FOUR WENT WEST (And everybody else missed a Wonderful Welsh Weekend!)

Four should have been ‘Five’ but with days of bright sunshine forecast, Roy Nicholls had to cancel his motorsport in favour of haymaking.  So, Friday afternoon saw Gordon Franks set off to do battle with the westbound weekend exodus from London; Andy Webber had arranged a business meeting in Rhonnda for the day (there’s clever for you) and Jim Giddings with defending champion Martyn Ellis just set their alarms very early for Saturday.
Everyone arrived in good order, although Andy was somewhat weary.  This was to be the Elan’s first outing for a few weeks, having cracked its block at North Weald.  The rebuild had on gone late into the evening several times during the week (so it’s real motorsport, then) and after checking into his hotel in Pen-Coed, Andy drove ninety miles around Brecon to run in the motor.
The Welsh Weekend was a double-header with part one being a sprint at Llandow Circuit, a few miles west of Cardiff.  This is a lovely little track, recently re-surfaced, about a mile long yet containing a good assortment of niggly twisty bits and a couple of very fine fast curves.  The glorious weather continued through the day, with the lightest of breezes keeping the temperature pleasant for the morning, although it did get rather hot later – bits of Jim turned bright pink during the afternoon. (We won’t ask which bits!..Ed)
Before the start of practice, the ‘Old Bloke’ had moved into Class 1B with the approval of the other members of the party, although this did not go down too well with the organisers.  (Did he care?  The organiser’s first attempt put the little ‘Pug’ in the Formula Ford class!); so he stayed in the Standard Class—to be joined by an Elise (none of this wimpish weight-limit nonsense in the West Country!) Then out for convoy runs followed by two practice runs. The event was over 1¾ laps of the track, and much discussion was held on the fastest way to deal with the circuit.  No real mishaps so far, except that the Elan had a harmless spin in first practice.
A lunch-break was essential to give the marshals a rest – they were standing out in ever more ‘Sahara like’ conditions as the day wore on; then into the timed runs.  Gordon was away first, bent on applying his new tactic – he reckoned that the little chicane at the end of the long back straight, and exiting directly into one of the fast curves, was probably close to flat in fourth.  (No, he didn’t fall off, but he took that chicane in 3rd on the next lap!!!)  Andy, however, caused us to fear the worst as the Elan was seen to slow half way round and pull off before completing the first lap - on the end of a tow-rope – we were all relieved to learn that the motor was still OK but did run better on petrol!
Second timed runs after another drinks-break for the marshals.  Andy had to balance speed with caution after his first-run fuel problem and he turned in a time good enough for 3rd in Class.  Gordon had been lowering his time on each run and finished 6th of 7 in the class.  Meanwhile, the bigger boys in Class 1C were having fun; Martyn’s first time was good enough for 2nd in Class (he was only 18/100ths slower on his second run in spite of missing a gear). Jim was also slower on his second run, his progress around the tight corners near the start being described as ‘lurid’ by the commentator.  Anyway, they both came back to the paddock wearing big grins.
Andy and Gordon set off promptly from Llandow to drive the hundred miles to their B&B near LLys-y-Fran.  It was necessary to arrive before 8.00 pm as the landlady and her husband wanted to go out.  Martyn and Jim stayed on to collect Martyn’s ‘pot’ and then made their way to a different motel, near the beach.  They were only seen once more that evening, when they passed Gordon on a stretch of dual carriageway, in a manner full of decorum and in total observation of the national speed limits.
The Class 1B pair (Messrs. Webber and Franks) then set out to explore the local territory.  They had been told that there would be no food after about 9.00pm so they had to hurry (it being 8.45) and fetched up in a (very) local pub which advertised a barbecue (!).  Everyone was very friendly, but to give you some idea of the remote nature of the village – the toilets were labelled ‘Rams’ and ‘Ewes’.  Stuffed with as many plain ‘burgers as a man could face, it was felt that walking the course was a good idea – by moonlight.  At least it saved some time in the morning.
The weather on Sunday was perfect.  A light mist, first thing, gave way to a beautiful, sunny day with proper little white clouds and a gentle breeze.  The venue at LLys-y-Fran is splendid, set out in the valley below the dam.  A downhill start of about 200 metres is followed by a zig-zag climb up towards the Visitors’ Centre, to finish on a piece of road that ‘Chin’ would probably call a white.  A superb feature is the dam parapet, which is used as a viewing area, from which one can see nearly the entire course.
Signing-on finished, scrutineering done in your paddock bay, the event got off to a very sharp start, with the first car running on the dot, at 9.00 am.  Two practice runs went without any major problems – apart from ‘Big Jim’ complaining about half-a-glass too much the night before – all Martyn’s fault, apparently.
Into the first timed runs, all the Sevenoaks drivers took time off their practice runs; leaving Gordon 4th out of 7, while Andy hung on to lie 2nd in Class behind the very hot Skip Brown Peugeot 205 of David Marshal.  In the bigger-engined class, Martyn Ellis was firmly in command, a full second ahead of the  TVR Griffith of Simon Bridge, while Jim Giddings was in the middle of the pack.
Second timed runs saw Gordon slip to 6th in Class in spite of improving by another ¾ of a second while Andy Webber also improved to hold onto second spot.  Martyn’s second run was not as good as his first, but he still took first place as Fred Currell’s Audi Quattro could only close the gap to 0.3 sec; and Jim sliced another second off his time to end the day 6th in Class.
So ended a very fine weekend’s motorsport, two superb tracks enhanced by wonderful weather – and Martyn picking up a truckload of points for the Marketing Machine Speed League.

Be there next year – I will be.

The Old Bloke

The Acorn : September Edition