MARKETING MACHINE SPEED LEAGUE UPDATE

We are nearly at the halfway point of the Speed League and here is an update on what has been happening.  Andy Webber is currently top of the table but Chris Fulke-Greville is snapping at his heels, and with a higher average score than Andy it looks as though this could be another year where it slips away from Andy as the year goes on.  Defending Champion Martyn Ellis is lying in 5th place but he has not done as many rounds as the opposition.  He must also be kicking himself over Hethel where he threw away a bunch of points by trying too hard, totally needlessly as it turned out, in the timed runs.  Trevor Jones is another competitor languishing in a lowly position but with a high average score.  Trevor stuffed the Nissan big-time at Lydden earlier this year and once it is re-shelled he will surely be charging up the table.  Tim Jeffrey looked as though he would be a high flyer at the start of the year in the Alpine A610 but he has not been seen for a while. As at the end of last year Andy Webber is leading both the Hillclimb and Tourist Trophy tables.
I shall be taking some paper copies of the score tables to any events I attend so if you don't have web access and you want an update just come and see me in the paddock.
There follows a list of reports for each of the rounds so far.  These have been lifted straight from the website so apologies to those who have already seen them.  Remember, if you haven't used the website yet, the race reports and Marketing Machine scores are updated on the web after every round, often within a few days of each event.

Lydden - April 7
There was a good turnout of people for this one.  The weather was foul for first practice, but a little drier for first runs and then bone dry for the next two runs.  The format of 3 timed runs of 2.9 laps went down very well with competitors and goes some way towards offsetting the high entry fee.  Gordon Franks took an easy win in A2.  Tim Jeffrey is new to the championship and took a huge 20 points in the season opener at Lydden 3 weeks ago which was a wet event.  Here, he started off leading in the wet in his Alpine A610 Turbo, but slipped back as the track dried.  Chris Fulke-Greville was bested only by the Lotus Exige in B5, which sees him top of the championship table so far.  Perennial championship runner-up Andy Webber was struggling in the wet and then broke something in the drivetrain after his first run which led to retirement.  Martyn Ellis took second in class B6 to open his defence of the title with a useful 18 points.  Trevor Jones faired much better than his opening event to take 4th in this very popular class.  Denise was a lot further back and I'm sure she will be studying the logs from their new Pi Research data logger in an attempt to find out why.  Unfortunately the Jones' also suffered gremlins and the car would not start for the final timed run.  Dave Gibbons took a fine FTD to bag 14 points.
Hethel - May 20
This was an event to forget for many Marketing Machine competitors.  No contender managed to win their class and very few even picked up an award.  This is a very technical course that always throws up some surprise results.  The weather was hot and sunny all day at this popular venue.  Paul Wren took second in class 2 in his Renault Clio Sport and Andrew Actman managed the same in class 4 in his Sprite.  Class 5 saw Roy Nicholls struggling on his first visit.  Andy Webber's home-welded driveshaft held together in the Elan, while Chris Fulke Greville was running in his new engine having finished putting it all back early that morning following a blow-up at Lydden the previous weekend. Gareth Richardson made a return to sprinting in this class taking his pretty Lotus Elan back to it's spiritual home.  Class 6 saw an exceptionally bad day for contenders.  Keith Crocker spun off and went into the tyres, fortunately sustaining no damage.  Jim Giddings lost all oil pressure and once this was fixed his transmission jammed in 4th gear!  Defending Champion Martyn Ellis posted a time in practice that would have given him the win by 3 seconds, but made a mess of both his timed runs and ended up half way down the class.  I spun on my first timed run in Class 8 and had to ease off for my final run while Chris Judge came bottom of Class 9.

Lydden - June 2
This was a good event for Marketing Machine contenders.  After a wet start to the 2.9 lap event the weather improved and the last 2 runs were dry.  Dave Gibbons took FTD with Rik Lee being squeezed between Dave and wife Alli...  Jim Giddings won the TR Register class. Class 8 was won by Yours Truly which elevates me to joint 3rd in the League. Martyn  Ellis did another giant-killing act in class 6, taking a win and 17 points to move him to the head of the table.  Andy Webber took second in class 5 for a useful 15 points after a slow start to his season.  Mark Dawson was out in the Puma in this class.  This was the first time Mark had used the car except at North Weald and he told me that he was anxious not to 'do a Trevor'!  Obviously not anxious enough as he went off on the outside of Chessons on his first timed run, fortunately not hitting anything, but it was a long grass tracking exercise. He is obviously hankering for the start of the Autotest series!  Mike Edwards won class 4 in his Mini with Andy Actman second.  Paul Wren took second in class 2 in his Clio Sport 172.
Next stop is Harewood in a week’s time.  I won't be there so somebody please email me a report for the web site.

Harewood - June 11
Tim Dodwell, Andy Actman, Roy Nichcolls, Stuart (and Wendy) Giles, and Andy (and Karen and Ben) Webber were the only 7 Oaks members making the trip to Harewood. Despite and cold and windy start the weather eventually improved and all runs were dry.  Andy Actman and Andy Webber had the most success on this occasion collecting third and second place in their respective classes. Andy Actman was particularly pleased to get within a couple of seconds of the very competitive class record in the, now un-supercharged, Sprite, and Andy Webber bagged more very useful MM points. Tim (not in the Speed League) appeared to be having rear brake problems in his Scirocco, Roy was puzzled as to why he was relatively off the pace, and uncharacteristically visited the scenery several times during the day.
Stuart in the SRG found himself against former Harewood and national sprint champion Roger Kilty, and like Roy found the Yorkshire grass and gravel on several occasions trying the master the beast he has created !

Andy Webber

North Weald - June 17
The event was as wet as ever.  The course was the usual layout with a long blast up and down a thin road followed by a slalom down the main runway before a hairpin bend and a 90° left that led to the finish.  Both practices were wet.  First timed runs were in drying conditions and the final run was fully dry.  This meant that the last run was the only one that really counted and there was quite a lot of pressure on people to be quick, but not to make a silly mistake!  With so many 7oaks members out I will only mention a few.  Iain Gibson won class B4.  Chris Fulke-Greville took most points on the day with 2nd out of 12 in class B5.  He was only beaten by an Elise that had about 200 horses under the boot lid.  Peter Holm took a great 2nd out of 6 in class C8 on his first sprint ever in his Dax Rush Turbo.  Bob Gibson won the hard-fought class D9 in the pretty little Alpine A110.  With a number of the regulars visiting Le Mans, marshalling, or rebuilding their cars(!) this has caused a fair shake-up in the top 20.

Ian Crocker

The Acorn : July Edition