Netherlands' Randall Lawson Debuts Strong at Hockenheim Historic Jim Clark Revival
- 1 may 2012
Although Lawson has been successful in winning division championships running up against cars decades younger and with an average of 120hp, he clearly wants his share of an overall title. At the end of 2011 when we last spoke with Lawson he said, "For 2012 we already have a new engine ready with more horsepower. Next season is going to be interesting; maybe I can win the overall championship with it. We have a lot of work this winter to test and prepare the car for a new battle though. With K&N's help over here in Holland, we are going to make a special air-box for it. This is not going to be so easy, because we don't have a lot of room between the inlets of the Kugelfischer injection system and the rear bonnet of the car. But problems are there to be solved, and with the technicians of K&N, I think it's going to be something we will have no problem managing. That is one of the best parts of having fun with racing."
The long hard winter's effort has paid off for Lawson and his team, as the Group 4 Alpine A310 got a new engine with the experimental Kugelfischer injection from the seventies. "We found the parts for the Kugelfischer pump and throttle from a PRV engine in Germany," said Lawson. "Only three were ever made so it was hard to find. We worked all winter and built a complete new V6 around it from engine parts we still had."
Renault experimented with the same system for their 1978 A310 Le Mans racecar effort, but then made the decision to switch back to Weber carburetors before the actual racing started, so the Kugelfischer system was never race tested. Admittedly the first test with the new engine in the beginning of the year didn't go well. But, after a lot of work by engine builder Griemelink, everything fell in place at the first two races at Historic Hockenheim event held on April 13th to 15th. "We didn't know what to expect," Lawson explains. "It was all again last minute work. Thanks to K&N and a lot of other sponsors who also worked directly with the team to get everything ready in time, we managed it. When I got out of the pits on Friday morning for free practice, I knew immediately that everything would be okay. The engine is a real beauty, the extra 50 bhp is a dream come true. Of course we now have to work on a lot of other small things to make the car even better."
Road handling is still an issue and also the front brakes are now too small to handle the extra power, yet Lawson's skills were enough to earn him a solid 5th place overall in the first race and 3rd in the second. "I'm walking with a smile on my face that will stay there a long, yes a long time," exclaimed Lawson. "This is what we needed as a team after all the hard work this winter. 2012 is going to be a very great season in the Company Cloud Youngtimer Touring Car Challenge." The next race for Lawson and his Equipe Alpine Jaronn team is May 18th and 19th at Zandvoort racetrack the Netherlands. "We will fit new, bigger brakes on the car and make the handling better by adding additional damperners on the front suspension," adds Lawson. "We will definitely be ready." Find K&N products for your vehicle using the K&N application search then use the K&N dealer search to find a K&N dealer in your part of the world. |
