Round 6 - Lydden 5th May
Fine weather rewarded competitors with time for fun runs at this SEMSEC
half day event replacing round 6, the lost Wethersfield.
Brian Saville notched up 2nd from 4 in the MR2 whilst Ross
watched the experts at Brands, Dave Balderson pressed on in the
TVR for 2nd from 4, Mini man Mike Edwards beat Mark Devaney
in the Autobianchi in a class of 2 and Chris F-G took his regular
top slot from 3 in the ever lighter Astra. Peter Thompson took 3rd
of 5 in the now Jenvey throttle bodied Elise from Peter Ward in
the ‘7’ in 2nd place. Chris Judge was quick but played on his own
in the shiny Mini whilst Andy Webber in a passenger seatless +2
joined Dick Athlow running his historic Rally Escort in the modified
class taking 2nd and 3rd from 6 respectively. Alex Thorogood saw
an impressive 81 sec in the big Westfield to take his class of 2.
The afternoon progressed with a crop of 7Oaks members battling it out
with considerable success in the preceding races.
Round 3 - Loton Park Hillclimb May 10th or “The Three Musketeers Ride Again”
A quick review of the entry list showed that only three MMSL contenders
had entered this event, and they were all entered in a very strong Road
Going Saloon class of 17. Roy Nicholls and Andy Webber had
made the trip from Kent, Andy admitting that he had managed a convenient
Friday business meeting which he claims was conducted on his camping chairs
in a Cannock quarry! They were joined for this event by occasional MMSL
participant and your correspondent in his VW Racing prepared Golf GTi.
It looked as though we were in for a good day’s competitive sport,
in the class overall and between the MMSL participants. Since I came out
of retirement in 1995 and despite the different stages of tune of our cars
and driving skills/styles our (Neal/Nicholls/Webber) times have always
been within the same range, and more often than not on the same second.
That of course assumes that Mr Webber completes the course!
Peugeot 205’s seem to be springing up everywhere with 5 entered in
the class including the Loton class record holder, David Marshall in his
highly developed Skip Brown version. There were a couple others that were
also showing allegiance to this tuner.
For those that have yet to make a visit to the Welsh borders, it really
is worth the long haul from the South East. The 1475 yard hill is set in
a deer park, and has a mix of challenging slow and fast corners with some
downhill sections to add a little spice, and there is a blind brow followed
immediately by with a sharp right before the run over the finish. Lots
of big trees too! All events are run and organized by Hagley and District
Light Car Club, who run slick events and who are continually investing
in the venue. If you don’t come to compete, why not visit an MSA Hillclimb
round, it’s absolutely awesome seeing the top single seaters on a track
that looks like it belongs to a 1990’s RAC Rally Sunday rally stage.
Enough of that; the day dawned warm and bright and with scrutineering
complete a brisk walk up the hill showed perfect dry track conditions.
Practice was relatively uneventful for Team Sevenoaks with all on 66 seconds,
Andy leading on 66.01, with Roy and Peter close behind.
As practice neared conclusion, it rained sufficiently to warrant another
recce on foot during the lunch hour, patches of dry under trees, breeze
drying the track at the top of hill, so the consensus was that track would
effectively be “dry-ish” for 1st runs, so a controlled attack would be
needed to get a decent time. Outcome; we all made it to the top resulting
in:
1st David Marshall 205: 67.22So all to play for in the second runs. It was rumoured I was caught doing a rain dance, but would I be so unsporting? By start of the second runs the track was dry, BUT as our class was called to the startline, so did the drizzle and light rain. Never mind, the track was bound to still be dry enough for those at the end of our batch, including me. But the rain was getting harder, Roy had gone, then Andy, then a yellow Escort then a Red Flag at the startline, B***er! Thinks “Who was it, are they OK, get on with it, why so are we waiting so long?” with rain pouring down, the track was soaking now, end of story.
2nd Peter Neal Golf GTi: 68.60
5th Andy Webber Elan: 69.73
9th Roy Nicholls 205: 72.24
4th Roy Nicholls 68.07Despite the frustrations with the weather, it was an excellent day’s sport and sad that we were only MMSL competitors to make the trip. If you’re serious about your speed events you should visit Loton at least once in your career, it’s well worth that extra investment in time and money.
7th Peter Neal 68.60
9th Andy Webber 69.73
Round 4 - Debden 11th May 2003
A beautiful start to the day, blue sky with a chilly wind but it was
supposed to be changeable. Would it rain?
The clerk of course gave us all a warning that there was a lot of mud
on the course and would be treacherous if wet. Unfortunately, the tarmac
is also now breaking up in places. I hope it doesn't deteriorate
too quickly as everybody always enjoys this challenging circuit. For those
who have never been it has a mixture of fast sweeping bends, an awkward
roundabout that is not approached straight, (most will get it wrong at
least once during the day) and a narrow section with a chicane around the
edge of a kart track.
We had fourteen 7Oaks members there, five of whom had never competed
there before. Brian Saville was in class 2 and finished 2nd from
three, Ross Saville in class 4, whose brakes kept sticking (not
helpful), Graham Pryme in class 6 had a few problems with said roundabout,
quote from Peter Ward in class 8 after his first run "it frightened
the hell out of me - but I like it here" and Peter Geake in class 14 (he
shared with John Hewatt who won the class). It was Peter's first
sprint and first time ever in a single seater! What an initiation. His
times dropped quite dramatically throughout the day.
We had quite a few of the regulars out too. John Milligan was
in the Scimitar class, slightly dramatic on his first timed run but then
managed to finish 4th in class. Martin Ellis was in class 11 because
he is in the process of preparing his car for his first race at Brands
Hatch this weekend (hopefully). He has Ferrari trained pit crew, so they
say, otherwise known as Jim Giddings. The sprint was a shakedown
for the car, and Martin. A spin and entering the roundabout backwards that
happened after an attempt at left-foot braking, perhaps two left feet could
be useful after all.
Our class (6) was dominated by a double driven Subaru and Jon Miles
in his Evo - Jon drove well and split the two Subaru drivers to come second,
I came 4th and Trevor 5th. (It looks as though we have been down
on boost all season, we thought something was wrong but because we had
changed the gearing were not sure. It was more apparent when we saw our
speed trap displays) So we hope to see some better results soon.
The best scrap was in class 5 as it often is, between Chris Fulke-Greville
(1st), Roy Nicholls (2nd) and Andy Webber (3rd). Andy said
that he had a catalogue of small errors but he would get his own back next
week at Hethel. Roy just said that he was trying. Oh - err trying hard!
Chris is doing very well this year; he is currently leading his class
in the "In Gear" motorsport racing championship and in the Southern Saloon
and Sports Car championship. He has won his class in all seven races entered.
All in all a good days sprinting not spoilt by the weather.
Denise Jones
PS. Good Luck Martin
Round 5 - The Bridgestone Hethel Sprint 18th May 2003
With a bad weather forecast the intrepid sprinters of the club prepared
their cars of action at a grey but dry Hethel. The forecast was for the
weather to break with a vengeance after lunch so tyres tactics were stretched
to the limit.
12 Marketing Machine contenders made the journey to this great venue,
steeped in motor racing history. Congratulations must go out to Neville
and Tina Moon for the venue and the slick organisation that allowed
all the timed runs to go-ahead despite 53 first timers competing in the
Caterham Challenge, one of which had a major off only minutes into the
event that held the event up for some considerable time. The marshals and
the medical staff were great and the driver (Ken Lowes) was diagnosed as
needing a new car by the medics at Norfolk and Norwich.
In class 2 Brian Savile managed his best time on the 1st timed
run. Class 4 Ross Saville managed a 2nd place but also had problems
with his last run, it must be a family thing. Class 5 saw 5 MM contestants
fighting it out with Chris Fulke-Greville just taking the silverware
and Roy Nicholls coming in a respectable second, 100th of a second
was the divide after the 1st timed run. Peter Neal was 3rd with
Andy Webber 4th. The difference between 1st and 4th was only 0.53
of a second! In Class 5 it was the now usual tussle between Jon Miles
and Paul Mayhew, but what is this! After some time with the
turbo man it looks like the Nissan of the Jones’s is back on form with
Denise a second up on Trevor. Jon won the class. Chris
Judge made 2nd place in class 9. Ian Black had a bad day, enough
said! In class 12 Rik Lee bought the RS200 out to play but failed
to find the pace of the class coming in 5th.
Again thanks to the Moons for a great day and we look forward to the
possibly enlarged circuit next year.
Jon Miles