12 May 2022

Introducing Team TracKA - the new EnduroKA interview series where we get to know the teams that make the EnduroKA grid through a series of questions and a quick 'This or That' game. First up, we're talking to Tom Bunten from one of EnudroKA's newest (and most orange!) teams - Grid Finder!

Interview:

Q: Are you able to introduce yourself and your team?

Hi, I'm Tom, founder of Grid Finder! We help racers find racing, both real and virtual. We have over 1700 sim racing leagues to race with online and are now exploring the world of club motorsport. We are building a tool to help Racing Series like EnduroKA and Arrive & Drive teams like Graves Motorsport advertise their empty seats in a smart, efficient way. We saw EnduroKA and immediately knew it would be the perfect way to learn about motorsport and get a proper paddock experience. Racing with us are Toby Owen & Chris Haye. Toby was the first person to suggest the idea of "Grid Finder for Motorsport" to me and is now a Director at Grid Finder. I've known Chris since we travelled to the Sim Racing expo at the Nurburgring last year, on the drive back, we stopped at Spa, had a beer in a bar overlooking the final chicane and pledged that we'd race together the following year... and here we are! We also welcomed Jem Hepworth to the team for our last round at Cadwell and hope to have her back at following races along with other incredible drivers from Motorsport Woman.

Q: What drew you to EnduroKA?

Part of our reason for racing is to demonstrate to our community of sim racers that you can go racing in a friendly environment without selling a kidney. EnduroKA allows us to race as a team of drivers and that's really important. We didn't want to simply champion one individual driver, we wanted to show that groups of friends can come together and share in the highs and lows of motorsport as a group. 

Q: How did you feel before and after your first EnduroKA race?

Personally I felt apprehensive before round 1. I was a little worried about turning up to our first race and under-performing to the extent that our community would conclude that sim racing is nothing like real racing and that they would have no real advantage if they chose to give club motorsport a go. After our first race, I felt elated! We performed much better than we could have ever imagined. Our pace was solidly midfield and our race craft highlighted the benefits of thousands of hours of sim racing experience. Our aim for the first race was simply to finish, however, after we'd done all the "magic maths" race drivers do after a race to see where they "should have finished", we concluded that we could be fighting for top 10 places this year. 

Q: What advice would you give a first time EnduroKA driver?

Test! Do at least a couple of hours in the car, lap after lap after lap to get a proper feel for the car, the tyres, the brakes before your first race so you can have enough confidence in your unity with your little KA that you can be ambitious with racing and overtaking.

Q: What inspired your KA’s livery?

The colour orange, FD7B0D to be specific.

This or That:

Q: Max or Lewis?

 Charles

Q: Win at Monaco or Le Mans?

 Monaco (for the after-party)

 Q: Wet race or dry race?

 Dry. I've never raced in the wet!

 Q: IndyKA 500 or the Schweinerennen?

 Again, never driven either in real life but I've driven both extensively in the sim - IndyKA 500 every time!

Visit the Grid Finder website here; www.gridfinder.com/

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