Tel's Tales 039– Ty Croes, Anglesey 6^th and 7^th Sept 2014

The finals for this 2 day event saw 22 Westfield entrants if I include Marshall Rowland and Steve Davies in The Lotus Elise so it was a good turnout and promised some great competition in most classes. Late Friday afternoon arrival for some of us gave us time to see the end of the bike trackday before walking the course ourselves and checking the rumble strip condition and heights were the same as last year. The food in the cafe was good as well as the beer was sampled until we were thrown out sometime before midnight. The forecast was in everyone's mind and various websites were checked but no definitive answer was found but clearly there was a chance of the dreaded rain on Saturday morning.

Saturday

At 0510hrs I was woken by light rain which stopped quickly and when I got up at about 0700hrs a light drizzle started and gradually got worse until it became steady hard rain. So P1 was going to be wet and slippy but at least its a wide track with plenty of run off. Before we started I provided some white numbers for Steve Davies which interrupted my bacon sandwich ( kindly brought from their B&B for me by Steve and Margaret --- please note that I prefer white bread and brown sauce next time) consumption. John Williams was first reserve and was pleased to eventually get in as a car pulled out so he eventually had a big smile on his face. During P1 Mike Skidmore lived up to his name by spinning off and Jason Brown as well as a few others were getting used to a circuit they had not driven before. The day turned out to be a bit frustrating with what seemed like poor control of car release meaning that we lost runs and also often caught up slower cars which caused several reruns. I had 3 attempts to get one 2 lapper in as I caught up with cars including a Porsche that I caught at the end of the first lap!!!! To say my super soft front tyres were overheating is an understatement and I got back to paddock with only a smell of fuel left in the tank. Over the weekend there were a few people including Gary Bunn and Steve Everall who had should have had red faces after running out of fuel. Stephen Herbert was enjoying his runs but was struggling a bit with a painful hand after a recent operation. With this being a 2 lapper we only got one practice so it was straight into timed runs. As well as the separate class battles there was the usual battle between outright times irrespective of class was going to be interesting. Jason Brown won class A from John Williams, Lee Smith and Mark Bishop were in their own classes but loved the track anyway. In class D John Hoyle blasted round in 111.49 secs to beat the record followed by Steve Everall, Steve Herbert and Mike Skidmore. In class E Adrian Clinton Watkins did 113.60 secs whilst in class F Dave Cleaver flew round in 111.54 secs for a new record only just ahead of Luke Algar and Richard Kerr in the very quick and seemingly reliable supercharged duratec. In class G I did 110.49secs (second fastest Westfield overall) to beat Mark Anson who was pushing hard and he beat Stu Hill by about 3 secs . In class H Derek Hodder did 112.63secs but Gary Bunn became fastest Westfield on the day with 108.32 secs. Paul Morcom was out showing off his Merlyn FF again and Marshall Rowland/Steve Davies plus Matt Hillam took the points in class J2 and J3.

Disappointingly we only got two timed runs on a dry track and a few of us were a bit frustrated as we know we could all have gone faster …....or were we just dreaming?

Sunday

After nearly freezing to death sleeping in my trailer we all emerged to see a beautiful clear sky and scenic views of the Snowdonia mountains. Game on! Today was the International circuit which poses some difficult problems and is very high speed along the “straight” between Church and Rocket bends. Today we got through two practices and three timed runs despite a few incidents.

It was good to see that all the Westfields were still out there and as far as I know there were no major breakdowns. Lunchtime saw approximately 20 Westfields do three parade laps at a reasonable pace and it was quite a spectacle and well organised by Dave Eastwood. Today saw the more powerful cars stretch their legs and in P1 Richard Kerr had a big moment when he locked up the rear wheels from about 130mph approaching Rocket bend. He spun off but the important thing was the car was ok …....oh nearly forgot to say Rich was a bit bruised but he is a big lad and will get over it. Jason Brown won class A again and took the Best Novice driver award. In class D John Hoyle set a new record with 89.36secs, in Class E another record by ACW with 90.88secs with Paul Aspden not too far away and impressively another class F record by Dave Cleaver with 88.47secs (second quickest Westfield). In class G did 89.36secs (3^rd quickest Westfield) with Mark Anson close behind on 91.96secs in front of Stu who was paying the price for not running on slicks so he could stay in road going class on the day. In class H Gary was fastest Westfield again with 86.68secs beating Del on 89.72secs.

Paul Morcom , Marshall Rowland and Matt Hillam (set record on Saturday and Sunday) finished off a successful weekend event and most of us are looking forward to the return visit in early October.

Terry Everall

Speed Series Correspondent

Class G competitor