| The car has returned from the paintshop today, resplendent in it's new scheme. We expect to have it ready for pre season testing early in 2003 |
| Mark; Driver 20/11/2002 |
| The car is being resprayed. We don't have any pictures yet but it will still be green and orange. Just a little revamp with one less green colour to worry about. |
| Paul; Webmaster 15/11/2002 |
| The engine has been fully rebuilt and is being readied for reinstallation in the car. |
| Mark; Driver 13/9/2002 |
| Work continues slowly. The car is back on its wheels and attention turns to the engine. |
| Mark; Driver 12/3/2002 |
| With the new regulations, MoonTech Racing may not be able to compete in the next season. Our budget was already tight, but having to replace a perfectly serviceable seat and no end of other parts in the car may well prove beyond us. |
| Paul; Webmaster |
| We have had to cancel our trip to Brands on November 25th. The front subframe was found to be rather more badly damaged than we previously thought and work commitments prevented us putting the required time to fix it. That effectively ends our 2001 season, but we hope to have some updates over the next few months. |
| Paul; Webmaster 23/11/2001 |
| I've got loads to do. A lot of painting and reshaping of wings and stuff. Mark only told me today. The clutch has got to be change, so that will keep Eddy busy for a while too. |
| Steve; Race Technician 5/11/2001 |
| A once race sponsorship deal has enabled the team to travel down to Kent to take part in the last Winter Series round at Brands Hatch. Keep the diary's clear for the 25th of November. |
| Mark; Driver 3/11/2001 |
| Given the damage sustained at Mallory and the current lack of sponsorship the team expects to not to be racing until next season. The car damage report featured 2 broken wheels, front wing, rear wing, both arches, front bottom arm and crucially rear subframe and radius arm. |
| Eddy; Chief Engineer 2/9/2001 |
| The car is up and running, has been back to the rolling road, with 142 bhp at the wheels. Peter Baldwin has done a full suspension set up on the car. The team is the proud owner of a Dastle Racebox, enough room for the car and team. Probably a good thing, the weather report is for rain |
| Eddy; Chief Engineer 7/8/2001 |
| With the 2001 season looming, work continues at MoonTech HQ. The engine has been rebuilt but is yet to go back in the car. The current project is a leaky brake union. |
| Paul; Webmaster 26/4/2001 |
| After a long drawn out battle, MoonTech Racing has parted company with it's primary sponsor and website host. The team and I would like to apologise to everyone who was inconvenienced by Force9's complete inability to provide basic service levels. |
| Paul; Webmaster 4/3/2001 |
| Brands, 26th November: Qualified 2nd and did not finish after a collision while battling for 3rd place, after losing the position to Dave Kimberley. The car is not badly damaged but couldn't continue after the incident at Clearways on lap 8. |
| Mark; Driver 27/11/2000 |
| The car is prepared for this weekends trip to Brands, I'm off to sort some new tyres. The car is looking good and we are confident of a top 10 finish, possibly even top 5 if we get a chance to try out our new Wets. The new improved handling which so caught us out last time at this circuit is really coming good. We are quite looking forward to this trip, especially since we have a lot of support coming on the Sunday. |
| Mark; Driver 21/11/2000 |
| The car jumping out of second gear held us back at Brands earlier this month, during post race strip down a worn part was discovered and replaced. A seized front shock absorber has been repaired too. |
| Mark; Driver 16/10/2000 |
| At the Brands Hatch Indy circuit, we qualified 10th and raced to 12th. See this years season for a full report. I stood next to Vicki Butler-Henderson on the Saturday. She is just as lush as I imagined! |
| Paul; Webmaster 2/10/2000 |
| A reign of the suspension by Gerald Dale and a thorough pre race strip down has gone well, though the brakes appear to be lacking in retardation. A new master cylinder and shoes have been installed. Peter Baldwin's rolling road told us the car makes 138 BHP at the road wheels |
| Paul; Webmaster 29/9/2000 |
| The engine and gearbox has been completely rebuilt again, in a quest for reliability. The car goes to the rolling road for final setup late August |
| Mark; Driver 17/8/2000 |
| It has been on the quiet side at MoonTech Racing of late because a potential sponsor pulled out at the last minute and the budget has been strained by the recent run of bad luck. We will be attending the National meeting at Brands on 30th September to 1st October. |
| Mark; Driver 27/7/2000 |
| The gearbox has been rebuilt and engine has been put back in the car. All is working well. |
| Eddy; Chief Engineer 17/6/2000 |
| We managed two DNF's from May 5th's visit to Lydden Hill. After the race, the gearbox was stripped down and a bent selector fork was discovered. |
| Paul; Webmaster 31/5/2000 |
| The car underwent a thorough check over this weekend, in preparation for the trip to Lydden on May 21st. There were no problems reported and I feel confident that the car will go well and will win the class in the modified saloons. |
| Mark; Driver 9/5/2000 |
| Mini Se7en Press Secretary Jeff Carter has announced he is leaving the club to do the same job for Formula Palmer Audi. We here at MoonTech Racing wish him the very best. We are sure he will do as superlative a job at FPA as he did here at the Mini Se7en club |
| The Entire Team 7/5/2000 |
| In rather poor conditions, the team had good qualifying and good race at Thruxton, we qualified 14th and finished 10th, all went well with the car |
| Mark; Driver 5/5/2000 |
| On my return from holiday, I lost all the data and race reports from Thruxton, as soon as I get them again, I'll update the site. I can say, from memory, that it rained halfway through practice but we managed 14th and in the race, which was still wet, we finished 10th. No problems with the car. |
| Paul; Webmaster 12/4/2000 |
| Pre-season testing continued to go badly, with another engine damaged at Silverstone. On the plus side, Peter Baldwin, second in the 1999 season, drove the car and pronounced the car handles better than his. That with our second most powerful engine, the talk around the team is "If only reliability and luck were on our side". But such is motor racing. Onwards to Thruxton. |
| Paul; Webmaster/Race Engineer 10/3/2000 |
| Goodwood proved to be a frustrating day for the team. In the icy wind, we only managed 3 laps before a miss-fire had Mark bringing the car back to the pits. It then "didn't sound right" and we decided to not drive it again that day. Back at the workshop, it was found the oil pickup pipe had failed and had ruined the crankshaft bearings. The news could not have been much worse, this close to the start of the season. The only positive thing that came out of the trip is the in-car footage, it's very good and well worth the big download. |
| Paul; Webmaster 23/2/2000 |
| Well, there's just one day to go before our first outing this season, and Driver Mark has foolishly allowed me to drive the car at Goodwood. The drop gears are sorted, as is the in-car camera. Mark reported a brief drive in the car this morning and said it felt monstrously powerful (he used a rather more colourful expression). Check out the Gallery for some videos. Also, note that we will not be attending the first Race at Silverstone, but will be testing there on the 6th of March. |
| Paul; Webmaster, Race Engineer and 2nd Driver 18/2/2000 |
| In preparation for our trip to Goodwood, the dropgears have been giving problems. It seems that we have mixed cogs from different manufacturers and they make an awful noise. The pitch of the teeth is slightly different. It meant an unexpected expenditure but we will be fit for Goodwood. The in-car camera is, time permitting, going to be fitted. |
| Mark; Driver 13/2/2000 |
| The team had a meeting late in January to discuss a number of things, one of which is that we intend to go to Goodwood to take part in a track day run by some guys who all own Rovers. For us, it will just be a shakedown event, though we might get some video footage and put it on the site. We also might give the first race, March 4th at Silverstone, as miss as it is before the test day and we want to get the car sorted before racing it. Check back soon for more details. |
| Paul; Webmaster and Race Engineer 31/1/2000 |
| After the weekends trip to Peter Baldwin's rolling road, we came away very pleased. After a lengthy hour and a half we finally resolved a healthy figure of 142 BHP @ 7600 RPM at the road wheels. All went well with the gearbox and it is back to work making a few final modifications for the seasons start in early March. We would just like to thank Peter Baldwin for his ongoing help and advice and we hope you get an overdue championship win this season. |
| Mark; Driver 23/1/2000 |
| As you will have noticed, the MoonTech Racing website has undergone major facelift in recent weeks, any feedback would be most appreciated. I now have most of the information on what the team did in the 1998 season and that is now posted. |
| Paul; Webmaster and Race Engineer 19/1/2000 |
| After A busy period, the car is now almost ready. There are some doubts over the gearbox, which has had to have its casing modified, but I have said "I think it will be all right" This weekend, the car goes to the dynamometer, so check back for results. |
| Eddy; Chief Engineer, 18/1/2000 |