Bits &
PCSCs
Issue 9
North & South
The newsletter of the PIPER
CAMS MG Car Club Speed Championship
11th
September 2000
Bit
of a change around this month, a lot of news to impart so I thought I’d get
that out of the way first, before going on to a brief review of the last
month’s events. So to business.
Event Regulations.
Enclosed
are the Scammonden Regs for the last Northern round this year. This is the last set of regs for 2000, all
the others have now gone out, if you have not had yours yet, give me a
call. There are still places available
at 3 Sisters for any one who has not entered yet and wants to, contact Peter
Riley at Longton & DMC on 0151 924 8002 to book a place.
2000 Awards
As
the season draws to a close I need to think about awards for the two series,
and so you need to ensure that if you are likely to win an award, you have a
picture for the engraving. I will need
the photos of the Northern class winners by mid-October so the glassware can be
prepared in time for the NW dinner at Shrigley Hall in late November. Remember, no photo, no engraving!
It
is also time to consider the elected awards of Spinner and Chap of the
Year. Enclosed with this newsletter is
a nomination form. Please indicate your
suggested victims and return to Sue, for collation and counting. The winners will be kept secret until the
presentation itself to preserve the tension/surprise.
2001 Season
I
know it seems a bit early to think about next year, but in fact it’s not. I am reasonably happy with the championship
regs as they are, but now is your opportunity to suggest improvements for
consideration at the drivers meetings and by the championship committee. I propose to come down to Castle Combe as in
previous years to have a Southern Series drivers meeting after the event, and
to have the Northern Drivers meeting at the NW Dinner Dance in November. Any proposals should be put in writing and
sent to me by 6th October 2000 so I can collate them before 21st.
I
am also starting to assemble dates for 2001 at the moment, and intend to keep
to a similar calendar to this year’s, with Dunkeswell and Leconfield
retained. I plan to keep all 3 Torbay
MC events in, but that may change if people don’t enjoy Oddicome. We also plan to include all the MGCC events,
which may expand the Northern calendar as we have been asked to include all 4
days at Anglesey, and there is a possibility that Knockhill may re-appear
organised by the Scottish Centre.
I
am also hoping that we can secure a return to both Shelsley and Loton
Park. This will involve a lot of hard
work before the event, and a very disciplined approach by those drivers that
attend the meetings. I am still not
completely certain why we were left out this year, it may be that changes in
MAC organisation cost us, but it has also been suggested that it may be because
of some drivers’ behaviour at these events.
I am aware that some drivers did not attend the drivers’ briefing prior
to last year’s Loton meeting even though they had not driven the hill before,
and there are some drivers who regularly turn up late to the events and when
their classes are called. At our own
club events this may not be a problem but at high profile meetings it can be
considered unprofessional. I will be
sending out a more formal letter at the end of the season which will be copied
to the relevant clubs to show them we are addressing their concerns, please do
not take the contents too personally, just consider the points made.
2002 and beyond
Looking
even further ahead, I have informed the MGCC North Western Centre, the official
custodians of the Speed Championship, that Sue and I wish to retire from
organising the championship. I propose
to continue as co-ordinator for one more year, helping a replacement to settle
in, before handing over completely for 2002.
That’s the easy bit. What may be
harder is finding a volunteer to take over.
The NW Committee are thinking about this but I would also appeal to you,
the drivers, to consider if anyone feels they could take on the role of
co-ordinator or knows someone else who would be prepared to.
If
we do not find a willing volunteer (and I stress willing, as this job does take
a significant amount of time and effort and you have to want to do it) then
there is a possibility that the championship may fold.
So back to this months action….
The
last few weeks have been quite busy with 3 Northern and 2 Southern
meetings. I’m sorry if I concentrate on
the Northern meetings a bit here, but I have had very little information on the
Southern two.
I
understand that Pestalozzi was even better than last year, with fewer incidents
and most drivers making steady improvements through the day. It was a good turn
out and saw an interesting battle in the Road-going Modified MGA, B & C
class, where Chris Cooper clearly struggled with the C in the tight corners and
Mike Cole found an excellent turn of speed to take his first class win. We also saw all 3 Montys out again, with
Smitty leading them home for yet another class win, to pull him up to within 12
points af Max, with 2 events in hand.
As is becoming common in the absence of Tony Luffman, Terry and Diggers
were slugging it out for fastest MG, with Terry keeping away from the bales
this year and taking honours on the last run.
These two then promptly drove all the way up from Kent to Yorkshire for
the next day’s meeting at Leconfield, where the Yorkshire Centre of the MGCC
was hosting it’s first Speed event for at least 15 years at the new airfield
venue on a warm and sunny day.
And
what a venue it was. Not quite as long
as Weathersfield’s 4 miles, but excellent value for money with 2 convoy, 2
practice and 4 timed runs, not to mention the free practice the day before for
those who could make it. In all I think
I did 35 miles, more than a race distance, all for £45. Having said that, the event did have more
than its share of mechanical casualties.
On his first timed run Ian Berresford thew it off at the last corner and
found 2 rather substantially secured fence posts hiding in the long grass, but
still went on to set the fastest MG time.
How he did it I still don’t know, I’m sure I’d have given up. Just barking mad I think. Others who suffered but still managed to win
their classes were Paul Kershaw and your’s truly who both suffered clutch
failure, and KC in his Modified Midget who blew a head gasket on his 3rd
timed run. That’s the problem with
sprint cars, not used to the mileage!
The
other significant drive was in the Standard MGB & Midget class where Jon
“the child prodigy” Beresford took on all comers to score the first of 2 class
wins this month,, the second being at Harewood in the wet last Sunday. I won’t say too much about Harewood, except
that the weather everywhere else in the UK was glorious, but in Yorkshire we
never saw the sun all day, just a persistent damp drizzle. On a damp greasy track all the MGs struggled
for grip, with the possible exceptions of Paul Meakin in the MGF, who took the
group 3 class honours courtesy of having his engine in the right place, and DC
who led home the up to 2000cc Specials due to home advantage and running in a
later event class on a drying track. No
more embarrassing details, but scan the times to see who went off-roading!
In
between Leconfield and Harewood we had the awesome Weathersfield sprint, all 42
corners of its 4 mile track, at which eEntries were low due to
over-subscription and details are few, but from the number of new records, I
presume a dry day and fun for all. Then
a week later the Northerner’s paid their second visit to Anglesey, again in
wonderful Welsh sunshine, for what may prove to be the decisive event for the
Norwester Cup. With Ian Beresford
missing out on an oversubscribed event, the Northern series now has only two likely
contenders for championship honours, the MGFs of Diggers and Paul Kershaw. Terry and Ian still have outside chances,
but require maximum points at all the remaining events. Paul and John went to Anglesey level on points with exactly the same event
scores, 4 x 12s, 2 x 11s, 1 x 10 and 1 x 9.
Both needed to break the records they set in July and both went for
it. When it comes down to it, the
margin of victory (or defeat) in this game is incredibly small, and for Paul it
may be just the 2/100ths of a second he missed the record by. Diggers 12 points now puts him 2 points in
the lead, and at the end of the season, if it stays that way, Paul will curse
the July meeting, where he drove just too quickly to take 1.5 seconds off the
previous record.
So
as we enter the last quarter of the season there is still everything to play
for in both the North and the South with several classes and both series
undecided. I’m running out of space
and time to give all the details here, but full figures can be found in the
attached results tables.
All
the best, Jim