Bits & PCSCs Issue 10 North & South
The
newsletter of the PIPER CAMS MG Car Club Speed Championship
25th October 2000
Very
Urgent. Will all holders of last years perpetual
trophies please return them to me ASAP ready for awarding this year. Call immediately to arrange
delivery/collection, 01782 522902.
Well,
that’s it for another year….
As the autumn mists draw in, the car is
locked away in the garage for the winter and it is time to reflect on another
excellent season in the PIPER CAMS Speed
Championship. With 4 events in the
final month, we managed to end on a high point; definitely a bang not a
whimper.
The Northern series concluded first,
with events at 3 Sisters and Scammonden Dam in the first two weekends of the
month. Both saw a healthy turn out and
close competition on the damp tracks, with some surprising results. The biggest shock came for the NORWESTER
Cup, where having just about written Paul Kershaw off last month, he notched up
new records at both meetings to prove me wrong and draw level with Diggers on
95 points. So resorting to countback,
he just edged the title of Northern Series champion by 1 point on the 9th
score counted, a better split between sprints and hillclimbs giving him the
advantage.
In the Standard classes all was much as
predicted last month, 2 class wins not being enough for Jon Beresford to
dislodge Tony MacIntyre from the class lead.
Similarly, a last ditch effort by Colin Pattinson took the win at a damp
3 Sisters, but wasn’t enough to wrest the Cockshoot class from Richard
Saxton. In the Road-modified classes
both Ian Beresford (MGB) and Andrew Pearson (Midget) had a clear run to the
finish when their closest rivals failed to show.
In the up to 2000cc Road-going Specials
class, my win was assured, but the second place battle went right down to the
wire. A second place within the target
time at 3 Sisters drew Andy Long level with DC, forcing David to cut short his
holiday (oops, sorry Helen) to compete in a showdown at the NW Centre’s
Scammonden hillclimb. After leading in
the morning’s 5 timed runs, Andy was praying for rain, but it didn’t come. I don’t know what he had for lunch, but
suddenly DC found some pace in the afternoon’s
runs and never looked back, despite an all or nothing last run that
pulled Andy to within 2/10ths. In the combined Modified and over 2000cc RG
Specials, Kevin Carruthers continued to struggle with his under power spare
engine. Having trashed the good one at Leconfield, he finished 2nd
behind an on-form Terry Pigott, who was fastest at Scammonden despite a full
180°
on a track so narrow he couldn’t turn around and had to reverse out off the
final straight.
The final highlight of the series, and
I know this is rather immodest of me, was the chase for the Kimber Trophy for
best NW Centre member at Scammonden. In
what has been typical of the season, it was decided on the last of the days 8
timed runs (yes that really is 8) when
Diggers and I set exactly the same time.
With John the last car up the hill, the marshalls had been stood down
when the times arrived, so we decided honour was even, and shared the
title. That certainly made my year.
Down South, the series ended last
weekend, after two consecutive weekend meetings on vastly different
tracks. The first on 15th
was Oddicome, and Chris Cooper takes up the story:
“Oddicombe
was a real hill and a real challenge, rising 800mtrs in 300 feet from the beach
to the top of the cliffs!. An average gradient of 1 in 6 (16%). Tony Luffman
described it as 4 hairpins connected by 3 fast corners!!. The road surface was
very, very, slippery due to the prolonged rain and the cover of the trees on
the cliff, and very, very, very, bumpy with all drivers commenting that they
were finding it difficult to apply the power because they were either sliding
or the wheels were off the ground.
Everyone
negotiated the course well and there were no serious offs, Neill Campbell, Max
Tyler and Andy Bush were all caught out by one or another of the hairpins and
were making the marshals
think, but with no serious damage. Matt Dryell broke his diff on the final run
depositing the contents of the Metro's sump into the entry of the holding
paddock at the top of the hill.
Tony
Luffman, Terry Pigott and David Smith in the Monty Turbo were all looking
capable of fastest MG, with Terry eventually taking the honours with a stirring
final drive.Hugh Findlow put in a stormer
to be fastest MGF and I [Chris] managed to get the C round the hairpins to be
fastest RGM B/C.
The Torbay
Motor club organised a super days sport at Oddicombe which was run and
marshalled superbly.”
A week later and all the usual suspects
gathered at Castle Coombe for the season close on what was reported as a very
slippery track. Having missed the
practice queuing on the Motorway (be warned, never drive down the M5 on the
first Saturday of half term), I noted from the time that almost everyone fell
off somewhere, and some managed it twice on the single practice run! Suffice to say the organisers noted 17 cars
were pulled out of the Quarry gravel in practice, and that was just one corner.
So, how did it go?
Well, Carol “the policemans pal”
Bloomfield (more details of this joke later, it’s too good not to tell)
embarrassed all the chaps by storming off into the distance on the first timed
runs. Only Chris Cooper and Tony
Luffman, running much later on a drying track, could stop her being fastest MG
sports car at that point; Smitty had posted a better time earlier, but with
oodles of turbo power and FWD, he was in a different league in the wet. Unfortunately for Carol the track continued
to dry, and second runs were faster, but not so much so that it stopped her
winning the VVC class on the day, and she’ll pick up the class win in the
championship.
Other close battles were in the MGA/B/C
classes. Phillip Methuen reversed the
Oddicome result to pip Niall Campbell and win the Standard class, while a
storming run to one of only 2 class records of the day at Coombe saw Chris
Cooper steal the Road-going Modified class win from under the nose of David
Butler. The only other record came from
Mike Pollard’s MGF 1.8i, who broke 100 secs to take the class win from only 7
scoring events.
So, all in all it’s been close season,
full of action, incident and good-natured competition. In the final accounting, 3 drivers stood
equal on points, Diggers in North and South and Paul Kershaw. Paul took the NORWESTER as reported above,
but Diggers had the last word, taking the overall title from his Southern
series events, where count-back went to 10 events, and John took it. All the class winners are shown in the full
results tables attached, sorry they’re a bit small but there’s just so much
detail. I’ve also summarised the award
winners, well almost all (Sue won’t tell me who’s won the Chap and Spinner), on
a separate sheet, so those who’ve got something to collect at the dinners
know. It should also remind those who
haven’t sent me a picture for their awards to do so NOW!
2000
Awards Presentation
Dates have now been finalised for the
two awards ceremonies. The Northern
series awards will be presented at the NW Centre Dinner Dance as usual. This will be held on 25th
November 2000 at the Shrigley Hall Hotel, a booking form with all the details on
is enclosed, on the back of the award winners list for Northern
competitors. If you want to stay at the
Hotel, book now to avoid disappointment.
The Southern series awards will again
be presented at the SW Centre’s Dinner on 26th February 2001, at
Limpley Stoke. Full details are
available from Edward Kirkland, but a booking form will be sent to Southern
series drivers when available.
2001
Season
The calendar is slowly coming
together. I have managed to secure a
return to Shelsley Walsh for both series, albeit on different days of the same
week-end, so both 1 day meetings. I
have also decided to drop the South West Wales events in favour of something
closer to home. Shelsley should replace
Llys-y-Fran, and a new SE venue, Eelmore, replaces Brawdy. This gives us a better East/West/Midland
split for the Southern series.
In the North, the calendar is much the
same, but expanded to include all 4 Anglesey dates, to give drivers a choice of
taking one journey or two, to NW Wales.
The
future
We are still looking for help to run
the championship, so far no volunteers have been forthcoming. Please think about it, if you can help, let
me know.
Finally…
The story about Carol. Well, apparently, on her way to Castle
Coombe, a certain lady was pulled by
the law for speeding. So up walks PC
Plod, to be confronted by Carol in the F, kitted out in full race suit, helmet
on the passenger seat and probably numbers on the doors. “Now madam, do you know how fast you were
driving? Who do you think you are, a
racing driver?” Got it in one
officer! And she got away with it….
All the best, Jim Garvey