Donington Top Hat Festival 1/2 May

[Peter Mallett]

TIMETABLE can be viewed here.

[Ian Sowman]

Originally Posted by Peter Mallett

TIMETABLE can be viewed here.

http://www.brscc.co.uk/championships...les/dp2may.pdf

That link may work better

[Peter Mallett]

hmm,

Same link.

[Ian Sowman]

Only yours has an additional http:// in and won't work :P (doubtless you will now edit it to make me look an idiot )

[Asp]

Originally Posted by Ian Sowman

Only yours has an additional http:// in and won't work :P (doubtless you will now edit it to make me look an idiot )

Actually, the one you quoted works
And I won't edit it, it's difficult to make you look any more like an idiot than you already do!
Anyway, - looks like a cracking meeting Peter, sadly I'll be in the middle of my exams so won't be there

[zefarelly]

marvellous . . . .we'll be there, with all bolts extra tight !!!

strike a light . . .7am signing on . . . .better secure that Lavazza espresso sponsorship

[Peter Mallett]

Well I'm on a plane to the UK at 05:25 Friday morning. The hotel is booked. Zef's ordered the wine but seeing as he's got an early start I guess I'll have to drink his share.

And I'm told the car is ready *Ken?*. Looking forward to it. Who else is going?

[simon drabble]

yup I will be there - first races of the season following a longer winter rebuild than anticipated - racing in the Gentlemen Drivers Sports Racer Series on Sunday and Cloth Cap and Sebring Salute on Monday so a busy weekend!

[simon drabble]

hope everyone enjoyed themselves! My weekend was mixed with a tactical error in Cloth Cap race costing me dearly (as well as spinning off twice in the downfall!!)
Sebring Salute went well but gave away a class win on the last lap was pretty frustrating! and Gentlemen Drivers Sebring Salute was good but the driving was very hard. Sytner was in fighting form.....
Sorry to hear Zeferally had probs with his gearbox, how did the other 10/10thers do?

[Andrew Palmer]

I was there Marshalling on Monday at Post 4 (Redgate), I think some Ten-tenths visited use but did not introduce themselves. Espeically in the last race sorry about the oil we treated the best we could.

[simon drabble]

hahhah i went off there once in the Cloth Cap but luckily managed to back out and almost about 2 laps later just after the rain
in the sebring salute it was pretty greasy all the way round (redgate was one of the less slippery patches (I was the blue Merlyn number 40)
it was a very well organised weekend and hope you had as much fun as we did!

[zefarelly]

I struggled with redgate everytime in qualifying, it was slippery from there to the top of the hill, all the way through craners and old hairpin . . . quite good fune once I got the hang of it though !

unfortunately the gearbox broke on the slowing down lap of qualifying, stripped it down in the paddock and the mainshaft had snapped . . .race over, gutted!

I need to arrange a smash and grab at Quaife . . .I can't afford to do much about it at the moment, but we have until the end of June to try and sort something out before we race again

[Peter Mallett]

Great weekend but for a couple of misfortunes. No wonder the oil price is so high, most of it is coating the track!

I had some really lurid slides at McLeans in practice and in the race at Redgate when I braked and the front went left at the rear went right!

We were there all weekend and watched some great racing. I was in that last race Andrew, and having been mauled by a pillock in a Mustang in practice I was hoping for better in the race. Sadly a slow qualifying (after the mauling) due not in part to a Jaguar dumping oil all around the circuit I started 9th. Got myself to fifth but then realised I couldn't pull maximum revs (I suspect the rev limiter is failing) so fell back again to 7th at the end.

The safety car period did me no favours either. It came out as I was lapping a car and being a novice he refused to speed up and catch the two cars in front (they were my targets) I understand my gesticulatons, as I tried to get him to move, were a talking point.

But it was a great weekend and I hope we can be back there again next year.

My next outing is in July when hopefully the MG Car Club will let me do their 75km race.

BTW Zef,

The Craner Curves were no more slippery than normal. It feels like its slippery because the car goes very light. What you were probably getting was a four wheel drift in top! Well done.

[Al Weyman]

Sounds fun Peter, tell me how much petrol do you get through in the half hour race or do you refuel as I don't reckon my Chevy tank would go the distance.

[Peter Mallett]

40 litres is about itt for 30 mins at donington. Spa, surprisingly, is around 60 for an hour. Much easier on the gearing. Mostly 3rd and 4th gear corners with long top gear sections.

[Al Weyman]

How many laps/miles did you cover Peter, my car will probably only do max 5 to the gallon at speed and I only have a 10 gallon tank (I think!) sounds like it may be a bit tight, I don't suppose they allow refueling do they?

[Peter Mallett]

Al,

I generaly work on 6 mpg. Haven't looked at the number of laps because it means nothing. We had five of them (I think) behind the pace car!

10 gals might just do it. (45 litres).

[Al Weyman]

Ok Peter thanks. I have a smaller carb on this car so you never know it may be a bit more economical :-) Got the engine all up and running nice now incidently, few more jobs and it will be ready. What was that bit I read in Motorsport that they running to Appendix K, does that go for the 70's cars as well?

[simon drabble]

70's is not FIA at this stage but if you are building a car it would make sense to build it to FIA spec. In my earlier post I clearly meant to say Sports Racer series rather than Sebring salute before Carol Spagg gets upset!
The weekend was an incredible feat of organisation with as far as I am aware all races going full distance. The pace car had some fun and games in the SRS as it picked up the wrong car (5th instead of lead) it revved my up as I then presumed I was doing a lot better than I really was!!! The grids for all the races were amazing. One of my spanners brought a drag racing mate with him and he was converted after walking round the paddock (and after seeing the line of rubber Bill Wykeham left on the start of the Gentleman Drivers race in John Bendalls immaculate Bizzarini ;-) )

[zefarelly]

The whole FiA thing has been well threaded already, and is generally vague for post 66

I was a little dissapointed at the amount of non FiA cars in the TopHat race, but overall the spirit is very good, fortunately some of the non conforming cars don't have the best drivers !

your dead right Peter, I was hitting 4th and the whole car was drifting, and I struggled round Redgate every time ! a 1:34 in qualifying is respectable for a GT though I think, and I know theres more to come, I'm still running the same tyres I fitted in March 2004 on the back !!!