Thoroughbred Sportscars (MGCC) Thruxton 30th July - Page 2

MGDavid · 31 Jul 2011, 11:34 (Ref:2933857)

Ron said at the briefing it was the very first time MGCC had run a whole meeting at Thruxton - let's hope it's the start of many. Great circuit, loved the quick bit out the back. At last we have the ZS suspension sorted, son was 6th o/a and won the class so was deservedly very pleased. Less said about my lap times the better - beginning to think something wrong, not sure if it's mind or body

kipper · 31 Jul 2011, 18:31 (Ref:2934125)

A good day marshalling and some entertaining rcing, particularly within the HRDA and Thoughbreds races. Also quite a few 'interesting' moments at Church corner.

Al Weyman · 31 Jul 2011, 19:58 (Ref:2934163)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Peter Scillitoe

Just got back home from the most fantastic day at Thruxton (marshalling not driving). Great grids, fantastic racing, club racing at it's very best (and like it used to be). THIS is what the BBC should be showing on Sunday afternoons not Bernie's circus. Am I the only one to think that Rupert Murdoch and BE is a marriage made in heaven and both are truly fit and proper persons to run F1.

If we had a facebook style 'Like' button I would have pressed that!

mscott · 31 Jul 2011, 20:12 (Ref:2934175)

Me and dad popped along to this one for the day. As already said it was a great days racing action and excellent value for money for the spectators and sounds pretty reasonable for the drivers aswell. Well done to all involved a very well run day with suprb proper gentleman driving but real good close racing. Felt sorry for the guy in the black/red healey that unfortunatly got unintentionally nerfed off at the complex hope the damage wasnt too bad as the car and driver looked pretty new to the series. Hope all ok and car is repairable.

Rikki Cann · 1 Aug 2011, 06:22 (Ref:2934308)

Great to see in the results that the McCarthy boys came first and second in one race with only a tenth between them at the end, must have been some race to watch, well done Russ and Spencer.

LAK · 1 Aug 2011, 08:29 (Ref:2934350)

Well what can I say other than Julius has done it again! Along with the MGCC who as always run a very efficient race meeting, the marshals, the sun that came out for the afternoon and a magical and very challenging track, we couldn't have asked for a more perfect day.

Other than a minor drama at scrutineering when the Fiat Abarth's starter button stopped working both the Abarth and Aurelia worked faultlessly. I got myself in "pole" position in the assembly area with Jason beside me and I flew off when given the wave. Thankfully I remembered where the track went (only raced at Thruxton once before 2 years ago) and after a lap I got overtaken by my wonderful husband in the glorious Aurelia - it truly is a magnificant car to watch and Jason drives it very well. I kept my head down, tried to get tows from every car that passed me (sadly very few) and rejoiced when I saw the speedo hit 100 mph before the last chicance. Not bad for 903cc!

Jason qualified in the top half of the field and third in class so he was satisfied and I was also third in class and unsurprisingly lower down the grid. No issues with either car but Jason was worried that he was running out of front tyres.

So off to the grid - by this time the sun was blazing and there were loads of spectators around the track. If I say so myself I made a cracking start (this rear engine thing is great!) and managed to overtake a few cars and get into second in class. I was following the class leading Moggy Minor co-driven by none other than Mr Paul O'Neill, BTCC driver and thoroughly lovely man. He was very fast and smooth in the car - I did edge past him once but he got past me under brakes into the final chicane. And then I had a 15 minute battle with the A40 in my class which I'd overtaken - we were door handle to door handle - he late braking into the chicanes and me trying to keep momentum for the fast bits. Despite never having been on a track with him, we were confident enough to literally be inches apart through Church on many occasions knowing that each would give room to the other - absolutely amazing!

That battle came to an end when I fluffed a gear out of the second chicane but knowing that I was a single driver so could probably do a reasonable a pit stop, I decided to keep him in view and not over stress the car. As luck would have it the safety car came out and within a lap I'd got into the pits for a super fast stop. When I got back out there was no sign of my class mates and I later found out that they both left it a little late to take advantage of the safety car.

So I could see Jason about 7 cars in front of me and couldn't work out if he'd lapped me or not. It turns out that he dove straight into the pits as soon as the yellows came out which would have worked brilliantly but he got stuck in red lights at the end of the pit lane before the safety car had been deployed. The front tyres then started to slide a lot so he decided to take it easy for the final 10+ minutes which unfortunately meant being overtaken for the class lead.

So I was still not sure really where I was but decided to spend the last part of the race trying to keep Arthur Fitchett-Smith in the Sunbeam Rapier in sight (I knew he was a lot faster but used him as a target) and to try to keep as smooth as possible. This worked to perfection and I did my fastest lap of the race in the penultimate lap, 2 seconds faster than practice.

So that was that - a very good 2nd in class for the Aurelia, yet again showing that the car is both competitive and very well suited to Thruxton. And as for the go kart Abarth - who would think that such a little thing could make up 12 positions and end up taking the class win against some very well driven machinery in the race and also in class and on the fastest track in the country? Bearing in mind it was only my 3rd race in the car and it's never done a 45 min race (with us), we're delighted with the performance - it never missed a beat and kept getting faster.

Julius as ever gave a most entertaining and fun prize giving. The sadness for us is that there is only one more race to go in October.

Well done to Brian A - sorry we didn't get to talk much or see your race - congratulations and it was lovely to catch up with Simon D.

AGD A105/6 · 1 Aug 2011, 09:05 (Ref:2934370)

Great race for us as well!
I approached the day with some trepidation, as we had made some changes to the suspension without the chance to test anything. Fortunately after the first qual session, shared with the MG Metros, Roberto reported an overall improvement so that was a major relief, we still have too much understeer though. We had starting problems before my qual and the engine was a bit rough for the first lap but sorted itself out and I posted a time ~5 seconds slower than Roberto which put us 23rd. Sounds poor but I was quite happy, having only raced here twice before.

The team decided the carbs needed a little tweaking which was still happening 15 minutes before being called for the race, hardly a balm for the pre-race nerves. No sign of Pete Blanchett in the A50, don’t know why. The PV444 pulled off on the green flag lap. Forming up appeared brief from the back but I gather there were some raised voices up at the sharp end ? Everyone seemed to get a clean start and for me the first lap was a splendid battle with the gorgeous Borgward and the nimble Rapier. Through the front it looked like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJ2V5MUY6g0
Whilst from the rear all this was happening:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOXDwuNlDx0
Plenty of side-by-side, too!

Things settled down a bit after a couple of laps, then it became apparent Tom Harris in front was having to work quite hard to keep 1.8 tons of Jaguar Mk7 on the black stuff. Although he could just outdrag me, he had to brake much earlier for the 2 main braking points, so if I could get the inside line approaching the chicane, I should get a clean pass, and after a few laps of investigation, it all came together:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSXIxtJLfrc

Now the Master Plan was to catch up with the Jason Kennedy / Max Cawthorn battle; I saw Jason’s lovely Aurelia pass Max’s Wolseley and I thought I might be able to do the same, and if not, hand over to Roberto who could surely do so, but the Plan unravelled with expensive consequences for Malcolm Harrison, as the Les Leston Volvo lost a halfshaft and quite a lot of rear end, leaving the car beached after Seagrave with boot lid and other bits in the track. I expected a red flag at this point but the safety car signs came out; I hadn’t clocked the pitlane was now open so sailed on after Max, but glancing sideways the pits looked chaotic, and well worth avoiding. Max and I now had clear space and took advantage, the drivers’ briefing notes said “You are in a race situation not going shopping” so we carried on. No overtaking obviously but Max was pressing on so I stayed out figuring we might make up some places. By pure luck, that’s what happened, we caught up with the crocodile behind the safety car after 2 laps, just at the chicane so both dived in for the driver change. Some time spent rehearsing the driver change was well worth it as Roberto exited before Max, and the stricken Volvo was away within a lap so the race could resume.

Roberto then posted some stellar laps to bring us home in 11th with a nice pot for 3rd in class, after Nick Naismith’s A95 expired with overheating issues and Pete Burton’s Jaguar withdrew. Great to see Bruce’s Magnette getting a class win, pots for both the Kennedys, one for Aidan and John in their 1098cc A40 and one for the Beevers in the Rover!

Elation turned to horror when unpacking at home, as I realised I had forgotten to dish out the plum cake my wife had baked specially for the team. Cloud Nine to Doghouse in a nanosecond, a new personal best…

Thanks to Julius and team for putting on another great race and to all the MGCC officials and marshalls who put in some long hours to make the day happen.
Roll on Croft next week and Snetterton in October!

**John Turner** · 1 Aug 2011, 11:29 (Ref:2934433)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Andrew Davenall

Elation turned to horror when unpacking at home, as I realised I had forgotten to dish out the plum cake my wife had baked specially for the team. Cloud Nine to Doghouse in a nanosecond, a new personal best…

Wonderful accounts from both Louise and Andrew. Many thanks.

brands · 1 Aug 2011, 23:12 (Ref:2934762)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rikki Cann

Great to see in the results that the McCarthy boys came first and second in one race with only a tenth between them at the end, must have been some race to watch, well done Russ and Spencer.

They spent the second half of the race battling for the lead, with the positions changing several times.

When I get some time I will post some other pics from the meeting.

Kelvin · 2 Aug 2011, 09:06 (Ref:2934882)

To any HRDC drivers reading this, there appears to be some issues the HRDC website, hopefully the IT people who host the site will fix it shortly..

I was going to put a message on the website last night to say that a selection of photos would be in the gallery in a few days time, I am awaiting a CD with Jeff Bloxhams pitures, which should arrive today.

Great videos Andrew, can we use these on the HRDC site?
and to LAK, nice to meet and chat with you on saturday.

Kelvin
HRDC web bloke/photographer

LAK · 2 Aug 2011, 11:02 (Ref:2934924)

Andrew, a great write up and really good videos again. I feel we should be paying you something as you've managed to feature both the Aurelia and my little Fiat (reverse camera and hard to spot due to ridiculous small size of the car!)! I swear you must think we're stalking you on the track...

In my over exhuberance I forgot to congratulate all those that won pots - Andrew, we could see you were very happy and very well deserved. Also great news for Mr and Mrs Beever - they drove incredibly well on such a challenging circuit in their first racing season.

Kelvin - great to meet you also. I can't wait to see the pictures which I'm sure will be superb as usual.

Honestly after the buzz of the weekend driving the little bullet Fiat, normal life does seem a little slow...

RaeB · 2 Aug 2011, 11:43 (Ref:2934934)

Quote:

Originally Posted by mscott

Felt sorry for the guy in the black/red healey that unfortunatly got unintentionally nerfed off at the complex hope the damage wasnt too bad as the car and driver looked pretty new to the series. Hope all ok and car is repairable.

We were gutted about the car but most importantly, our driver got out injury free. The car is repairable and will be fixed soon. Hope to be back out soon.

Rachel

Kelvin · 2 Aug 2011, 14:04 (Ref:2935000)

re website: hrdc.eu

It appears there is some technical issue, which will be resolved in 3 -5 days.
I will in the meantime be updating both my Own and the HDRC Flickr accounts with photos... I'll post links when complete..

Kelvin

AGD A105/6 · 2 Aug 2011, 14:40 (Ref:2935010)

[QUOTE=LAK;2934924]I feel we should be paying you something as you've managed to feature both the Aurelia and my little Fiat (reverse camera and hard to spot due to ridiculous small size of the car!)! I swear you must think we're stalking you on the track...

Louise, more clips of Roberto passing you at 95mph; send money ;-)
Looking forward:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kn6dsa_kuxw
And back:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33m0o-F8FuI

**John Turner** · 2 Aug 2011, 19:53 (Ref:2935116)

Quote:

Originally Posted by RaeB

We were gutted about the car but most importantly, our driver got out injury free. The car is repairable and will be fixed soon. Hope to be back out soon.

Rachel

Warm welcome, Rachel

LAK · 3 Aug 2011, 08:08 (Ref:2935280)

Andrew - terrific video of the little Fiat Pigeon bearing gifts has been sent. On first review I was pretty happy with my lines but on reflection there is much to be learnt from Roberto's lines...

Kelvin · 4 Aug 2011, 07:50 (Ref:2935671)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kelvin

re website: hrdc.eu

It appears there is some technical issue, which will be resolved in 3 -5 days.
I will in the meantime be updating both my Own and the HDRC Flickr accounts with photos... I'll post links when complete..

Kelvin

The HRDC website is live again this morning
I will update the gallery links this evening.
HUGE apologies for the break in transmission, it was totally out of our control.

Kelvin · 4 Aug 2011, 16:37 (Ref:2935871)

http://www.hrdc.eu/

There is now a selction of photos (on the gallery page) from the Saturdays racing at Thruxton, if I have missed your car out, please let me know and I'll find 1 (or 2) to put into the selection.

Kelvin

**Tim Falce** · 4 Aug 2011, 16:52 (Ref:2935877)

Does anyone have any pictures of the Thoroughbreds race?

brands · 4 Aug 2011, 19:02 (Ref:2935918)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tim Falce

Does anyone have any pictures of the Thoroughbreds race?

Yes but I'm behind in sorting through the pics. I will post some in the next few days.

**Tim Falce** · 4 Aug 2011, 20:26 (Ref:2935947)

Many thanks, looking forward to seeing some.

brands · 6 Aug 2011, 15:38 (Ref:2936457)

Slowly struggling through the images and have finally arrived at the Thoroughbred sportscars race.

Batch 1

brands · 6 Aug 2011, 15:40 (Ref:2936459)

Batch 2

brands · 6 Aug 2011, 15:42 (Ref:2936460)

and 3 more to finish. When I finish the rest I will post a few from the other races.

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