Compost

I’m later than normal writing for this month’s ACORN. I’m not even sure that there will be one as the Ed is on a well deserved holiday. Still, here goes all the same. Foot and Mouth doesn’t appear to have cleared up as smoothly as the government would have liked. Just as the competition calendar is getting back to normal, we hear that further outbreaks have come to light. Whether these will spread again and cause us all more problems we can only wait and see.
There has been, or so we believe, a cancellation of the Pestalozzi hillclimb on August 18th/19th. I say we believe because no-one can get hold of the organiser to confirm this. Certainly no regs have appeared and I guess that is confirmation enough. If anyone does know the reason for it not running, drop me a line. This event was to be part of the Marketing Machine championship. Steve Medhurst has decided that the event will simply be dropped from the championship with the best 9 scores to count as opposed to the best 10 previously. As Pestalozzi was an event that was contended by a large proportion of the championship contenders, and therefore everybody would have scored something, it was felt that it wouldn’t be unfair to just drop it, meaning that everybody would now score nothing! If you feel suitably aggrieved, that’s too bad I’m afraid. There aren’t enough events left in the year, which fit in with our calendar to replace Pestalozzi with something else.
A number of 7Oaks members did the Longcross Sprint on July 22nd run by Sutton & Cheam. It was part of the ACSMC Sprint Challenge but no other championships, but still attracted a good entry of 103. If it runs again next year, it is likely to be very popular so get in quick. Anyway, that’s wishing time away. I got the Chevette out for the first event of this year. All the various things that I have wanted to do to the car have been put to one side as I teach myself how to lay bricks, plaster and so on. I’m pretty good at plastering the floor!! Even so, this event was one that I really wanted to do and the Shovit puts a bigger grin on my face than the Puma, so Shovit it was to be. The finals arrived with entry list and it was nice to in a class of 8 in Sports Libre, which became 9 on the day. Not so nice was reading Ford RS200, Dax Rush, Metro 6R4, Metro 6R4, Metro 6R4, Vauxhall Chevette, Ford GTD40. I’d never finished last I thought. On the day, the GTD40 wasn’t running but was replaced by a double driven 2 litre Corsa, left hand drive, a bit of a rally car at an established rally venue. Oh well. The weather was dry with a short spell of drizzle but not enough to make any difference. Longcross has extremely grippy tarmac when dry and Avon’s were getting nice and sticky by the end of the runs. First practice is always a bit of a feeler but I tend to go quicker than most on this run. And so I was second in class at this stage. That was until Ali Serpen took off in his 6R4 and led easily. My times got progressively quicker throughout the day but so did everyone else’s. By the end of the day and after 2 practice and 3 timed runs I was 4th in class and 1st two wheel drive and 9th overall. FTD was taken by Ali Serpen from Gino in the Dax Rush by 5/100ths of a second. I was happy, it had been a great day at a superb venue and the organisation was great. It’s definitely an event that I will do again and I suggest that you should have a go too.
I’m starting to think about Scatter rallies again. They seem to come around so quickly and at the moment I don’t know where any of them will start. The start venues will appear in the magazine and on the web as soon as they are decided. Ring or email me if in doubt. What I can tell you is that the published date for our first scatter has changed. It will no longer be on October 3rd, instead being one week later on October 10th. This is because I forgot that the 3rd is committee night when I drew up the 2001 calendar. Other than that watch this space, but do me a favour, surprise me at one or more of these FUN EVENTS by turning up in numbers. If you’ve never done one before then we can always put you in the rear seat so that you can see what it’s all about.
Shortly after the first scatter on the 14th October, is Croydon’s PCT (production car trial) at Cameron’s Field, Dorking. You may recall my talking about their last PCT, which I attended, with the aim of looking and learning. PCT’s are yet another low cost, FUN event to do and I shall be going along again, this time competing. Join me why don’t you.

Mark Dawson

The Acorn : August Edition