By Carl Jones
Caerphilly Racing driver Graham Cole begins a 2014 campaign in April to try and finally win the UK’s most prestigious Prototype Sports Car series – The OSS (Open Sportscar Series).
The 2014 series will be Cole’s third attempt at the title and he certainly has all the credentials to make his dream a reality – having previously won the WRDA Racecar Championship, and twice winning the Motoring News Rally championship in the two litre and 1.6 litre classes driving self-built Darrians.
“The car certainly has the speed, but I’m hoping for better reliability this year,” commented Cole on his Jade Traxstar.
His comments are well-founded as Cole holds series lap records at Silverstone, Brands Hatch, Donnington Park, Oulton Park, and Pembrey.
Unfortunately for Cole, it’s points and race finishes that count.
Speed doesn’t only come from Cole’s undoubted driving talent – he also has the technical ability to build race-winning cars.
His current mount, the Jade Traxstar for example, is in fact converted from a relatively sedate 2.0 Litre to the animal 2.3 Litre Diamond Turbo it is now.
Cole built the lightweight engine at the team’s Caerphilly premises and it’s currently churning out close to 600bhp.
In a car weighing around 550Kg – that’s less than half the weight of your average road car – this means staggering acceleration and over 200mph top speed.
“I suppose the fastest we’ve seen this year was around 160mph on the back straight at Snetterton, but then it was raining,” quipped Cole.
The Caerphilly man is taking no chances this year though and is starting up his own race team – GCCRacing – adding three cars with them all competing in the series to strengthen his bid to bring the series title back to Wales.
He added: “My son Alexis will be racing a mega-powerful Supercharged Nemesis, while son-in-law Mydrian from Carmarthen will be out in a Radical SR4 Turbo.
“Both are exceptional young talents who I hope will help bring the title home. We also have wildcard Doug Bowkett from Brecon in the relatively untested two Litre ADR2 racing under the GCCRacing team banner.
“We’re not exactly McLaren, and certainly don’t have their resources, but if driving ability and skilful endeavour count for anything, one of us should at least be near the front this year.”
And inter-team rivalry?
“That’s always a worry,” said Cole. “The last time we were on track together, we were hauled before the stewards for getting a little too physical at Brands Hatch.
“I hope that can avoided in 2014 though as we are now older and I hope a little wiser.”
The harsh reality of circuit racing takes cold hard cash as well as talent to get to the front of the grid, so additional sponsorship support and funds would be most welcome by the team. Ystrad Mynach engineering firm Richwest Engineering stepped in last year to provide the team with high precision engineering capability and expertise.
Cole said: “Richwest have already done some tricky engineering work for us and we’re delighted to continue that association into 2014 as their engineering work is first class.”