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Team OFARC ST +

Team OFARC Saint Cross is a single seater race car team set up by Dax Ward in 2000. The car is driven by Dax and the engineering is carried out by him and Adrian Jukes, Production Director of the company.

The car is a Jedi chassis and is powered by a motorcycle engine and can produce speads up to 155mph where circuits allow. It is raced all over the country and even at Belgium at Spa-Francorchamps. For 2011 the team will compete in the MSVR Monoposto championship.

The car enables St. Cross to try out development work on the wiring harness side especially on the telementary data collection side.

For upto date results, news and gallery check out the teams website

 

LATEST NEWS - 2011

June 2011 - Win and third at Spa-Francorchamps.

Dax won a very wet race and got a third in the 2nd race on Sunday after suffering a misfire throughout.

May 2011 - Back to winning ways.

Dax secures win at Cadwell Park on first ever visit to the track, also secures runners up spot on Sunday in rain affected race.

March 20 2011 - Start of the new season with a race win and fastest lap.

Click here for full race report

February 2011 -First shakedown to be on Feb 25th at Silverstone.

After a long winter break and a complete re-build the team are taking the car out for a quick shakedown before the season starts at Snetterton on March 19th.

NEWS - 2010 and EARLIER

October 16/17 -2 podiums in 2 weeks at Silverstone.

This was the final Monoposto round of 2010 and for once this season the weather forecast was for dry weather, how wrong that turned out to be. For race 1 the team secured a lowly 7th on the grid after a poor set up in qualifying. Just as the race was about to start, the weather turned to rain. Dax secured a lonely 3rd position but threw it away on the final lap so finished 4th overall. Not where the team should have been.

The following day was freezing cold but sunny, a rare novelty for this season. Dax got a front row starting position in 2nd spot. The weather stayed sunny and even warm for race 2. At the start the car bogged down and Dax dropped to 6th spot, by the end of the lap he was back up to 2nd and chasing pole man Cameron hard. Woodhouse in 3rd managed to get by and then for 14 frantic laps the 3 drivers swapped and changed positions 2 or 3 times a lap. They were not covered by more than 10 metres throughout the race and eventually all finished 0.2 seconds apart. Dax finished in 3rd. The commentator for Silverstone announced he "had not seen such a good close race here all year". Which is really good to hear considering what events and drivers have been there in 2010. "That was easily the best race I have ever seen or been part of", Dax said afterwards. "It really does not matter where we finished, to race at speeds of 140mph inches away from one another and for it to be so fair and clean is just an amazing feeling."

OCTOBER 1/2 - Silverstone GP - BritCar Support Race

Wet wet and more wet - seems to be a recurring theme for 2010.

The team secured 5th spot on the grid out of 45 cars. This Monoposto grid combined all 6 classes for this guest race. The field included quite a few F3 Dallara chassis and on this grid not one of these was quicker than 5th spot. Qualifying was in monsoon conditions and the worst parts were actually the straights. "There is so much standing water in the bumps on Hangar Straight, that the car just lifts and aqua plains in a straight line", Dax stated after qualy. The race started at 17:00 hours and the rain had not relented. It was also getting dark. Dax retired after the green flag lap due to safety concerns with the conditions and also another competitors car did not have a functioning rain light. "It would be madness to race in those conditions for a non-championship race" Dax said after retiring.

The next day the weather conditions had improved. It had stopped raining but it was very cold and foggy, so the team left a wet set up on the car and put slick tyres on. This grid position was 6th with three F3 cars in front. Dax and Adrian agreed that they needed 3rd position by the end of lap 1 to have a chance of a win. The race started and Dax made one position on the drag to turn 1, another position on Hangar Straight and 3rd position by the end of lap 2, the leader was well gone and 2 laps later Dax had got up to 2nd overall. Dax lost this to a flying Timms in his Dallara so settled for 3rd overall and 2nd in class. The last 3 laps Dax eased off to save the car. Another eventful weekend and another great result.

Next round Silverstone National - Oct 16/17....................

AUGUST 29/30 - Mallory Park

Team OFARC STX secured 2 x 2nd place finishes at last weekends Monoposto meeting held at Mallory Park

Dax secured 2nd place on both grids, and let for the majority of race 1, he lost the lead after sliding off line on another competitors oil. In race 2, positions at the front did not change and Dax came home again in 2nd spot.

AUGUST 14 - Oulton Park

RAIN RAIN and more RAIN!!!!

Testing on the Friday was cancelled due to monsoon rain conditions, so bad at times that it was over 100mm deep in the pit lane. So no set up work could be achieved and Saturday was going to be a tough day with one qualy and two races all in one day.

Half an hour before qualy the heavens opened for a torrential downpour, but the air temp was warm and it was also windy. The rain stopped and Dax decided to go out in qualy on slicks, bank a safe time, and wait for the last 5 minutes and hope the session stayed dry. In the assembly area the sun was shining and Dax and Marc were the only cars on slicks. Everything was going to plan, Dax pitted set pressures and waited for the last 5 minutes. Dax went out and set about his first flying lap, by the shell hairpin he was over 10 seconds up on the same sector earlier in the session. Exiting this bend, Dax lost his gears, which turned out to be a broken gear selector. So qualy was ruined and he would be starting 17th for both races. Not good at all.

As the cars started the green flag lap for race 1, the heavens opened again and the race was delayed to enable teams to change tyres from the slicks everyone was on. During this time the rain stopped, but it was still very wet. The team decided to go out on wets as their was more rain falling around the circuit. The race started and both cars made up lots of places as most other runners were on slicks and were struggling with grip. By lap 5 the track started to dry and by lap 10 there was no wet left to cool the tyres down. Dax finished a miserable 13th. Race 2, Dax had a problem with his HANS device so had to pit twice, from 8th spot, and finished 14th.

Not a great weekend, unlucky in qualy and a bad choice of tyres for race 1; Mallory Park on Aug 29/20th next.

JUNE 12 - Brands Hatch

A mixed weekend with a DSQ in the first race after using wrong brake pad compound, and a 9th in race 2 after starting 12th on the grid. The team logged a 46.1 lap round the Indy circuit.

Next race is Oulton Park, Cheshire on August 14. This is also National Motorsport Week which St Cross Electronics will be part of.

MAY 29 - Rockingham, Northants

The team tested on the 28th and within a few laps had already beaten the lap record that has stood since 2008. Unfortunately bad weather was on the way for race day. Dax qualified 7th for race 1 and 10th for race 2 in the poring rain. The rain did not let up and after dropping to 13th in race 1 at the start, Dax made up places to get 9th overall and set the 4th best lap time. In race 2, Dax again had a terrible start but again made his way through the cars ahead to finish a very strong 6th, not far from 5th. Next round Brands Hatch on June 12/13th.

APRIL 14 - First round of Jedi championship

The first round of the 2010 Jedi championship took place on 10 and 11 April. The team had a frustrating weekend with fuel surge problems and punctures on the Saturday and only managed a 9th place finish. On Sunday after getting up to 7th spot, Dax failed to finish due to the clutch cable breaking on lap 5.

MARCH 5 - Team OFARC enter Monoposto round at Brands Hatch

The team are eligible to enter this championship, and will be using this weekend as another test day on Friday 26th March, with the race on the 28th. This should prepare the team fully for the first Jedi championship race at Silverstone on April 10/11th.

FEBRUARY 26 - First Shakedown of car at Silverstone

The team ran the car at a very cold and windy Silverstone. The improvements to the circuit are really good with a nice smooth back straight on the "national" configuration. This will form part of the new Arena GP layout from 2010.

The engine installation and running in went like clockwork, with no major problems. The test was cut short though as an outer CV joint overheated and the team did not have a spare to run with. An analysis of the broken part is being carried out, so another test has been scheduled for Brands Hatch on Friday 26th March 2010.

Cartek's new rain light and switch worked faultlessly in the extreme cold conditions. The Rain Light Switch incorporates 3 modes, On, Off and Hazard flash. The hazard flash was used when running in the engine and all other drivers were made aware at the briefing that when they saw the hazard flashing there was a slower moving vehicle ahead.

More details on these products can be found here.

OCTOBER 30 2009 - Team OFARC St. Cross are on TV

The Brands Hatch race from August is to be shown this Friday at 19:00 hours on MotorsTV.

Motors TV can be found on channel 413 on the Sky platform and channel 545 via Virgin Media. The show will be repeated several times next week. The complete schedule can be found at Motors TV.

OCTOBER 24/25 2009 - Final round of the year at Snetterton, Norfolk

In race 1 Dax achieved a 9th position finish in the wet on slick tyres. It was the correct tyre for the first 5 laps and that proved by getting upto position 4 early on. But then the rain came again and Dax slipped back and back.

In race 2 whilst in 6th place, Dax crashed out on lap 6, a very dissapointing end to the very short season.

AUGUST 2009 - Brands Hatch - National Motorsport Week

The team entered Brands Hatch for the double header round in Formula Jedi. The car was supporting national Motorsport Week as St Cross Electronics are members of The MIA. Dax qualified in 7th spot for the first race, but had to retire due to a broken accelerator cable. The next day Dax got the car upto 5th spot on the grid for the team. In race 2 there was a big crash which dropped Dax down to 10th spot and brought out the safety car. Dax still managed to bring home the car in 5th spot, the teams best ever result in this championship. More details can be found on the official OFARC website.

JUNE 2009 - The team heads off to Donnington & returns.

After arriving at the circuit we were sent home as this new track could not cope with rain water. Very dissapointing trip and total waste of time.

APRIL 2009 - Two podiums for the start of 2009

We set off to Norfolk on an unusually hot and dry April day. Qualfying for race 1 did not got oo well only managing 5th on the grid. The race started even worse dropping to 7th before picking it up and managing to get 2nd overall. On one lap 3 cars were overtaken!!! Race 2 the team managed another podium and got 3rd overall. So after the first round the team were 2nd place in the championship.

March 2009 - Silverstone GP test day

The team had a test day on the famous Grand Prix config circuit. Managed a best time of 1.52 seconds which is only 20 secs of a GP2 car which costs 1.5mGBP a year to run. Unfortunately the circuit was covered with oil for most of the day so the best time set in the first session stood for the day. The first race of the season is going to be at Snetterton on the 4th/5th April.

October 2008 - Snetterton - Two more wins!!

The team qualified third in class on Saturday to win the race by 0.2 seconds from team mate Marc Fortune. Marc bagged the fastest lap. Race two on Sunday was looking good with Dax on the front row, until he stalled at the start. That dropped the team back to 17th and with only a 15 minute race it looked all over. Dax made up 5 places on the first lap and picked up place after place eventually finishing in 2nd place and 1st in class and only 5 seconds behind the winner. The team also got the fastest lap.

A great end to a great season with 2 wins and four podiums and one of those at Spa after starting from 16th position. Who says motorsport has no overtaking!!!

July 2008 - Spa-Francorchamps Belgium - 16th to 6th.

Dax did not get on too well with the wet conditions in qualifying at the weekend, but was determined to make up for his failures in the race. The team went from 16th to finish 6th overall and got second in their class and get a podium at what is probably the best drivers circuit in the world.

June 2008 - Rockingham

After qualifying on the front row on Saturday the rain came down for the race and the team made the wrong set up choice and ended up 10th at the flag. For race 2, again Dax put the team on second spot on the grid and finished the day in 2nd and got the fastest lap setting a new Monoposto record.

April 2008 - Silverstone

After a great test day on the Friday, Dax and Adrian were convinced they were getting back on the pace again. This was confirmed on Sunday when the team got 4th place on the grid, only 0.5 seconds from pole. The data showed that Dax actually lost 0.76 seconds on his best lap due to traffic. Unfortunately Dax got pushed off line in the race and lost two places and had to settle for 6th place overall.

March 2008 - Snetterton

Still getting used to the new car after not much testing Dax qualified in 13th place on a unusually dry day at the venue. After a great start Dax got the car upto 6th place overall to give the team a great lift for the start of the season. Next race Silverstone on April 12/13th.

 

 

 

October 2007 - Pole Position and a Class Win.

The team returned from Snetterton on October 14th 2007 with a podium and a class win. Dax put the car on pole position on Sunday morning with the very last lap of the session and clear from second place on the grid by 0.3sec. The team finished the race in second position overall only 0.5sec behind first place. This gave the team a first in class position as the other car was a more powerful class. That just shows what an achievement pole position was for the team.