Dave Cook Racing

Last updated

Dave Cook Racing Services
Founded1983
Folded2007
Team principal(s)Dave Cook
Former series British Touring Car Championship

British Thundersaloon Championship

Asia-Pacific Touring Car Championship

South African Touring Car Championship

Dave Cook Racing Services (DCRS) was a motorsports team, maintenance and repair service and racecar builder [1] based in Sheriff Hutton, Yorkshire

Contents

Origins

Dave Cook had co-run the CC Racing Developments team with Peter Clark in the 1970s, running Gordon Spice in a Ford Capri in the British Saloon Car Championship. Success was immediate, with Spice winning his class first time out. Eventually, Cook founded his own team in 1983, and thanks to a previous relationship with General Motors in which CC Racing had built Opel Monza chassis for the British Production Car Championship , landed a deal to prepare Group A specification Monzas to be run for the GM Dealer-Vauxhall Sport team, driven by Tony Lanfranchi in the BSCC for 1983. Lanfranchi won the Class A category that season, but only after the works Austin Rover team was disqualified over homologation irregularities with the Rover SD1, costing Steve Soper the championship outright.

Thundersaloons

Continuing their relationship with GM and Vauxhall, DCRS ran Lanfranchi in a works Class D GM Dealer Vauxhall Nova in the BSCC in 1986, winning the class with two wins and a second place. Building on the factory backing by GM, Cook was commissioned by Vauxhall to run an ex Holden Dealer Team Commodore VK in the British Thundersaloon Championship in 1986 badged as a Vauxhall Senator. The season was a great success, John Cleland won the championship and for 1987, DCRS was tasked with the design and build of the Vauxhall Carltons for Cleland and Vince Woodman. [2] The cars clearly had potential, which was proved the following year, winning the championship outright in 1988. [3]

Touring Cars

The success with the Thundersaloon series inspired Vauxhall to re-enter the British Touring Car Championship in 1989, once again turning to DCRS to prepare the cars. The season was another triumph as Cleland dominated his class in an Astra GTE, winning eleven of the thirteen races in Class C and won the championship outright by one point from James Weaver.

For 1990, the BTCC rules were changed to a two class system for cars of up to and over 2.0 litre specification in preparation for a wholesale change to the Super Touring regulations in 1991. Vauxhall swapped chassis to the new Cavalier GSi, which was used throughout the early 1990s, run under the Vauxhall Sport banner. Initially the Cavalier was run on a rear wheel drive platform, but when this proved uncompetitive, DCRS switched to a more conventional front wheel drive setup. [4] Cleland took four class wins in 1990, breaking the domination of the BMW M3, but finished second in class to Frank Sytner. Cleland's teammate, double champion Chris Hodgetts retired at the end of the season.

Following the switch to the single class formula, Cleland finished runner up in 1991 to Will Hoy driving for BMW, despite winning more races than Hoy, including taking Vauxhall's first outright race win at Thruxton. The Dunlop tyres the team was using were seen as the problem, so DCRS switched to more competitive Yokohama rubber the following year. [5]

The team hit the ground running in 1992, and had by far the best car until halfway through the season. Both Cleland and teammate Jeff Allam were in the running for the title, but BMW caught up after development work on their new 318iS model. Cleland ended up finishing third in controversial circumstances after leading the championship all season. The season finale saw a three-way fight between Cleland, Hoy and Tim Harvey, which went in favour of Harvey after his teammate Steve Soper eliminated Cleland from the race, although Vauxhall claimed the manufacturers' championship ahead of BMW and Toyota. Despite DCRS continually developing the Cavalier, the following year Cleland and Vauxhall had no answer for Joachim Winkelhock and the Schnitzer BMW team, who wrapped up the championship with ease, with Cleland ending the season in fourth, although Vauxhall finished as best of the rest behind BMW. [6]

In 1992, DCRS sold several Cavalier chassis to the privateer Ecurie Ecosse team, whose cars were re-engineered and run by Ray Mallock. In short order the Ray Mallock Cavaliers began to outperform the works cars, which eventually led to them gaining the works contract from Vauxhall for 1994. With no deal to fall back on, DCRS disappeared from the BTCC paddock, picking up a contract from Toyota Motorsport to run and prepare race cars around the world. [7]

Later years

As a result of the Toyota deal, DCRS prepared production and touring spec cars for teams in Europe, including Toyota Supras for the Martin brothers in Belgium and Toyota Carinas built for Team Tasman, running in the Schedule S Touring Car Class in New Zealand. This team featured Julian Bailey in its driver line up, who finished runner up in 1995. [8] DCRS also prepared Toyota Camrys for the South African championship and Carinas, which ran in the Asia-Pacific Touring Car Championship. [9]

In 1997, DCRS re-entered the BTCC, running an ex-works privateer BMW 320i for Colin Gallie. [10] In the early 2000s, DCRS prepared parts for the Lexus BTCC effort, until Dave Cook voluntarily wound the team down.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">British Touring Car Championship</span> Auto racing championship in the United Kingdom

The Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship is a touring car racing series held each year in the United Kingdom, currently organised and administered by TOCA. It was established in 1958 as the British Saloon Car Championship and was renamed as the British Touring Car Championship for the 1987 season. The championship, currently running Next Generation Touring Car regulations, has been run to various national and international regulations over the years including FIA Group 2, FIA Group 5, FIA Group 1, FIA Group A, FIA Super Touring and FIA Super 2000. A lower-key Group N class for production cars ran from 2000 until 2003.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Cleland (racing driver)</span> Scottish racing driver

John Cunningham Cleland is a retired Scottish auto racing driver, best known for winning the British Touring Car Championship in 1989 and 1995.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Triple Eight Racing</span> Motorsports team

Triple Eight Racing was a motorsports team formed in 1996 as Triple Eight Race Engineering, which competed in the British Touring Car Championship and the British GT Championship.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Will Hoy</span> English racing driver (1952–2002)

William Ewing Hoy was an English racing driver and the 1991 British Touring Car Champion, the highlight of a 20-year career in motor racing.

Andrew Rouse is a British racing driver, most notably in the British Saloon Car Championship. He won the BSCC in 1975, 1983, 1984 and 1985.

Franklin Goodman Sytner is a British racing driver, a Life Member of the BRDC, and was the 1988 British Touring Car Champion, driving a BMW M3. He also won his class in 1990.

The 1993 Auto Trader RAC British Touring Car Championship season was 36th British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) season.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1994 British Touring Car Championship</span>

The 1994 Auto Trader RAC British Touring Car Championship season was the 37th British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) season.

The 1997 Auto Trader RAC British Touring Car Championship was won by Alain Menu of the Williams Renault Dealer Racing team, driving a Renault Laguna. Menu dominated the year, setting a record of 12 wins during the season. The runner up was Frank Biela of Audi Sport UK in an Audi A4 Quattro. Third place was Menu's teammate, Jason Plato. In the independent class the championship was won by Robb Gravett in a Honda Accord.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1998 British Touring Car Championship</span> Sports season

The 1998 Auto Trader RAC British Touring Car Championship featured 26 races across 13 rounds, it commenced at Thruxton on 13 April and ended at Silverstone on 20 September.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">RML Group</span> British auto racing team and constructor

Ray Mallock Ltd., also known as RML Group, is a motorsports and high performance engineering company, based in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, United Kingdom.

The 1996 Auto Trader RAC British Touring Car Championship season marked the arrival of Audi to the sport with their four wheel drive A4s. The title was won by Frank Biela, with Swiss driver Alain Menu again finishing in second place and Swede Rickard Rydell in third.

The 1995 Auto Trader RAC British Touring Car Championship was won by John Cleland in a Vauxhall Cavalier. The Independents' title was won by Matt Neal in his Team Dynamics Ford Mondeo with fourteen class wins.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1999 British Touring Car Championship</span> Sports season

The 1999 Auto Trader RAC British Touring Car Championship featured 26 races across 13 rounds. It began on 5 April at Donington Park and concluded on 19 September at Silverstone. The driver's title was won by Laurent Aïello in his debut season driving for the Nissan works team, with his teammate David Leslie in second place. Reigning champion Rickard Rydell finished in third place.

Jim Pocklington is a British racing driver who formerly (2007) drove a BMW 320I in the British Touring Car Championship, which is Britain's most popular national motor racing series. He now lives in Suffolk with his wife, Jan. Currently he is taking part in the Classic Touring Cars Racing Club's Super Tourers series with his team JPDELTA MOTORSPORT in his former BTCC Vauxhall Cavalier chassis 011. Whilst it was the 11th car built by DCRS it was the first Vauxhall Cavalier touring car built and has chassis number 1.

The 1991 Esso RAC British Touring Car Championship season was the 34th British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) season and marked the first year of the Super Touring era.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tim Sugden</span> British racing driver (born 1964)

Timothy Philip Sugden is a British racing driver. He is both driver and manager for his own racing team, Tim Sugden Motorsport.

Nicholas Whale is a British racing driver. He currently competes in historic rallying and FIA historic saloon racing events. He runs Silverstone Auctions, Classic Car Auctions, Automotive Auctions and Nick Whale Motorhomes. He was a main board director of both the BRDC and the MSA and also a trustee and a Director of the Midlands Air Ambulance.

Next Generation Touring Car, also known as NGTC and by its Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) designation TCN-1, is an FIA and TOCA specification and classification for production based race cars. The specification covers national level touring car racing. The goal of the limited choices in engines and parts in the NGTC classification is to allow more manufacturers and privateers to race by reducing the cost of a competitive car and to reduce reliance on the increasingly expensive Super 2000 equipment. The only significant differences between different models is the external body shells and the use of front- or rear-wheel drive; the suspension, brakes and transmissions are common to all cars, and engines are of uniform performance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2017 British Touring Car Championship</span>

The 2017 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship was a motor racing championship for production-based touring cars held across England and Scotland. The championship featured a mix of professional motor racing teams and privately funded amateur drivers competing in highly modified versions of family cars which are sold to the general public and conform to the technical regulations for the championship. The 2017 season was the 60th British Touring Car Championship season and the seventh season for cars conforming to the Next Generation Touring Car (NGTC) technical specification.

References

  1. ↑ "Dave Cook Racing Services : Sheriff Hutton, York, YO6 1RH". data-york.co.uk. Retrieved 27 September 2015.
  2. ↑ "Classic Opel Forum NZ • View topic – Vauxhall Carlton TS6000". opelforum.org.nz. Retrieved 27 September 2015.
  3. ↑ "Print Page – V8 Carlton Thundersaloon..." totalcarlton.com. Retrieved 27 September 2015.
  4. ↑ "cavalier and chevette club".
  5. ↑ http://www.cavalierandchevetteclub.co.uk/cavalier%20mk3%20super%20touring%20in%20the%201990s.htm
  6. ↑ "BTCC | 1991-2000".
  7. ↑ "Dave Cook Racing Services – Page 3 – TenTenths Motorsport Forum". tentenths.com. Retrieved 27 September 2015.
  8. ↑ "Castrol Toyota Carina NZ Touring Car, Ex works".
  9. ↑ "Dave Cook Racing Services – TenTenths Motorsport Forum". tentenths.com. Retrieved 27 September 2015.
  10. ↑ "Gallie in right gear to be switched on Scot in pole position as TV coverage moves to touring cars".
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.