HSCC Autosport 3hr Snett 30th/31st May

[Mike Bell]

Originally Posted by Andrew Kitson

The wind can still be biting cold though!

Well hardened to it, so bring it on! No argument among weather chaps and chapesses that it is going to be anything but DRY, so getting excited at prospect of first 3hr race- anyone reading this come and say hi!

Suzanne, James, Mike, Garage 17, Red/Black MGB No:95

[zefarelly]

all loaded up here, leaving after a leisurely breakfast.
commiserations to team Drabble, Simons got corroded waterways and blew his head gasket, his box was weeping as well, but we don't really need to go there!

[Tainan]

I remember being told in my geography lessons that Norfolk is the driest area in England, but I don't think I've ever been to Snet without getting rained on! Hopefully not this weekend then.

[Peter Mallett]

Where will the results from today be published? I can't find MST anywhere.

[Unit 2 Racing]

www.mstworld.com then clik on UK Events 2009 top right corner this may be hidden, they don't make it easy.

Only 6 starters & 3 finishers in the Derek Bell Trophy.

[John Turner]

Fabulous day; mixed fortunes for various cars/drivers; yes, DBT was a big disappointment because we lost several cars during qualifying. Grid for the 3 hours was stunning. I think that this race came of age today, and is now a serious enduro; there was some very strong performances. More of all this anon, but for now I'm looking forward to tomorrow!

[Mike Bell]

Originally Posted by John Turner

Fabulous day. Grid for the 3 hours was stunning. I think that this race came of age today, and is now a serious enduro; there was some very strong performances.

Wow! A great day and a great race. Having just started 3rd season racing, what a privilege to be in an event like the 3hr! Our tactics were simple- stick to rev limit, watch the temp and don't bend it. Mission accomplished with 23rd place- in what is essentially a race prepped road car. Big thanks to the HSCC and all concerned for putting on a fantastic event, all the marshals and MSVR staff, and of course Suzanne & James for letting me be part of the team!

Here's to next year!

[zefarelly]

Twas good to finally meet John T, the weather was fantastic, if a little breezy, good to catch up with JR (I'll hold you to the offer, and thanks) AK, SH, FL, CS, RW, also Colin and a others in the tin top dept . . .

the 3 hour was great, well done Roger on first proper Guards car home in the race, and its always great to see the look on drivers/team peoples faces just to finish a decent enduro race be its 5th or 35th it really is a great race. I'd give broadest grin award to Ian Conway . . . I've not seen him DNF but I'm sure he'd look happier than some on the podium! maybe next year it could run like the 6 hour instead of post 66 SR's ? please Graham?

It was a very laid back relaxed atmosphere as well . . . at least our end of the paddock. I'm sure the weather helped ( and wine from a few staggerers we saw last night)

I don't know what happened in HFF today but I hope the damage to cars is worse than damage to drivers and any/those hurt are ok.. SPeaking to a few there was a discussion betwixt races, although I don't think the incidents were mallicious.

I don't know what happened to us . . . for some reason the breather was blowing oil into the catch tank, and we started running hotter than normal (90) in qually and felt fluffy, wasn't puling well, the points had closed up a bit and we rectified that, changed the oil and checked what we could . . . . . . Qually times were poor, 1:33, last yer was 1:32 and 1:31 in the race . . . . I got a good start (which is about the only thing I am good at!) taking 4 places or so only to be driven wide and off the road at the first corner by a Mustang and loose all the places . . . . I wasn't pulling the revs on the straights and knew what was in store after a lap . . it only took another run down the back straight with a strong head wind to realise all wasn't well . . . so I came into the pits and retired, oil in the catch tank again and water climbing to 100+ . . . although the last lap I backed off to get home, and temp dropped to 90, oddly the engine was running fine . . . very dissapointing for a dyno'd engine which has given us the best results yet and without problems . . .put it in the car and its all gone King Kong . . .

on the plus side the camper van mods we've made (and nearly finished!) are a vast improvement and made everything that much easier for the family.

MSV need to use some of the bar price money to install power points for racers camping in the paddock, and MArshalls in the field . . thanks to all the MArshalls and to those we chatted and had a good laugh with to over a beer on Sat night . . . I still can't forgive you for watching talentless TV though!

oh, one last thing, Rogers Chinky chopper paddock express will not impress Esper, and has only spurred me on to get the Lambretta done for Spa. . .

[terence]

It was a valiant effort Mike,congratulations to you all. A Fourth in class certainly is not so bad,is it.?It only needed one hicough from one of the other teams!

[zefarelly]

I forgot to mention you Terry . . .thanks for the brake test

[terence]

I was going to do a bit more of a write up Zef,[it was good to see you all again,I did expect to see Arthur driving you away this evening!. I did wave just as you pulled away but I was due back on "dutie" so didn't have time to run over to you.Sorry it turned out the way it did though[at least it saved having to get held up behind a Beemer again but it was reassuring to know your brakes worked,

[Mike Bell]

Originally Posted by terence bower

It was a valiant effort Mike,congratulations to you all. A Fourth in class certainly is not so bad,is it.?It only needed one hicough from one of the other teams!

Thanks, Terry. I forgot to add that after my comments about losing out behind the SC at Brands, this time with you driving it we gained instead!

[terence]

Glad it worked that way for you,just a shame that some other drivers do not realise that SC periods CAN work in thier favor.

[John Turner]

First of all, apologies to those I didn't get to meet or catch up with. I seemed to be busy (in a good way, though) throughout both days. It was great to meet Terry Scannell, Simon Benoy, Daryl Taylor, Gregory Thornton, Matthew Sturmer, Stuart Tizzard, and Zef (yes, really - met his Cortina GT before but not him!) all for the first time, as well as catching up with many others. Sorry that Simon Drabble wasn't there (as noted by others) and I missed JR, unfortunately.

Good post from Zef; it was very disappointing that the car only came round a couple of times, so must have been a great deal worse for you.

However, I don't think that we will lose the post 1966 cars, and from a spectators view, I don't think that we want to! Although, the 3 Hours harps back to the old Guard's Trophy days, we should think of this as a rejuvenated version by the HSCC and that the series runs all through the year with the Pre 68 Invitation class, so the 3 Hours really ought to include them. Don't forget, too, that for the last 2 years this race could have been won by the (transmission fagile?) Shipman/Hales Crossle, a car that would still be eligible if the pre 66 restriction was applied. However more of this anon. Apart from the accidents that marred the HFF both in qualifying and their first race, and the DBT debacle (an incredible combination of unfortunate circumstances leading to such depleted numbers, unlikely ever to be repeated), this was a truly superb two day event organised by Grahame White and the team; great grids and racing in excellent weather, all accompanied by a great commentary from the encyclopaedic Marcus Pye. A very well done, to all!

I'll crack on with my pictorial review asap, but am hoping for loads of input from all the other Ten Tenthers who were there, whether they be drivers, organisers, preppers, marshals or speccies!

[John Turner]

I'm guessing, no captions necessary!

[rogerwills]

A very special thanks from me to John Turner and Andrew Kitson - I was totally blown away by it all, as I'm sure Simon was as well.

[Andrew Kitson]

No worries Roger, great to see you and other tenthers, sorry to have missed JR, will be in touch John. Some of my pics here, what a fantastic event!
http://andrewkitson1.fotopic.net/c1706078.html

[Andrew Kitson]

Also some shots of some of the other races here:
http://andrewkitson1.fotopic.net/c1706160.html

[bigvalveelan]

Well, it was my first ever visit to Snett or even Norfolk for that matter, so I was chuffed to qualify my little red Elan 4th for the Historic Roadsports race, behind the mighty V8's - Cobra, Morgan, Griffith.
I might have fancied my chances of spoiling their party if only I didn't have Soft tyres for the race. I knew they were wrong in qualifying but thing is I'd never expected it be so warm that far East!

I held on for a few laps, then as the race progressed decided I'd to happy with 4th or anything that fell my way when my distributor literally ate itself. Rotor arm chewed its way upwards til there was nothing metal or carbon left - maybe I should have joined the herd and bought a modern lookalike dizzy packed with illegal electronics, but that doesn't seem the point of Historic racing.

So I left a bit disappointed, but at least I know what was wrong and hope to be back in the hunt at Castle Combe in a couple of weeks.

On another note, it seems that there may be an issue with newly manufactured Webers. Marler's car became the fourth Elan in as many weeks to catch fire when his Spanish Webers leaked on the Friday testing and resulted in flames licking up around his column into his cockpit - and he wasn't happy about t. Fortunately his extinguisher saved the day and he was able to switch carbs and burnt bits in time for Saturday's race.

Paul (Elan #46)

[zefarelly]

welcome Paul . . . . I had a customer moaning at me because I glued his rotor arm on in your race! his engineering knowledge is such that a blown exhaust manifold gasket caused him to retire with what he thought was a burnt valve or a bent pushrod . . . my fault obviously

Spanish Webers are rubbish a rebuilt set of Italians are far superior.

[John Turner]

23 starters; I'm reckoning about 17 proper finishers; the results sheet doesn't classify the DNFs.

Supported by Zircotec, this was a 30 minute race which included a compulsory 30 second pit stop. I'm afraid I missed much of this, as I was participating in a little presentation for a couple of drivers, so it was a bit of a rush job, snatching some pics starting at Riches Corner and working my way round Sear Corner to the end of the Revett Straight (yes, I did use my car) and I'm afraid it has led to much image scrappage and reduced pic choice! Sorry!

I arrived at Riches to find the little Turner Mk3 of Geoff Sizzey parked up; a great shame, as he had only completed 6 laps, and I don't think that I have seen either car or driver run before in this series (but I stand to be corrected!). For obvious reasons I cannot tell you too much about the race itself, so just a little narrative with the images.

The winner was Simon Crompton ( he used to race BMWs didn't he?) in a really nice orignal looking AC Cobra (77) from Julian Dodd (65 - TVR Griffith). My recollection is that James Paterson had caught and passed Dodd for 2nd in the dying moments of the race only to have to pull off and retire the multi coloured Morgan Plus 8 on the penultimate lap. We've heard from Paul Tooms (thanks, Paul) and his trial and tribulations but this is the best I can do to present an image of his Elan (46). Richard Owen's TR2 (91) on his way to 17th about to be lapped by 14th placed Rachael Watts in her Elan (50) which was doing interesting things with its pop up headlamps! Very unusual to see was the Volvo 1800S of Steven Bee which completed 14 laps (winner did 21), so I don't think it was running at the end, and finally (again it's the best I can do, James) is James Owen passing under the road bridge before the Esses on his way to 8th. He finished just 3 seconds behind 7th place Colin Sharp, so a good result for the TR5 boys!

[Andrew Kitson]

Nice one JT, considering the rush! James retired the Morgan 'Noddy' as he ran out of fuel on Revett.

[restyles]

A great meeting thoroughly enjoyed. The Autosport 3 hours really is a very special event. I love it almost as much as the original events of the late 50s early 60s. I can't remember 3 hours going so quickly since last years event. As you said J T the whole thing was made even better by the 'mega knowledge' of commentator Marcus Pye. Sundays racing was also superb. It was a shame however that there were a few quite serious incidents. But I guess that as long as racers race hard the odd incident is inevitable. Great weekend.. roll on the next one. I wonder if it would be possible to run the 3 hours into darkness (later in the year) as it used to be back in the day ? Now that would be good !

[Cliff Ryan]

I shared Ian Conway's MGB with him for the 3 hour. The reason for the biggest grin of the weekend was that we finished 28th after an eventful race and found the likely cause of Ian's a miserable season so far due to a misfire.
The car had been on the rolling road a few times, a lot of the ignition system was replaced and a test session track day, so he had done a lot to try to trace the misfire. However, it returned in practice, so we each did our 3 laps and qualified 37 out of 39.
Ian borrowed a coil from a friend's MGB, being the only part of the ignition system not replaced and we thought the misfire was sorted, but no. So Ian did the first hour, until he was wrongfooted by two faster cars at Russells and hit the tyre barrier, causing the first safety car. Ian brought the car back to the pits and we patched it up and hotwired the ignition, to bypass the ignition switch and rev counter and Ian went back out - MISFIRE GONE BIG SMILES!!!
I took over after about 90 minutes and after a few laps came in with a punctured rear left. Gary and Ian changed the wheel and I went back out for just over an hour, unlapping us a few times and crawling up the placings. Ian then did the last twenty odd minutes, clawing back more laps and places so we finished 28th - BIG GRINS ALL ROUND!!!
Thanks to Ian for the drive, Gary for the spannering, HSCC and the officials for a great race meeting, the marshalls and all the help from fellow competitors for our eventful 3 hours.

[Terry Scannell]

Well what can I say! An absolutely superb weekend!

The HSCC Autosport 3hr meeting just seems to get better each year - and that from what was an extremely high standard 3 years ago when it was reinstated.

What makes it so good - the positive spirit of everyone involved to make it work and be so enjoyable - the teams / drivers, Grahame, Alan and all the HSCC team, the marshals, the MSV circuit staff, rescue, medical and recovery teams all working together with one aim to make it a success. Well done to everyone involved!

Yes the sun helps but we have this aspect booked well in advance each year!! (Please note once again Nick B, Snett is not as cold and wet as some will have you believe!)

It was great to meet up with so many friends over the weekend - the only downside to this is that many I have known as many years as some of the cars are old!

It was almost like an unofficial Ashtune Race Hire reunion from 1974/5 with Steve Bradley,(Steve's got a lot to answer for getting me involved in this wonderful sport bolting Merlyn Mk11's and Van Dieman RF73/74/75's together) Simon Hadfield and Richard Piper all present and then of course Colin Thorpe keeping Ollie under control in CF3! It was Colin who allowed me to be a mechanic on F3 Ralt RT1's and Argo JM6's when the now CF3's were brand new! It's a great strength of the HSCC that there are people just like Colin who after all these years are still so enthusiastic and passionate about the sport.

Also great to meet up with John T, Andrew K, Mike Bell and James Paterson and Mark Dunham over the weekend. Sorry I didn't have more time to chat but it did get a bit busy at times in RC over the weekend!!

I would also just like to say a really big thank to our Safety Car teams Terry Bower & Chris Ansell, Steve Bradley & Russell Davies for doing a brilliant job over the weekend - it was really a pleasure to work you all throughout and your efforts well appreciated by the whole race control team upstairs.

Now where's that 2010 diary - have a date to pencil in!!

Terry