MISCellaneous NEWS Issue 3

The newsletter of the MGCC Moss International Speed Championship Northern

19th April 1999

And we’re off to a flying start...

At last the season is under way proper. Harewood on Easter Sunday saw a reduced turnout, with only 9 cars present, spread across 6 classes, so there wasn’t a lot of competition. Even so two new records were set, most notable being Lloyd Tredell taking the MGF record off Diggers. Could this be an omen for this season, with some interesting MGF battles to look forward to.

A week later, the numbers were looking much healthier, with no less than 38 MISC drivers out at Curborough for the Midland Centre’s two lap event. OK so a few drivers were out in the shopping cars, still waiting for the pukka competition vehicle to be finished, but John Stewart showed he’s no slouch, even in the wife’s Tesco trolley, taking the standard saloon class win in the MG Maestro.

Among the other Standard classes, Tony Mac repeated his Harewood form and took his second class win of the season, while Diggers was back with a vengeance (in his new, shiny VVC), showing the upstart Tredell he wasn’t going to be a pushover; 69.42 seconds for a new class record, over a full second faster than Lloyd. It was also great to see two of our newer (and younger) members out in their Standard Metro turbos, pushing hard and less than half a second between them. Honours on this occasion to Ben Carpenter, but I’m sure Gary Rothwell will be giving him a hard time all season.

In the Road-going Modified classes it was an interesting mix of the usual suspects and fresh new faces. Allan Inwood and Diggers Jnr were on form taking class wins, but last years newcomers Mike Davies-Colley and Simon "Paralytic" Abrahams were not far behind, while this years new faces, John Lister, Malcolm Green, Peter Bramble and Graham Rothwell started the climb up the learning curve.

As expected there was also plenty of grass track action, with yours truly leading the way in the bid for the "Spinner of the Year" trophy. Having made a point of assuring new competitors that it was OK to be slow on your first run, it was only embarrassing if you fell off, I promptly embarrassed myself comprehensively. Well, what can you expect after a two year layoff. The excitement just got to me. That and a lack of grip; changing to road tyres from slicks was an unpleasant surprise. Well that’s my excuse anyway.

Looks like a good season in prospect.

Decals

These are now available by request for last year’s competitors.

Event Regs

Enclosed you should all find the Silverstone regs, plus a track plan and camping permit request. This year the course is a tad longer, like 50% longer, giving over a mile of circuit to go at, with 3 more corners, one of which is a belter. Please note though, a 105 dB noise limit is in force. We have booked the same noise tester as last year, so there may be a bit of latitude, but not much. To avoid disappointment, please check your car at an earlier event if you can.

Harewood regs are also due to be published this week. I will send them as soon as possible. Please make every effort to support this event, it has taken a lot of work on my part to negotiate the reduced entry fee, and we need to show up in force to demonstrate it is worthwhile for BARC to run the event for us.

Well that’s all for now, see you at Shelsly.