Tel's Tales 047– 2015 Season- Harewood Sat & Sun May 9^th and 10^th 2015

This is the local event for me (25 mins drive) and set in God's own county so I was looking forward to the annual visit. I was very happy as Steve and I had to rebuilt Steve's and my own car in 4 days since the contacts we made with the Armco at Hethel. I have to thank Dennis Silman who runs Siltech racing for providing complete new Wishbones and fitting at record speed and its great quality. Alas the heavens had opened on Friday night so as well as it being absolutely freezing all day the paddock and field parking was very wet so first job on arriving at 0730hrs was to help push Mark Anson's van out of the mess. Steve and Margaret were already assisting so the only difficulty was keeping out of the way of the mud spray from the front wheels. As practice started Richard Kerr's car started to object to the cold and fire on less than 4 cylinders but a few changes of plugs seemed to cure it. Today we would all be in one class so as well as Westfield class points we also had the overall battles with a good entry of initially 12 cars but Andrew Lowe never made it as he was stuckin a massive traffic jam on the M62 (attempted suicide by jumping I think)

Saturday

P1 was very,very, very cold and there was little grip for anyone but most of us had nearly lost the will to live as it was 1130hrs before we started our practice runs due to the British Hillclimb guys taking so long. Tim Nunn was immediately setting the pace but he did get a rerun on warm tyres. Stephen Herbert found he had no fuel cap (suspected to be on his drive at home!) so Mark Anson came up with the neat solution of cutting a Red Bull can in half and I provided the Jubilee Clip to hold it in place.

P2 Tim was trying too hard and went straight on down the hill onto the grass instead of turning right for the Esses.....a feat which was to be repeated by several drivers during the weekend. John Hoyle was now leading the field with approx 61secs and had clocked over 100mph through the speed trap. Practice finished at 1315hrs.

T1 Amazingly it was 1600hrs before we had our first timed run and we were not amused. This must have wound Tim up because he recorded an amazing 58.64 secs to set a new record. This was a great drive and he celebrated in style including doing a full forward roll in the paddock. Kev Jones out in the R1 unfortunately hit the Armco barrier just after the finish line and bent his upper nearside wishbone so that ended his day. John Walters also had a hairy moment and nearly lost it but was going well and Mark Anson's brakes were playing up.

T2/T3 In later runs, the last of which started at 1745hrs, Andy Hargreaves and John Hoyle both had offs as they pushed too hard. Stephen Herbert just got the better of Steve Everall with a good aggressive drive. Jason Brown was enjoying the track and putting in some good times with Richard Kerr and Andy Hargreaves battling it out as well.

Final times

Class A Jason Brown 68.70

Class B John Walters 65.78

Class D John Hoyle 59.67

Stephen Herbert 64.76

Steve Everall 66.32

Class E Andy Hargreaves 62.55

Kevin Jones 65.81

Class F Richard Kerr 61.29

Class G Tim Nunn 58.64 (new record)

Terry Everall 60.09

Mark Anson 60.51

Sunday

Today was like early summer and the track was dry and warm. Simon Rossinelli joined in the fun today looking for points in class B. Today moved much quicker than yesterday but we only had 2 practice and 2 timed runs. Tim Nunn once again showed how its done and was quickest Westfield by miles with a first timed run of 58.84 secs. Richard Kerr and the Supertec car did not get a timed run as his diff gave up so the car went for an early bath into the trailer. I kept trying different tyres but could not get near Tim and Mark Anson also put in an excellent drive to beat me. John Hoyle was on fire again and once again went under 60sec in the monster XE car. Stephen Herbert and Steve Everall had another great battle and it was very close with Steve E recording a PB and Andy Hargreaves chasing hard to get to target time. John Walters continued with his good runs and went well in class B. My car suddenly developed a split exhaust manifold which John Hoyle repaired with a cleverly positioned jubilee clip. Also my ignition switch stead to switch itself off when I did not want it to and my rev counter stopped working!!!! (more repairs before Snetterton next weekend) After P1 Andy Hargreaves broke a halfshaft at the start but had a spare which he fitted in about 45 mins. We had a big delay as the Air Ambulance had to land and take a person to hospital who, it was rumoured,, had been knocked out after he tripped over a jack in the top paddock so hope he is ok . The event was well supported but may not have been the best weekend for us to be at Harewood and we need to look at the calendar for next year.

Final Times

Class B John Walters 64.21

Simon Rossinelli 67.44

Class D John Hoyle 59.60

Stephen Herbert 63.14

Steve Everall 64.86

Class E Andy Hargreaves 62.78

Class F Richard Kerr DNS

Class G Tim Nunn 58.84

Mark Anson 60.57

Terry Everall 60.73

Terry Everall

Speed Series Correspondent

Class G competitor