Luff Stuff                              Issue no 9/02

The newsletter of the Luffield Cars MGCC Speed Championship 

Also available at the championship web site www.mgcars.org/mgccsc

Dinner Dance and Awards Presentation details included with this newsletter, Northern awards 30th November 2002, Southern awards 22nd February 2003. Book now to make sure of your tickets and hotel rooms.

Nomination forms for "Chap of the Year" and "Spinner of the Year" also enclosed, reply needed by Friday 15th November.

And the last chequered flag falls….
Well, that's it for another year. 32 events gone, over 500 individual entries completed and it just remains for the points to be counted, spoils to be divided and the champion crowned. This year has been another excellent season, with hard fought battles and close rivalries, but sadly it has to come to an end, and the toys have to be put away for the winter. Next year we can look forward to a new start, with a revised set of regulations, new classes and a completely different scoring system, but for now a final look back on the closing events of the 2002 competition. Up North the season closed a month ago with the Thoresby Park and 3 Sisters Sprints, while down South (in the milder climate that bathes tropical South West) the events stretch out to the end of October with the Dunkeswell and Castle Combe sprints. Reports for most of these are printed below, along with the missing action from September's Wiscombe Hillclimb.

Wiscombe Park Hillclimb: September 14th - David Smith
A marvellous day - everything about it reminds me why we keep going back there. Not a cloud in the sky, warm and sunny, it was as pretty as a picture...oh, some motorsport event going on as well... but one of the few negatives is that we end up spread all over the paddock and it's difficult to keep track of who is doing what.

The entry was not at maximum, so we all got 3 timed runs which was a bonus. Both Adrian and Russ won their respective classes with their first runs, Adrian went slower later, and Russ promptly broke another diff, which was soon changed. I had a damn good tussle with Alex, he finally bettered me by 4 hundredths of a second, so at least I didn't give in easily. I beat my last years' best time by a fair margin with a 48.40 which seemed quite exciting at the time, but for perspective FTD was 38-something. Couple of chaps from MG Rover came along in a ZR with a 230 hp engine (much the same spec as Russell's) and were quick in practice. One of them did a 46.76 - good enough to win the BMC cup - then it broke, sheared a driveshaft at the hub. So Alex kept 2nd in class which pleased him.

Chris was very slightly off the pace but consistent, with all runs in the 49s. To complete an unusually long list of mechanical carnage - Larry J-C went straight on at Gate and front-ended the TR8 into the trees, unfortunately doing a fair amount of damage. Steve Holford had a driveshaft break, as also did Barry Carter in the MGA. Kim had various ignition problems which were finally fixed with many donated parts - I think it was a ploy to get a free service. JT made a very welcome return to the hills with his brand new TF, and as he cannot score points in it he sportingly let Gerald Burridge take the class win.

Thoresby Park Sprint: 22nd September - DC
The Nottingham Sports Car Club's annual sprinting in the former deer park of Thoresby Park, attracted ten Northern MG drivers for the penultimate round of the season. Amongst our number was ex-Works MGB driver Warwick Banks, winner of the 1965 Brands Hatch 1,000 mile "Guards Trophy" race. For the"anoraks" amongst you, his car was 8 DBL. Anoraks were de rigueur on an alternately chilly, sunny and damp day.

The 'locals' got the ball rolling along the narrow confines of the Thoresby lanes. The B of Paul Campling and the Midget of John Wilman took unopposed Group 1 and 2 wins. Paul achieved the Target Time and John set a new record, some 2 seconds inside the old one.

John Dignan in the B had his work cut out keeping the Midget of Allan Inwood at bay in the Group 3 battle. Just 2 tenths came between them, and both set new class record by healthy margins. Helen Waddington in the Standard ZR followed them home.

Meanwhile, in the Group 4, Terry "Predictable" Pigott did the inevitable double - a new class record (by over 4 seconds!) and fastest MG (52.16). This left yours truly to battle it out with Andy Long and Gary Waite. I set the early pace, only for Andy to go three quarters of a second faster. But then heartbreak for Andy! He'd clipped a penalty marker and the resultant 1second punishment relegated him to third behind me. Gary's challenge was blunted by a persistent misfire and he trailed in a distant fourth.

In Group 5, Warwick Banks in his Modified B, failed to repeat his "Guards Trophy" result, as Richard Sands Modified Midget was on record breaking form.

The talk of the paddock was the track itself. The Thoresby stalwarts considered the finishing straight was much shorter than previous years, hence the plethora of records and Target Times, not only for the MGs but spread across the whole field. However, what ever the length of the course, everyone enjoyed a great days motorsport at a most attractive venue.

3 Sisters Sprint: 29th September - DC
The Three Sisters kart track near Wigan hosted the final round of the Northern Championship. Despite a number of minor off road excursions during practice (including one from your scribe!), track conditions were near perfect. The event was the traditional end of season single lapper, taking in a long, fast sweep from the start line, before a tight, twisty infield section to the finish.

Richard Watkinson, in his pretty little Midget, was having his own personal battle with the clock. He desperately needed the Target Time to steal the Championship class win, but Richard missed the mark by a little over a second. John Wilman, in a lone Cockshoot Midget entry, didn't make the same mistake, and was just a couple of tenths away from the class record by the end of the day.

In the RGM classes, the season long battle between the B of John Dignan and the Midget of Allan Inwood this time went the way of Diggers. Once again, only the width of a timing strut came between them and both achieved their Target Times. Paul Drake had a good run to third, whilst Pauline Dignan took revenge over Helen Waddington for previous defeats.

In the Specials, what more can be said? Terry Pigott reigned supreme, with his best run over half a second inside the old record. Andy Long and myself faced a "Winner Takes All" finale in the under 2 litre class. Fortunately, my morning's indiscretion was put behind me, as I eked out a meagre couple of tenths over Andy.

Another good days motorsport. The only disappointment is that somebody has to lose. What do "normal" people do at a weekend? I'm looking forward to the 2003 season already!

Castle Combe Sprint: 19th October
There's something rather mystical about watching the dawn break over the Cotswolds. The mist lying low in the fields as the watery sunshine breaks over the horizon, the cattle grazing in the half light, the early morning birdsong……. drowned out by the roar of a highly tuned V8! Yes the trip to Castle Combe was an uplifting experience, and one I intend to repeat again next year; as a first-timer at the venue I was completely blown away by the track. The pace is phenomenal (well it would be if you knew where the track was going to when you got to the corners) and the organisation spot on. I'm working on the committee to get it included in the Northern Series too; well if the Southern Series drivers can make it up to Anglesey, the least we Northern (or Midland in my case) chaps can do is return the favour.

So, to the event itself. Well my perspective was a little hampered by spending a disproportionate amount of time underneath a well known green and yellow Midget, but what I saw was up to the usual championship standard. The competition was intense, the banter lively and the mechanical carnage, well what can I say, I broke Steve's diff and Vince broke his gearbox, so that was par for the course too.

From a cold and windy start (it's the first time I've ever done a convoy run at 0ºC) the day brightened and warmed up to allow a clutch of records to be broken. In the pre '59 class both Bruce and John made it below their target times, with the resultant 10 points promoting John to the championship class win.

The Standard cars also fared well with Mike Heath and Philip Methuen both breaking their records, and James Eastwood just 3/10ths shy of his, but well within the target time, a result that lifted him to 3rd in the championship class and into the awards. Up a class and the Holford/Moore battle was again joined, but both were a tad off the pace of previous years. Adrian set the early pace posting a 95.14, a second ahead of Steve, who was rather disadvantaged by having to aclimatise to a different ratio diff than he used in practice. This was my fault sadly, as having been offered the double drive, I blew Steve's 3.9 on my first run start, before he had a chance to post a time and the replacement (available thanks to Kim Dear) was a 4.2 and put all the gear changes in different places. With Adrian failing to improve on his second run, however, Steve was in with a chance. He set off like a demon, hitting the rev limiter off the line and on every gear change up to Quarry, but somewhere on the back of the course something let go and he reappeared out of the second chicane misfiring badly, and a couple of seconds down. In the same class Vince blew his gearbox in practice, and looked to be out of the event. But a quick phone call to brother-in-law Kim Dear saw him coming to the rescue. Living locally, he drove his Frogeye down to the circuit (having failed to get an entry himself) and sent Vince out in that to score some valuable points. What a star that man is!

As usual further entertainment and upsets came in the higher classes. The flying banana was hoot, with Chris giving it all he'd got and just failing to take fastest MG away from Terry's V8. Terry was always expected to win the group 4 battle, but it was closer than he expected against the Montego Turbos and K-series Midgets. Smithy was on form and annihilated the record, taking next year's target down a further second and a half, but he too was pushed by Max, who steamed into the paddock after one run with his brakes on fire having taken Avon Rise flat for the first time. And it didn't end there, in the up to 2000cc Specials James Hebditch once again showed the pace of the Fisher Flyer, notching up his second head-to-head victory over last season's pace setter Russ Morgan. Both men also took 2 seconds off the class record to finish less than a second behind the V8.

All in all, an eventful meeting and a fitting end to the season.

So who's where….
All the detailed places can be gleaned from the results sheet, and would take another 2 pages to do justice to, but highlights worth mentioning were the two "up to 2000cc RG Specials" classes which provided season long entertainment and were both decided at the 11th hour. In the larger Southern class where the top 3 were only separated by 4 points, Russ's defeat at Combe cost him the class, with Anthony Cutler taking the win in only his 3rd full season. While up North, the Coulthard/Long dice went down to the final two events where two successive victories, both by the narrowest of margins, gave DC the class win. It has also been entertaining watching the David and Golliath battle in the Northern Standard MGB & Midget class, where the diminutive, and very pretty, blue MkI Midget of Richard Watkinson, just failed to overhaul the MGB GT of Tony Mac. In the end 1 point separated them, and as in many classes this year, it's a shame there have to be winners and losers.

So, just to summarise, the major awards are as follows:

Overall champion is Terry Pigott (96pts) from his performance in the Northern series, just ahead of Southern Series winner Adrian Moore (94pts). This means the Northern series title (the Norwester Cup) cascaded down to a two horse race between John Wilman and John Dignan. At the close of play these two were standing on equal points, with the count-back going to their respective 12th events. But Diggers produced evidence of a track change at MIRA, which the committee agreed was correct, and the extra couple of points gained gave him the title outright, so passing the RGM MGB & C class win to Chris Cooper. Similarly in the Southern series the RGM Midget & Std Metro Turbo class win falls to Matt Dryell.

The respective Northern and Southern ladies awards go to Helen Waddington in the ZR160 and Pauline Dignan, while the Novice trophies go to Gary Waite (Northern) and James Eastwood (Southern). The discretionary awards for best prepared car (Scrutineer's award), best entertainment (Spinner of the year) and the competitor who best epitomises the spirit of the MGCC Speed Championship
(Chap/Chapess of the Year) have yet to be decided, and the latter 2 can be voted on by you. Please fill in the form enclosed to nominate who you think deserves the "Spinner" or "Chap" and return them to me within the next 7 days (time is short for the Northern awards).

Finally, to say once again, this year has been vintage "Speed Championship", and despite what the results table says, everyone's a winner one way or another, with biggest winner being the MG Car Club.

We've shown the rest of the Sprint and Hillclimb fraternity what game competitors we are, and that our "funny little cars" are good sport and entertainment.

So, it is with some regret that I sign off what will be my last newsletter. I stood in this year to try and help out, but work and family commitments mean I can no longer give the time I used to. But fear not, Piglet will be out again next year, and I will see you on the track.

Jim Garvey


Ramblings From the Roddery Speed Com Meeting Wednesday 16th October 02

Hi All,

To start with I would like to express the Championship's sympathy to Jean and Mike Entwisle over their recent bereavement.

A full meeting at a pub near Chester proceeded to stuff the regs for the southern competitors in preparation for the meeting at Combe the following weekend. We do apologise for the delay in sending the proposed regs out and hope that you all have a copy of them now. Our aim is with general approval, to run with these regs in this format for next year with only minor changes and any typo's corrected.

I would like to make clear one or two points that were raised in our deliberations.

The vehicle / class regs and the scoring system must be considered as a whole rather than separate entities. For example, a small class which in the past may have been amalgamated upwards, thus giving the smaller capacity class car a much-reduced chance of an overall class win, is dealt with differently from now on. Amalgamations may occur but the small capacity cars points are worked out in relation to his own small capacity class (Car) and thus competing against valid times and so has a better chance in the overall championship. However to win overall, the car will still have to break class records at most venues all year long.

We admit that a degree of fine tuning of the scoring system may be req'd but we have to start somewhere. And we do believe that this system is about as fair as is possible to devise considering the 70 years between the oldest and latest MG`s that are playing, excluding the modification levels that are available.

Brief concise feedback is always welcome, particularly if you also include a sensible workable solution to your point that does not require a total rewrite. Please also consider the ramifications of your proposal on the rest of the classes, what works for red metro turbo`s might make a right mess of the RGM MGB class. And by the same token, if we have not acted on your pet idea it is not because it is wrong, or we ignored it. It is much more likely, that after an hours vigorous debate, it could not be made to work fairly across the championship as a whole.

By now the Southern lads and lasses will have had a chunter at Jim to be followed by the Northern meeting at Shrigley Hall, I hope to see you then and if you can't make it I suggest that your comments are sent in writing to the usual address. Sorry-E mails don't count in deference to the unplugged members of our championship.

After the 30th of November we will assume that all who wish to comment will have done so and will then formalise the regulations in the best interest of the championship as a whole.

Rodders tricky tip
If you intend to use those super sticky Yoka-bravon`s next season and hope to be quick may I recommend that they are taken off the car and bagged up in black bin liners as airtight as possible and stored on their sides. If not, your beloved rubber will grip almost as well as a set of part worn Michelin X's, come next spring!!.

Happy Tinkering,  Rodders