UCLan Racing

19/06/2017

The final parts of our new promotional video were shot at our latest race meeting at Oulton Park. Hope you like it!

19/06/2017

We're back from our second race meeting of the year where we had some great results.
At our first race meeting at Oulton Park in March we enjoyed two runaway victories for Jaap Blijleven driving his Reynard 88FF in the Pre 90 races. Luciano Miguel finished 9th in both of the Post 89 races on his first visit to Oulton Park.
Stronger opposition for Jaap resulted in two second places this time around, but Luciano improved massively to finish 5th in the first race and got onto the podium in race two by finishing third. Great work by the students is paying off and we're looking forward to our next race meeting on July 9th at Donington Park.

08/08/2016

Nice but busy weekend at Anglesey with Jaap and Brian.
Jaap got a second and a win after having a cracked front bulkhead repaired. Thanks to Neil Robinson from NRM Fabrications for the welding - we wouldn't have made the races without you :)
Brian continued to make good progress in his second outing with us and finished 5th in race 1 and 6th in race 2, with lap times improving all weekend.
The results were good but the real triumph was the students having Jaap's car in so many pieces (twice!) and rebuilding it to race-winning standard. It made the long hours worth it 😀

05/08/2016

Nick and Brian winding down after a hectic day at the office. Cheg

26/06/2016

Some great photos of yesterday's action by Agata Rogalska Photography

25/06/2016

Another faultless performance by UCLan Motorsport students resulted in a great win for Jaap Blijleven at Oulton Park today. New UCLan driver, (and UCLan graduate) Brian Young, performed well in his first race for a couple of years by qualifying in P8 and producing a solid performance in the race.
Jaap missed out on pole position by 0.1 seconds from series newcomer Josh Smith, but nothing less than a win was going to be good enough today. The early laps saw a wheel to wheel battle between the lead pair but a gear selection problem for Josh made the win 'disappointingly' easy for Jaap. Josh also had a 10 second penalty applied for a marginal jump start which gave Jaap a comfortable victory at the chequered flag.
Brian made a good start to the race and enjoyed some close battles for the first half, eventually finishing P9. His progress throughout testing and the race day was fantastic and a deal is in progress for further outings this season.
Roll on the next race at Anglesey in a few weeks.

09/05/2016

Once again the motorsport engineering students from UClan Racing provided a perfect car for Jaap Blijleven to race at Oulton Park, and he produced his best ever lap time of the International circuit. However, Jamie Jardine was supreme at the head of the Pre 90 field, setting a pole time a massive 0.9 seconds faster than Jaap's best, and Jaap had to settle for 2nd place in qualifying and also in the race.
Next weekend sees us race at Jaap's home circuit of Zandvoort in Holland at the Marcel Albers Memorial Trophy where we'll be looking for local knowledge to give us an advantage.

Photos courtesy of Agata Rogalska Photography

09/04/2016

UCLan driver Jaap Blijleven made a solid start to the race season with two 3rd place finishes in the opening rounds of the Avon Tyres Formula Ford 1600 Championship at Oulton Park today.
The first race meeting of the year is always a steep learning curve for the new students and this weekend was no exception. Friday’s testing was going to plan until Jaap’s car required a new clutch to be fitted over the lunch break – a task that can easily turn out to be far from straight forward. However, it turned out to be a fairly routine procedure on this occasion and the car didn’t miss a minute of testing, going on to post some very competitive lap times in the afternoon which put the team in a confident mood for Saturday’s races.
Jaap was on provisional pole position for most of Saturday’s qualifying session but was pipped by Jamie Jardine in the dying seconds. Just one tenth of a second relegated Jaap to 2nd on the grid! Jaap dropped to 3rd at the start of Race 1 as a great battle took place between pole man Jamie Jardine and 3rd-placed qualifier, Callum McHale. Jaap soon found his rhythm and started to close the 2.8 second gap to McHale with a string of fast laps, but couldn’t find his way past and crossed the finish line 0.1 seconds behind. However, he did get fastest lap of the race for his efforts.
Race 2 was another close encounter, this time in increasingly tricky conditions as the forecast rain started to fall. The lead changed hands a couple of times between Jardine and McHale, with Jaap in close contact in 3rd, before Jamie made a break and established a small but comfortable gap at the front. Jaap was again setting fastest lap times in his pursuit of Callum, but a half spin at Lodge corner on the penultimate lap put an end to his challenge for 2nd place, and Jamie claimed the fastest lap of the race on the last lap.
Today’s races are a promising sign that this year’s championship will be close and hard fought, hopefully in UCLan’s favour, and there’s no doubt that the latest student recruits to UCLan Racing are up to the challenge.
The next race takes place at Oulton Park on May 7th.

23/11/2015

Well done and thanks to Barry Linley for rounding off the season for us with a cracking performance at the Anglesey Winter Races. Two 7th place finishes in changeable conditions after 12 months out of the car and setting some great lap times along the way. Thanks also to the students who came along and braved the often wet and cold conditions to keep the car ready for action.

23/11/2015

06/11/2015

A great weekend at Silverstone running Stuart Jones in the Walter Hayes Trophy. He was running inside the top 10 in the Historic Final before a spin dropped him to 13th. Not bad after being out of the car for over a year! Next stop is Anglesey on November 22nd for the Anglesey Winter Raceday where we'll have Jaap in his Reynard and Barry Linley in our Van Diemen.

23/08/2015

Jaap finished P2 after a race-long dice with Matthew Cowley and Jamie Jardine. It's nice to be back in the hunt and will take good momentum and confidence to the next race at Anglesey in September.