Happy New Year to everyone and I hope you all had a good Christmas!

We are now already through the first half of the off season for motorsport and are gathering pace towards the new race season which generally starts around April for most championships.

We’ve been very busy with the college race car, with the new engine fitted and running along with a list of other jobs completed. We aim to have the car complete by the end of January which is a long time before our first test at Castle Combe at the end of March.

This time of year is quite quiet for race circuits but they do offer a range of test days over the winter period and although most people avoid these cold and wet days, it is still important to ensure you carry out some wet test days in order to find a good base set up for wet conditions which is what so many race teams don’t do. As a student, this is a great opportunity to really learn about how important car set up is and no doubt during a wet test day, the conditions will challenge the team from the start of the day to the end.

We are also expecting some customer cars to visit the motorsport workshop, so keep an eye on our facebook page for more information, where we also have up to date pictures and videos of the race car rebuild. In addition, get the latest info about the race team in the latest sponsor bulletin.
With college, we are also moving along well with our planning of the BSc(Hons) top up year with new software and equipment also being lined up to align the quality of the top up year with that of our HEI partner, Oxford Brookes University. Remember the first UCAS deadline is the 15th January, for more details, see www.ucas.co.uk.

Finally, remember, we have the Autosport International show this month (www.autosport.com), a must for any student, competitor, enthusiast or for anyone that works in the industry. It’s great for networking and finding out all the latest offerings from top end manufacturers and teams around the world from a wide range of cars, components and services.