Piranha Motorsport achieved their ambition to race in the British GT Series over the weekend of the 19th and 20th September despite encountering some technical issues that had required a visit back to Hethel and the abandonment of the shakedown race at Cadwell Park the previous weekend.
Pre event testing proved impossible to achieve, however the car was ready for the British GT races with the help of the factory and a major effort by the team themselves. British GT qualifying was the first opportunity to run the car properly, albeit the set up was based on guesstimated settings.
After all the hard work to get the car to the grid, Race 1 of the British GT weekend was very disappointing as another car took them out of the race resulting in another major overnight effort by the team, involving trips to Norfolk for suspension parts, to ensure that the car was rebuilt in time to be on the grid for race two.
For Race 2, the cars set up was again estimated, although a gamble was taken on a different set up route which ultimately proved to be the wrong direction. Nevertheless the team were delighted to finish the race. The car proved to be quicker than the KTM X-Bow in a straight line but more set up work is required to improve cornering speed.
The team has learnt a great deal from their first experience in the British GT series and a winter development programme is scheduled. The team are delighted that they proved their credentials, and proved the performance of the Lotus 2-11 GT4, despite running with minimal testing and set up and having to overcome a challenging set of circumstances in the run up to, and during, the first race. Piranha Motorsport will be back next year and are confident that the Lotus 2-11 GT4 will prove to be a quick and cost effective addition to the British GT grid.
Piranha Motosport has been set up by Chris Bialan and Simon Mason. Chris has raced in the Caterham Academy and been a race winner in the Caterham Roadsports and Superlights series. More recently he has raced a Juno sports prototype in the Speed (nee VdeV) series and was Champion in 2008.
Simon is a leading race driver coach with a very successful & race winning client list in a variety of Championships. He is a former Chief Instructor at Rockingham and is an accomplished endurance racing specialist in his own right, having been the Britcar Driver of the year in 2005 and the Team Manager and Leading Driver for TJH Motorsport for 3 years between 2005 and 2008. Simon has a unique record in the Britcar 24 hour race, achieving 3 x Top 8 finishes in the Britcar 24 hour race in a Honda Civic Type R.
Piranha Motorsport is based near Bristol and employs professional and experienced motor sport crew with proven backgrounds in other teams.
Piranha Motorsport will race a Lotus 2-11 GT4 Supersports in the GT4 category of British GT, the first such car of this type to race in the British GT series, as well as entering other endurance events.
Piranha also has the ability to engineer and race other cars in other series, and has a Speed Series (nee VdeV) Juno and an ex BTCC Peugeot 307 S2000 car also in its stable. It is also evaluating an entry into in to the new Porsche Boxster series for 2010. Piranha Motorsport will not just run their own car in British GT it aims to provide full set up, technical support and driver coaching to anyone who wants to race a Lotus 211 or other Elise derived car, Caterham, or Porsche Boxster.
