The newsletter of the PIPER CAMS MG Car Club Speed Championship 16th July 2000

AMALGAMATIONS (more important news)

Following the published amalgamations last month, and in response to protests and new entries the championship committee met and agreed the following modifications:

• Standard MGF to Road-going Modified MGA, MGB & MGC – withdrawn, additional entry makes MGF 1.8i viable small class.

• Standard MG Maestro to Road-going Modified MGA, MGB & MGC – modified from previous amalgamation with viable MG Metro turbo class, Maestro larger engine/more modern technology than Metro therefore against guiding principles laid down in regs.

All other amalgamations applied as notified in newsletter 6. Hopefully that should be it now, again 14 days from above date for any protests to the above two amalgamations only. All previous amalgamations now agreed and binding, results table adjusted and back dated to start of season.

It’s been a very busy few weeks since my last missive, promised for 5^th July and missed by a mile. My excuse is too many events to compete in, 3 in 3 weeks, and all of them week-end affairs, so no time at home. Also, builders due in at Chez Garvey next week, so writing newsletters was a little low on Sue’s priority list, ergo it was not high on mine. Sorry people.

Anyway, now I’ve finally found the keyboard again, what has been happening. Well June was dominated by Silverstone as usual, and I managed to get Piglet up and running in time to make Russ work for his 10 points. Despite the initial reservations over the course, it turned out to be a real stonker, helped enormously by the glorious weather and 4 timed runs. There’s probably no need to go into detail as almost everyone was there, but it is worth mentioning the high rate of attrition on cars. Adrian broke a half shaft on the line for his first practice, and then spent almost all the rest of the day hitting bits of diff with a big hammer and various pointy bits of metal. Still he did manage to get it together and post a storming 53.46 to win his class. Similarly, Diggers was beset by technical problems, unfortunately in the "F" they needed a lap top rather than a big hammer to sort them out. Mind you, before it went wrong he had put in a 52.14 to demolish the VVC opposition.

FTD was posted by Kim Johnson, rolling out the Modified RV8 for an airing, and posting the only sub 50 second time. All the other class winners are on the results sheet, and with almost 70 championship entries they are too numerous to go into here. All in all it was a good week-end, and hopefully one we’ll get to do again next year.

Other events in June were the Gurston Down Hilclimb that Mike reported on last month, the final results of which are included, now I’ve finally received an official copy. As you will see, Steven Holford’s times have now been corrected, so Mike Heath picks up the 12 points after all.

The day before Silverstone a small but intrepid band of Northerners travelled to Barbon Manor to open the championship account at this historic Cumbrian Hillclimb venue. It was almost Biblical in that they went up 2 by 2, with a pair of Cockshoot cars, a pair of RGM Midgets and a pair of Modified/Specials, so everyone had to work for their points. Fastest on the day was Kevin Carruthers in his Modified Midget who climbed the hill in the only sub 30 second time, just 1 second ahead of Terry in the V8 Special, now amalgamated into the modified class. Allan Inwood was on his usual smooth form, just 3/10ths behind Terry to pick up 11 points, enough to keep him in the class lead of the Road-going Midgets. Richard Saxton took the Cockshoot honours, then headed off with Terry on the long trek South for Silverstone, where they both took their class wins.

The week-end after Silverstone was our first real event clash, with Porlock and Prescott both on the 25^th. As a result of the regs cock-up, relatively few made it into Porlock, but Prescott saw the best MG entry ever, with 22 starters spread across almost all the classes.

Some people don’t really enjoy Prescott, with all the hanging about, but for my first go at the event, I had a whale of a time, as did most others, and was particularly impressed by the efficiency of their timekeepers; by the time you’d parked up you could not only get a display of your time, but all the others in your class as well. Saturday practice was a little mixed, with a damp first run, a dry second and a soaking third, for those foolhardy enough to take it. I for one did, just in case it was a wet event on the

Sunday, and scared myself witless. As you can see from the results, the majority of the MGs had a go, unlike the "Big Boys" who wimped out at the sign of rain. Sunday surprised us all with beautiful sunshine, a dry track and an alarming turn of speed from Carol, who took second in the VVC class and totally demoralised Paul Meakin! With most of the MGs lumped together in one class, Terry was always favourite to win, and Diggers is usually a good bet as the fastest of the rest, but Paul Kershaw in the 1.8i MGF drove a blinder to take 3^rd. The other amazing drive was from Stephen Holford, who not only managed to keep it on the grey bit, but also won the Standard Midget and Metro class. (You will notice extra details of the Prescott results courtesy of the Bugatti OC web site, where they publish the full event times, including splits and 64ft times, now that’s class!)

While I was out chasing the class win at Prescott, Russ Morgan was campaigning his RGS Midget up Porlock, and takes up the story….

"Porlock was as long and scary as I remembered it. Those of us who had been there before had a slight advantage as Tony Luffman found out on his first run when he braked and went down to 1st for a kink in the road. Practice runs went smoothly, Adrian Moore lead the MG's with 102 seconds, quicker than the class record he left last year. Max's turbo was hors d'combat so he used the Pug 405 estate which drew some attention. The timed runs were interrupted by various (Non-MG!) cars rolling, hitting backs and landing in the trees on the roof. Adrian didn't manage to improve on his 102 practice time due to gear selection problems - a shame as I'm sure there was a run in the 90's just waiting to happen! As Tony became more familiar with the hill, so his times came down finishing
on a 100.30 seconds. When he re-played the video footage of the runs he noticed the tacho clock 10,000rpm on the downshift into one particular corner! Adrian was hot on his tail with 103, myself with 104, David Smith just pipping Barrie Carter both with 107's and David Butler taking MGB
honours with a 109.

I'm sure I can take a few seconds off if I'm braver in the corners next year........"

The final event of June was actually in July, Sunday the 2^nd to be precise, at the Anglesey Circuit. This was also a round of the Abingdon Trophy, so the Northern PCSC competitors were supplemented by a few Southern MGFs. I love this circuit, and it always surprises me that we don’t get a bigger entry of MGs. I guess the apparent distance puts some off, but it’s so easy to get to and it’s the closest we Northerners get to racing with 2 laps of the circuit. And you can tell it gets to some, as the number of offs indicated. Michael Marsland and I got ours over and done with in Practice, but others felt they needed the full audience of the timed runs to really strut their stuff. The way Mike Pollard’s going, we know where the "Spinner" is heading at the end of this year, and Terry’s excuse was an unfamiliar car. Having trashed the V8’s gearbox on the Saturday, he was piloting Richard Saxton’s Midget on Sunday, and enjoying every minute of it. It was a strange day for weather as well, with sunshine and showers, sadly the showers always seemed to come at the end of a run on the last class….the Road-going Specials! No we didn’t all fall off on run 2, it p****d down on us.

Fastest MG on the day, and drive of the day, went to Mark Turner who appears to have got to grips with the ex-Peter Holden Midget, after a shaky start at Silverstone. He was just 2/10ths ahead of Ian Beresford, who was chasing the NW Centre’s John Ellison Trophy for best aggregate time over the week-end, as was Diggers, who resorted to his list 1B race tyres for the Saturday, in the quest for more speed, but had to run the 1A rubber on Sunday for the championship round. He reckoned they were worth almost 2 seconds a lap, just about the margin to Ian.

So, after all that how’s the championship table looking? With more Southern than Northern events completed the overall leader is Tezza,on top in the South with 81 points, just one more than Russ Morgan (80) and 4 ahead of Diggers (77). Chris Cooper still heads the RGM MGB&C and holds 4^th with 67, while "Spinner" Holford is 5^th and leading the Standard Midgets and David Butler finishes the top 6 on 59 points.

In the North Paul Kershaw leads the field with 56 points, 2 ahead of Diggers (54) who has the same margin over Tezza (52). Richard Saxton(49) is in 4^th and leads the Cockshoot class while Richard Eaton(45) holds 5^th and Ian Beresford(44) 6^th. But there is everything to play for and most have yet to clock up their full 8 scores. Should be an interesting second half to the season.

That’s all for now. Best regards, Jim

For Sale: 4 x ACB10 road legal race tyres, 621 x 13, equivalent to 185/55 x 13. Unused. £300

4 x 6" x 13" Minilite lookalikes, White. Unused. £240.

Will take £500 for wheels and tyres together.

Contact Peter Holden, 01926 422655. Available for collection at Curborough.