Summerbell’s demise officially begins April 9, 2011?

My good friend Dean Corrodus sent me the public invitation from ATL Automotive which reads as follows – ATL Automotive invites you to witness history in the making as Motorsports legend Doug ‘Hollywood’ Gore and the new ATL Automotive Racing Team unveil the circuit’s newest star – the spectacular Audi TT DTM race car on Saturday April 9, 2011 at ATL Automotive, Bogue City Center, Montego Bay, Start time 7pm.

A few afternoons ago (anywhere between Wed – Fri), it was announced on Nationwide News Network (NNN) that Doug Gore would be discussing his new race car. Unfortunately, I didn’t hear the interview, but what is abundantly clear, to even the nearsighted, is the fact that this machine has stirred furious winds of anticipation. Will it deliver?

I was at an office recently to interview one of our most promising circuit racing drivers. Someone who is regarded as a highly accomplished driver was sitting at a computer station a few meters from where I stood, while I spoke to the interviewee.

Doug Gore

During our conversation I asked this question relating to Doug Gore’s ex-DTM Audi.
What do you think about Doug’s Audi when compared to TA1? The answer I got was brief. I still marvel at its simplicity, but there was no denying the factual stance taken by what was intimated. His response was, “One is a car and one is a race car!”

I understood it the moment he said it, but he felt it necessary to elaborate. He indicated that TA1 began its life as a street car, an Evo VIII that was made into a race car, however well it was done, was not being questioned. The ex-DTM Audi on the other hand, is a purpose built race car with one objective in mind – to complete a given task in the shortest time frame possible while leaving the competition breathless, abused and defeated!

I directed their attention to the motorsports blog and when it appeared on the screen the title of the current blog (at that time) was read aloud – Will Doug Gore’s new machine end TA1’s reign? A mini-second could not have elapsed before a response was offered – “It will”.

RX7

The gentleman went on to explain the substance of his argument by making comparisons to the ex-Moodie, now Peter ‘Bull’ Thompson’s RX7. He spoke about its weight, its horsepower level and the time it did while under the oppressive right foot of Peter Moodie Jr, a time somewhere in the region of 1:19 seconds.

He added that the Audi is superior – chassis, brakes and suspension when compared to the RX7 (when Peter Moodie had it). It is a lighter car and it boasts significantly more horsepower than the RX7. We all know races are not won on paper, but the spec. sheet of a race machine tells a sound story, when comparing machines which will compete in the same class.

Performance at that level, top flight motorsports such as the DTM, require the inclusion of engineering on a knife’s edge, to extract all that is mechanically possible from science defying metals and components. The end result of the union of science, technology, race car design, development and construction will yield an outcome which bends and breaks all the laws in the physics books!

To be fair to the gentleman, his response to the question posed (Will Doug Gore’s new machine end TA1’s reign?) was, “It will. It may not win the first race, but it will”.

Do you think Team Summerbell is a tad bit concerned about this machine? I am certain that Team Summerbell will be present at the launch and possibly taking more photographs and asking more questions than all the reporters combined!

Motor racing fans brace yourselves. If all goes well, we will be gleefully trapped in a carnival of adrenalin, one which will be instigated by unyielding battles between the North American bred Total Annihilation 1 (TA1) and Europe’s Dangerously Tuned Machine (DTM).

Cecil Munroe Gleaner On-Line Writer