The PF Club race on March 7th was very well attended with 60 senior max drivers entered and nearly 260 drivers overall. The meeting was billed as the prelude to the S1 Max round that takes place there in 2 weeks time.

The acrbirel team fielded a team of four drivers. In fact it was the debut for the latest signing to the team of Ed Brand and he in turn was joined by Michael Simpson, Tom Thompson and Chris Thomas. Testing went well with the majority of the weekend being dry, Simpson made a best time of 46.25 and Brand 46.4 - both on old tyre so the expectation was high for the race. Tom Thompson suffered engine issues all weekend whilst Chris Thomas made improvements all looks in better shape for his debut in S1.

In the heats Simpson netted a 3rd from grid 20! and a win, whilst Brand captured a 5th from grid 23 and a 1st too. The acr Birel duo lined up on the front row. In to turn one both Birel drivers were conveniently pushed from behind and wide demoting them to 4th nd 5th. The race began to re establish themselves with Brand showing the initiative and passing his teammate Simpson before climbing back up to 2nd position. Simpson meanwhile was being harassed at all angles but as a true professional withstood the pressure and eased back to finish in 3rd place. Brand chased down the eventual winner Holland to cross the line just 0.8 tenths behind.

"I am delighted at our team's performance; unfortunately the race was lost for us on the first turn. It will be interesting to see if the Go pro camera's stop such incidents in the future. This was the first real run for our drivers in the dry so I am very pleased with the performance of the new Birel chassis. Now we have to focus for the S1 race here in 2 weeks, but from what I have seen from Michael and Ed this weekend its clear we have a fantastic partnership - it's a dream team! "commented team boss Andy Cox.