Performance Racing is continuing to work on the new National class car that will be used in the British F3 championship.
Wet weather at
Donington Park was far from ideal for testing the Mugen Honda powered machine, but team owner Bobby Issazadhe was pleased with the way things are progressing with the car when
Crash.net joined him for a chat...
Crash.net:
Bobby, having another run today with the National class car that you will use next season and testing another driver in Tim Bridgman. Obviously the wet weather conditions haven’t helped you but how do you feel the day has gone?
Bobby Issazadhe:
No unfortunately the conditions have been really, really bad so unfortunately for Tim he hasn’t been able to do many laps and not really good laps because it’s just too damp. Anyway the car has shown again that the engine works very well and it’s very reliable, and the power delivery seems very good so we are happy with the engine at least, but unfortunately we have been unable to do any proper testing.
Crash.net:
Now the rain is something that you come to expect from the British weather, but how disappointing is it to get a driver in to test the car and then not be able to see what the can really do?
Bobby Issazadhe:
Obviously it’s very disappointing because I’ve been looking forward to testing Tim because I know he is a very quick driver. Even in these conditions I can see in the body language and everything that he is a very aggressive driver and I think once we get a proper test with him in the car he will go very, very quick, I’m sure of that.
Crash.net:
Again today you’re running the new Mugen Honda engine that will be used in the National class next season, you had a test with it a week ago with your 2004 driver Stephen Jelley, what kind of feedback was he able to give you?
Bobby Issazadhe:
It was very good because obviously when you have a one spec engine and they want to make the engine last longer and keep costs down, I was a little bit afraid that the engine would lose some of the F3 characteristics if they tried to downtune it a bit. But it seems it is as strong as the engines we have been using in the past, so this car is going to be as quick as any F3 car. They have done a few modifications in the cylinder head that will allow it to withstand over-revs a bit better but generally it is a proper F3 engine.
Crash.net:
This is all part of a plan to bring down the costs and increase participation in the National class. As a team owner, you’re obviously happy that it will be bringing those costs down as well.
Bobby Issazadhe:
Oh yeah, at the end of the day if we can make the class cheaper then it will bring more drivers in and be better for everybody, so I’m happy with the new rules.
Crash.net:
It is something that has been obvious in the Scholarship class at points during this year, there have been races where there haven’t been many drivers out there and it gets to the stage where people might say ‘Is it worth having the Scholarship class when it only has three runners?’ Do you think these new rules and the engine package will make the new National class as it’s going to be called more appealing to teams and to drivers?
