TEL's TALE's 060/16

Easter Monday is always Croft sprint so most of us got loaded up on Sunday. I managed it just before we had thunder and lightening and a massive hailstorm so things did not look good for the morning. I live in York and the rain belted it down all night and caused some local roads to flood so my 0600hrs start for the drive up to Croft was dark and a bit hairy in places. Arrived to find an almost deserted and empty paddock (which never looked full all day so entries must be down). To say it was wet and very very cold is an understatement. Did I mention it was cold? My feet stayed like blocks of ice all day and several warm layers were needed under race overalls. Only 4 Westfields were entered plus Mark Anson in his OMS and Matt Hllam in the Dallara (both in class J2). During the day we had quite a few supportes/spectators includig Steve and Margaret Everall, Beverley, Lisa, Justin, Paul Aspden and probably a few others I have forgotten. John Loudon was pit monkey for Nick Algar who was out in the DJ Firehawk. Tim Nunn came out with his first excuse claiming he did not feel well and was full of cold (excuse number 3 in volume 1 of the drivers compendium of Excuses). There was no debate about which tyres Tim Nunn and I needed so on went the wets. Tim, (used excuse number 27 in volume 2 this time) explained that his tyres were not really wets and were old and rubbish, I just stuck to the fact that I found I only had 3 psi in my left rear so at least the footpump exercise warmed me up a little. Now I must explain that it was really really wet and cold and slippery. I was blasting down Tower straight at about 110mph and braked for Tower bend but just locked up the fronts and had to quickly get off the brakes and just got round but it was a bit of a moment. Tim had spin down at the first bend and his engine would not rev beyond 10000rpm whilst Richard Kerr braked at the same place I did but completed a 360 deg spin and just avoided the armco barrier. John Hoyle seemed to have cured the problem with the sadev gearbox electronics and was going well setting best P1. Mark Anson looked good in the OMS so his wet practices at 3 Sisters were useful.

P2 started as the rain eased off , the wind blew and it was COLD! The track was still very wet with standing water on a few bends. Unluckily Tim Nunn slid into the barriers after the finish line and hit the nearside of his car breaking the upright balljoint and bending the end of the lower wishbone. John Hoyle was the next car and got a late red flag which he missed. Sometimes I wish that the marshalls could be a bit more visible to drivers or the Clerk of the Course understand how focussed we are on the track/next corner. John was quickest in practice with 103.85 secs.

T1 We had a 60 min break for lunch and withmy spare balljoint, hammer and molegrips we straightened the wishbone end and refixed the balljoint but Tim decided to call it a day as the engine issue was frustrating him. The track was now dry enough for me to put my slicks on and I posted a much faster time of 85.93secs for the others to chase. Richard Kerr had a good run with 90.65secs on his ZZRs but the bad luck gremlin got John Hoyle. His car sounded a bit odd on the start line with the revs up and down irratically. As he got to the first bend the engine died and later he was towed back to the paddock. We looked at electrics etc and then someone spotted that his external trigger wheel for the crank sensor had broken off....game over for John.

With just two Westfields left Richard and I kept improving in T2 and T3 as the track dried but stayed …..you guessed it …..COLD.

Matt Hillam went well in the SBD Dallara but mark had a few problems. I think it was at the end of P2 when he caught the rear wheel on the edge of the garage door and bent the fabricated upright and had to readjust the rear toe in to allow for that. Later in the timed runs he had the misfortune for the end plate of his rear wing to detach itself ( failed rivnuts appeared to be the culprit at high speed). He did not get a T2 or T3 time but he can sort these teething probems out and be competetive at 3 Sisters in April.

Final best times were

Terry Everall (me) class G 84.37 secs

Richard Kerr class F 87.11 secs

Mark Anson clas J2 95.59 secs

Matt Hollam class J2 75.10 secs

Nick Algar recorded 73.63 secs in the DJ

In summary there was quite a bit of carnage and the track was too cold ( also headwind ) to get near target times despite some spirited driving. In my opinion this would be a good reason to use a First Past The Post scoring system and not Target Times.

Terry Everall

Speed Series Correspondent

Class G competitor.