RADICAL SPORTSCARS: “THE SR3 WILL LAP FASTER THAN A BTCC CAR”

With Covid-19 restrictions easing in the UK, one of the first things to open up again will be the country’s legendary racetracks. With Radical relaunching its Masterclass Class, and its epic new SR10 hitting the track, we find out more from Mark Ryhorski, Radical Sportscars’ marketing director.

Previously there was a Radical race series called European Masters, which wound down three or four years ago. It was a pan-European race series. For the last few years, we’ve also had a series called the North American Cup, that runs in the States and sometimes Canada. It has three classes of cars: the Masters Class, the 1500 Pro and the 1340 Class. The last two are both SR3 chassis while the Masters is open to our other products such as SR8 and the RXC Spyder and Coupe. This year we’ve introduced a Masters Class into our UK Challenge Series (which is exclusively SR3 cars). This coincides with our new car, the SR10, which is now eligible to compete in the UK Challenge as well as the Masters in America.

We offer a few different race series. In the UK we have a very good ladder of multiple series, and they run primarily in the UK. We also do one event in Europe. This year it will be Spa, and it's open to European-based drivers as well. In fact, we would typically have a US-based driver, a Dubai-based driver, Russian-based drivers, and so on but unfortunately, the COVID restrictions have kept them away. Hopefully not this year. We’ve got an entry-level series called SR1 Cup, which is really aimed at complete novices and active club racers. Then we have the challenge series, with SR3s, and now we’ve added the Masters’ Class to that. And then for this year, we’ve recreated a class in between called the Club Classes: Club Sprint and Club Enduro. Those are for SR3 cars only. They’ll be running on the same grid as the Challenge Series but will be a unique cup and class.

To give you some context, an SR3 1500 will lap faster than a BTCC Touring Car. And these are all amateur gentlemen drivers. In the hands of a pro driver, they’re much quicker. And then the SR10 is even quicker by several seconds. The SR10 is starting to spend some time on tracks in the States but it isn't really going out and setting serious lap times in anger yet. It will now that the season starts but the pace of the car isn’t proven yet. I don't really want to say that it’s as fast as an LMP3 car, because I don’t know what the differential is, but you get the idea. This is an extremely quick car: 425 horsepower, 700 kilos, 586hp per metric tonne.

It goes back to engineering. We think their product works really well with our product. And about half of our product range are Suzuki Hayabusa-based engines. So, the relationship between Motul and Suzuki certainly was part of the entry point. The other half of our range is powered by Ford Ecoboost engines. They’re Radical Performance Engines, that’s our brand, and they’re heavily modified versions of their Ford and Suzuki engines. So, our partnership with Motul is technical. We like the fact that the guys are very motorsport-oriented. Our product is ultimately a motorsport product. So, we’re all operating in the same world.

We're thrilled, frankly, and hugely relieved because our pre-season test day was scheduled for the 30th of March a month ago, so the 29th of March was a great date [laughs]. As of now, that start date means our full season is scheduled and good to go.