Team Ecosse is a Scottish-based racing team, formed in 1996 to compete in the Internet Amiga F1GP Championship. After several years off, the team returned to action in 2005, competing in the V8Thunder online championship, based on the NASCAR 2003 simulation.

The team has had a great deal of success at V8Thunder, with many race wins and championships. In the Winter 2006 season, David West was crowned Lites champion and Team Ecosse won the Lites team championship for the second time. This feat was surpassed in the Winter 2007 season, with Derek Howe winning the Inters title, Team Ecosse winning the team championship in both Trucks and Inters, and Steve Smith winning rookie honours in Inters and Trophy.

In 2007, beginning to look beyond oval racing, the team was restructured into two divisions - stock car and open wheel. A touring car division was added in 2008 as the team became more willing to embrace different racing disciplines.

The team is now almost twelve years old. In the past the team has competed in ICS, PRS, NTRL, and Amiga F1GP and GP2 offline racing leagues.

Picture courtesy of Google Images

For Erik it started terribly when Steve Pearce, who was a lap down, collided with him and sent them both into the wall, just eighteen laps into the race. Erik's car was not too bad but he lost many positions. Then, almost right after, the skies opened and the rain started pouring down on the 1.5 mile speedway and the V8Thunder officials had no option but to bring out the red flag and wait for the rain to stop.

Fortunately it was only a short shower and the race could be restarted later on, doing only 67 laps instead of 94 this time. This meant that everyone had a second chance and now it worked better for the TE drivers, with Thomas leading the way in the early stages, running in Top 5, with Erik and Jonas close behind. Unfortunately this was not Thomas' day and he collided with Keith Owen in a late restart sending him into the wall, taking Ben Parker with him. Jonas also got involved in the wreck as he had nowhere to go but to T-bone a stationary truck. However, both of them could finish the race in 7th and 8th respectively and made a very strong run in the end.

While the crash was to Thomas' disadvantage, Erik actually gained from it when he jumped from 5th to 3rd. The restart was then thrown with 20 laps to go and it all looked great for Erik. He was running safe and steady in 3rd for a while but could even pass series returnee Alistair Topley for 2nd place. Caspar Kahari lead the race comfortably but Erik had no problem going in his pace but he was never close to try passing the vMaxSR driver. So when the checkered flag waved it was a Sweden 1-2 with Caspar and Erik. This was, of course, very good to Erik's championship challenge.

Practice

Well, had a good solid run, little problems with understeer at the last turn. But the speed in the straights was good, compared to other N-GT's who had most likely more grip.

Qualifying

Did a good run with a 1:50:5. Robin came close, but still too far. I knew that I could drive a 1:49:9, so I tried again but failed underbraking into second chicane.

Race

Started good, Robin just disappeared before the start, too bad... looked like being an exciting fight there. Then, after a few turns, I slowed the pace to the second car, to spare my tyres and fuel and not over-drive myself. Then, when they began to push, I drove faster and faster, and took a large gap of twenty seconds or more. Halfway through the race I made a pitstop, and lost the first place to Yves for maybe four or five laps... then took the place back after a tiny mistake from him and drove away again. For the last few laps I cruised home and and let my pace down. I lapped all the N-GT cars and finished first!

Thomas - fresh off two consecutive wins in the premiere series - found trouble early on as the 179 car touched the apron and washed up the track into the 22 car, which was shunted to the wall, suffering engine damage which would later prove to be catastrophic.

There were two nice long green runs to finish the race, and while the high grippers may have had a boring time of it up front, there were many spirited battles to be had throughout the bottom half of the Top 10. Davey proved especially adept at managing traffic and boosting team spirits. Erik joined the team on Ventrilo and brought the 38 car home in 8th, as the 91 car was unable to make a challenge for the position late. Decent finishes for the team overall, and Thomas will likely be out to restart his win streak at Talladega next week.

Picture courtesy of Davey Zoutenbier

Picture courtesy of Alan Strang