NORWESTER NEWS Issue 11

The Newsletter of the MGCC Moss NORWESTER Open Speed Championship - 26th October 1997

That's all folks!

Well that's your lot. The seasons over and in at least one class it all came down to the last run of the last event. Just the way it should be.

The last two meetings, at opposite corners of the country, Baitings Dam in Yorkshire and Llys-y-Fran (that spelling OK for you John - small private joke I'm afraid) in South West Wales saw keen competition if somewhat different weather.

Baitings saw a good tum out in possibly the best Baitings weather in living memory (the sun shone all day) the competition was as close as ever and new records were set in just about every class represented. A class win with a new record gave the overall title to John Dignan who now has a maximum 66, while a similar achievement by Terry Pigott moved him into the lead of the Standard MGB class. With David Beresford absent from both this event and Llys-y-Fran, that was enough to give him the class; just as well as he was beaten into second in Wales by Paul Harris, which I think was his first class win to date. Well done that man, another driver in the frame for this most competitive of classes.

In the Cockshoot class, another closely contested competition, a minor mechanical hitch (broken dynamo pulley) took Andrew Wolf's eye off the ball, and David Fortescue stormed to a maximum 11 points, moving him level with Andrew and ahead on count back. This meant that David's journey North had paid off and forced Andrew to travel South to Llys-y-Fran if he wanted to keep his chances of a class win alive. In the somewhat greasy conditions Andrew struggled through the moming while David seemed on form. Going into the last run David held a narrow 0. 15 second lead over Craig Hewett, with Andrew over a second behind in 3rd spot, but what drama! A final Banzai run from Wolfie and it was done, nearly a 2 second improvement and the class win. That was cutting it fine, and you really felt for David. In his first full season, just one point short of a class win, snatched from his grasp on the last run of the season. Ah well, that's life, but at least he'll have the comfort of the Novices award as well as his class 2nd.

Among the Road-going Modified Midgets, another record by Andrew Pearson at Baitings gave him 10 points and he pulled ahead of Simon Hawkes for second in the class, but Simon had a 5 to drop from Loton, so a good result at Llys-y-Fran could have given him back the position. Unfortunately, sick cars meant both Steve and Clive Williams had to withdraw and so with no competition and no established class record the maximum 8 points scored was only enough to draw him level, and Andrew kept the place on count back.

In the Road-going Modified MGB's, two 2nds by Peter Dignan moved him up to 3rd in class, behind his father and Ian Beresford, while a similar performance by John George in the Road-going Special secured his 2nd in Class award.

So that's it for another year. I think it's been a good one, I've enjoyed it and I hope you have too. I would like to thank you all for your support again this year, for helping to keep the Moss NORWESTER the No. 1 single marque Speed event championship and I hope you will be joining us again in 1998 for the new look Moss International Speed Championship. Certainly bigger. And hopefully better, to bring a little danger into the lives of more MG enthusiasts!

The Dinner and Awards (Shrigley Hall Hotel, Saturday 29th November)

The award winners for 1997 are confirmed as:

NORWESTER Champion:	John Dignan
MGCC Event Champion:	John Dignan
Sprint Award :	Terry Pigott
Hillclimb Award:	Terry Pigott
MLG Novice Award:	David Fortescue
Shirley Stafford Ladies Award:	Helen Wolf

Class Awards:

MMM Class (Register award) Mike Hawke

Standard Midget & MGA (small class-award): 1st Michael Marsland, MGA Register Award Paul Batho

Standard MGB: 1st Terry Pigott, 2nd David Beresford, 3rd Tony MacIntyre

Standard MGF,
VVC & Metro Turbo: 1st John Thomas & MGF register Award,
FWD award Paul Savoury

Cockshoot Standard Class: 1st Andrew Wolf, 2nd David Fortescue, 3rd Craig Hewett

Road-going Mod. Midget: 1st Allan Inwood, 2nd Andrew Pearson, 3rd Simon Hawkes

Road-going Mod. MGB: 1st John Dignan & MGB Register award, 2nd Ian Beresford, 3rd Peter Dignan

Road-going Specials: 1st Tony Bolton & Midget Register Award, 2nd John George

Modified Class: 1st John Hawley

Racing Specials (small class award): 1st Tony Bolton

The other discretionary awards, the spinner of the year (only one real contender for this), the Chap of the Year and the Scrutineers Award for the best presented car, have also been decided, but will be kept secret until the presentation.

On the subject of presentations, with the last meeting being so late, I am in the rather embarrassing position of being short of time to get all the glass ware engraved before the dinner. I would therefore ask all the award winners to let me know if the will definitely be attending or not so I can prioritize the work for the engraver.

So to 1998

As in previous years, I will be having a drivers meeting to consult on the regulations for next year. This will be held in the afternoon before the dinner, in the bar area of the dinner dance room, as last year. I am currently proposing that the vehicle regs remain the same as this year. General regs to be amended in line the note I sent out last month. So far events confirmed for next years calendars include a Donnington Sprint in May for the Northern series and a Gurston Down hillclimb in June for the Southern group. Also, we are planning to run our own MGCC Harewood Hillclimb in 1998, so I would urge all to try and attend. One final point to note, drivers may compete in either or both series, North and South, but need to register and pay for each. Points scored at the meetings common to both series may count for both.

Licences for 1998

With the recent changes in the government of Scotland and Wales, all drivers from these countries, may be required to have International licences if they wish to compete in England in 1998. Furthermore, if the proposed legislation to grant independent status to the Republic of West Yorkshire come to fruition then a similar arrangement will also be imposed on drivers from that region. Wide boys from Essex however, will still have carte blanche to terrorise marshalls and wildlife in venues throughout the country.

Well that's it for now, see you all at the bun fight and thanks again for your support and encouragement.

Jim Garvey
Championship Coordinator
Beechcourt, 394 New Street, Biddulph Moor, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffs. ST8 7LR
01782 522902

(Text scanned by John Thomas - j. s. thomas@bath.ac.uk)

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