Tel's Tales 040– Thoresby Park 13^th & 14^th Sept 2014

Well here was the weekend I was not sure whether to compete at. Despite its great scenery it is a tricky, very tight track and atrocious in the wet due to the overhanging trees. Actually it stayed dry but overcast all weekend but even so the damage to cars, particularly bodywork has always been a bit more than other venues and the water/sand filled barrels and large hay bales don't take any prisoners, even for minor mistakes. In fact car damage over the weekend was quite high but luckily most of it was not to Westfields.

Saturday

P1 saw 9 Westfields out and it was obvious that the track was very dry even under the trees so we saw some good times. One of the biggest problems was the fact that very very near to the finish line there were 3 trenches of subsidence across the track which really hammered the back end of the cars even if you slowed down quickly after the finish. In the end it was almost less painful and damaging to keep the speed up and hope you flew over the top of the trenches....not good!!!!

Scrutineering was fine apart from the fact that James Alexander mighty crossflow power had jammed his overalls zip and the scrut would not pass it!. James quickly sprinted across to the fields to the main hotel and bought a sewing kit and did a very professional cross or back stitch repair to enable him to pass. I am not sure what needle size he used or how he threaded the cotton through the eye of the needle but it was impressive.

P2 caused me a bit of concern as my engine note changed and a quick look under the bonnet showed that 2 nuts had come off the exhaust pipe for number 3 cylinder. Found them in the bottom of the engie bay and Phil Nicholls used his long arms to fish them out and test his fireproof overalls on my hot pipes.. ACW and

Pete Goulding were really on the pace and down into the 45 secs range , Matt Turner and I were trying to get near them but it was looking like a lost cause.

T1 saw everyone up their game but Phil Nicholls missed a gear going into 5 ways and I nearly hit the bales on the last lefthand hairpin as I outbraked myself on the poor tarmac surface approach. The braking area into rise esses was also very poor and causing problems. Pete Goulding was quickest on 45.24secs which was already a great time and held FTD and James Alexander recorded his best tme of 54.85secs.

T2 got interesting as James Alexander decided to try and select reverse at the hairpin and Phil Nicholls hit the barrels at rise esses. ACW banged in an impressive 45.82secs as he chased Pete. Everybody was very close and hoping to improve with the last two runs. Andy Hargreaves had a great run with 47.78secs in class E and equalled the record. Jason Brown reduced his first practice time from 68.52secs to a creditable 54.46secs in class A

T3 Here arrived our worst nightmare with a Peugeot dropping oil on the track before our runs. I was first car out after the spillage and found it going grass cutting twice. Matt Turner hit a barrel and damaged his nearside wing and Pete Goulding tried too hard and hit a red barrel and some other stuff which broke his timing strut and he found the tennis ball clip that attaches to the barrel was stuck to his car! My spares helped him fabricate a new strut bracket and there was minimal damage to his carbon fibre nose cone. Matt Turner put in his best run of 46.04secs which was better than my 46.28secs from T2. Steve Everall recorded his best of 50.04secs against Phil Nicholl's 50.09sesc.

T4 was a welcome additional run and we all gave it the beans. ACW had his very impressive best time of 44.98secs in class E. Pete Goulding was after FTD but was just a bit too fast approaching 5 ways and took out several bales of straw as well as the red barrel to end his run. Andy Hargreaves hit the bales at the hairpin and broke his steering column which would have ended his weekend but they took the car to Phil Nicholl's house and he welded it back together ready for Sunday...what a star.

In summary Pete was second fastest overall on 44.95secs (very closely followed by ACW in 3^rd overall on 44.98secs, which smashed the class E record, 4^th overall was Matt Turner 46.04secs and 5^th overall was me on 46.28secs so Westfields did very well and were only beaten by a single seater Force driven by experienced Gary Thomas.

Sunday

I stayed overnight at Steve and Margaret's in Leeds and as we got into their car to set off Steve asked where his plastic folder (with his licence, MOT, Insurance and spare keys in it) was. He said he always keeps it on the back shelf of his car instead of a nodding churchill dog but is was not there. We checked the car boot ad all the bags in the car without success. Steve said that he would not be able to compete and generally spat his dummy out saying that he always puts the folder there and that I or Margaret must have moved it. We said we had not seen it never mind move it so it was a bit of a difficult silent journey to Thoresby and at one time I thought Margaret would ask him to take her back home if he kept saying it must be us that moved it. I texted poor Matt Turner ( he had a late night on “the bucking bronco” ) to ask him to check the trailer and with the club officials to see if anyone had found it but they had not. So we arrived at Thoresby and rechecked the car and trailer but no sign of the required documents which he had used yesterday. I went and warned the scrutineers about the situation and told the signing on staff. Just at that moment Matt arrived and said it had been found.....wait for it..........under Steve's competion cars's bonnet wedged aginst the bulkhead!!!!!!! It had survived 6 runs and engine heat and was just where HE left it on Saturday morning during scrutineering. You cannot imagine the leg pullling he got, which lasted most of the day! Steve thinks he should patent an “under bonnet race folder holder” and make his fortune. Today would see us with only 2 practices and two timed runs as there were quite a few incidents as well as a desire for NSCC to finish early due to packing away stuff and taking down temporary fences etc. but we would have liked the 3^rd timed run! (9 Westfield guys were there again)

P1 & P2 saw Mark Bishop and John Walters trying to get used to the track as they were not present on Saturday and there were no major issues for our cars and Pete G and ACW were already down in the 45secs bracket.

T1 and T2 Steve Everall achieved a PB with 49.79secs and ACW's first run was his quickest on 45.06secs again breaking the record for class E with Andy Hargreaves on 48.43 secs. Mark Bishop achieved 53.95secs in class C and John Walters was chuffed with 52.14secs in class B for his first visit. Jason Brown kept up his pace with 53.17secs in class A and Matt Turner did the double on me (despite me putting on my Dennis Taylor sunglasses) with a time of 46.23secs against 46.38secs even though he nearly hit the barrels at Rise Esses in T2 and I had a missed gearchange on T2. Pete Goulding had a good run again with his T1 time of 45.53 secs but ACW did 45.06secs with T1 to be fastest Westfield on the day. Pete was trying so hard on his last run that he removed the straw bales and barrels at 5 Ways ( as he did on Saturday) but avoided serious damage. Once again Westfields were 2^nd, 3^rd,4^th and 5^th fastest overall including Matt and myself.

Finally the results should show that team Yorkshire Mafia are only a couple of points off team Dick Spanner Racing as we move to the final weekend event at Ty Croes in October. As far as the top championship positions are concerned it looks all sewn up with ACWatkins, Dave Cleaver, John Hoyle and myself in that order.

Terry Everall

Speed Series Correspondent

Class G competitor