Tel's Tales Issue 043 - Rockingham 2015
Entry posted by Terry Everall
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Tel's Tales 043– 2015 Season- Rockingham 22nd March 2015
Well this was it, the start of the new 2015 season for 12 Westfield guys to clear the cobwebs and prove that their winter mods worked and their driving had not gone rusty over the winter period. It was clear that any New Year's Resolutions in terms of dieting and losing weight (rather than paying for more bhp!) had been long forgotten and last years overalls were still a skin tight fit for some. So there was 1 class A, 4 class B, 1 class C, 3 class D, 2 class F and 1 class G car.
Like many drivers I had a very early start at 0415hrs which was the bad news but the good news was that a dry warm day was forecast and that turned out to be a big plus for chasing target times. The most frustrating part of the day was as we approached the circuit nobody could find the entrance as Sat Navs wanted to use non existent roads or take us through a factory gate! At one time there were 7 cars and trailers driving up and down a double carriageway and the roundabouts trying to find the correct route, which we eventually managed after a few swear words about missing road signs etc. After parking up in the paddock and in my case a spare garage, a few of us did the long track walk and looked warily at the concrete outer wall and talked about the possible speed on the outer oval and whether we would dare to keep our foot down all the way round the banked corner. The infield section looked wide but tricky particularly near the end. Scrutineering seemed to take forever and drivers briefings had to be done twice in order to accommodate all 146 competitors. Eventually we all stared a convoy run at about 1000hrs and tried to find where the good/best lines were on track which is not easy at a reduced speed.
Martin Harvey was showing off his new bling bits in the form of a coloured Bell helmet and Hans device whist I had to get used to my new Sparco helmet in plain white. Pete Goulding was hoping his diff would not try to shake its bolts free and his halfshafts would be strong enough.
Dry track and getting warmer by the minute greeted everyone with a chance to put on a couple of good practices. I was going to have a good personal battle with Pete who had done well last year and I was indeed fastest in P1 with 74.74secs with Pete chasing and second fastest on 79.55secs. Most people were in the low 80 secs bracket and enjoying the track although later in the day a driver did hit the wall hard and wrote off their car with big front end damage. In P2 I had put my new tyres and changed the geometry and expected great things. Pete G showed me how to do it with 76.03secs run with Matin Harvey in class B pushing hard with 81.33 secs. Approaching the start line I noticed somke coming from my dash and jumped out to check what was wrong. One burnt finger later showed that the ignition/starter toggle switch was shorting so that was soon sorted. I then set off like a bat out of hell but got caught out at the end of the start straight and could not take the corner and went straight over the rumble strip and the yellow concrete ramp behind it..........I was lucky that I only bent the offside steering arm and this gave me massive toe out. Back in the paddock and all was fixed in 15 mins and the toe geometry reset and the rear bar stiffened up a bit to counter the understeer I had.
Lots of Westfield spectators turned up including John and Jane Loudon, Barry Slingsby and his missus, Keith Adams, Mark Bishop and a few others. Poor Stephen Herbert suffered damaged nosecone when a Ferrari driver reversed into his car while in the paddock!!!!!! Timed runs started after lunch and the weather was great with the track getting warmer by the minute. There were no major incidents that I am aware of apart from John Walters noticing some strange marks on a couple of his ZZR tyres but they were safe to run. T1 and T2 times were very similar for most people and John Williams was happy with his time in class A whilst the close battle in B ended up with Martin Harvey winning on 81.33secs followed by very closely by newcomer Barny Francis with 81.66sec, John Walters 81.84 secs and Lee Smith 82.29secs so all very tight. During a break between T1 and T2 a few of us were chatting and trying to convince Lee not to be a “wuss” and keep it flat through banked oval as he had he bottled it in T1 and in T2 he took the hint and kept his foot down reaching 125mph ! John Williams said his aerodynamics were affected by wind getting trapped in a gap under his scuttle.....I assured him that we all suffered from trapped wind from time to time and I added that to my list of excuses for going slow!
Graham Frankland in class C was on his own and record a good 88.00secs on his last run. In class D the battle had raged all day and ended with Steve Everall winning (well done our kid) with an impressive 78.77secs, Stephen Herbert close with 79.95secs and Howard Gaskin on 80.48secs. Pete Goulding in Class F scored a max 102 points with a time of 75.73secs whilst I bagged the quickest Westfield run with a time of 74.31secs.
A fantastic start to the season and good points scored in the championship.
Terry Everall
Speed Series Correspondent
Class G competitor
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