Tel's Tales 020: Curborough 24th August 2013-- Race 27

Well Steve's car was now repaired with new bottom wishbone, new bottom bearing, and a new wings fitted to all 4 corners so we were ready for the 2 lap event at Curborough run by BMMC attended by 17 WSCC sprinters. The weather forecast was horrendous with rain predicted but there was a dividing line running north to south down the country and amazingly we were about 5 miles away from the rain front and survived the whole day in dry, warmish weather. There were very few Caterhams there so I guess our previous performances against them must have put them off challenging for the Trophy currently held by Paul Edden on our behalf. A few stalwarts had stayed overnight to prepare for the event and Richard James and Tim Nunn managed to get some kip at about 0415hrs so appeared late in the paddock “looking full of beans!” Lee Smith was making his first appearance in a sprint and is another addition to those like James Spicer who are driving to events. Matt Turner was in his repaired Yamaha R1 car looking immaculate with Matt Hillam double driving Barry Slingsby's car and Del Hodder and Garry Bunn doubling up again. James Alexander and David Reed contested class A. John Loudon and Graham Frankland were in class C. Martin Watson was in class F as was Pete Goulding. Steve Everall was going to find it hard in class D and Matt Turner and I would battle it out in class G. We were a bit spread out in the paddock so it was hard to keep a record of what was happening on track. Lee Smith was having a great time and seemed to be hooked even though when I checked his suspension the front was rock solid in compression (looked coil bound) and he got faster all day. Matt had 2 NTRs in practice and in P2 he only did one lap as he forgot to turn right! In P2, I approached the Mole Hill far too quickly (and in 3^rd gear rather than 2^nd) and just held a couple of big slides and a partial assent of the bank. At the end of P2 Matt had a misfire and oil around the throttle bodies and suspected a major problem so packed up for the day. (It turned out to be an oil leak from that had oiled up the plug coil and caused the problem so it should be a cheap simple fix. It was particularly annoying for him as he had already posted a P2 time of 57.28secs which was very quick and bettered my time of 57.91secs. I was beginning to experience a few missed up shifts but I could not trace the problem in the linkage etc and I was losing time. During the day a few cars caused delays including the Force car of Lindsay Mercer collapsing after the finish line.( Rose joint connecting upright to bottom wishbone failed dramatically. We eventually had just 2 Practices and 2 Timed runs which was a little disappointing. Steve managed to avoid hitting anything with his wings but I did not heed my own advice and hit the third cone from the start as I turned left (its my favourite cone). I hit it on 2 runs and needed some duck tape to make repairs. Gary Bunn thought he had an engine misfire on his last run but the consensus is that he forgot to put more fuel in the car (its an age thing!). Barry Slingsby actually smashed the target time on P1 and eventually scored another 102 points. John Loudon beat the target time to score 100.75 points. Class H target was so hard that Del only scored 97.83 points but did take FTD with a great drive of 55.49secs in T1 showing everyone the way to do it. He is becoming the King of Curborough as he took FTD there earlier in the year at the single lap event. Martin Watson won the best Novice award with 60.29 secs. James Alexander had gearbox problems on his last run and I also had 2 missed shifts which b*******ed up my final run (turned out to be a loose adjuster screw in the trickshifter which prevented the engine cut) Steve was happy with his time and scored a PB and Lee Smith left with a big grin on his face wanting to join the speed series next year. Tim Nunn stole the points in class E and Pete Goulding scored best in class F with a best of 57.48 in T1. So Barry maxed out again and is blowing away all the class D records as if he is not even trying. In the end the first 6 cars were Westfields.

There are now 5 competitors that have averaged more than 100 points in their 10 events and they are Barry Slingsby, John Hoyle, Stu Hill, John Loudon and myself in that order.

Next event is Ty Croes double header so maybe see you there.

Terry.everall@virgin.net

Speed Series Correspondent

Class G competitor