Sunday April 21st saw Rounds 3 & 4 of the 2002 BTCC take place at the challenging Cheshire circuit of Oulton Park. After a difficult, but successful first round, James Kaye and Synchro Motorsport were looking forward to being able to show more of the potential of their Honda Civic Type R.

Free practice: Free practice started early on the Saturday morning with a slightly damp track. The main objective being to confirm the work that had been done since Brands Hatch. The steering system was now working perfectly, the braking was much improved, and the engine was now running well. James put in some competitive laps concentrating on making small but effective changes to develop the car. Still with only a handful of laps under its belt, the Synchro Civic Type R was still very new, and it is testament to the team that we could concentrate on improvements rather than curing reliability issues. With the session over, lots of valuable data had been collected and a lot learnt about the car to enable us to go forward in the next session.

The second free practice session followed 2 hours later and again a damp track greeted the drivers. Once again, time was spent working on improving the overall balance of the car, and trying to find out more about the cars handling. By then end of the session, all was well, with James lapping competitively.

Qualifying: With numerous changes made before qualifying, James left the pitlane and went about setting some fast laps. In the early minutes of qualifying, it was apparent James was happy with the car. He soon recorded a time that no other driver could match, and at the end of the first 20 min session James finished in Pole Position for the Sprint race, with a time 0.9 secs quicker than the second placed car of Techspeed’s Mark Fullalove. Next came the 20 minute session for the Feature Race qualification, and within 3 laps, James had recorded a time that the rest of the field could not match, and ended the session again in Pole Position, but this time by over 1.4 seconds.

Overall this was a great performance by James and the whole team, and an historic one at that. The first pole position for the team ever, but to do so with such a margin to the opposition was more than satisfying.

Kaye commented:

“This has been a great day for both myself and the team. I am over the moon to be back at the front of the Production grid. I am going to give 110% tomorrow. I want to win!”

Sprint Race: With the weather finally clearing before the Sprint Race, confidence was building within the team, and hopes were high for the race. The normally fast starting rear wheel drive BMW of Norman Simon got away quickest, and lead into the first corner, with James tucked in behind. By the end of the first lap it was Simon and Kaye in a class of their own. After a few laps behind the safety car, on the re-start, James was able to make a move on Simon and take the lead.

Consistently lapping over half a second quicker than the rest of the field, James was able to pull out a handsome lead which he held until the finish, ending the race over 8.5 seconds ahead of the second placed Mark Fullalove in his Peugeot 306. A great drive by James and excellent work from the team secured our first race win, and also fastest lap adding to the satisfaction. It would now be interesting to see how the car would perform in the feature race with the 42 Kg of success ballast.

A jubilant Kaye said:

“ I am over the moon. You wouldn’t believe what we have been through to run this car. This is the first win for a Honda Civic Type-R in a Production Class anywhere in the world. It’s wonderful!”

Feature Race: With the car now weighing 42 Kg heavier, James went out for the feature race aiming to match the performance of the Sprint and round off a day to remember for the Synchro team. Things started well, with James holding position from the rolling start. It wasn’t long before he settled into a rhythm and started to pull away from the chasing pack. By lap 5 he had built up a commanding lead, when he reported 2nd gear could no longer be selected. Continuing just using the remaining 4 gears, James continued to maintain a respectable gap, and was putting in time still faster than the rest of the field. Things were looking good, when fate stuck 8 laps from home. Fuel pressure was the reported problem, and within the lap, the engine had cut out. He was able to coast into the pitlane, but unfortunately a quick cure could not be found and we had to retire from the race.

It was later found that a fuel pump failure had been the cause. A bitter disappointment, but the Civic has definitely made its mark in the "Production" category.

All in all, 2 pole positions, 2 fastest laps, and a sprint race win is more than the team had expected this early into the life of the Civic Type R. Still with only a handful of laps being completed by the car, development is ongoing, and considering the majority of the other cars in the "Production" field are fully developed cars, the team are confident of being able to repeat these achievements in future events.

The team have a break of 2 weeks to continue the development work on the Civic, and find a solution to the fuel pump problem. Synchro's second car for Dave Allan is in the final stages of preparation, and should be shaken down next week ready for its debut at Thruxton where Synchro return to being a 2 car team again after running just 1 car for the last season.