A New Partnership
During 2020 Nick introduced me to a man called Paul Robe the MD of PARR Porsche Specialists in Crawley, Paul is a racer through and through and if you cut him in half it would say ‘Porsche Motorsports’. Paul is one of the most respected men within Porsche racing, he has run many international and national race teams including singularly running the Carrera Cup at the Silverstone British Grand Prix. So what he doesn’t know about Porsches and racing is not worth knowing!
After a few months of discussion, Paul agreed that PARR would back the United Washrooms Race team car for the 2021 season which means that they would be the ‘Preparers’. This entails housing and transporting the car while fully setting it up mechanically before and after each race or test day as well as supporting with mechanics and technicians on the race and test days with technical analysis and advise on the car’s performance via data feedback and in-car video to tweak my driving pace in every perceivable part of the track. They even arrange booking all of the test days and hotels.
By October 2020 it was clear that I was going to need a faster car that was eligible for the Boxster Cup, so I contacted the experts who had the knowledge I needed. If I had learnt anything from my years in business, it was to listen to the advice of the more experienced people around you. With the help of the Porsche Club, Paul and Nick my trainer they located me a fully rebuilt race car.
The car had been built by John Bradshaw from Road and Race Restoration in Manchester. John has built race cars for many international teams and drivers and is extremely well respected within British Motorsports.
Installation of a V-Box
The new car arrived at PARR Porsche Specialists and Paul gave it a tweak or two and installed a V-Box which would give his team and me data from the two cameras installed in the car that links to a computer. This then gives us data which tells the team at PARR, my trainer Nick and myself everything about the car from the percentage of braking time, throttle pressure around the circuits to the number of revs that the car is running at in any given part of the track, it really is a priceless tool.
This technology is very similar to what you see on the pit wall when you watch the F1 races on TV and is now a huge part of my training to help me shave off the odd second on each course.
