Congratulations to Martyn Ellis on retaining his title. As usual, Andy Webber finished in second place. He also took the Tourist Trophy and Hillclimb titles. What does this man have to do to take the coveted overall top spot ? Chris Fulke-Greville came third. The Crocker brothers were separated by just one point for 4th and 5th, while the finish was just as close for 6th, 7th and 8th between Jon Miles, Gordon Franks and Jim Giddings. Roy Nicholls and Dave Gibbons complete the top 10. Jon Miles will be a serious contender next year if he does more rounds.
North Weald (October 21). With major flooding all over the South-East this event was abandoned after first practice. This meant that the championship was scored on 8 rounds instead of 9 (having been dropped to 9 after the loss of Pestalozzi). This forced Gordon Franks and Jim Giddings to drop one more score each and allowed Jon Miles to leapfrog them for 6th place overall. (Ian Crocker).
North Weald (October 14). Mid October at North Weald. High temperatures and no sign of rain - am I dreaming ? The penultimate round of the championship saw a good turnout of 7oaks people for the Herts County 'Debden' event which had been switched to North Weald due to construction work at the usual venue. 7oaks members took a clean sweep in class 5. Andy Webber won with a last gasp attempt to thwart Martyn Ellis' chances of back to back Championship Titles. Chris Fulke-Greville was second and Stephen Craig (not in the Championship) third in his Escort. In class 6 Jon Miles took the win in his Evo VI, finally getting to grips with the beast and setting the fastest time of any road car at the event. At the prize giving it was announced that Jon had done this in a Subaru Imprezza.... Martyn Ellis came 3rd which has pretty much sealed his title defence. Mind you, he spun on first runs so another 'Hethel' could have left the door open for Andy. Ian Crocker won class 8, finally getting his Westfield back on the road after sharing Keith's Ginetta for the past 4 events. As it turns out Martyn could have easily not recorded a time on his second run - on the way home I found him on the hard shoulder of the M25 with brake and clutch pedals flopping about and a collection of nuts and washers in the footwell! (Ian Crocker)
Longleat (September 22). The weather was unusually good for this hillclimb and many records fell during the day. While the top of the hill is normally quite slippery under the trees until the cars have dried it out, this day it was very grippy from the start. Jim Giddings won the TR class with a very quick time. Championship leader Martyn Ellis came 3rd in class 6 being beaten by both the Crocker brothers, Keith taking the win on a very rapid time which saw him being the fastest road car on list 1A tyres up the hill. Andy Webber won class 5 which takes him comfortably clear of Chris Fulke-Greville (who is in 3rd place) in the championship. This event also saw the Jones' returning to the championship, having finally got their car sorted after the big accident earlier this year. Gordon Franks entered his standard 205 in class 5 hoping to get more points than in class 0 or class 2 in which he normally enters. Perhaps we need a specal trophy for the person who competes in the most classes during the year! (Ian Crocker).
Wiscombe Park (September 9). Five Clubs ran the Wiscombe Park hillclimb. The Marketing Machine round was on the Sunday and a lot of the locals had been running on the hill the previous day. This, together with the use of list 1B tyres, made it a tough day for 7Oaks competitors. The weather was good and most people set personal bests with many records falling. Andy Webber came 7th in class A2 but a big class (17) meant that he still scored well. Andy had a spin on his final run so maybe a better finish slipped away. Martyn Ellis finished in 8th place in A3, but once again a big class meant that he scored 16 points. Chris Fulke-Greville came 11th and Roy Nicholls was 13th. Unlucky for some, especially seeing as Roy had bought a new set of A032Rs especially for this event. Jon Miles came 3rd in class A4, being beaten by another Evo and an Escort Cosworth. Jim Giddings came 8th in this class, most of the cars above him being about 20 years younger and with 4WD! Rob Hume came first (and last!) in class D1. (Ian Crocker)
Wethersfield (August 27). The long 4.5 mile course turned up a few surprises as usual. The event was not very well run. Some people were given different times to those shown on the clock as they passed the finish. Nobody received penalties for striking cones on the first runs. Gordon Franks won A0. Jim Giddings took a fine 2nd place in class B6. Rik Lee took FTD in the March and 2nd in class E12 in his RS200. (Ian Crocker)
Wales (July 28/29). Only 4 7oaks members went to Wales - Gordon Franks, Andy Webber, Jim Giddings and Martyn Ellis. This was Andy's first outing since cracking his block at North Weald. Llandow circuit is a fast track recently resurfaced. The weather was fine all day. True to form Andy Webber had a spin in practice and then came back from his second practice on the end of a tow rope. Had he broken a driveshaft again ? Had he cracked his block again ? Had he forgotten to put petrol in his tank..... yes. Andy recovered to finish 3rd in a class of 6. Gordon only had a Lotus Elise for company which (not surprisingly) beat him. Martyn came 2nd out of 8 and Jim 5th in the same class. The next day was Llys Y Fran hillclimb. Another sunny day saw Gordon come 4th out of 7 with Andy 2nd in the same class. Martyn won his class of 10, getting revenge on the person who beat him the previous day. Jim came 6th. With this being a double scoring round Martyn took home a whopping 34 points to take firm control of the Championship. (Ian Crocker - based on a Gordon Franks article to be published in the Acorn)
Lydden (July 7). MMKMC ran the National 'A' sprint as usual. Unfortunately the day did not go well and many competitors went home disgruntled because we were only allowed one timed run even though most people were driving home at around 3pm. This happened due to a combination of bad weather, a few accidents and the need for the National 'A' people to complete their top 10 run-off. In std up to 2000cc Gordon Franks was relegated to 2nd place by the margin of just 0.03 seconds by fellow 7Oaks member Jonathan Dalby. Mike Edwards won roadgoing up to 1400cc. Roy Nicholls won roadgoing up to 2000cc with Stephen Craig just 0.17 seconds behind him and Chris Fulke-Greville pushed down to 3rd spot. Keith Crocker, Jon Miles and Ian Crocker took 2nd, 3rd and 4th in unlimited roadgoing, the Lancer EVO VI making a tasty filling in a Ginetta G33 sandwich, just 0.16 seconds separating the 3 cars. However Martyn Ellis ate the lot for breakfast with a comfortable win in his 230HP Lotus Sunbeam. Chris Judge won ModProd up to 1400cc. John Hewat took Nat B FTD a long way clear of Dave Gibbons who took second place in the 2000cc racing car class. John Milligan won the Post Historic class - I'm not sure if the title refers to the driver or the car! (Ian Crocker)
Goodwood (June 30). BARC organised this 1 lap sprint on a hot and sunny day. Practice was dry but a light sprinkling of rain for first timed runs caused many people to slow down a bit and with only 2 timed runs this was another event where it all boiled down to one run. Gordon Franks moved from class 1 to class 0 in order to stand a better chance of points. This did pay off but Jonathan Harmer took the win in this class with a very rapid 107 seconds in the 1.9 205 that he shares with Marc Noaro. Chris Fulke-Greville was once again beaten only by a Lotus Exige to pick up 15 points in class 5. Andy Webber had to pull out of the event as his engine is still being rebuilt after the block cracked at North Weald 2 weeks ago. Class 6 saw no fewer than 6 contenders taking part in a class of 16 cars. Keith Crocker came 3rd for 21 points on a personal best 99 seconds. This was a good result achieved after a few problems in the morning. First a 6 inch nail punctured a rear tyre about 1 mile from the circuit. Once this had been repaired the engine was popping and banging on acceleration and it wasn't until after first timed runs that we discovered a faulty spark plug that had left the engine running on just 7 cylinders. Jon Miles brought out his hi-tech Evo VI but it was out-gunned by a bunch of 2WD cars at this power circuit. Jon came home in 5th spot just ahead of me also driving Keith's Ginetta as my Westfield has a broken clutch. Mind you, 6th in this class got me more points than are usually on offer for winnning my regular class! Martyn Ellis took 7th and Jim Giddings 8th with a personal best 102 seconds. In class 8 Peter Holm had to retire when his exhaust system snapped off by the turbo in his Dax Rush. The bad luck continued for 7oaks members when Ric Lee's RS200 blew a core plug and came in steaming after his practice run, leading to retirement. In class 16 Dave & Alli Gibbons finished in 3rd and 4th place, the win and FTD being taken by the ex-Moon Reynard on 81 seconds. (Ian Crocker)
North Weald (June 17) 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 mean't 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 a nimble Lotus Elise. 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).
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)
Lydden (June 2) 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. Martin 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 weeks time. I won't be there so somebody please email me a report for the web site. (Ian Crocker)
Hethel (May 20) 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 Ricahrdson 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. (Ian Crocker)
There was a good turnout of people for Lydden on April 7. 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. (Ian Crocker)
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