DUTCH SUPERCAR/MOSLER CHALLENGE: Assen 2nd-3rd August 2008

A decidedly damp Assen was the venue for the latest round of the championship. The TT circuit saw the welcome return of the Woodcock brothers, whose Mosler had been back to the Rollcentre factory for a sprinkling of pixie-dust.

Whatever it was, it seemed to do the trick as they qualified in ninth place, significantly better than on previous outings. Berry van Elk, meanwhile, seemed to be really getting the measure of his Mosler as he bagged fifth spot. Only a yellow-flagged lap denied Martin Short pole position, settling for second instead as he made the most of soft tyres on a rapidly drying track.

Race one saw Short set off in hot pursuit of the DTM Audi. He seemed to struggle for race pace, though, with the penalty ballast from Hockenheim weighing heavy. The Woodcocks were starting to look good in their ever-improving car and Berry van Elk was still keeping his nose in contention.

Eventually, Nicky Pastorelli pushed his Passat past Short. But as one Mosler fades, so another seems to shine; Berry van Elk was on a charge, stepping up through the field to challenge the ETEC Viper for second spot. Sadly, Berry overcooked it and ended up gravel-wards.

As others dropped out, the Moslers found themselves back up towards the head of the pack. Martin Short held out for fourth overall and the Mosler Challenge win, Gary and Michael Woodcock took a very credible seventh and Berry kept it together to bring the BlueBerry Mosler home in thirteenth.

Sunday brought rain, rain and more rain. With the 55-strong grid shod on wets as they assembled for the race the almost-inevitable happened - the rain stopped. Cue a mad rush to fit slicks. Then the rain starts again! Cue a mad rush to, er, do what? Many of the field plumped for grooves again, but a certain Mr Short seemed to know better. He took to the grid on intermediates, despite not too much in the way of clear sky seeming in the offing.

The choice (gamble?) paid instant dividends, though, with Martin pushing up to second from fourth by turn one. Gearbox rumblings, though, seemed to slow his progress. Both other Moslers took him early on as the weekend seemed to be finally taking its toll on the factory car. But Martin Short didn't get where he is today by sitting at the back and complaining... as the weather stayed drizzly, so his intermediates came into their own. The pretenders to his Challenge crown were hunted down and dispatched as Short surged back. He went on to take third place - yet another podium finish for the factory car - and therefore another first place in the Mosler Challenge. Berry van Elk struggled in the closing stages and failed to finish whilst the Woodcocks put in a magnificent drive to take fourth overall.

These results put Martin Short on the top of the Mosler Challenge and second in the overall championship. As the season moves on to Zandvoort in September, it's good to see the Woodcocks looking competitive, van Elk remaining eager and Martin Short doing what he does best - wringing out the results!

BRITCAR: Silverstone 3hr July 19th 2008

A blustery Saturday in July saw my introduction to the wonderful world of Britcar. Having convinced my wife that we should drive out to the Northamptonshire countryside for a picnic, we pitched up in the local beauty spot of, er, Silverstone.

On arrival, it was good to see that the Moslers were packing out the front row.The KRM car of Kevin Riley and Ian Flux edged pole by a quarter of a second over the McInerneys. The Topcats Mosler was a further second behind.

The rolling start saw the Moslers lead out a thirty-five car pack which hammered past. Soon enough, the Moslers were pulling away from the rest of the field, the Prosport being the best of the rest.

All too soon, the Moslers were even pulling away from each other with Ian Flux setting a scorching fastest lap the seventh time around the International circuit. Retirements were hitting hard early on, though, with the British GT refugee Beechdeen Aston out on lap two and Tim Hood's TVR Sagaris on lap eight.

The bad luck was ramped up on lap thirteen. A spinning Porsche was collected by an advancing Jaguar and the ensuing safety car period bunched the field up. When the green flags unfurled, the Eclipse Mosler was climbing all over the KRM car and Sean McInerney took them for the lead on the following lap.

And it only got worse for KRM; only sixteen laps into a race expected to last 100+, Ian Flux parked the car up at Ireland as the power drained away. “I considered nursing it back to the pits," he said, " but decided it was safer to take the walk”.

So, the Eclipse Mosler took the lead and seemed to be running well, pulling out a near-four second lead over the Topcats car. Meanwhile, Millard’s Prosport was still best of the rest, nine seconds adrift in third.


As the pit window opened towards the end of the hour, Taylor brought the second placed Mosler in whilst the Eclipse car stayed out longer. The Chad Ferrari leap-frogged Topcats into second, with Andrew Beaumont now running in fourth. Sean McInerney later pitted from the lead and father Michael had the lead back after the front runners had all made their first stops.



By the half way point, Michael McInerney was looking good and took advantage during another safety car period to take a second stop. And he retained the lead, over a minute in front of the Topcats car. Beaumont brought that in later during another safety car period for its second stop but seemed likely to need a top-up to get them to the end.


Into the final hour, the Eclipse car came in for its last stop and Topcats lapped up the gap, bringing Michael McInerney's lead down to less than a second. But they was running somewhat faster than the Topcat car and soon began to bolster their advantage.

Beaumont brought the Topcat Mosler in with less than fifteen minutes to go for a splash and dash, still managing to keep hold of second place on their exit from the pits thanks to the lead they'd built up over the bundle of Ferrari's bumbling behind.

So, I saw three Moslers take the green light three hours previous and two of them take the chequered flag. First to do so was the Eclipse Mosler, comfortably in front of the Topcats car with the Bamford/Griffin Ferrari in third. Good to actually see a Mosler take a win, given that I haven't actually seen that since the Donington Belcar race in 2007 that started off this whole shebang of a blog.

Rictus grin attached, I beat the retreat for home. And then.... arriving home and pouring over the TSL timings website (like you do) I found that the McInerneys had been hit with a 180 second penalty for 'pit lane infringements'. That pushed them back into second and promoted the Topcats team into first.

Still glad to see a Mosler win, but it seemed a curious state of affairs. I got in touch with the Topcats team boss, Warren Gilbert, who told be that as they were short of pace and second place was the best they could have hoped for, they were happy to take the win.

Unsurprisingly, Sean McInerney was less happy. Confident with their better pace and race strategy, the win would have been theirs except for that penalty. "We were told that we were 1min and 4 seconds short on one of our mandatory three minute stops", Sean told me. "This was completely incorrect and we had video and timing proof to show this was the case".

Naturally, they appealed only to be told that they were seven minutes too late to do so. Sean was rightly frustrated; "Even though the penalty had been agreed by all, including the MSA stewards, as being wrongly applied, they would not alter the results".

So, still another Mosler 1-2 at Britcar, albeit not quite the order which was expected. Next stop Snetterton in August - I wonder if my wife fancies a picnic in Norfolk...?

Photos (c) Peter May

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BELGIAN GT: Spa Funcup 12th-13th July 2008

The Belgian GT made its first visit of the season to the legendary GP circuit of Spa-Francorchamps for the fourth round of the championship. And there was major drama for the Moslers at an early stage. In the second qualifying session, Anthony Kumpen experienced a major throttle problem that saw his Mosler leave the circuit at over 200kph and smash into the barriers. Fortunately, Anthony walked away without serious injury although the Mosler was, unsurprisingly, heavily damaged.Gravity International boss Loris de Sordi payed tribute to the solidity of the Mosler's carbon hull which certainly seemed to soak up the impact. Martin Short, head of Mosler UK, told Mosler Lover that he'd never seen such a catastrophic throttle failure before. "I believe (Gravity) will advise us as to what happened so we can see if this can affect other Moslers or was an isolated incident. We are delighted though that the Mosler stood up so well to such a violent accident, and the driver is in good health".

The G&A Mosler of Guino Kenis and Michael De Keersmaecker qualified firmly mid-grid. As Kumpen had qualified on pole for race one, everyone was bumped up one place which still put a Mosler at the top of the tree, the #25 with Radermecker and Marchal at the helm.



Race one saw Moslers flirting with the lead throughout. Radermecker got a poor start from pole and lost several places before reeling the field back and regaining the lead with seven laps gone. A Ferrari/Viper tangle then saw the safety car deployed and the pack close up again. Ron Marchal inherited the lead after the mandatory pitstop but then slipped down the order.




Meanwhile, Guino Kenis had been stalking the leaders after his co-driver had pushed them up to sixth during his stint. Eventually the lead was his, so almost a year after G&A's last Belgian win, they looked set to repeat that honour. But there was a Viper who felt differently...







A+ Racing's Van Hooydonk was on a charge and took the G&A Mosler for the lead. It looked like another heartbreak day for the marque; qualified on pole only to see that car trashed, an inherited pole only to see the lead slip away, the 'outsider' car fly through the field only to lose out towards the end.

But it wouldn't be the Belgian GT without one last twist. Hooydonk began to pay for his rapidity, The Viper's tyres started to go off and slowed his progress. And what's that coming over the hill? Is it a monster? Is it a Mosler? Right on both counts; Kenis was clawing his way back towards the sliding Viper and retook the lead, taking the chequered flag by less than a second.



Kenis called it 'knife-edge racing' as the Mosler took maximum advantage of its superior straight line speed and yet still held off the Viper in the tighter corners. Meanwhile, Marchal hung on to the leaders but just missed out on a podium place, finishing fourth.




Saturday morning saw ominous clouds gathering with two Moslers slotted in the first two rows.



An uneventful race then turned hectic at Radillon which saw two cars contact, a third then span across the racing line and two more crashed into that spinner at high speed. Out came the safety car - for a long session that lasted into the pitstop window.







Kenis was running third at that stage but didn't pit whilst the safety car was out. That cost G&A dear; the time lost put them out of contention and then the gearbox let go towards the end of the race. Guido Kenis, however, seemed happy to take a win and a pole away from the weekend.

Meanwhile, there was a strangely familiar scenario developing up at the sharp end - a fat yellow Dodge was being harred by a Mosler. Vincent Radermecker pushed hard and took the lead as the race rolled into its latter stages. And that was the cue for the heavens to open. The weather could have freaked out less hardy drivers, but Radermecker nursed the Mosler through the tempestuous conditions to take the chequered flag. “This was probably the most trying last lap in my life”, Radermecker admitted, “ I just didn’t dare go any faster for fear of aquaplaning."
Mixed blessings for the Mosler, then; two poles, two wins, but probably the end of Gravity's championship chances. Next round is the full-on endurance spectacle of the series - the 24 hour race at Zolder at the end of August.

Photos: #24 damage, Mosler UK, all others (c) Jacques Letihon and http://www.belgiangt.com/

DUTCH SUPERCAR /MOSLER CHALLENGE Oschersleben 13th July 2008

It was a reduced Mosler presence for the latest round of the Challenge at Oschesleben. With Riley and Flux running at Britcar next weekend, the Woodcocks not around and Harry Mecke's car up for sale it was down to a shoot-out between the old hand and the young buck. Martin Short was carrying a time penalty into the race following his Hockenheim triumph, so Berry van Elk was looking to steal Short's thunder around the baking hot north-east German circuit.

The cooling situation was so critical that van Elk's Blueberry team ran their car without the front bodywork late during free practice. Such was the resultant drop in engine temperature that they set about widening the louvres to improve airflow for qualifying. By that time, though, the heat had subsided and little advantage was gained. Berry managed eigth place whilst Martin pushed the factory car hard around the narrow circuit to nab second spot on the grid next to the DTM Audi.

Race one epitomised the maxim that to finish first, first you have to finish. Perennial pace-setters Ardi van der Hoek and Arjan van der Zwaan, along with Cor Euser, found themselves off the track and out of contention. Berry may have had immense straight-line speed in the Mosler, but when caught up in the Supersport pack he was unable to overtake his slower but sure-cornering rivals. And with Martin Short saddled with a success handicap of an extra thirty seconds in the pits, he had no real chance of catching the leaders in this 45 minute sprint. Martin eventually took 4th overall with Berry on his heels in a very creditable fifth.

So that left the Moslers lurking near the front of the grid for race two. The mad dash into the narrow turn one often ends in tears for someone at Oschersleben - this time it was almost Martin Short's turn. He had scythed into second when van Buuren's V8-Star Passat braked too late and hit the Mosler and the DTM Audi TTR. That left Short span round the wrong way but still on the circuit with van Elk unable to manoueve roound the other Mosler. Both cars were therefore stuck at the runt end of the field and had some keen driving to do if they were to make up places.

Here's where the pitstops came into play. With front runners also facing penalty seconds for first race success, Berry was able to claw his way up to second place after his stop, sandwiched between the ETEC Viper and the DTM Audi. But drizzle was his undoing; the Audi's sturdier handling in the wet let Grimm get past to deny van Elk a fairytale third place. Although he retook the Audi, a later spin saw Grimm and Short squeeze past. Fourth place was still an impressive finish, though, after what was probably Berry's best race to date. Meanwhile, Martin Short had been playing the game of 'softly, softly, catchee Viper' and took third place, only just over nine seconds adrift of the race winning ETEC car.

That podium place puts Martin into second place in the overall standings and at the top of the heap in the Mosler Challenge. No doubt he'll have enjoyed writing himself a winner's cheque after the race!

FIA GT: Oschersleben 6th July 2008

The Go-To-One Moslers made a return to FIA GT at Oschersleben. As the only G2 entries, at least a class win was on the cards but the trophy stayed in the cabinet; neither Mosler finished the race.

Adam Lacko and Ales Jirasek were early retirees after thirteen laps with suspension problems. Stepan Vojtech and Kenneth Heyer almost saw the race through but pulled up two laps shy of the chequered flag following a fuel systems failure.

Team principle, Antonin Charouz, was understandably unimpressed: "I can only say that I am very unhappy with the way the team have been working. We will have to make radical steps".

The results compounded a frustrating weekend for the team, following on from Heyer and Vojtech's engine failure after only five practice laps which scuppered their qualifying sessions.

Having not run at Adria, the team had worked on the cars throughout and Adam Lacko felt there had been a tangible improvement; “Our new brakes are better and also a bigger restrictor helps as well. It is still not ideal but we are closer to the GT2 cars now".

Andreas Leberle, team technical director echoed those sentiments. “The changes made during the break definitely helped", said Leberle, "but we still want to negotiate with the championship boss Stephane Ratel about further tweaks of the rules to improve our competitiveness".

Photos (c) www.adam-lacko.cz

SPANISH GT: Albacete 28th-29th June 2008

The Albacete circuit played host to the latest round of the Spanish GT championship. The sole Mosler entry this year, Motor Competicion, qualified eight and fourth for the two races.

I don't get much info on these Spanish races, which is a shame as Luis Villalba took the 'Vortrum' Mosler up to second place for their first podium of the season.

Even better, Franscesc Gutiérrez won what seems to have been a tightly-contested second race to give the team their best Spanish GT weekend.

If anyone has access to race reports for the Spanish GT I'd love to hear more.

Photos (c) www.gt-sport.es

DUTCH SUPERCAR / MOSLER CHALLENGE: Hockenheim, 29th June 2008

Dutch Supercar and the Mosler Challenge hopped over the border for the first of their two meetings in Germany. Hockenheim played host to three Moslers all hoping for success as this GP circuit.

With the temperature climbing during Saturday qualifying, Martin Short turned up the heat and scorched into pole. Almost two seconds in his wake was Ian Flux.. but he was demoted down a row from second to fourth having deemed to have overtaken under yellow flags. Berry van Elk brought the BlueBerry Mosler round into eleventh place.

As Martin Short led the field into the Spitzkehre hairpin, Kevin Riley made a play to push up to the front. Unfortunately, Rene Snel's Porsche 996 was where Riley wanted to be; both cars ended up off the track and out of the race.

Nicky Pastorelli's Passat and Cor Euser's Marcos ran in second and third as Short increased his lead. Meanwhile, it wasn't just the track temperature that was rising - Berry's troublesome engine was burning up and forced the weekend's first retirement.

Cor Euser leapfrogged the Passat into second as Martin Short found himself ahead of the field by almost a minute as he coasted the works Mosler home for his first competitive win in the marque since the inaugral Britcar 24 hours in 2005. "My car was just fantastic, the best ever", said Martin - perhaps it's the way he builds 'em?

The grid for the second race told two very different tales - Martin Short on pole, Berry van Elk and the KRM car bringing up the rear. The BlueBerry team had replaced their engine overnight to get themselves back in the running, whilst KRM had to start from the pitlane following further mechanical problems.

Early laps saw Cor Euser's Marcos and Ardi van der Hoek's Audi battling over second place, allowing Martin Short to floor the Mosler and set up an unassailable lead. Even his winning-handicap-enhanced pitstop didn't jeapordise his chances and even got to ease down on the last lap to take a comfortable win.

Further down the field, Riley and Flux struggled their out-of-sorts Mosler home into eight place whilst Berry van Elk retired again as temperatures continued to flare in the Blueberry car.

Two wins, pole position and fastest lap for Martin Short made it a successful weekend for the works team. "There is no doubt that the car flattered me," he said after, paying tribute to his team for working with a new aero package on the six-year-old Mosler. "We threw the kitchen sink at the car; not entirely sure exactly what would work, but with high hopes". Those hopes were rewarded by a 171mph max drive that showed just what the Mosler is capable of at this level.

Martin hoped that these proven development benefits can be applied to the other Mosler customers. I hope so; as great as it is to see a double win, having a full Challenge field start and finish the race - and compete for the podium places- would stick one on those critics who judge the marque to be hit-and-miss at national GT level.

Oschersleben hosts the next round in a few weeks time. Whether Martin feels the need to pour six litres of water into his jump suit again to keep in cool, only time will tell...

Photos (c) Robbert Mass and Marc de Waart, http://www.supercarchallenge.nl/