Things are beginning to happen thick and fast again. Barely have we finished with the 12car and scatter rally season, than we’re straight into the speed championship and the summer autotests. Two rounds of that speed league have already taken place and by the time you read this, it may be up to 4, that’s not far off 25% ….. scary!

The last 12car which took place on April 9^th run by Borough 18MC and was another fully subscribed event. Dave Clark who ran the event for B18 usually sets some pretty cryptic expert navigation and this was no exception. Daren Hall and I were out again in my Puma and despite the nav we were managing to keep a clean sheet, usually arriving at the next control on our due minute rather than before. Things were looking good until the last envelope was opened. We quickly sussed that you had to work the nav back from the finish to where we were but just couldn’t make it fit. We’d spent probably 5 minutes stationary trying to work it out when Doug Kingsley and Ben Greenfield of Boro18, a true expert crew, pulled up behind us for another couple of minutes. When they pulled out from behind and we still had no idea, there was only one thing to do ….. follow them, and make it snappy! This we did, and Doug and Ben led us along a tortuous route, some pieces of road we saw several times, eventually leading us down what had to be a white or so we thought. It was a bit rough and I didn’t try to keep up with their sumpguarded Nova at that point. Just as we thought they had disappeared, we caught sight of some headlights lighting up a narrow lane in the distance and more evidence in the form of tyre marks. ‘They went down there’ was the cry from within the Puma. Luckily the road straightened out and we could see them in the distance approaching the finish at The Bull, East Farleigh. We had lost 9 minutes on that section but thanks to Doug and Ben incurred no fails. They on the other hand had had a discussion with a Kent County Constabulary traffic cop soon after the start. That cost them 7 minutes and added to the 3 minutes they also lost on that difficult last section, meant that we had beaten them by one minute. No doubt that they had taken the moral victory and without them we probably wouldn’t have even finished second. Still, take a win anyway you can! Also out for Sevenoaks were Dawn and Ralph Travers who were also trying their hand at expert nav and finished 5^th on 2 fails and 26 minutes. Rob and Chris Sartain made it to the pub in 9^th place on 4 fails and 34 minutes.

A quick reminder that our Autotest series is kicking off at the usual venue at Farningham on May 13^th. Clive Cooke has done us proud again by producing regs and generally reminders that these are about to happen. Lets have a 20 plus turnout right from the first evening and see that continue right to the Sunday all day final round on August 1^st. You will also see in the calendar in the back of ACORN, Maidstone’s grass autotest dates. Why not try your hand at some of these as well. Speed people who aren’t going to Goodwood on June 5^th might be interested going along to watch or marshal on Maidstone’s Kent Driver Autotest on that date. This is a proper tarmac British Championship round and believe me is mightily impressive to see. If you saw the Fifth Gear TV programme when they celebrated the Mini, you will have seen some tarmac autotest action. You will see those same people in Sittingbourne chucking chopped Mini’s, Westfield’s, and Buggy’s around in complete control ….. most of the time.

Well our first sprint of this year went ahead with a good if not full entry at Lydden on April 10^th. My results sheet has eluded me but I think we had 96 entries, only 14 short of maximum. The Mini Coopers made up 30% of the entry and were much needed. They were actually very entertaining to watch putting in some very quick times in changing track conditions. The National A side of the event also produced some 15 or so entries although the big V8 single seaters were not about. The rest of the field was made up by local championship contenders including our own Speed League. Despite the rain which really came down at the start of first timed runs, we were fortunate not to have any major disasters. Tony Eyles did put his single seater off into the tyres at the top hairpin which resulted in an enforced lunch break while the circuit staff rebuilt the tyre wall but that was the only incident. Neville and Tina Moon and Mike Osborne did a great job of keeping things moving and the event was complete by 4.30pm. Since this sprint, the organising team have been thinking about next year, but only thinking. Based solely on this years event, we could undoubtedly run more than 110 entries if we could attract them. We’d need the Mini’s again, could probably get the Porsches and TVR’s but you really need luck on your side when running a big field. We’d only need another one or two tyre wall rebuilds and it would take so much time out of the day that we’d run into the problem of getting everyone two timed runs. We know that doesn’t go down well. A bigger entry would in theory mean a lower entry fee but with circuit hire likely to increase again next year, it wouldn’t come down by much if at all. I wish we could find a Wiscombe Park in the South East!

Two weeks later, the Speed League was at Wiscombe ….. don’t you just love the way this flows from one paragraph to the next! The weather could not have been more different. The forecast was for bright sun not just on the Saturday but also the Friday which should mean that the hill through the woods would be dry. The forecast was right and my head still bears witness to the power of the sun that weekend. Wiscombe is I think the nicest venue that we visit, set in a beautiful valley with a stream at the bottom, the track winds it’s way up through the woods to a right hairpin at Sawbench, then blasts uphill to the left Martini hairpin and across the finish line. Sevenoaks members were out meaning business again, we had 10 speed league contenders in attendance, mainly in the Standard and Roadgoing classes. 6 of those 10 came away with trophies and 2 new class records, which can’t be bad for us namby pamby south eastern folk running list 1A tyres! Must be all the road rage we encounter that makes us want to be the car in front! Some times from Wiscombe are in the table below left.

You may have gathered from these results and if you were at Lydden, that the Chevette has not been behaving itself recently. An electrical fault appeared before Lydden which was leaving the engine running on only 4 cylinders. The Puma was called into action for Lydden and did rather well. In the two weeks between Lydden and Wiscombe I hoped that the problem could be sorted and on the day before setting off for Wiscombe, I got the ECU back from MBE via SBDevelopments with the all clear now message. Plugged it in and crossed fingers and all was well, 6 cylinders of Ellesmere Ports finest firing again. Whilst the ECU had been away, I had also received and fitted a Corsa electric power steering column from Walden Engineering but there was some doubt as to whether it was configured correctly as Walden had assumed I was running a 4 pot motor and I didn’t even know that the steering control unit needed a tacho signal input. In the fitting of this, one the wires had become detached and I didn’t know where from. Nigel at Walden wasn’t about until the morning of the day of the drive down to Wiscombe but after speaking to him I had the information I needed to wire it back up, but would it work? I arrived at Mum and Dad’s on Thursday morning, plugged the wire on, started the engine and tried the steering wheel ….. still as heavy as ****! Hang on, I’d wired it though a switch which was off, one flick later, the control unit clicked and hey presto, it was working. Everything was going to plan, the engine was running well, the steering was working and the sun was shining. 6 miles into the journey, fortunately only 6 miles, just joined the M25 and the engine dropped back to that familiar sound of only 4 plugs firing, bugger! No choice but to limp it back home, park up and swap to the Puma again. Since returning from Wiscombe, I’ve played about with the ECU’s wiring connectors and found a very slightly suspect joint. I’m still road testing the car to try and recreate the fault which interestingly is fine once the ECU has cooled down a bit. So far, it’s looking good but I have also spoken to Steve Broughton who can get the main board replaced in the ECU effectively bringing it up to the latest software level at a reasonable price. This may be the best peace of mind option. Hethel is my next outing and I’m determined to be there in the Chevette.

One last bit on venues. This subject understandably came up at the AGM last month. Recently, I have been in contact with Pestalozzi with a view to resurrecting the hillclimb there. Their first response was one that the trustees would need to be involved in the decision making process and that their head lady was out of the country. About a month later, I received a second letter which unfortunately declined our approach. Their argument is that ‘a Hillclimb is difficult to square against the promotion of environmental responsibility, which is one of the central aspects of our work’. The Bexhill boys brought Lydd kart track to our attention and as has been reported in the past, Andy Elcomb and myself have visited the venue and we’d like to run a sprint there. However, we cannot do so without the approval of the MSA and John Symes is aware of our wishes and is looking at Lydd with a view to granting a speed track licence. At this stage, that is all I can report but I’ll keep you posted. Colin Billings updated us at the AGM on the situation at Longcross, the venue for our Spotted Dick and Custard Stages. It has got to the stage with the site developers that even this years event is by no means a certainty and as for future years ….? Colin Rodger reported that we are still in contact with Dunsfold Aerodrome, the Top Gear test track, and any news on that will reach you through this medium.