DelzBells Motorsport Ltd

The team will be updating this page after each stage of our season so our fan can follow the teams progress

Firstly DelzBells Motorsport Ltd would like thank Hellisan for putting this series together and wish all our competitors a fun and trouble free season.


PRE SEASON REPORT

Delzbells Motorsport Ltd ran a 3 day test at infineon earlier this week and have come away feeling pretty happy with the car and where we have the tune so far.  Helen the teams principal made the following statement, we have a bit more testing and tuning to do and of course we don't know where everyone else is at but the initial signs are that we think we will be on the pace.  We had an issue with straight line speed and the front end started out a little inconsistent on a couple of corners but we have now managed to both of those things.  We have learnt that as in all racing keeping the car clean and staying out of trouble will be huge for our team and we hope our resident tuner and driver will be able to do that.  Today we just rolled the car out of the shop with the Martini artwork all finished so we are nearly ready to go, we just need a little more time on the track to try and find a little more time.  We feel Qually will be huge for the team as well as we are sure we'l fly off the line and we will need to take full advantage of that and drive smart as we think the others will put us under loads of pressure in the middle to end of the race.  We are hoping to head back to the track this week as another driver in the series Mr Sng in his Ford Sierra Cosworth has indicated he would like to run some laps with us as hes been out of the race seat for a few months and wants to brush up on his race craft.


Infineon

Qually
I was pretty pleased with qually getting third fastest because I knew there were a lot of cars running very close lap times.  I had my best out lap of the week in qually my next 2 weren't too bad but not the best as I was worried knowing 1 mistake could make a big difference to where you were placed so I was very happy to see not my best time possible put me in 3rd spot.

Race 1
Everyone knows the Alfa is incredible off the line thanks to its AWD but also know I am a pretty timid driver when it comes to passing and I like a clean car so my sponsors can be seen by the media, after all that's what they pay for.  That being said I found myself really able to get off to a flyer and passing 4 cars by turn 1 as gaps appeared for me to use.  By the end of lap 2 I was up to 3rd spot which considering even with AWD I started on the 2nd last grid row I felt very happy and the car also felt pretty happy and consistent. From lap 3 I had a pretty clear run but I also knew with the amount of quality drivers on the grid I would at some point become under pressure.  I saw a few drivers pit on the 1st available lap, looked at the map and as I had clear air I decided to make sure I pitted late to maximise that all important clear air.  A few laps after the pit along came Luongo and after a few laps I finally made an error out braking myself for the 1st hairpin and he slid by me demoting me to 4th place.  Towards the end of the race sniper was catching me as I came up on a couple of back markers who very kindly gave me good space and room to get by them and for that I thank you very much guys great awareness.  I was managing the gap I had over sniper and was feeling very happy with life as I know how quick both he and the BMW's are.  On the 33rd laps I came into the right hander before the 1st harpin only to see a load of smoke and a car and the next thing I knew my car was pretty much done from engine right through to suspension.  I finally got the car going again and crawled to the pit looking out for fast traffic behind me.  Driving to the pit cost me 2 places which dropped me back to 6th place and then the pit took forever and I managed to just get out and hold position over Sublime for a 7th place finish.


Race 2
Again I had a really good start off the line and after turn 1 found myself in 2nd place behind the other Alfa.  We ran close for a lap or so then Fastlane made an error and I was able to slip by him into the lead closely followed by sniper.  The rest of the race was spent trying not to make mistakes and drive smart making snipers life as hard as possible however I didn't think id keep him there but was gonna try.  I was slower than him into turn 1 so I was constantly looking in my mirror to try and cover his every move which ment at turn 1 placing my car on the inside.  Then the gutsy little Italian tried a bold and brave move around the outside at turn 1 with a couple of laps to go we rubbed paint a few times as we both tried our best to race hard without wrecking both of us, we came out of turn 1 side by side and went into the next chicane the same way.  This was pretty mad because we both knew only 1 would survive but we tried it anyway lol.  I with the AWD managed to hold the inside line and get decent drive out to hold the lead.  Things got pretty close to the end and I managed to get the win and I think there was only a few feet between us at the line.  It was a fantastic battle that I enjoyed very much my only regret was that we had a few rubs but we both were racing hard and wanted the win.





Race night overview
I had a great night's racing it sucked what happened in race 1 but hey that's racing and at least I was able to salvage some points from race 2 and get my first race win of the season.  The battle with sniper was intense and an immense amount of fun.

Great looking paint Helen... And good luck to you Del during this season.

When I saw the picture that you were going to run this, I loved it. Are you hoping that the car is so pretty that no one will crash into you?

Always hoping sir

Not a chance. No brakes coming through!!!!

Our team ran some more test laps today and learnt a few changes we want to make to the car to try for tomorrows test so we will see how that goes.

The team had it's first test session at Hockenheim yesterday which went better than expected. We made quite a few changes to the tune but put in some pretty solid lap times and consistency was good also. We will have another test or 2 before the races in order to look at the gearbox as we feel we may need a couple of tweaks.