Bits &PCSCs Issue 8 North & South
The newsletter of thePIPER CAMSMG Car Club Speed Championship
15th August 2000
Summertime…and the weather is lousy
OK. Admit it. Who broke the weather. The summer started off rather nice, with Silverstone resplendent in glorious sunshine, but thereafter it has all gone rather pear shaped. Most of the June events were OK; an odd shower but generally fine, and July started much the same way. In mid-July we Northern folk journeyed to Scammonden Dam in Yorkshire, for what will be our first of 2 visits, and once again the sun shone on the virtuous. This venue has seen a lot of work over the last couple of years and this year the newly resurfaced track saw several new records set, one of which was yours truly, taking my first ever event class win. But less of this self congratulation, what of the others. Diggers was on form again being chased by Lloyd with both men breaking the class record of 29.60 secs. David Beresford, another of the front runners for the Norwester cup, split this pair on time with a 29.04 to pick up 12 points, while Andrew Pearson equaled the RGM Midget record to the 1/100th to collect 11 points. On this occasion Kevin Carruthers took fastest MG honours with the only sub 28 second time, while the usual suspects of Richard Saxton and Tony MacIntyre cleaned up in their respective classes. Dice of the day once again went to David Coulthard and Andy Long, who resumed their battle from Harewood, with DC taking the honours by 16/100ths. We can now look forward to a return match at the NW Centre’s October meeting which has been moved to this venue as a result of Baitings not getting a track licence for 2000.
A week after Scammonden the Southern Series took another long trek to the wilds of SW Wales, this time travelling even further West to the Brawdy Sprint. Now this one is so far away that you had to go right to the end of the country, down on to the beach then up the other side of the cliffs to reach the circuit. By all accounts another fast airfield venue that allowed Tony Luffman to stretch the Midgets legs, not to mention taking it climbing when he failed to see the chicane marker board and promptly drove straight through it and up a hill!
One more week on and we all met up at the MGCC Midland Centre Sprint at Curbouogh. This time using the usual 1 lap layout the event saw the biggest turn out of championship cars after Silverstone. With 82 entries of which 70 were MGs, the event could practically have been run closed to club. Waking to the sound of gently falling rain, I was set for a damp and dismal day, but as I drove South through Staffordshire the weather gradually brightened and by the time the first cars made it onto the track it was dry and reasonably grippy. However, not as grippy as perhaps some drivers thought. After keeping a clean sheet for his last two events, Stephen “Spinner” Holford was up to his old tricks. Chasing Michael Marsland in the Standard Midget class, he was all over the track, but failed to catch him. Tamsin Fisher was also finding out just how little grip there was on some parts, with a spectacular spin on the second corner. That’s the problem with Curborough, it looks simple, but it has a real sting for the unwary. Its all very well taking the first sweeping left hand bend flat, which you just about can; it’s shedding enough of that speed to cope with the sudden change of direction into the second left that’s tricky. This caught out quite a few, most notably Chris Cooper in the MGC, who having lost it going left, caught it, lost it right, caught it, lost it again and proceeded to fish-tail the entire length of the straight to applause from the crowd. Others having trouble with keeping on the grey stuff were Richard Saxton who decided a short cut behind “the molehill” was faster (he was wrong!!), Robert Bell and Mike Cole, both of whom threw it off the track on the last run.
As is becoming the norm in this year’s championship, close battles were the order of the day. Fastest MG was the Modified RV8 of Kim Johnson, but he was just 2/100th ahead of Tony Luffman’s Racing Special Midget. Less than one third of the cubic inches, but a match for anything. Even closer still was the Road-going Modified MGB class, where Ian Beresford was victorious again, but only by 1/100th from Andy Bush. With 3 runs it was an excellent day’s sport for all concerned.
Last week-end both series traipsed off in different directions. Southerners went South on Saturday to Dunkeswell, while the Northerners went North (well it was North for most of us) on Sunday to 3 Sisters. While one mad bugger decided to do both, guess who that might have been.. Here’s a clue, short chap, big red V8.
These events were both, co-incidentally, 2 lap sprints around Kart tracks, and both plagued with incident. Fortunately none of our chaps were involved in big offs, although we did see several attempts to bid for the “spinner” trophy. Barrie Carter threw the A off on the first corner of the first practice at Dunkeswell, while “coneslayer” Garvey failed to even make it to the first corner on his last run at 3 Sisters. In what is the second shortest run on record, I caught the painted kerb on the ouside of the track not 10 yards from the start and careered off into the tyres. This blatant attempt on the “Spinner” has only been bettered by the previous owner of Piglet, who spun on the start line at Curborough many years ago, and ended up behind the queue of cars in the holding area. This was why the “spinner” was made!! I tell you it’s the car!
My antics were by no means unique at 3 Sisters, Richard Saxton had another excursion (this time he couldn’t blame it on bald tyres) and almost all who took their 2nd runs struggled in the pouring rain, while the sensible ones sat it out. All in all it was a low scoring day with no one having a sniff of a record and only Andrew Pearson getting within the target times.
Going back a day to Dunkeswell, this was a new venue to the championship and something of an unknown quantity. But, by all accounts a welcome addition to the calendar with the 2 lap format making it a decent length. The weather probably helped first impressions and I think the passing entertainment from parachutists provided some distractions. On track distractions came from Barrie as mentioned earlier plus Max chasing Smitty’s Monty turbo, and Tony chasing a sub 60 second time. Both failed to achieve these aims. In contrast, newcomer Ralph Higson, fresh from his debut at Curborough, put in a sub 70 second time and more important kept it on the grey bit.
So, after all that how’s the championship table looking? With more Southern than Northern events completed the overall leader is John “ Diggers” Dignan, on top in the South with 90 points, 5 ahead of Terry Pigott (85) who has just three more than Russ Morgan (82). David Butler has taken over the lead in the RGM MGB&C class and is tying with JT’s T-type for 4th with 76, while Tony Luffman finishes the top 6 on 74 points.
In the North there’s a bit of déjà vu where Diggers also leads the field with 78 points, just ahead of Ian Beresford on 75. Behind this pair there is a very close 3 way battle between Terry on 70, Paul Kershaw (68) and Richard Saxton (67), although Paul does have an event in hand on all ahead of him. The same goes for Jim Garvey (who I hear you cry!) rounding out the top 6 with 58 points, which makes things a lot closer than they at first appear.
To the future
This week-end we have the Yorkshire Centre’s first speed event for many years at the 2.2 mile Leconfield circuit, a plan of which is enclosed. There is still time to get an entry if you call Graham Saunders on 01757 288948, and if the thought of the sprint on this new airfield venue isn’t attraction enough, there is also free practice on the Saturday pm for those competing on Sunday.
Other bits and pieces
You will probably notice a few changes to some of the group 4 bogey times. This is on account of the MG RV8 being removed from group 3 and placed where it should always have been in group 4, being considered equivalent to an Road-going Modified MGB GT V8. This was the result of a driver protest considered at the last championship committee meeting. As usual anyone affected has 14 days to appeal in writing.
As those who attended Curborough are aware there was a spot check on both MOT certificates and on tyre tread depth for all the road-going cars, one of which failed and consequently was not allowed to score points. I am informed by the scrutineer that race tyre tread depth should be 2mm (says so somewhere in the blue book apparently) so anyone with less than 2mm but above the 1.6mm DOT standard is being warned to keep an eye on their tyre legality. Less than 1.6mm and you are not road legal so cannot run as a road-going car. Similarly, the regs stipulate that MOT certificates should be available for inspection at all events, without them Chris is within his rights to have your scores declared invalid. You have been warned.
Well that’s all for now except to say, if anyone has pictures suitable for Safety Fast! then please send them to me to forward with my next article at the end of August. See you at the week-end hopefully.
jim