COMPOST

I don't know what came over me last month, all that writing an' all. I've exhausted my resources now …………. mmmm ………. Ah yes, roll cages. To update last month in which I said that I would find out about the supposed mandatory requirement for all cars in speed events to have cages fitted. Well, they don't. Nothing has changed whatsoever other than a slight new wording in the Blue Book. Colin Barnett came back to me to say that the new wording was brought in to define the requirements for 'period cars'. John Symes, one of our ex-Chairmen and now representing the MSA Safety and Environment Executive, also sent a letter to Denise Jones which she forwarded to me which reiterated Colin's comments. So, panic over, you won't be prevented from competing in your standard steel bodied car in speed events if you don't have a cage. Thank you Colin and John for confirming this point.

Our first speed event of this year took place on Sunday March 11th at the Lydden Hill circuit. What lovely weather! It rained and rained and then it rained again. I heard comments from people saying that this was the worst they had seen it at Lydden. Andy Rackham went for artistic impression points in the first practice and scored pretty highly. I missed the moment and I know from experience that Andy wouldn't have wanted crowds of people around him afterwards whispering things that he didn't want to hear. Remember Goodwood?, I do! Like the six million dollar man, Andy can rebuild it. Hopefully, Andy will be back out again soon. Jon Tarrant could be seen trying some interesting lines around Paddock in his Lancia Fulvia. You could look around and see everyone holding their breath, whhoarr, he made it! Spare underpants at the ready, eh Jon?. Quickly looking through the results, I can see that Gordon Franks, that old bloke, dominated the combined class A0 and A2 in his 205 GTi winning by 5 seconds. Mike Edwards was similarly quick in his 1380 Mini in class A1. Chris Fulke-Greville was beaten into second place by the Lotus Exige of Tim Stevens in class B5. The Lotus isn't going to be an easy car to beat all season. Class B6, the over 2000cc roadgoing production class, was again a highly populated class with 14 entries. The Beerling father and son team took top honours in this in their Sapphire Cosworth. Highest placed 7oaks was Tom Whiter in the Mazda RX7 that sounds like the Clangers, remember them. The modified up to 1400cc was won by Chris Judge in the Mini by two seconds. In the single seaters, Alli Gibbons finished first in class by virtue of the FTD time coming from the same class. She still had the second FTD. Hubby Dave had his run spoilt by a timing problem, and then it started to rain which meant that he never got another fair crack at the whip. All in all then, not a bad event bar the weather. Next of our own organised sprints is North Weald on June 17th.

The Foot and Mouth crisis has, I'm sure you're aware, created problems far and wide. All events that utilise the public highway and/or grass have been banned. All events on MOD land have also been outlawed. This means most stage rallies and all road rallies including 12Cars and scatters are off. Some speed events will also be cancelled. Debden apparently isn't in use at the moment, MOD land there. Even the top events aren't exempt. Witness the cancelling of the Rally of Wales for instance and the talk I heard on the radio about the possibility of cancelling the British F1 GP. If you're the type that relies on the event calendar in the MSA fixture list booklet, then have fun. The rest of this year, assuming that any of the year will be left, is going to be pretty damn hectic with all these postponed events vying for the few remaining available dates. Even though this has created problems for us and other clubs and organisations, it is the right thing to do. It's just a shame the government didn't react quicker. It seems like it's a case of stick your head in the sand (or elsewhere, I'll leave that to your imagination) and it will all go away. What pisses me off is that it's OK to spend millions on attempting to clone a sheep, but nothing on research into eradicating a disease that knows no boundaries. I don't come from a farming background, but life must be hell at the moment for livestock farmers and their families. Also, what happens when a sheep on Dartmoor, crosses the road, takes time out to have a dump in the road and then a car drives through aforementioned pile and brings it back on its tyres to Kent or Surrey or anywhere else for that matter? Political bit done.  (Hear! Hear! - get that man a badge! -ED)

Our Grass Autotest series is due to start on May 3rd, with Alan Pearson again in charge. With the problems above, these may not happen according to plan. In fact, the May 3rd event has now moved to August 9th but that move was due to the field being used for a dog show on the same day. This means that our first planned Autotest is now on May 17th. As last year, we will be running a dual permit which means that 14 - 16 year olds can drive with an adult passenger who has a road driving licence under the Production Car Autotest rules. This is the plan anyway, if it changes then we will let you know. The May ACORN should be out before the first planned date so hopefully I can give you a more definitive answer then.


Can't think of anything else, byeeee!

Mark Dawson

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