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This series, the Uniroyal Fun Cup, features close and competitive endurance racing. The UK races are generally between 4 and 6 hours, this means a more Team oriented event as the cars have a mandatory pit stop approximately every 40 minutes to an hour. This is when the Teams may change drivers and refuel the car. Teams may have between 2 and 8 drivers, we find 4 is plenty. It also means that the mechanics play a vital role in the race as well, just like Formula 1! There is refuelling, a quick look round the car while the drivers swap over, wheel/tyre changes, brake changes and even the odd bit of welding to do when the drivers get it completely wrong.

Value for money: When you can get at least twice as much track time than a normal sprint (10 lap) racing for less money per lap, so why would you not consider it.

Better racing: If you make a mistake on the Starting Grid then all is not lost, there is plenty of time to recover. Lets face it how many times has a race been thrown away because of this, you have so little time to make up the places you've lost out by pushing the envelope to hard!

You have time to sit and actually watch some racing!

You get a chance to race on the continent. This series is also run in Europe, known as the VW Fun Cup, there are meetings at Dijon, Spa-Francorchamps, Magny-Cours, Monza and Zolder, to name but a few.

You get a chance at racing in the longest Motor Race in the world. The 25hr Fun Cup at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium; this is without doubt a fantastic experience.

You only race at circuits with good facilities. Each team get a garage, so no more crawling around in soggy wet paddocks; unless you like that sort of thing.

There is no championship, so it is very friendly and great fun for all involved.

There is excellent Hospitality laid on during Race day.

It was these and more that first attracted us to this race series and with these kind of benefits you can see why!!

Looks are deceptive! It may look like a VW Beetle on Steroids, but that's about where the similarity ends.

The UFC car is really easy to drive. It is a very forgiving car in which to learn your race craft. This makes it ideal for novices as two newcomers found out in 2002, when they drove with us at Rockingham. Even though most of the race was wet, normally a baptism of fire, they finished 12th overall from 16 starters. An excellent result for any novice!

For the experienced racer this car is more of a challenge, as it is very easy to drive in a flamboyant style and look quick, but to get the best lap time from the car, demands an extremely smooth driving style, coupled with a good set up (and these cars are very sensitive to minute changes in set up). There is no limited slip diff (LSD) fitted on any of the cars, so you have to accurately judge the amount of grip at the rear before mashing the accelerator to the floor or you'll end up spinning away vital tenths of a second. In the wet, grip judgement is critical if you want to be quick. That's another reason why in the wet these cars are ideal for novices, no LSD means you will just spin a wheel if you apply too much power, losing vital time, but keeping you out of the scenery and on the tarmac!

Looking after the fuel consumption is another factor as different driving styles can affect the consumption dramatically. Take the Rockingham race this year, in the same team, one driver was using 0.7ltrs per lap and another driver 1.1ltrs per lap! Because of the higher fuel consumption of one driver the team had to refuel every stop thus wasting time in the pits. If you want to win you need to be on the track not in the pits.

As the cars are all the same it is essential that you are consistent with you lap times and have quick pit stops. It really is a team event. So long as you stay out of trouble and keep the car reliable, you will do well in the races. There will always be a safety car incident at sometime in the race so no ones lead is safe until the chequered flap has fallen.