Woo-hoo!

[zac510]

Good luck Russ!

[Principessa]

You'll have to work very hard I think but if you really really want it....it will work out! I'm sure of it!

Congratulations!!

[RH1300S]

Mighty

[Tom]

Do they do Formula Student or anything where your going?

[Scuderia_Russ]

Not that I know of. It's a fairly new City and Guilds course and a college, not a University.

[jaslfc]

im wondering if there is any post-graduate course on motorsport management? ive got a business degree. so i cant do any technical courses

[AyrtonInmortal]

Mark Preston (Technical Director Super Aguri) was studying a MBA
http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/ content/sep2005/bs20050912_8736_bs049_0.htm
Cranfield University has a motorsport and managment programm

[Scuderia_Russ]

Hi guys.
Just wanted to update you as to how it is all going.
Staying in a place called Kettering which is just under an hr from Silverstone circuit where our workshop is, and where I'm studying. The facilities are as good if not better than most race teams. We have a damper dyno worth £17,000 this year and a machine that can detect cracks or flaws in diffent materials (can't remember it's name, had so much to take in this week!) I haven't been online because I've only just found a net cafe and I haven't had time to get online at college. We have karts, Formula Renault cars, Formula Fords, Formula 3 car, an old Nissan Primera B.T.C.C. car and F3000 team Astromega are using half of our workshop as a temporary base for when they go testing at Silverstone which is right on the college doorstep. I can see the grandstand of Woodcote B out of the back door as it is literally 100 metres away from where I'm studying. We had a tour of the Silverstone circuit (saw British Superbikes testing on Tuesday) and on Monday we toured the A1GP warehouse where all of the A1GP teams operate from, because it's a spec series, they are all kept and worked on under the same roof to truly keep things fair and open.

My tutors both worked in B.T.C.C. with Vauxhall when they won the title, with Williams when they ran the Laguna with Jason Plato and Alain Menu, and with Lotus in F1 when they ran Zanardi and Herbert during the active suspension days. Another technician worked in British G.T. for T.V.R. and in Britcar but left when he started a family.

The course itself look fantastic, I'm even getting excited just typing about it! Trust me, if you want to work on formula cars and eventually work in either F1 or WRC then look at the Tresham Institue on Google or look for the National College of Motorsport. They will be having open days again in March ready for next years September intake. I am doing a City and Guilds recognised qualification and a BTEC diploma so I will be able to take a proper, recognised qualification in motorsport to a team!

I'll be in touch again soon guys,

Russ.

[manchild]

Sounds great!

[Ciro Pabón]

Scuderia_Ross, first, well done, man. I spend some time looking in Silverstone for your workshop and I thought it could be here:



Following your suggestion I looked around for the "Tresham Institute of Further and Higher Education", a very british name if you ask me. I learned that your college is expanding its campus and has a strict no-discrimination policy (including nationality).



I also took a look at the other site, the National College of Motorsports, another "powerful" name for my taste. They say that your college is the fruit of an alliance between the Tresham Institute and some colleges. It is the first Centre of Vocational Excellence for Motorsports, which sounds right on the money. It is "brand new", opened in Silverstone (ehem...) in 2005.



I did not get quite well if you have to move between different campuses around Oxford, Northampton, Milton Keynes, etcetera. I also learned you have over 200 fellow students, which seems a lot!

We all hope you can find some time to post us how is it your life there and what you are learning. I am sure a lot of people around will find that really interesting, and, who knows, maybe inspirational (c'mon, West, you can do it: remember Mario Andretti!).

[NickT]

Yeeee haaaaa, well done Scuderia_Russ, your living the dream for most of us here. Keep up the good work

[Scuderia_Russ]

You are right on the money Ciro, that is where our facility is but we dont have 200 students, we have forty on our couse (Motorsport Race Technician) split between the Corby campus and our Silverstone site.

The week before last was personally phenomenal. Two of us were chosen to go away testing with the Astromega F3000 team to Pembrey for the evaluation of drivers for the Lebanese A1GP squad (F3000 cars being similar to an A1 car) I couldn't believe it when I was asked!
Now, I thought that F3000 became GP2 but apparently there is still an F3000 series in Italy, and the team also looks after a team in the Dutch 1600 F.Renault championship (Craig Dolby being the series leader at the moment) Astromega also runs the Chinese A1GP car but more about that later.

Seeing as I was giong away with the team I asked if I could help prepare one of the cars that was at our site so I could get to know it a bit better. "For sure" came the reply (They seem to say that alot in motorsport circles) So great, I spent the end of my week working on a bonafide baby F1 car. We finished rebuilding it then got it on the flat patch to do some of the basic set up work on it so that when it got to the track it only had to have its brakes bled.
Astromega have got a deal going with our college where by they keep a minimum of one car at our site as they are based in Holland and this saves them time, money and hassle for when they need to go testing etc.

Once the car was on the truck and a seat fitting had been done, Sam the team manager asked me if I was busy at the weekend, and if not would I mind helping the team out in the A1GP Technical Facility at Silverstone to help get the Chinese cars ready to go away ( one to Zandvoort for the first race and the other to Shanghai) I couldn't believe what I was hearing. It was fantastic. Two weeks at college and there was little old me being trusted to fit crash structures and sidepods and an engine. (The latter with assistance of course) The engine fitting was on the Japanese A1 car because the team did a deal to prepare them for the first race only, and they are in the race bay opposite in the technical facility. What an experience!! I'm struggling to descibe it here. Luckily I took loads of photo's on my mobile.

[IMG:320:240]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v284/ ... cture1.jpg[/img]Dutch squad.

[IMG:320:240]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v284/ ... ture49.jpg[/img]Team Ireland's car. The paintjob is amazing!

[IMG:320:240]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v284/ ... ture50.jpg[/img]The Aussies.

[IMG:320:240]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v284/ ... ture56.jpg[/img]China's cars.

[IMG:320:240]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v284/ ... ture44.jpg[/img]Japanese tub.

[IMG:320:240]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v284/ ... ture43.jpg[/img]Fuel tank, bulkhead and engine installed.

The Pembrey test was unbelievable fun, but hard work. I was looking after tyre pressures, responsible for tyres, (blankets etc.), pit boards, as well as suspension settings for the engineer, bodywork, brake bleeding... loads of stuff. It was hectic. The team was testing drivers for the Lebanese squad, which even though they run China, like most branches of motorsport, if people are willing to pay then they can drive.

[IMG:320:240]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v284/ ... ture53.jpg[/img]Loading the car on.

[IMG:320:240]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v284/ ... ture40.jpg[/img]

[IMG:320:240]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v284/ ... ture38.jpg[/img]

[IMG:320:240]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v284/ ... ture31.jpg[/img]

[IMG:320:240]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v284/ ... ture41.jpg[/img]

I met Kalil Beschir http://www.khalilbeschir.com/ who was alot of fun, Baasil Shabaan http://basilshaaban.com/ (did his seat fitting,he was a real pro) , someone called Alex who might be driving and a guy called Richard who drives in Skip Barber series and is claiming Lebanese descent through his grandmother. So four drivers in three days we ran. Basil Shabaan was the only driver to run on the third day and was the only one who didn't go off but Alex (I forget his surname now) set the fastest time. Richard was okay on the first day but managed to do this to our car on the second day which meant we were down to one car for the third day. He was flat out in sixth doing about 160. Had just got back on the throttle but lost it coming out of Honda.

[IMG:320:240]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v284/ ... cture6.jpg[/img]The car in warmers.

[IMG:320:240]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v284/ ... cture7.jpg[/img]

[IMG:320:240]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v284/ ... ture16.jpg[/img]

[IMG:320:240]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v284/ ... ture26.jpg[/img]

[IMG:320:240]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v284/ ... ture57.jpg[/img]

Doesn't look major from here but he had ripped the gearbox apart and damaged its mountings to the engine and we didn't have the spares to fix it. He was only a hundred metres away when he did it and the noise was horrendous. All okay though.

I took this video too, sorry about the quality, I need to upgrade my phone.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQ_VvOIq5KM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PI90p1T0w1g

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_LEg0oYhxc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9c-PEmE518

[DaveKillens]

Very cool, Scuderia, I'm excited for you. And thank you for the updates, it's real nice to be allowed to see the industry from the inside.
Did you imagine how much hard work is involved? And that no matter how many hours hard work is invested in anything, you need to spend more time on it? lol
Keep it up man, I'm proud of you. Live the dream, never give up.

[RH1300S]

Great stuff

[Scuderia_Russ]

Trying the F3000 car for size.