John Thorne's car has had little running already this season due to the misfire - Photo Credit: Chris Gurton Photography
British Touring Car Championship outfit Thorney Motorsport has withdrawn from the upcoming rounds at Oulton Park and Croft, due in part to an engine misfire that has dogged its season so far.
The team’s Vauxhall Insignia has had the issue since it introduced the car at the end of 2011. It tested at Silverstone last week and made progress on handling issues it was suffering, but was forced to end the day early due to the persistent misfire.
The team said it has dropped Swindon Engines as its supplier with immediate effect, though it will continue to use the TOCA unit and develop its own ECU mapping for it.
“The team is gutted, we’ve worked so hard to get to the BTCC, in testing last week we managed to improve the cars handling ten-fold over the course of the day and I was starting to push the car harder and harder which is a huge improvement over Brands and Donington, but this misfire is just soul destroying,” said a frustrated driver and owner John Thorne.
“We come out of Maggots with 6mph more speed than we recorded at the media day then cough and splutter our way up the straight, it’s a joke and frankly we’ve had enough. All Swindon have done is replace a coil pack, which did nothing even though we were charged for it.
“We are stuck with the engine, NGTC regulations are clear on that and our alternative engine will not be ready for this season so we have the choice either to simply withdraw for the 2012 season completely or develop our own mapping for the TOCA control engine, sadly that will take more than the couple of weeks we have before Oulton Park so we have no choice but to withdraw.
“TOCA have been very understanding on the whole issue but consider the matter as one between the team and Swindon Engine. The team owns the engine but must pay Swindon the equivalent of 2,000 pounds per weekend to have a map that allows it to run, the only analogy I can compare it to is if you buy a computer from a shop but have to take it back each time you want to use it to have the operating system re-installed and each time the shop charges you 10% of the price and even then it misfires!”
London 2012: torchbearers picked by sponsors keep flame of commerce alive - The Guardian
Throughout their descriptions of the 70-day Olympic torch relay, the London 2012 organisers talked of having tracked down "8,000 truly inspirational people from across the UK". But while most of the torchbearers were picked through this process, some people – including one of the world's richest men – managed to get on the torch relay by another means: working for, or being affiliated with, one of the London 2012 sponsors.
More than 1,200 spaces were allocated to the International Olympic Committee, the British Olympics Association, and to staff working for Games sponsors – whose picks included company directors, Russian newspaper editors, and even an official at the US's Food and Drug Administration.
Help Me Investigate the Olympics, a crowdsourced news coverage site dedicated to London 2012, looked into torchbearer slots handed out by one particular sponsor, Adidas.
While, generally, slots had been given to junior or mid-level employees, Adidas had also selected Christos Angelides, the £900,000-a-year senior director at Next, which has a retail partnership with Adidas covering the Olympics. Other Adidas slots went to people in the marketing team who had worked on the company's sponsorship.
The group's findings, posted by Paul Bradshaw, also noted descriptions of staff's work performance in their nominating stories, mentioning that one torchbearer had "made a fantastic contribution to the Adidas group business". Another "breathes Adidas … Her positive attitude and 'money in [the] till' approach is legendary" and a third mentioned "achieving my sales targets in every market I have worked in".
A spokesman for Adidas said the firm was restricted by Locog rules and could only offer its torchbearer slots to employees or those in its network. He added that owing to the low average age of the company's staff, not many of their children were old enough to carry the torch.
Other sponsors struck further afield for their choices: among Coca-Cola's selections were the Las Vegas resident Dr Debra Toney, who among other roles sits on a committee of the US's Food and Drug Administration.
Coca-Cola also selected Evgeny Faktorovich, the deputy editor-in-chief of a Russian paper that "supports all social initiative held by Coca-Cola" and Vonta Vontobel, the president of the Brazilian Bottlers Association of Coca-Cola.
Coca-Cola, as an official torchbearer partner, was able to allocate places to members of the public – it was responsible for allocating 1,350 slots.
"Over 90% of our allocation has gone to members of the public through our Future Flames campaign, which celebrates inspirational people by giving them the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to carry the Olympic flame," said a spokesman. "A small number of our allocation has been given to some of our employees through a nomination campaign, and to our campaign ambassadors who have helped to find our Future Flames. Our remaining places have been given to our partner organisations and their affiliates."
ArcelorMittal, another organisation supporting the Olympics, was given six torchbearer slots. Two of these went to the company's founder, Lakshmi Mittal, the world's 21st richest man according to Forbes magazine, and his son Aditya, the group's chief financial officer. Among the others, however, were the US technician Angel Alvarez, who donated his kidney to a fellow worker, and Polish employee Filip Kuzniak, who cycled 600km to raise money for a colleague's daughter.
Among 50 torchbearers selected by BP were Gillian James, a member of the company's North Sea leadership team, and Carl Halksworth, the creative director of Landor, BP's design agency partner for the Olympics. As BP sponsored a particular section of the route, near Aberdeen, the remainder of its picks were made up predominantly of "onshore and offshore BP staff, young relatives of staff, business partners, and nominees from local schools, universities and charities".
The electricity giant EDF, meanwhile, included the group's former director of HR and communications among the 71 staff members chosen to carry the torch on the company's behalf.
A London 2012 spokesman said: "Staging the Olympic Games is a huge undertaking and we couldn't do it without the support from our commercial partners. The rights packages for some partners include a small number of torchbearer places that had to be filled through internal campaigns.
"The same torchbearer selection criteria applied across the whole relay – ie personal bests and/or contribution to the community."
London hotels 'pricing themselves out of market' - The Guardian
London 2012: Great Britain name powerful rowing squad - BBC News
Great Britain have named 48 rowers in the squad for the London Olympics, with four places still to be decided.
Remaining selections in the men's and women's eights will be finalised "in due course", said a Team GB statement.
Katherine Grainger“There is a sense that the upcoming home Games will be on a different scale to anything we've ever seen before”
Britain will compete in 13 of the 14 rowing events at Eton Dorney, with the men's four and men's lightweight double scull defending titles.
The host nation hopes to improve on the record haul of six medals that saw them top the rowing medals table in Beijing.
"We go to the start in London ready to defend our status as the leading rowing nation from Beijing but we are under no illusion as to how tough winning medals, especially gold medals, will be at this Games," said David Tanner, GB Rowing Team performance director.
As expected, Andrew Triggs Hodge, Tom James, Pete Reed and Alex Gregory will attempt to win a fourth consecutive gold medal for Britain in the men's four, following in the footsteps of Sir Steve Redgrave, Sir Matthew Pinsent and James Cracknell among others.
The crew have won both World Cup races this year but were pushed hard by Australia in Lucerne last time out.
"I'm thrilled to be part of the biggest British team ever at our London Olympics," said Reed.
"I have been training for this all my life one way or another. I am a proud lieutenant from the Royal Navy, a proud Olympian and a proud Briton. I'm racing to win."
Anna Watkins and Katherine Grainger are firm favourites in the women's double scull, with Scot Grainger looking to win a first gold after taking silver at the last three Games.
Britain row to Beijing glory
"It's been an incredible honour and privilege to be part of the past three Olympic Games and, as wonderful as they have all been, there is a sense that the upcoming home Games will be on a different scale to anything we've ever seen before," said Grainger.
World and Olympic champions Zac Purchase and Mark Hunter will defend their men's lightweight double scull title, while Helen Glover and Heather Stanning are currently the world-leading women's pair.
Greg Searle will get the chance to go for gold in the men's eight 20 years after he won the coxed pairs title in tandem with his brother Jonny and tearful cox Garry Herbert in Barcelona.
Searle, 40, returned to the sport in 2010 having last competed at an Olympics in Sydney 12 years ago.
Only seven rowers have been named in the men's eight, leaving the door open for Constantine Louloudis to be named as stroke despite having missed both of this year's World Cup regattas with a back injury.
A world under-23 champion, it is hoped Louloudis could give Britain the edge after they pushed world champions Germany hard in Belgrade and Lucerne over the last month.
Ten rowers have been named for the women's eight, with selectors likely to use the upcoming Munich World Cup to assess their options once again before making the final decision.
Team GB rowing squad:
Men's Pair - George Nash, Will Satch
Men's Four - Alex Gregory, Tom James, Pete Reed, Andrew Triggs Hodge
Men's Eight * - Richard Egington, James Foad, Matthew Langridge, Alex Partridge, Tom Ransley, Mohamed Sbihi, Greg Searle, Phelan Hill (cox)
* one further rower will be added at a later date
Men's Single Scull - Alan Campbell
Men's Double Scull - Bill Lucas, Sam Townsend
Men's Quadruple Scull - Charles Cousins, Stephen Rowbotham, Tom Solesbury, Matthew Wells
Women's Pair - Helen Glover, Heather Stanning
Women's Eight * - Jo Cook, Jessica Eddie, Katie Greves, Lindsey Maguire, Natasha Page, Louisa Reeve, Emily Taylor, Victoria Thornley, Annabel Vernon, Olivia Whitlam, Caroline O'Connor (cox)
* Eight from the ten rowers listed will be confirmed as racing in the eight. The two rowers not racing in the eight will be selected as reserves.
Women's Double Scull - Katherine Grainger, Anna Watkins
Women's Quadruple Scull - Debbie Flood, Frances Houghton, Beth Rodford, Melanie Wilson
Lightweight Men's Four - Chris Bartley, Peter Chambers, Richard Chambers, Rob Williams
Lightweight Men's Double Scull - Mark Hunter, Zac Purchase
Lightweight Women's Double Scull - Katherine Copeland, Sophie Hosking
Visit the Vauxhall Heritage Centre for free - Daily Telegraph
Visitors will be able to view the company's collection over more than cars, encompassing pre- and post-Second World War cars, as well as popular models from the 1960s, 70s and 80s, as well as a selection of very rare concept cars.
London's ugliest buildings: our readers' choice - Daily Telegraph
The Queen Elizabeth conference centre offends my eyes and the Shell building on the South Bank is equally brutal.
Martin Bartlett, by email
I know most of the buildings featured: it appears that you have chosen the some of the largest projects in recent history? In terms of the Blue Fin, you should go and have a look at what used to be there. And UCL Hospital? Surely Guys Hospital should be there instead?
Martin Garthwaite, by email
The One New Change shopping centre in the City would be my choice for inclusion in London’s ugliest buildings. Not for nothing is it referred to as “the turd”.
Bob Thompson, by email
Most modern buildings are just meaningless, incongruous, dysfunctional shapes, which date with amazing rapidity. If it’s not going to look good still in 500 years; don’t build it.
John Armstrong, by email
The Shard without a doubt is one of the ugliest buildings in London. The first view I had of this monstrosity was crossing the Thames when coming from Gatwick Airport. To me it looked like a giant prophylactic.
Why do all these buildings have to stick out like a sore thumb? Isn't it about time there were height restrictions? There should also be rules about modern "architecture" (if that is what they want to call it) complementing the surroundings in which they are being built.
S Cook, by email
I would add Portcullis House. Dark brown is seldom a good colour for a building and this is no exception.
Robert Cook, by email
No comments:
Post a Comment