9:42am Thursday 17th July 2008
MOTORSPORT
WOOTTON Bassett's Rick Rowles will make a name for himself this weekend when he becomes the first person to race a Honda Civic outside of the British Touring Car Championship, writes DEREK BINSTEAD.
The 47-year-old Honda worker has been racing at Castle Combe in the Saloon Car Championship for 10 years but has spent the last nine months building a new car to race.
Now he has built his new car he will use the rest of this season as a testing period before going for glory in the championship next term.
Rowles' car is powered by a Honda Civic Type R engine which produces over 200 bhp at the flywheel and is 2000cc in size.
It is sat on KW suspension which is fully adjustable to give Rowles the perfect handling he is looking for at high speeds.
The brakes have all been fully upgraded to Alcon brakes which will stop the 18" wheels very quickly.
Rowles said: "I believe the Honda engine is the finest built engines in the world and there is plenty of scope to make the engine even better.
"I will use the rest of this season to test the car and then next season will do the full rounds of the championship and will be looking to finish as high up in the championship as possible.
"It has been a lot of hard work and I am pleased with the outcome."
n Castle Combe plays host to its biggest race meeting of the season with an 18-race programme for the Dunlop Great and British Racing Festival this weekend.
The National Championship rounds are joined by the Circuit's own series, for single seaters, special GT's and saloon cars.
The 12-lap Melton Concrete Products Castle Combe Formula Ford 1600 Championship has seen Josh Fisher win all three rounds so far this season.
In Class A, Andrew Jones from Castle Combe currently lies in second place with his Ray GRS07 with former double champion Edward Moore from Bradford on Avon third with his Van Diemen RF00.
Other Class A regulars include Chippenham's Adam Higgins and David Tansley from Cricklade.
The pre-90, Class C, sees local drivers such as Cirencester's Tom Margetson, Oliver Bull of Swindon and 71-year-old Pete Diccox of Chippenham.
The weekend gets under way on Saturday with qualifying from 8.45am and racing starting from 2.40pm.
On Sunday qualifying starts at 8.45am with racing from 9.15am
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