Tel's Tales Issue 058 -Anglesey October 2015

Entry posted by Terry Everall October 6, 2015

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TEL's TALE's 057/2015

Ty Croes Oct Weekend: 2015

This was the weekend showdown when everyone wanted to improve or consolidate their position in the various categories and championships with the biggest battle between John Hoyle and Adrian Clinton Watkins (ACW) for the overall championship position. John Loudon and myself were trying hard to stay near the top and Tim Nunn also wanted more points. The Novice championship was also up for grabs. The event was run by the Longton and District Motor Club and they had changed their layouts to be two laps of the National circuit on Saturday and 2 laps of the new International with the corkscrew included. Many people wanted to try the new layout and it was very popular and what proved to be too many ca which restricted the available runs. As a result there was a lot of standing around and waiting which was quite frustrating and a disappointment for LDMC as well who usually give lots of runs and value for money. It will be interesting to see if they stick with the same circuits next year or revert back to the previously successful 1 lap layouts.

I arrived early Friday afternoon to bright sunshine and I watched a few of the Westfield guys on the trackday getting in some early practice. I think we had 27 WSCC competitors due to take part so it was going to be an interesting weekend. I can mention everyone but I will try to pick out the highlights. In the evening we had a look at the corkscrew for Sunday and a few took advantage of the BBQ beefburgers or chicken burgers that the cafe had prepared and we washed it down with suitable liquid until we were thrown out much later in the night.

Saturday:

I was back in action with my spare engine fitted and rolling roaded since the blow up I had a few weeks ago and sadly it was Stephen Herbert's last weekend of competition and Steve Everall was not there to have their usual battle as he is on holiday in Australia. Adrian was polishing his brand new radial slicks and had Barry Slingsby ( making sure that his car stayed in one piece) and Mick Allard as helpers.The first problem was that after his trackday, Martin Harvey noticed that his battery was failing and we quickly diagnosed that it was his alternator that had given up the ghost. So with a borrowed battery courtesy of David Birch and my charger he managed to keep running all weekend. We only had one practice which was due to it being a 2 lap event and that was probably a good thing as we began to see the slow speed of the runs. Stephen Herbert noticed a squeal as he was getting ready for T1 and he asked me to look at the problem and in practice he had his right cycle wing come loose which dave cleaver helped repair. His toothed belt on the duratec engine seemed to have jumped back one groove on the alternator pulley and when he revved the engine I could see movement of the alternator but it looked ok to run and a bit of wd40 quietened it down. Later we found that the bottom alternator bracket had fractured so Stephen (who had found a stick welding machine)John Hoyle, myself and decide to weld it up. Eventually Michael Skidmore showed us his skills and produced a very professional repair and the job was a “good un” as they say but thats about the fifth or sixth bracket that I have seen fail this season. Richard Kerr's car was leaking water from rad plug that would not seal and Lee Smith, who had just fitted a cheap £200 ebay engine, put two conrods through the block as he went past the pit wall. In the true Westfield spirit he was ok for Sunday as he was offered a double drive from John Walters. In the end we managed just two timed runs and the best were as follows:

Class A Jason Brown beat Dave Richings, Craig Spooner and John Williams with 124.21secs

Class B was hard fought and Martin Harvey won with 118.55secs from Barny Francis and Lee Smith who may be installing a Honda engine for next season.

Class C John Loudon won his class on the day with 112.82secs just beating target time

Class D saw John Hoyle blitz the target time with a 109.86 secs (TT was 111.49secs) from Phil Nicholls on 116.61secs who is really flying this year. Stephen Herbert beat Howard Gaskin with 119.80 to 119.81secs! Mark Schlanker came home in front of Michael Skidmore with a time of 120.40secs.

Class F blew away the target with 110.06secs as did Luke Algar on 110.77secs ( target was 111.54secs) chased by Richie Kerr on 112.68secs

Class F had Dave Birch in his Busa getting used to the track with 121.91secs

Class G was won by ACW who also won his class on the day with 107.94secs and beat the target time of 108.28secs, I was second and won my class on the day with 108.89secs. Hard driving Tim Nunn was third with 109.80secs and Mark Anson, whose tyres were knackered and his car needs softer springs, was frustrated to be a bit off the pace with 113.62secs.

Class H saw Gary Bunn recorded a very close win from Derek Hodder on 109.25 against 109.56secs in the supercharged honda car on massive slicks.

In Class J Steve Davies in his Lotus 340 beat Marshall Rowland in the Elise with 124.35 secs.

So there we were with calculators at the ready. Who had what score to drop and who had beaten the targets by the most.........in the end we provisionally agreed that John Hoyle had done it and was the 2015 Champion and he received the well deserved congratulations from us. It was not until later on Sunday that his achievement was ratified. At the awards Martin Harvey was pleased to get Best Novice award and I got Fastest Longton & District MC driver award.

Sunday:

This was a new circuit so only one person could score 100 points but the main interest was doing two laps of the international track which included the corkscrew which is a very tight downhill bend and is off camber. The day started cloudy but remained dry and we were all looking forward to attacking the new track layout and today Matt Hillam was double driving David Birch's busa which later needed the brakes bleeding and a few adjustments to accept Matt's skinny physique. Paul Aspden, Mick Cooper and Justin were still around spectating and Marcus Barlow was taking pictures again and looking for good vantage points. Mark Anson had fitted the softer front springs and would later use my spare front tyres as his were down to the canvas and not providing much grip. P1 actually took from 0930hrs until 1200hrs and I sat in my car for 50 minutes from when called to finishing my run so there were a few mutterings in the paddock about too many cars and were we even going to get a timed run at all! Nick Algar in his DJ Firehawk forgot to switch his sat nav on and only did one lap as he completely missed the corkscrew out which was surprising as it was one of he main reasons for attending this event. P2 also took an absolute age but eventually we finished it and a very late “lunch was taken”. I heard stories of John Hoyle on the grass at church as well as ACW who also had loose bodywork to contend with. For some reason my P2 was not recorded and Phil Nicholls lost a nearside cycle wing.

In the end we only had one timed run which was a shame and Longton MCC were aware that things had not gone to plan and asked for comments to improve things next year. As an indicator of the time pressures I started my timed run at 1630hrs exactly. Lee Smith is rumoured to have liked the corkscrew so much that he did it twice and had to terminate his run. David Birch was going ok but his clutch packed in half way round the track and Howard Gaskin bent a valve so did not finish. We had no target times but everyone was giving it maximum effort as it was the last competetive drive of the season. Dave Cleaver was the fastest Westfield with a breathtaking 145.45secs in class F from Luke Algar on 147.36secs. Tim Nunn beat me with a great run of 146.06secs in class G. Jason Brown was just beaten by Dave Richings on 162.87 in class A. Martin Harvey romped away with a win on 156.78secs and John Loudon recorded a smooth 151.91secs. As expected John Hoyle flew round in 147.12secs to win class D and Gary Bunn won the class H battle with146.80secs.

I am sure I have missed out some notable incidents and battles between drivers but I hope this gives a flavour of what happened as we end our 2015 season. All that remains is the publication of the final points tables so we can see who ended up where in their class and who will be picking up pots at the annual awards dinner in November

See you there!

Terry Everall

Speed Series Correspondent

Class G competitor.