Bits & PCSCs Issue 6 North & South

The newsletter of the PIPER CAMS MG Car Club Speed Championship 14 June 2000

AMALGAMATIONS (This is the important bit, so please read it and note the changes)

The championship committee has met and agreed the following amalgamations:

Northern Series Amalgamations

Southern Series Amalgamations

In all cases except RGM MGB GT V8, individual classes will keep their own record, bogey and target times. RGM MGB GT V8 will use RG Specials times as all times were set by a Road-going MGB V8 in this class i.e. Terry or Simon.

Amalgamations have been made against published criteria from the regs booklet.

Any driver affected by an amalgamation has the right to appeal against that amalgamation. Any such appeal must be in writing to the championship co-ordinator who will present it to the organising committee and the championship stewards.

Some classes of 3 or 4 have been left as small classes, competing for a smaller class award, as it was felt competition was sufficient and an amalgamation would not be in the interest of the competitors or championship.

Almost all these changes have been made to the results tables enclosed. The exception is the Std Maestro/Std Metro turbo (Standard FWD MG 1301 to 2000cc), which I forgot to tell JT about. The event points should now be correct for everyone, but the class positions column still needs work.

URGENT News about calendar

Sorry to say, yet more changes to the calendar for the Southern Series. Sadly, the Dalton Barracks Sprint has been cancelled, as the MOD have withdrawn permission for Bentley Drivers Club to use the venue. The alternatives were a second visit to Curborough, which is a long way North for you all, or a visit to the Dunkeswell Kart track, in the South West. We have selected the latter, as it was mooted earlier in the year and received general approval then as an alternative to Brawdy, so I thought everyone would be happy. It does mean 5 events on the trot, but they are so widely spaced I thought you’d cope.

We have also added an extra Hillclimb to the Southern Calendar, to make up for the Regs cock-up at Porlock. The Oddicome Hillclimb that was on the original calendar at the start of the year has been re-instated.

Therefore new dates as follows:

Dunkeswell Sprint: 12th August 2000 Torbay MC

Oddicome Hillclimb: 15th October 2000 Torbay MC

Full calendar is enclosed.

Event Reports

Only one event since the last newsletter, the Gurston Down Hillclimb. A good entry considering we were supposed to be limited to only 10. Full results will be published later, as the provisional times given in the table are subject to protest, Mike Heath explains in his report:

 GURSTON Y2K

The weekend started with some excitement on the Saturday. We got there in time to see the last runners in the first of the week-end’s meetings and I was trying to check out the correct way to take Ashes bend, when suddenly, a young lady stuck a Pilbeam into the bank, a couple of feet in front of me. I must admit to flinching.

On our return to the paddock we met the Morgans and young Holford, fellow competitors who had a good pub recommendation. I volunteered to drive (not wanting to race with a hangover on Sunday) but John Bird had not arrived, so we left a note on the car to explain where we were going. However, the poor chap had been delayed by mechanical failure and on arriving saw his friends’ cars and decided to walk to the pub. He finally arrived an hour later and about a minute after they had stopped serving food.

So to the event itself. After the last event at Goodwood we should be used to close finishes, but at Gurston 3rd 4th and 5th place MGs all had a fastest run of 42.60. While Diggers was second on 42.49, Tezza broke the Hill record set by the tarts handbag in 1997 to take the class win and maximum points. Further down the field Mike Heath overcame various mechanical and electrical problems to beat the Metro championship record when it all came right on the last spectacular run. The local television crew are rumoured to have been kept very entertained by our driving styles, especially Spinner of the Year Stephen Holford, who is making an early bid to retain the title with a trip into the poppy field at Ashes after losing it at the previous corner Carousel. Even after these two excursions he was given a class winning time of 43.75 by the timekeepers, and despite abandoning his pint to explain to them that this was not possible, they were insistent that the time was correct. We will see what the final outcome was in the official results. The T Type battle was again won by Bruce Morgan in the TF.

And how does it stand…

So, with another maximum points score Tezza takes the Southern series lead on 62 points, and with it the overall championship lead. Russel Morgan sits just 2 points behind in second, with Diggers back in third on 54. Chris Cooper, in his first full season, is in 4th thanks to 3 wins in a row at Colerne, Llys-y-Fran and Goodwood, giving him 51 points, Stephen Holford hangs onto 5th with 47, ahead of class rival Mike Heath in Blue Peril on 42, although these may change if the Gurston places are reversed.

In the North, nothing has changed since the last newsletter. Kevin Carruthers leads on 28 points, one ahead of Mark Green, who in turn has a one point margin over third placed man Richard Eaton. Fourth is held jointly by Lloyd Tredell, Allan Inwood and Ian Beresford, all on 20 points and that rounds out the top 6.

That’s all for now.

Best regards, Jim