MG Car Club International Festival (22-24, June, 2007)

[Tim Falce]

Here's a picture of Mr Mallett in free practice on Friday

[Tim Falce]

Jerry Knight's D-type on Friday.

[John Turner]

Well I was there on Sunday, but was awaiting some comments on the meeting, but other than Falcey, it seems to have gone strangely quiet now that it has actually taken place.

Weather was not a great point but appeared not to dim spirits. However, I was a bit surprised at being relieved of £17.50 to get in - a bit steep, I thought, for one day especially as the programme set me back another £5.00.

Tried to see Peter M at 7C but after 3 visits (on the last occasion at least the Capri had appeared looking extremely smart!) retired injured to have lunch and then adjourn to Abbey, which is a good viewing point when the International circuit is being used. Peter, you probably didn't realise it was me but at the end of your race it was me clapping and waving at you from Abbey. I was the only person there by that time! Took plenty of pics of you, too!

Great grids, and some good racing, considering the variable weather conditions; the track wasn't totally dry all day, although there were dry lines at certain times.

Will put a few pics up at some stage but am still finishing Snetterton as well as contemplating a few from the Le Mans Legends race, so could be a bit of a delay.

[NiG_21]

Anyone know where I can see lots of pictures from the weekend?

I was racing and testing on all three days... got to be there somewhere. I'd be particularly interested in my spin (was nerfed) on the outside of Abbey in the Sunday Enduro... still not sure how I avoided a big accident there...

*Red Spitfire

[Peter Mallett]

My race was fun but I confess that I haven't seen weaving like some of the Triumphs were doing for some years. I had to smile when a black Spitfire weaved to the inside of the entry to Copse, in front of me, in doing so the driver forgot to turn in and headed off to the boonies!

There were some interesting defences into the hairpin too. The weather meant the track was different on every lap so consistency was minimal. I filled my fuel tank to the brim just to hold the back down, which probably cost me two secs a lap!

I was being baulked by a TR7 and a Spitfire for the first few laps so I thought I'd take my pit stop, but having made that decision I followed them in! What with safety cars and the like it all got a bit confusing. Finishing 19th having started 23rd was some consolation. I won he class lastbyear but forgot to collect the pot. This year I finished third in class (Jeremy Knight was second) and found there were no prizes for us. We were given race winner trophies instead! That should produce a few stories.

What with current family matters I just didn't enjoy this weekend as much as usual. I will be back next year though.

John. Sorry to miss you but I was around in 7a most of the day.

Big thanks to all the marshals and officials for braving the weather and keeping things going.

As an aside. The race was ahndicapped and as such I was 10th overall.

[terence]

We can all do better when our heart is actualy in the race Peter. But all things considered ,NOT A BAD SHOWING.Well Done for that.

[Tim Falce]

Originally Posted by Peter Mallett

My race was fun but I confess that I haven't seen weaving like some of the Triumphs were doing for some years. I had to smile when a black Spitfire weaved to the inside of the entry to Copse, in front of me, in doing so the driver forgot to turn in and headed off to the boonies!

I wonder how far down the track some drivers look in a race. An MG spun/span at Copse on the first lap of the 30min enduro on Saturday, most of us managed to slow and/or go round him except one person who didn't ease off, had nowhere to go and sideswiped me. Luckily I had seen what was happening and managed to move over some more and no damage was done (I hope, I haven't fully checked yet) to my car save some tyre marks on my paintwork.
I'm still fuming about my other race being shortened as are a few more of us that I have spoken to on another forum.
What with that, the lets chuck it into the gravel attitude in the wet practises on Friday and a meeting that was run purely for the benefit of the MG car club and not it's members, my membership card would be going back to them if I didn't need it to do a few more race in my series this year.

[John Turner]

Originally Posted by Peter Mallett

What with current family matters I just didn't enjoy this weekend as much as usual.

Entirely understandable, Peter.

Originally Posted by Peter Mallett

John. Sorry to miss you but I was around in 7a most of the day.

Just to clarify to those who might think that I was in the wrong place, 7a, b & c are all together. I must admit that my first two visits were pretty early but the last one was about 11.15am by which time your car had appeared; there were very few people in or around the garage at the time, so I guess I was just unlucky to miss you!

[John Turner]

Originally Posted by falcemob

I'm still fuming about my other race being shortened as are a few more of us that I have spoken to on another forum.

Great footage, Falcey; conditions looked appalling though. Was the visibility any better through your eyes than through the lens? Sure hope so.

[Peter Mallett]

Originally Posted by John Turner

Just to clarify to those who might think that I was in the wrong place, 7a, b & c are all together. I must admit that my first two visits were pretty early but the last one was about 11.15am by which time your car had appeared; there were very few people in or around the garage at the time, so I guess I was just unlucky to miss you!

Well, we went through scrute on Friday and so with qualifying at 12:35 I took a relaxed approach to the day. Sorry to have missed you though. By the way, Big Andy was sharing 7a on Friday and Saturday.

[Tim Falce]

Originally Posted by John Turner

Was the visibility any better through your eyes than through the lens? Sure hope so.

It was different, I was able to wipe my visor with my glove but on the last lap between Ireland and Abbey the spray was so bad that I nearly turned into a slip road on the right thinking it was the hairpin.
After that it cleared quite quickly.

[John Turner]

The briefest of pictorial reviews, I'm afraid with even less info. than usual as I am getting further and further behind.

The first of the Sunday races was a real mix - The MGCC Cockshoot cup cars mixed with the Drayton Manor Park MG Metro cup cars. I'm not a regular follower of this series so I don't know whether it is usual for the Metros to have the upper hand or whether the wet conditions played into their hands on this occasion. Poleman Paul Luti bogged down completely at the start, in his Metro and it was the orange Metro of Dick Trevett (96) who came round with a substantial lead at the end of the first lap. After Jon Flanagan got to the front of the chasing group he set about rapidly overhauling Trevett. Here he makes his pass for the lead. The race was stopped shortly after when Mike Peters put his Midget in the wall just after the exit to Abbey which necessitated medical attention and a trip to hospital. Thankfully he was OK. Flanagan took the flag but was subsequently disqualified, I believe for passing the medical car on track although by all accounts this was totally out of character and probably down to the poor visibility and track conditions. The upshot was that Trevett took the win:-


John Wreghitt (51), Simon Tinkler (28), and coming into view, Chris Harris (37):-


Midget sandwich. Paul Rigg (77), Ian Wright (78) and Brian Watson (27):-

[John Turner]

A one off race to celebrate 45 years of MGBs. The commentators discussed the fact that the whole grid was made up of FIA cars but then mentioned the fact that they did not all have the same size engines and decided that they wouldn't pursue that particular discussion any longer!

Massive grid of 39 cars of which 35 finished. Disparate qualifying times but after a few laps, it was clear that the Cottingham brothers intended to make this a purely family affair at the front. Here they are side by side with Jeremy closest to the camera. However, he had to give best to his brother, James, who seemed just that bit more aggressive in the wet conditions. The commentators thought that this was the first time that the two brothers had had a race 1-2 result:-


Bob Ridgard's Coupe berlinette, one of a number of examples built I believe, in Belgium. The styling just does not quite do it for me! He finished 33rd:-


Graham Bates finished 23rd:-


Now this one is probably my favourite B. The very pretty one off WSM MGB, a car I saw racing in the late 60's and many years later being driven in Croydon. What a shame that more were not made. Tony Spratt (son of the car's Builder, William) finished 34th:-

[Peter Mallett]

Originally Posted by John Turner

Bob Ridgard's Coupe berlinette, one of a number of examples built I believe, in Belgium. The styling just does not quite do it for me! He finished 33rd:-

This is a Jaques Coune built car and I think I'm right in saying that Barry Sidery-Smith sold it to Bob.

This is romoured to be the car that prompted BMC to build the GT.

[AndyV]

Originally Posted by Peter Mallett

I had to smile when a black Spitfire weaved to the inside of the entry to Copse, in front of me, in doing so the driver forgot to turn in and headed off to the boonies!

That was probably me, my apologies. I had a sudden problem that made the handling and braking somewhat eratic into copse. Post race post motem revealed that the oil cooler radiator had fractured and sprayed oil over the front left wheel just when I needed the grip most. Thanks for any avoiding action you took.

Cheers
Andy

[John Turner]

You never know who is watching, Peter! Good explanation, Andy!

Not really historic but for completeness, just a couple of shots from this race.

Malcolm Gammons (2) won this race in front of a string of other ZRs, amongst which was Paul Wallace (1), who finished 3rd, and Chris Bray (77) who passed him to take 2nd:


First of the TFs was that of Ross Woodhouse (55) who finished 9th, seen here behind 8th place Michael Weidner:-

[Peter Mallett]

Originally Posted by AndyV

That was probably me, my apologies. I had a sudden problem that made the handling and braking somewhat eratic into copse. Post race post motem revealed that the oil cooler radiator had fractured and sprayed oil over the front left wheel just when I needed the grip most. Thanks for any avoiding action you took.

Cheers
Andy

Lol.

At least yours was accidental. Hope the car is ok now.

[AndyV]

Definitly accidental, the weave to the inside was under braking with only the non-oiled right hand side working, followed by the lack of any grip on turn-in causing the trip to the boonies. I initially thought I had a puncture so continued to the next bend where the same happened so I parked it out of the way. Car will be fine after a cooler replacement as I still had plenty oil in the sump, thankfully not putting too much on the track.

As for the meeting I greatly enjoyed it, though having a little Triumph enclave in the MG camp rather gives us a rebellious feeling as the two marques are historic rivals.

One niggle though is that paddock parking plans were issued with the final instructions and scant regard was paid to these.

Andy

[Tim Falce]

Originally Posted by AndyV

One niggle though is that paddock parking plans were issued with the final instructions and scant regard was paid to these.

Andy

And some of us weren't allocated any parking at all so had to park where we could which also caused problems. Shouldn't be a problem next year though as I'm not playing

[Peter Mallett]

Originally Posted by AndyV

Definitly accidental, the weave to the inside was under braking with only the non-oiled right hand side working, followed by the lack of any grip on turn-in causing the trip to the boonies. I initially thought I had a puncture so continued to the next bend where the same happened so I parked it out of the way.

Yep, that was what really surprised me. I did see you rejoin.

Originally Posted by AndyV

As for the meeting I greatly enjoyed it, though having a little Triumph enclave in the MG camp rather gives us a rebellious feeling as the two marques are historic rivals.

One niggle though is that paddock parking plans were issued with the final instructions and scant regard was paid to these.

Andy

I shared a garage with three midgets. Cars not small people . It was fine especially considering the weather. They (the Midgets) were gone by Sunday Morning so I got a whole side to myself.

[John Turner]

Shame that there seems to have been a fair bit of dissension regarding this meeting. Were these issues experienced last year?

Another big grid of cars. Murray Henderson seemed relatively untroubled and won by 15 seconds (from Mark Wrights MGB Roadster):-


What are the odds on this happening. Any one for elevenses? 22 is Pat Fenn, MGB, (4th), 44 is Alan Brooke, Rover Metro (9th), and 33, with copious amounts of opposite lock, is Max Cawthrn who finished 6th in his MGB:-


Andrew Young took his MGC GT to 10th:-


John Bussey (TC) and Nick Ashman (TF) stayed in this order to take 20th and 21st:-

[John Turner]

Notwithstanding the catchy race title, this was a wonderful sight of mainly 1960s British sports cars, and another big field. The grid was set by the order of results from the previous day's race. In this wet race race, Saturday's 2nd place man, Tom Smith, just sailed away (almost literally!) to win by over half a minute. Here he is, two thirds through the first lap, already in splendid isolation:-


Still on lap 1, Neil Howe in his TR4 (see last pic below) has already gone through in 2nd place. Here, Mark Ashworth in his TVR Grantura 1800S leads the 3rd place chasing pack. On Saturday he had won in the dry, but in this race, although starting on pole, he gradually faded to 9th by the end. This may not have been down to his wet weather skills compared to the others; the TVR's short wheelbase probably made it rather more tricky to drive in these conditions than the MGBs and TR4s. The following cars are those of Jerry Stock (89 - 4th), David Beresford (17 - 3rd), Bill Kirkpatrick (19 - 7th) and Angus Dent (56 - 13th):-


One of two pretty WSM Sprites in the race;this one driven to 35th by Trevor Cocks:-


As noted above, the very smart TR4 of Neil Howe finished 2nd. He had a pretty lonely race I would have thought, being 10 seconds clear of the pack, but 33 seconds behind Smith. Given that his best lap was fully 1.4 seconds better than that of Smith, quite why he was so far behind at the end eludes me. A spin or grassy moment, perhaps?:-

[johnh875]

Great report as always John. I have seen a few different MG hardtops but nothing like those WSM cars, the B is hard, if not impossible, to recognise! I imagine with the extensive work involved they would have been priced above what people would pay for an MG-based car at the time, a shame.

[terence]

Excellent Photos an reports John, RE ,Mark Ashworth--The Granturas have to run Historic tyres[Rules]All the "B"s are using ZZs which are far better in the wet. Neil Howe,s TR [A car I,v e spent a lot of time on!] Just why he took fastest lap by that margin is a complete mystery,I think he must have been asleep for most of the race!!!

[terence]

Originally Posted by johnh875

Great report as always John. I have seen a few different MG hardtops but nothing like those WSM cars, the B is hard, if not impossible, to recognise! I imagine with the extensive work involved they would have been priced above what people would pay for an MG-based car at the time, a shame.

It s not a Hard Top,it is a coupe,such a shame there was only one built,no international history/no HTP Papers.Would have made a brilliant Enduro Racer with it,s Ally Body !!!!!