CSCC Swinging Sixties Snetterton

[Celia Stevens]

Thanks guys for all the nice things you've said, we had a great day, unfortunately we forgot to screw the dash in so it fell on me going through the bombhole and struggle though I did I found it impossible to stuff it back and race the car at the same time! so we lost 5 or 6 laps whilst we sorted it. Never mind an excellent day with super people, clean racing and run excellently. Good to see John T and Gt Dave, also Louise and Jason who said it was nice to meet in England for a change! Lots of familiar friendly faces, superb weather and a car with lots of potential, what more could you ask for?

[rbm]

I don't suppose any one got a picture of my slight off in the John Cooper trophy? I had drive shaft shear off, which took me off into and over Darrell Wood's Cooper mk8, (not a mark on the Darrel or the mk8 thank goodness) It would be interesting to see what it looked like from the outside as it was a tad hairy from the cockpit.

[Terry Scannell]

Originally Posted by rbm

I don't suppose any one got a picture of my slight off in the John Cooper trophy? I had drive shaft shear off, which took me off into and over Darrell Wood's Cooper mk8, (not a mark on the Darrel or the mk8 thank goodness) It would be interesting to see what it looked like from the outside as it was a tad hairy from the cockpit.

I can confirm that it did look rather interesting from where I was watching in large screen real time!!!!

I seem to remember that I was just rather pleased that you both managed to continue away from the scene of your mating ritual at the time!!

Terry

[Peter Mallett]

Possibly after a pregnant pause?

[John Turner]

9 starters, 9 Finishers (although 9th place only did 2 laps!). Race over 15 minutes

The concept of creating race series for obsolete racers is not new and an entirely sensible way of extending the racing lives of cars no longer capable of running competitively in contemporary series but not yet old enough for historic racing. This one sponsored by Track and Race Car Magazine was for 2 litre single seaters and as you can see above was poorly supported (the smaller classes run later in the day had a much better field) but it did produce some good dices.

The race was dominated, not unexpectedly, by 8-10 year old Dallaras who filled the first 3 places, driven by Jeremy Timms, Neil Harrison and Tristan Cliffe. However, whilst Timms drove away to win by 11 seconds, the second place battle, once Cliffe had got on terms with Harrison, was a good one, Harrison only holding on by 3 tenths.

There was also an excellent dice for 6th between Terry Clark (F Vauuxhall Lotus) and Peter Bragg (Nemesis Mygale SJ100!) settled in the former's favour by just under 7 tenths. However for the purposes of this forum the historical content of the race was restricted to two cars; the Ralt RT3 (20 - see below) of Jeremy Goodman who had a fine race with Barry Smith's Van Diemen FX02 until the latter dropped back (for reasons, I know not!), and the Reynard 863 of Graham Probyn (17). Goodman finished a good 4th, and first of the Classic 2000s home, and Probyn 8th.

[Adam43]

Glad everyone had a great time. I'm not out until Mallory. See you all then

[andy97]

Monoposto has been around a very long time - 50th anniversary last year - and has been very popular. As was pointed out the grid for the combined motor bike engined cars and the 1600/ 1800 cars was very good but Mono 2000 seems to be struggling a bit at the moment. The cars are cheaper to run than many imagine, particularly as the engines in the 2000s are ferrous blocked standard road engines, usually run on carbs or standard injection so are largely bullet proof. Vauxhall and Toyota twin cams being the favourite motors.

I'm not sure at which point a car becomes "historical"!

[John Turner]

Yes, Andy, the Monoposto formula has been around a very long time. I remember accompanying a gentleman called Gerry Mehary (I need to check the spelling) who raced in the series back in the 60s, to a few meetings, as his mechanic, Jim Sims, was a very good friend of my Father's.

My attitude to what is 'historic' is fairly flexible! You could argue that any obsolete racing car is 'historic' but my arbitrary cut off is around 15 - 20 years old. They are new to me, but there are those out there who watched those cars in period during their teens, who'll obviously now only be in their 30s, so they will be 'historic' to them. The Ralt RT 3 is 1981 car, and the Reynard 863, is of course a 1986 car, so both are well over 20 years old.

[SPECTATORSAL]

Originally Posted by rbm

I don't suppose any one got a picture of my slight off in the John Cooper trophy? I had drive shaft shear off, which took me off into and over Darrell Wood's Cooper mk8, (not a mark on the Darrel or the mk8 thank goodness) It would be interesting to see what it looked like from the outside as it was a tad hairy from the cockpit.

I took lots of film footage whilst spectating at Russell.... (which I intend to look through/edit at the weekend!)

[John Turner]

38 starters; 33 finishers.

The star grid of the day, and probably of the weekend, with a wonderful array of cars. The race was over 40 minutes with a compulsory pit stop although more than half the cars only had one driver. I'm afraid for those expecting a race report as such, you'll be disappointed; I was far too busy taking hundreds of pics to pick up on what were no doubt, many battles! Last year Luke Wos had cruised to victory in his Chevrolet Corvette, but this year, as he pointed out to me prior to the race, he had the prodigiously quick Triumph TR5 of Mark Campbell to contend with. Mark duly placed the Triumph on pole by 1.3 seconds which did not augur well for the rest of the field, and so it proved. He eased away to victory to win by 53 seconds, and during the race his best lap was nearly 1.8 seconds faster than Luke's who in turn was lapping a good second quicker than his pursuers. Harry Wyndham took 3rd a further 1 minute 27 seconds back. So, not much racing at the front then, and these were the only 3 to complete 29 laps.

There were a good number of Ten-Tenthers in this race, and to do the field justice, in pictorial terms, I'll have to do a double post (at least)! The first pic shows a good early battle between Spadge Hopkins (69 - Ginetta G4), Philip Rothwell (42 - Elan S3) and the very good value Glen Canning (27 - NSU TT). Eventually they finished 33rd, 25th and 16th respectively, the rapid NSU being the clear victor here. Next up we have Joe Ward in the Corvette C2 which finished 4th overall. The third pic shows V8 variety - the TVR Griffith of Louise and Jason Kennedy and we have already heard from Louise why they failed to finish, and Ford Falcon of Westley Harding who went on to finish 8th. An unlikely early duel at the tail of the field was between the very tentatively driven E-type of Norman Davidson-Kelly and our 'star' car, the Warwick 350GT of Celia Stevens and Ian Macdonald. At one stage Celia got the better of the Jaguar, despite having to lift half way down the straights for fear of over revving the Buick engine, so under geared was the car. We have also heard from Celia, the Warwick finishing 32nd after a very long pit stop. The E type was 29th. 48 is the 2nd place Corvette of Luke Wos and 36 is the Geoff Parkinson/John Reid TVR Tuscan, 18th. More to follow!:-

[John Turner]

John Leslie in his Reliant Sabre 6 came 27th, whilst the Marcos GT1800 of Mike Wroe was 19th. Paul Turnbull had qualified an excellent 5th in his Scimitar GTE but he didn't really have the grunt to match some of the bigger engined cars. Nevertheless he finished a fine 7th, making up for loss of outright straightline pace by carrying a lot of speed through places like the Esses. Laurence Bailey revelled in driving his Corvette Stingray to 11th. I just had to show this shot of Wayne Langridge locking up into the Russell Chicane, even though I do have better shots of the Mustang. The car did seem a bit of a handful both in the handling and braking department, but Wayne took it to 13th nonetheless. Be good to hear about the race from his point of view. Philip Rothwell, on his own this time, in the Chicane.

I've just decided, I'll select a few more for pics this race so, watch this space!

[John Turner]

The Morgan +8 of Philip and Robert McElvey came 15th. The Joe Ward Corvette again and the E-type of Mark Pollard and Bill Goodall which came in 9th. Next shot shows the Cliff Gary/Piers Bridgeman-Williams Sunbeam Alpine which has just spun off in the Esses. However the damage occurred much earlier, possibly even in qualifying, since it was carrying it from very early on in the race. Sadly the car did not finish. Next, 93 is the MGC GT of Mike McBride, which finished 22nd, followed out of the Esses by the Alfa GTV of Andy Gill and Jim Utting (26th) and Harry Wyndham's E-type. Luke Wos spun out of the Esses at one stage having got very slightly out of shape lapping a backmarker coming into the second part of the Esses. Luke could be forgiven this rare error since that car has at least 600bhp! This picture of Wayne Langridge in the Mustang was taken just before the previous lock up depicted! Finally, another picture of the Warwick GT350, this time in the hands of Ian MacDonald, who enjoyed putting the power down when exiting the Russell Chicane as every time the back end stepped out.

Apologies for the fact that some of the smaller cars have been neglected.

[zefarelly]

greast to see a scimitar competitive, and they're peanuts cheap too

the wheels on the Warwick look like they came off a Raleigh push bike they're so thin

Spadge went pretty well in his new G4 too . . .until he ran out of motion lotion!

[turbster]

Originally Posted by zefarelly

greast to see a scimitar competitive, and they're peanuts cheap too

Yeah the Scimitar bit was cheap, the competitive bit not so

Love the picture John, I'll have to sign up to your website and see what others you've got....

[Mike Wroe]

Great Photos John, I can almost read how many revs I was pulling (to few thats why I'm so slow!). Terrific meeting for which all praise to CSCC and the officials & marshals, roll on Brands.

[V10Mike]

Originally Posted by Celia Stevens

Thanks guys for all the nice things you've said, we had a great day, unfortunately we forgot to screw the dash in so it fell on me going through the bombhole and struggle though I did I found it impossible to stuff it back and race the car at the same time! so we lost 5 or 6 laps whilst we sorted it. Never mind an excellent day with super people, clean racing and run excellently. Good to see John T and Gt Dave, also Louise and Jason who said it was nice to meet in England for a change! Lots of familiar friendly faces, superb weather and a car with lots of potential, what more could you ask for?

I was particularly interested in the performance of the Warwick as I drive a very close relation, a Gordon-Keeble. You seemed to have plenty of power, but struggling for grip through Russell -do you know if this is just tyres or is it suspension set-up? I believe the Warwick has similar suspension to the G-K -does that include no ARBs as standard? Anyway, good luck with further development, and I hope to see you out again.

Overall I thought it was a great meeting -the battle in the final race between the Caterhams and the RAM was especially thrilling, with some stunningly skillful driving by all.

[Terry Scannell]

Hi John, superb reports and brilliant pics -please keep up the good work! Your reports certainly help to fill in the detail during the periods when I was otherwise engaged during the weekend!

Hope to see you at the HSCC Snet at the end of May - make sure you pop into RC and say hello. I'm sure that you will enjoy that meeting too!

Terry

[Moosehead]

Excellent report and pictures John, I too will be signing up for your site shortly.

According to my guy in the pitlane the Alpine may have incurred its damage during a startline incident with the Falcon but I can't say for definite.

Re: my race.............. Hah, I was out-psyched by Joe Ward in the assembly area, he told me it was his first standing start in that car and that it bogged down so to be aware..........my starts are normally pretty good as I came from 16yrs hillclimb & sprints but this time I paid too much attention to Joe's car and just sat on the line with the tyres lit up.......I'll be ready for him next time

After the first few laps I was in a situation where I couldn't catch the cars in front but those behind weren't a threat either so just had to keep going. However, the temperatures were a little on the high side so I cut the revs on the straights and then the brake issues started! Every lap became a new adventure. For a number of laps I had a rock hard pedal (which is most unusual) but very little retardation, then we had the wheel locking stage as in Johns pic. At the pitstop I saw plumes of smoke from the drivers side rear wheel and guessed that the halfshaft seals were leaking oil onto the brakes (I'm currently awaiting a new axle case to sort that but money & other factors are getting in the way). Then after the pit stop I had major brain fade caused by the off season as I forgot how to pump the brakes up correctly....doh....but once I remembered we were ok.

It was a lonely race for me to 13th which was a little disapointing as I'd expected to be in the top ten.

Strip down back home revealed all the lining missing from the drivers side shoes.....just a whole load of dust.(there was at least a third of the lining left before the race....enough for at least two races usually)....ooops, but at least it explains what I was experiencing.

I must thank the scrutineers who switched on the scales for me after overhearing me talking to my mate about the car's weight which had always been a mystery......now I know.....thanks guys

[White flag man]

Thanks for the pics and reports John.
Nice to see the NSU. I haven't seen one of those racing since I went to Albi (France) in 1972!

[terence]

[QUOTE=Moosehead;2437741]Excellent report and pictures John, I too will be signing up for your site shortly.

According to my guy in the pitlane the Alpine may have incurred its damage during a startline incident with the Falcon but I can't say for definite.

Re: my race.............. Hah, I was out-psyched by Joe Ward in the assembly area, he told me it was his first standing start in that car and that it bogged down so to be aware..........my starts are normally pretty good as I came from 16yrs hillclimb & sprints but this time I paid too much attention to Joe's car and just sat on the line with the tyres lit up.......I'll be ready for him next time[Quote]

Joe never changes

[John Turner]

Originally Posted by V10Mike

I was particularly interested in the performance of the Warwick as I drive a very close relation, a Gordon-Keeble. You seemed to have plenty of power, but struggling for grip through Russell -do you know if this is just tyres or is it suspension set-up? I believe the Warwick has similar suspension to the G-K -does that include no ARBs as standard? Anyway, good luck with further development, and I hope to see you out again.

Overall I thought it was a great meeting -the battle in the final race between the Caterhams and the RAM was especially thrilling, with some stunningly skillful driving by all.

So, it was you that I was parked behind, Mike? Lovely car.

[John Turner]

11 starters; 8 Finishers.

This was a disappointingly small field and it soon spread out with just one really good dice going on. Nigel Ashman took hold of this 15 minute race and won pretty much as he pleased in his Cooper Mk11. However there was an excellent battle for 2nd place between Gordon Russell and Neil Hodges, both in Cooper Mk8s, only settled towards the end of the race when Hodges spun on the exit of the Russell Chicane.

Below, we see the Cooper Mk10 (74) of Steve Jones who finished 4th, the Cooper Mk2 'Kenya' (48) of Richard Bishop-Miller, who has already told us about his sadly short race, Darrell Woods (34) in yet another Mk8 which finished 6th, Nigel Ashman, carrying the appropriate No1, the excellent duel between Russell (27) and Hodges, and finally, Mark Parker leaning into the Russell Chicane in his Wirhart (is that correct? should it be Wishart?) on his way to 7th:-

[zefarelly]

|I sort of knew that . .like a COrtina!

Originally Posted by turbster

Yeah the Scimitar bit was cheap, the competitive bit not so ..

[V10Mike]

Originally Posted by John Turner

So, it was you that I was parked behind, Mike? Lovely car.

Yes indeed, that was me. Thanks for the compliment, I've put a lot of effort into it. Not quite standard -6.3 litre stroker SBC, Edelbrock heads, roller cam, Muncie M21, Harvey Bailey ARB's etc. I'd be tempted to race it if it was not so tidy. I don't think the brakes would last long, though!

Nice M6 -I wish I'd said hello!

[John Turner]

Thanks, Mike; we'll catch up, I'm sure. The M6, whilst mechanically good, is now in need of a body restoration but I simply can't afford it at the moment!

Thanks to all for kind remarks. Will crack on with the Future Classics race, tomorrow.