoort!
Team Ape-garage
Here we are!
A very special and promising time has started. Not only is Ape-garage an official and true
company but the new website is live and kicking! The year 2010 will be in our memories as
the year everything went bigger and better. New products en services will be available soon.
More satisfied customers will come out of the garages after finishing there projects and
running some Ape-garage gear. Be ready for 2010! Ape-garage will hit it hard!