Luff Stuff                          Issue no 4/02

The newsletter of the Luffield Cars MGCC Speed Championship 
Also available at the championship web site www.mgcars.org/mgccsc

And it’s Go! Go! Go!

What a cracking start to the new season, with over 90 registered competitors and already 53 points scorers after just 6 events in the first month of competition. The Southern series got off to a gentle start with just half a dozen drivers making the trip west to the inaugural event of 2002 at Oddicombe, although this was quickly bolstered for the second meeting a week later at Loton Park. This was an opportunity for the Southern drivers to take on the Northern boys in the first of this year’s inter series challenges and there were 25 MGs out on the track in all, 14 Southern, 6 Northern, and 5 split personalities with a foot in each camp. One week later saw another huge turnout at the ever popular MGCC Midland Centre 2 lap Curborough sprint, which provided incident galore as well as an opportunity for David Wood of Luffield Cars to display the latest MG TF to eager club members. This is the closest to a Luffield home event and it was great to see David and his team on hand to support the championship and his own Modified MGF in it’s first speed event. Then 2 weeks later (during which time this newsletter was supposed to appear, damn shame work gets in the way sometimes) a further 2 events in one week-end at Finlake and Eelmore. Full reports from most of these events will be found later in this month’s newsletter.

So, where do we stand at the moment? Not surprisingly the top six places are all filled by Southern drivers (who’ve had the opportunity of twice as many events) and from these it’s the usual suspects we find on the list. Tezza (V8), as the only person to do all 6 events, would be topping the table, but will be obliged to forfeit his Oddicome points for competing in an ineligible car without first notifying the championship committee (but more of that later), so as it is he sits 6th on 29pts. Above him are Chris Cooper (MGC) on 30pts, Niall Campbell (MGB GT) with 31pts and Diggers (MGB) at 32pts. Then a small gap to Smitty (Monty Turbo) 2nd with 35pts, just behind the Metro of Mike Heath on a maximum 36pts. So 7 points cover the top 6, with all the drivers scoring 3 events and covering all the classes from Standard to Specials. In the North Mike is once again top dog, but here he is tying with John Wilman (Cockshoot) at 20pts a-piece, followed closely by Tony Mac (MGB GT) on 19pts, that man Cooper again in the flying banana on 18pts, with the top 6 rounded out by Diggers and Ken Bound (Midget) each with 17pts.

Full details of the above can be found on the accompanying championship results tables, and individual event results.

Regulations for events

You will all find enclosed in this month’s bumper pack regs for the MGCC NW Scammonden hillclimb, sorry to clutter all the Southern drivers mail, but it was easier to copy everything together! That said, everyone is welcome to the event which will be held in mid May for a change, in the hope of good weather. The venue is just off the M62 in the middle of the Pennines, easy to get to and enormous fun.

Regulations for the Championship and their interpretation

From my comments above, although not yet shown on the results table, you may have deduced that Terry Pigott will be losing points. A full explanation of the why this has happened is given below in Rodder’s ramblings, so I won’t duplicate the explanation. Suffice to say, that when you register, you specify a car & driver combination that can score points. If the car used is not that registered then it shouldn’t score points. The same as if your mate borrows your car, he can’t score as if he were you. In the past I’ve been accommodating about “force majeur” and allowed the odd car swap, but this is strictly outside the rules and at the organiser’s discretion.

To make matters clear this year, Paul has outlined the committee’s interpretation of the rules and what latitude will be allowed, and how the rules will be applied. In Terry’s case, he didn’t let anyone know about the unreadiness of the V8 for Oddicombe and ran his Standard MGB 1800 (not his registered vehicle) in the event. When it still wasn’t ready for Loton and Curborough he spoke to the committee member present at the events and was given the go ahead to run and score points, subject to ratification by the full committee. The upshot is that he can count the points from Loton on, but forfeits those from Oddicombe.

A bit picky I know, but if you don’t ask for a waiver of the rules, we have to apply them rigorously. Sometimes even if you do the answer will be no. The general principles that we apply in such circumstances are:

If the answer is yes to both, then we usually accommodate the request.

For information, dispensations to change vehicles on a temporary basis have also been given to:

Max Tyler – to use his Monty in the Racing Specials at Loton Park (subsequently not used and entry transferred to Monty when Midget did not materialise at all)

John Dignan – to borrow Chris Coopers MGC GT for Curborough then use his other RGM MGB at Finlake (following Pauline’s incident at Curborough)

Russ Morgan – to use the TF for Colerne only (as the Midget is not ready yet). In all cases the substitute car is eligible for the class and is not deemed to offer an advantage over that originally registered.

I hope this is now clear, Jim

Event reports – March & April

Oddicombe hillclimb – 24th March 2002 (David Smith)

What a long, long time it seems since the end of last season. While no doubt everyone else was still fettling and fine tuning their equipment, a small but select band of 5 cars turned up for this, one of my favourite events. A half-mile of steep, not particularly even tarmac, a public road fortunately under the control of the local council, which links the clifftop road with the tiny pebble Oddicombe beach. Four more-or-less hairpins, all different in character, very narrow in places with rocky banks on both sides. A challenge of the first order, particularly for something seemingly as large and cumbersome as a Montego you may well think.

What a cracking day – it dawned dry with not a cloud in sight and was sunny and very mild from then on. David Butler and myself both had last year’s cars but with unspecified demon mods applied over the winter. John and Pauline Dignan had brought out the FIA-spec MGB race car which was last used at the Nurburgring 500km race, Mike Heath produced another ex-Metro cup race car, while Terry Pigott had resurrected his standard MGB as the new 4.6 litre engine was not ready for the Peter Burgess-owned BV8 (gawd help us all when it is).

So, to the times:- an apprehensive Pauline put up a creditable 52.45 in her first event since her ‘off’ in the MGF at Loton 3 years ago. John meanwhile was learning a new venue fast and trying very hard to catch the experienced chaps with a 45.88. Terry and Mike ended up with identical times on 49.16 – and that in spite of Mike’s slipping clutch. David Butler was well inside the old record at 44.71 in spite of brushing the bank on not one but TWO runs – a new wing will be needed at some stage. The Monty did me proud and managed a 44.07 which gave me the class win.

The usual high standard of organisation from Torbay Motor Club and a reduced entry list meant we were all done by 4.30 so were spared the saga of late-night unloading even after a long trail home up the M5.

Loton Park Hillclimb – 1st April 2002 (Clare Guilliford)

Easter Monday started for some of us mere southerners by waking up in a nearby Shrewsbury hotel, to a full English breakfast, some I believe had Little Chef vouchers to spend!!! On walking the hill, gearing, line of attack, speeds and breaking distances were discussed and plotted ready to be ignored as soon as helmets were donned. The evidence of previous offs i.e. huge tyre marks, riden banks and fatally wounded cones, left me thinking today could be quite entertaining!!! By the time practice runs were underway the wind had dried the light spring dew from the track and some where finding the importance of walking the WHOLE course (we know the Piglet Pilot never makes it to the top but that’s no excuse for the rest of you.) While Adrian Moore was already fully charged taking his Midget to the limit and riding banks like he was at Rockingham, was his secret fuel Easter Eggs? Dave Smith claims he didn’t have any Easter Eggs that is!

I found Triangle A great place to spectate and hear the talk of the paddock. Plus it was handy for jumping in the huge queue for drinks and snacks at the best moment. The shortest queue oddly was for the bar?! The trikes with their pillion passengers were hugely entertaining riding inches from the scenery. I have to admire them for their agility and sheer guts, when one returns passengerless A majority vote was carried to volunteer Max Tyler to have a bash as a pillion. Sadly he declined claiming he had a family to support!

The timed runs started with grey skies looming overhead, so the first run was all important, in the end some of the early runners had to 2 dry timed runs, but some of the latter runners competed in a downpour. As the results confirm there where close battles throughout the field with both, Chris Cooper and Dave Smith winning well deserved class awards on the day, while the organisers played merry go round with most of the rest of the M.G. field.

Curborough Sprint – 2 lap fun in the sun (Jim Garvey)

This year’s 2 lap Curborough event was as eventful as ever. I arrived in the sunshine just after lunch to see Mike Heath leave the line for his first run, starting the event off. He was followed in quick succession by the double entered cars, which all seemed to be going well. In fact in Pauline’s case, just a little too well, flying into the molehill chicane and taking a lot of kerb, she clipped the inside of the bank and put it sideways across the track and into the hedge. After a brief stint showing the world how well prepared the underside of John’s FIA B was, the car returned to 4 wheels and Pauline emerged seemingly unscathed to a round of applause. Quite a comeback to competition! With Pauline safely in the hands of the medics the B was recovered to the paddock for the inevitable post-mortem. Several bent panels, a missing headlight and a totally shattered brake disc spelled retirement for Pauline, but a willing (foolhardy?) volunteer offered John a shared drive in the flying banana, so some points could be salvaged. The resulting competition spurred Chris to shave almost 2 seconds off his practice time to take the class, with David Butler holding of John to take second.

Other track incident was provided by newcomer Neil Billingham, driving the Luffield MGF Cup car in his first speed event. After a promising first run that sliced over 4 seconds of his first practice, he got rather over-excited on the run up to the first left hander, locked up everything and made straight for the finish the wrong way up the straight. Shame really, as he was starting to make an impression on the shared Modified MGF of Tim King and Kim Johnson, 2 stalwarts of the Midland centre who have joined this year’s championship with the MG Competitions dept. development car. Not surprisingly, Kim took the fastest MG award with a time of 64.69, over 2 seconds inside the class record.

Finlake Hillclimb - Metro attains fastest time of day. (Mike Heath)

Finlake was a new course - we have lost the twiddly section from the old start up to the right hand hairpin. New start just opposite the hairpin through the gateway on the other side - about 10 to 15 seconds shorter and I had forgotten just how slippery it is in the wet, it seems that most of the other members of the championship had to. If I had one moment I had a dozen but I was fairing better than Niall who had to tape his wing back on. Terry had to push start the V8, but in the wet Dave Smith was flying 3 seconds clear of the field, but could he hold them off on a drying track?

Following her Curborough 'off' Pauline is in plaster up to the left elbow so wasn’t even allowed to drive back from the hospital, let alone up a Hill, but John turned out in the spare MGB (!) having got a dispensation. All in all, a pretty good day's sport.

After lunch Terry returned from a shopping expedition for new batteries waving a receipt for an obscene amount of money in front of anyone who would look, for TWO new batteries. At this point the track was drying and I was remembering how slippy Finlake is in the dry! Niall spun going up the final hill and clouted some tyres, mended for later runs. Dave Butler hit the edges at least twice, his car now wearing many battle scars. I scarred myself stupid all the way up the hill (I do this every weekend for fun) & Matt had a driveshaft pull out, which slowed him on the only run he managed - he may have lowered it a bit too far, for the standard driveshafts.

The fastest car of the day was Adrian Moore with an awesome time of 41.52. Next up was a victim of the drying track, Dave Smith in the Monty. I don’t know how he managed to get such a lump of a car up Finlake, but the quote of the day has to come from a 6R4 mechanic who as David approached the first corner stated “….. me that’s fast.” (The 6R4 got fastest time of day). John Dignan in the spare B far more suited to the hills than the one he brought to Oddicombe just held off Terry Piggott out for the first time this season in the v8, showing what a great leveller of power a polished limestone track is (note to Bernie).

Regalia

Last month I promised you details of regalia for the championship. Sadly I lied! Next month I promise, an illustration, order form and everything, hopefully in time for Silverstone.

Well that’s all from me for now, next month an early edition I hope. Regards, Jim

Ramblings from the Roddery – events from the Speed Championship Committee meeting

Hi All,

The April Speed Committee meeting kicked off with the great news that we had 88 registered competitors to date with 56 playing in the south and 43 in the north. I will let the mathematicians amongst you work out how many are claiming dual nationality.

Important

Understanding the next bit will save a lot of potential problems this year but it is complicated and will require your full attention. (We spent nearly 2 happy Hrs sorting it out.)

Competing and points Scoring, Using A Non Registered Car/Driver Combo.

As with most tricky problems it pays to start with the rules as printed. 

I intend to follow with how we intend to apply them, and will finish with some (Worked Examples, Sorry) actual cases.

Rule 1.4.2.states

”A Competitor may enter up to three vehicles in either or both series of the Championship, but each entry will be deemed to be a separate competitor, and must be registered accordingly (see 1.4.1). A competitor may enter only one vehicle in any one class of each series”.

So as written, if you should be unfortunate and break your car in practice beyond repair for the timed runs. The organiser of the meeting may let you borrow a fellow competitors car and run, but as you are not registered with the championship with that borrowed car, any points scored would not count.

In the past we took the view that in genuine cases of bad luck it was in the sprit of the championship to allow these points to count, bending the rules on occasion. However to avoid any future misunderstandings we feel we must sort out this grey area and stop any chance of abuse of what is primarily a goodwill gesture to an unfortunate driver.

So for 2002 the following points must be noted and will be enforced.

A member of the Speed Committe  Must be Notified as soon as possible if :-

a.   a car is Not ready and a substitute car is being taken to an event (See 2 Below) and confirmed in writing ASAP. Approval to run will normally be given subject to reasonable time constraints agreed between the driver and the Speed Com. Revisions of approval are at Speed Coms discretion.

b.  a car Cannot complete practice or timed runs due to breakdown etc.

Before any practice or timed runs take place in a Substitute Car. Approval Must be obtained from the Speed Com Rep at the meeting.

c.   If the is No Speed Com Rep at the meeting in (b) above then the driver Must contact the Speed Com Within 4 days of the event for any points scored to count.

All the best, Paul