Masters Historic Festival Brands Hatch

[terence]

Originally Posted by ClaireSmith

Good stuff, well done, good luck at the weekend and I hope that we DONT see you in race control....well...not for anything naughty!

Yes,well--------

[Peter Mallett]

Entry list here: http://www.themastersseries.com/reso...ies_Online.pdf

[terence]

Pretty mixed grids, anyway,have fun,one I shall miss due to other commitments in Spa

[Thundersports]

I noticed Alain Plasch on the F1 entry in a Fittipaldi; he is an ex F3000 driver of 20 years ago and was quick so keep an eye on him.........

Maybe a daft question; I thought there was a race for Group C cars?

[Mike Bell]

Originally Posted by Thundersports

Maybe a daft question; I thought there was a race for Group C cars?

'Masters Sports-Prototypes'- It seems to have vanished from the final timetable, but see there is to be a Monday Pre '66 Mini race now and some F1 track displays.

Always worth watching the Minis through Paddock

[brands]

Originally Posted by Thundersports

Maybe a daft question; I thought there was a race for Group C cars?

They are running at Brands at the SuperPrix in July.

[Peter Mallett]

Landed at an ash free T5 at 6:10 this morning. Looking forward to a great weekend.

[rogerwills]

Forecast isn't good - all 3 days wet unfortunately from what I've seen....

[Peter Mallett]

That'll make life interesting.

[MartinSmith]

Originally Posted by rogerwills

Forecast isn't good - all 3 days wet unfortunately from what I've seen....

nothing new there then!

[terence]

Cloudy but dry in Ardennes,20-25deg,byeeeee.

[Tim Falce]

It was nice to meet up with John and Claire today, as usual I turned up at precisely the wrong moment but al least it was good to see John back where he belongs and don't forget John, don't stand on one leg and close your eyes.

[brands]

An enjoyable day at Brands, especially out on the GP loop with F1 and the big bangers roaring through.

[zac510]

Haven't posted much on the tenths this year but just popping back to share some pictures from the day.

Thanks again to all the organisers and racers for putting on a great day out.

Is it just me or is the event getting more spectators each year? Or perhaps it is just the last two years having had kinder weather.

[MartinSmith]

All,

On behalf of Masters and all in Race Control, Thank you all once again for making our jobs one of the greatest as far as I am concerned in the world!!!

Brilliant racing, great weather, nice to see so many faces including a few familiar and indeed some new people at this event, which gets better and better as far as I am concerned.

Great demos by the F1 guys (thanks for being very good and providing the spectators as well as the competitors the orchestral roars of those great cars)

The weather stayed with us right up until 3 minutes from the end (then it well and truly came in)

Once again congratulations to all the winners and indeed all who participated and a big big thank you from all in Race Control and Masters

Ta
Claire

[Thundersports]

I thought there was a big increase in spectators than last year however what they got to view compared to last year was poor. I've never seen such small grids at a Historic meeting and to compound the problem it was on the GP loop, I thought the penultimate race on Monday afternoon really was scraping the barrel; a Mini race on the GP loop with 6 cars!!!! The danger is all those paying spectators at £21 a head which again I feel is a little steep for the content won't be coming back in a hurry?

[Peter Mallett]

A big thank you to the Masters team. This was our first visit to the festival and although my GD race was curtailed we came away with a big smile. Also big thanks to the marshalls who encouraged me to get back to the pits when my throttle cable detached itself on the first lap of the GD race. Will post thoughts on my races later. Good to meet Tim and Roger who had an interesting view on his Le Mans series experiences. Good luck next month Roger.

And John. Take Falcey's advice.

[Bryan Degerlund]

On behalf of the pits/startline marshals may I thank all the drivers and team members for their co-operation and good humour throughout the weekend. All of the pre-gridding in the pit lane was completed in good time, apart from the Interseries grid, where, after a delay due to circuit repairs, one well known driver of a large blue car decided to take a personal "pitstop" just as the circuit was cleared.

There were no histrionics when a last minute decision was taken to send cars for the final race to the assembly area, rather than pre-grid in the pitlane, and requests for drivers to attend "upstairs" were all politely received.

Thanks Guys (and Ladies) looking forward to next year.

[White flag man]

Many thanks to all you guys who competed over the weekend.
Well done to Michael Lyons for great drives in the Hesketh and Lola.
Very well done to our own Roger Wills for his stamina. How do you go from driving a Mini to a Williams??
Thanks to Shaun Lynn for bringing so many great cars and sorry that some races did not end up as planned, I was Post chief on the post you pulled into in the Lola on Saturday.
Some races were a bit short, but I understand these cars are worth a lot of money and repairs can be very expensive, but thanks to Mr Swift and Deveneux for their entertainment at the end.

[Peter Mallett]

Soo, how was your weekend then? My colleagues ask.

Frankly it was good in parts.

I haven't raced at Brands Indy, for more than 5 years so it was effectively new to me, likewise I think Jim Callaghan was PM when I last drove the GP loop!

I am my own worst critic but I have to say that in qualifying for the 70s race on Saturday I was sloooow! Could not get my head in gear and Paddock was just a mystery to me. I was a big girlie wus, as they say, too much lifting off and too much braking. I finished up 10th on an eclectic grid with Porsche 911 RS, Batmobile Beemers and a slick shod RS 3100 on 15" rims that was apparently in the same class as me.

Come the race things were pretty dire, I allowed myself to get mugged by the Crudginton Dolomite into Paddock. However things started to click into place and whilst I never really got totally to grips with Paddock, I found I could place the car pretty much where I wanted it to be and had a real ding dong battle with the Dolomite. Tony is somewhat stolid in his defence and thus I didn't pass him until the pit stops. I did the same with the 2002 Beemer that was my next target. Sadly an oil slick finally put the Dolomite out of the race and brought out the red flag. I finished fourth and won the Touring car class (as opposed to the Touring 70s Class).

That was Saturday and the next day I was entered in the Gent Drivers in the MG. However at 9pm that night the MG was still being assembled! It arrived at 11:30 on Sunday morning looking great, if lacking a few details such as seal rubbers in the hard top etc. We took it through scrutineering and I got in. Found we couldn't adjust the mirrors to see anything worthwile and heel and toe was definitely not possible. I have to say that for race driving the car was virtually undrivable. All due to a lack of testing on my part. I was also driving on Dunlop Historics for the first time.

I qualified dead last on 2:08 secs.

Race day (Sunday) dawned dry if a little overcast. We adjusted mirrors and pedals, so whilst not perfect I could at least aim for apexes with a bit more confidence. We came away from the rolling start and I followed two MGBs through Paddock, which is when I discovered how slidey those tyres actually are. Coming towards Dingle Dell on the first lap the throttle pedal went to the floor. I dipped the clutch and managed to maintain momentum all the way through Stirlings and then downhil to Clearways. Encouraged all the way by the marshals. We re-attached the cable and off I went, by now some three laps down. But, even though it wasn't perfect I could drive the car much better and soon got down to 1:59s and passed one of the MGBs. Paddock became a simple dab on the brakes and drift through under power, South Bank was similar pace to the Cobras and Mustangs etc. but of course they pulled away down Hailwood Hill. The back of the circuit was more difficult and I never really got it right (far too much braking) but I suspect there's a few secs there too.

Sadly at the 1 hour mark the water temperature went off the scale and with minimal oil pressure I pulled into the pits to retire. We don't know what happened as yet but a strip down later this week will identify the damage (physical and financial).

The Capri ran like a train, with no brake issues. I was probably about 2secs away from where I could have been, but I didn't need to be faster in the race; and, three secs away from a front running Gp1 time (57 secs).

Having not sat in or even seen the MG before it came off the truck on Sunday I was really surprised by the handling and the speed we got out of it in the race. I'm looking forward to getting the controls sorted and then we'll see what happens from there. The Dunlop L's are a complete hoot to drive on. They slide quite easily but I found them very progressive, unlike the D84s which generally skip sideways rather than slide.

There was some magnificent machinery on display over the weekend and it was good to spend time talking with spectators. For our part we had the MG in front of the Capri but people would come along and ignore the B preferring to get pics of the Capri. Barrie Williams spent some time entertaining us with tales from years gone by. I spoke to Tom Smith for the first time, he's a good bloke but stonkingly fast. He was driving two other Bs both of which went "quite" quickly in his hands.

Overall a great weekend. Good to see Gordon looking quite healthy in the paddock on Saturday. JEB did a sterling job of MC' ing the presentations on Saturday, Claire Smith organised us all and finally John Smith was there to provide support and guidance although he failed to perfom his celebrated one-eyed, one-leg party trick .

[owenn01]

Hi Everyone,

As a 'first posting' I thought I would share a few of the (many) images from Mondays event; these are from the last race of the afternoon and more to come but still a great taste of the event:

1. Roger Wills in Full Flow



2. Up Close and Personal



3. Tim Cousins at Druids



4. Daren Mk2 at Speed



5. Angle's Chevron B16



Thanks for the day's racing everyone and I will post more from the rest of the meeting (if anyone's interested!).

Kind regards, Neil.

[Peter Mallett]

Neil,

Welcome to our friendly forum. Please continue to post pics from this and any other events you attend.

[Paulaweybridge]

Hi Neil,

Your fotos are AWESOME

Sadly I was unable to get over to this year's Masters.

Long story ...

[owenn01]

Hi Peter, Paul,

Thanks for the warm welcome and I'm sorry I missed you both (for different reasons!). I will post internittently once I have some more images - I should have some from all the races on Monday so I'll try not to swamp the pages too much!

Kind regards, Neil.

[Paulaweybridge]

You are welcome Neil.

Looking forward to seeing more shots.

Nite

Paula