Tom Dunstan & Formula BMW

[Andy Zarse]

Knock 'em dead Tom.

Wrong! Wrong! Wrong! Steve the idea is to make up a phrase containing the words - Good Tom go th(em) luck get AND and.

Do it again. 3/10 see me. I'll send you back to the Congo River for another round of punishment golf.

[Bobblehat]

Update time!

Tom has finished the shoot out in Valencia, we now have to wait to hear from BMW in about 10 days time, so everything crossed. Wich makes driving a bit hard!

A big thank from Tom and all of us to you all for your support

[jpchenet]

How did he do in Valencia? Obviously the guys offering the scholarship will make thier decision but did he do well in his own mind? How quick was he compared to the others?

[Bobblehat]

We dont get to see the official times or the telemitry, Tom only gets a glance of his times if he is lucky. They tell the students that it is not about the fastest time but how they improve over the two days, how they get on with the crew and each other how quickly they learn. One thing they had to learn was how to hill start, using the paddle gearbox the clutch, brakes and throttle and there is no hand-brake! 

But for Tom it was a story of two days!

On the Thursday he realy struggled - a few days before he had had his first proper crash (looks like the diff locked at over 100mph!) so he was still a bit unseteld - he was not the slowest and beat his PB at the Valencia track. But was very upset by his performance.

Friday was a diffrent day, took 2 seconds out of his fastest lap time, was not the slowest by a long chalk, was only 3/2.5 seconds off the fastest, drove very smoothly and realy enjoyed himself. All the instructers were very pleased with the way he bounced back. He was up with two of the lads who were with him in Valancia the first time, so his improvment is incredable! I belive he even got the car to four wheel drift - I belive he was told off with a smile!!!! He has been told, more than once, that he is the smothest driver out on the track. Tom came back with a huge grin and a spring in his step

According to Robins stopwatch wich is the only timings we have the fastest kid out there was Sato (now were have I heard that name before!) but only improved his times by .02sec.

Its now wait and see time.  But his dad Kieth and all of us a Bobblehat Racing are so impressed with his improvement and just to be pick by BMW in the first place to compeat in the scholership is a very large feather in Toms cap. What ever happens, Tom will be racing next year and with experiance he will just get faster and faster!

Oh and to just make you all a bit green he is now going around Nurburgring.

If you whant to see Tom race he (and his brother) are at Red Lodge on Sat 5th in the KnK kart.

[Bobblehat]

No news yet!

But we have launched the website, the full site will be up soon

www.tomdunstan.co.uk

Tom should be racing at Kimbolton Karting on Sunday 13th,

[chrisbeatty]

I notice there was an article about the F BMW Scholarship in Autosport this week, there's a picture of the lads taking part. I guess it's Tom's first pic in there, who knows maybe he'll be on the front cover in 5 years time as the UK's first GP winner since DC in Melbourne 2003

Hope it goes well for you all!!

[Bobblehat]

Unfortunatly Tom did not make the cut in Valencia. Tom's reaction was "stuff em, ill show em"

Tom and us have to decide were we are going next. F BMW would be the first choice, and Tom can still race in the championship, just meens that we have to find/raise a lot more money. But there is Ginetta Jr and the 750clubs Saxmax to look at, not to mention a full season of MSA Jr Rotax Karting too.

Once again thank you to everyone for your support. What ever happens I will keep you all posted. Tom will be on a track near you next year

If you can make it Tom will be at Kimbolton Kart Track on Sunday 13th

Chris: re Autosport, we are having a big debate over wether the chap on the left of the small insert pic, with the balaclava on, is Tom. Its a 50/50 split. Even Tom's not too shure!!

[Bobblehat]

Update on Tom Dunstan.

Tom had his best karting weekend at Red Lodge. Pole, 1st in the 1st heat, 1st in the 2nd heat (from the back of the grid, reverse grid), 2nd in the 3rd heat and won the final, taking great presure from the reighning champ. Tom held on to 2nd in the championship, not bad since he only started in May!

We have also made the decision to push to get Tom into F BMW, we have a "letter of intent" from Nexa, basicly "Tom, your name is on a seat, if you come with the cash"

If you would like to see some pics of Tom (#5 &#51), and his younger brother Micheal (#30) in action, pop to 

http://www.conquest-tech.co.uk/index_files/slide0038.htm

If you would like to see Tom race he will be at Kimbolton on this Sunday (11th) lets hope that winning is habit forming!

[Bob U]

Congratulations Tom. If you can finish second in the championship after only taking up the sport 7 months ago you have got to have a bright future. Good luck with your search for sponsorship, I'll do a couple of extra lines on the lottery this week with you in mind.

Bob.

[Bobblehat]

Bump

For those of you that live in East Anglia, Tom will be on "Look East" 6.30pm Friday 10th. Set your videos! He was filmed yesterday by the Beeb at Brands Hatch

An update:

Tom now has his National A karting license, got his final signiture in style by coming 2nd in the final of Jr Rotax class at Beccles Karting Track. Reciving the Novice Trophy and the Driver of the Day. Tom was only two tenths of a second of the leader 13 secs infront of 3rd and the leading pair were lapping within .3 sec of the lap record, and this was only Tom's 2nd vist!

In January Tom had a very sucseful test with Nexa Racing in a F BMW at Sneterton were they offerd him a seat.

Tom is now entered in the the Formula BMW UK Championship with Nexa Racing, car 10, he is also the youngest driver in the championship. Not only that when he takes his grid posision at Brands Hatch 9th April. Tom will not of been racing for a year.

Last week Tom tested at Silverstone (in the snow!), Tom's lap times consistantly came down. Fastest 60.111, which made Tom 2.17 sec of the leading car, beating some BMW scholership drivers. Some of the drivers banged in a couple of faster laps and then whent slower than Toms for the rest of the test run. Tom and the team came away very happy.

Now the sales pitch. We are still activly looking for sponsers, so if any one is intrested in getting there name on the car, big and small packages are avalible please PM me.

Also come along and give Tom a cheer, F BMW support the BTCC and will be also suporting the WTCC at Brands Hatch.

[Snoring Rhino]

Well done

[hgb]

Good job and best of luck for Tom. Bobblehat, please give Shorty a slap on the sholder (and possibly a beer from hgb - you get it back at the poo bar) when you see him in the pub next time round. He's doing a tremendeous job too. BTW, try getting Tom into one of these SR9s. Seems to be an awesome car.

[Bobblehat]

For everyone out side of East Anglia here is Tom on "Look East" click on the link and fast forward to about 8mins in (I do hope that it works but I am sure you will tell me if it dont!)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/england/realmedia/lookeast/cambs_tvbull.ram

[Bobblehat]

Bumped this thread up.

Tom, Robin aka Norbert Keith aka tkm271 (or VPD) and myself would like to say a big thank you to all the CA's who have supported Tom through this year, be it track side or through - rather infrequent (sorry) - updates.

What a season Tom has had. We knew it was going to be a steep learning curve, nigh on vertical, as when he sat on the grid at Brands Hatch he was the youngest single seater driver in the UK (15 years old!) and had only driven the race car about 5 times. Tom has worked hard and improved hand over fist. To give an idea at the first F BMW test on the Silverstone National Tom was 4 seconds of pole, last weekend he was .9 off pole. Tom has managed to finish almost all of his races better than his grid position (I say almost as there have been 3 non finishes, but only one of those was totaly his fault) Tom finished the Rookie Championship in 8th place beating a couple of Scholership drivers, wich in truth is lot high than we expected!

Tom's natural ablity has been paised and been spoted by other teams in other championships, we were offerd seats at this years Britcar 24hr. Somthing that Tom would love to do, his personal goal is to get to Le Mans, but an empty bank balance stoped the fun there, but there is next year guys if anyone is intrested in joining in the fun 

Tom has caught the eye of some of the top F BMW teams and next up is the World Final in Valencia with one of these teams (can not say who untill its confiremed), wich we are looking for funding. Of course we have plans afoot for next year wich should see Tom challenging for the out right F BMW championship.

Starting to look forward to March already.

[Steve Pyro]

Thanks for the update Bob, and congratulations and well done to Tom and team for all the hard work in 2006.

Looks like 2007 will be a ground breaking year.