Tel's Tales 032– Aintree 28^th June Sprint 2014

My car was ready having had a complete strip down and new main bearings fitted (and big ends as a precaution) after the loss of oil pressure at Pembrey and I also had a new 2^nd gear fitted as the dogs were worn and it kept jumping out of gear at the most inappropriate moments. The forecast was good for the weekend and when I left home at 0500hrs from sunny Yorkshire all was well until I got onto the M62 and went over the Pennines to that god forsaken land called Lancashire. Why does it always rain there ? So we all unloaded in very wet conditions, signed on and were quickly scrutineered in record time due to the poor condiitions. We all attended the driver's briefing to be told that as well as rain being expected for most of the day there was grass all over the track and just to spice things up a bit the road sweeper had decided to deposit most of its diesel in the arae of the finishing straight. Oh joy! Still I got to use my newly purchased waterproof overalls which kept me very dry on a severely wet track during practice.

There were 13 Westfield members competing and P1 saw Steve Everall showing us how to do it in the wet on his ZZR tyres, I had a faulty trickshifter rod which had a mind of its own (I reset the grub screw adjuster which had moved and held it in place with some blue tack) and Lee Smith reported that his gearbox was sticking in 4^th gear. As usual Liverpool MC are very slick so we were soon out for P2 and Marshall Rowland was looking nice and dry inside his Lotus Elise. The usual battles were developing between Gary and Del in class H, the two Stephens in class D as well as the very quick John Hoyle and Dave Cleaver in class F. Phil Nicholls was getting used to his Kuhmo tyres and Michael Skidmore was back in the hunt after fitting a new steel alternator bracket to replace the broken alloy one. John Williams and Andrew Lowe were enjoying the free shower bath with each run and were skating around like everyone else. My major embarrassment was being towed back to the paddock as in P2 my engine cut out at the first corner. Back in the paddock I and several helpers provided support , advice and protection from the rain as we tried to diagnose the problem. The fuel pump would not run and we quickly traced a blown 10A fuse, The replacement fuse blew immediately so we set about checking wiring and the resistance of the fuel pump which all seemed ok. We put in a 25A fuse and it blew straight away so now we whipped off the scuttle, tunnel cover etc and Phil Nicholls and Lee Smith traced a possible fault on a Coil stick connector or the coil plug itself. I replaced the coil sticks and Lee checked and reinsulated the wiring loom. We put it back together and were back in action so thanks to all my helpers.

We got 4 timed runs which got drier as the day progressed and the last run was almost dry but still a bit slippy so quick times were hard to achieve. T1 saw Lee's gearbox throw in the towel so he was out. Meanwhile myself , Dave Cleaver, John Hoyle were setting the pace but well off target times which were looking impossible as the clouds and drizzle continued. T2 saw Steve Everall pushing too hard and coming off at Country corner and spinning down a fairway on the golf course whilst Garyy Bunn put in a much quicker time than lost of us with 47.97 secs. The track was now a little drier so class G and H saw the slicks go on and it was a little hairy in places with terminal speeds approaching 140mph. T3 was a little drier still John Hoyle posted a great 47.15secs and Dave Cleaver 47.19secs. Del did 47.87secs and Gary 46.90 secs with me on 46.85secs even though my terminal speed was only 125mph.

The final T4 runs were clearly going to count but Dave Cleaver failed at the start line as he broke the offside halfshaft and CV joint. Del provided a spare halfshaft and Steve Davis had a CV joint which could be picked up to enable Dave to run at 3 sisters the following day.

Final T4 runs saw John Hoyle beat target time with 45.35 secs in class D,Gary Bunn was fastest Westfield with 44.62secs just pipping Del on 44.80secs. Phil Nicholls is charging these days and will surely be an expert next year as he recorded 48.87secs beating target as well as Stephen Herbert with 49.29secs and Seteve Everall on 50.13secs. So at the end of the day we just about dried out and most packed up to travel back to 3 Sisters ready for tomorrows battles.

Terry Everall

Speed Series Correspondent

Class G competitor