TEL's TALE's 067/16

Introduction

Well Aintree is not one of my favourite tracks since I went bike engined a few years a go. With only 69 ft lbs of torque and a long, long straight its hard to get good terminal speed especially if there is a headwind......and guess what we had one so target times were going to to be very very difficult. My brother Steve quite likes it and we decide to give it a go as he needs the event for the championship following his engine blow up. Alarm went off at 0430 hrs so it was another early start and 2hour drive over the Pennines into god forsaken Lancashire and it rained most of the way. Luckily when we arrived it dried up and apart from a shower the day was fine, even for slicks. The target times for classes G and H had been set in 2013 with a following wind and warm track so I was moaning right from the start!

Liverpool motorclub had a big entry of 136 cars and yet still managed to give us 2 practices and 4 Timed runs (approx 816 starts) so it was a good value event and we need a few more like them. Scutineering was quick and efficient but I did not see anybody questioned about the use of list 1A, 1B tyres for road going and there was rumour that a non Westfield was running ACB 10 crossplies which I thought were banned for road going classes. There were 10 Westfields including John williams and Steve Everall in Road Going classes as well as John Gilmour and Graham Ware (both novices) double driving Kevin Jones's R1 car with him watching anxiously from the start line. At least Graham did not break the seat this time. Dave Cleaver and John Loudon were the guys looking for big points as their class F and class E Target Times appeared to be fairly easy compared to other classes.

Practice

I do not remember any dramas in P1 and P2 but a little care was required as the track was dusty and then a little damp after a shower. The start line seemd particularly slippy and the slick cars had slower 64ft times than some roadgoing cars as Graham Frankland proved. However, Steve Everall's reused number 4 on his car came adrift but it had been used about 8 times and it nearly broke his heart to use a new one!! …..and you thought I was tight!

Timed runs

In timed run 1 John Gilmour ,who was battling with Graham Ware, had a spin at Beechers and took 111.62secs whilst quickest was with 44.53secs. I jumped in my car and got belted up and helmet on, pressed the starter to hear a strange “whoosh” and see all my power fail. A few expletives later and I was out trying to diagnose the problem as others returned from their runs. My battery was showing 8volts so I replaced it with my spare as we could not find any blown fuses or loose connections. Same thing happened again so we had to find out what was puling down the voltage. It turned out to be the fuel pump which had probably fried itself. Luckily I had a spare and after draining the fuel tank we installed it and put another of my spare batteries on and all seemed fine with the bonus that I got my T1 staright after the lunch break. I have to thank John Williams, Dave Cleaver, Kevin Jones, Steve Everall, John Loudon and Graham Frankland for massive support and assistance over lunch in providing tools, tea, ground sheet to lay on, 2 drain trays and a huge 747 fuel funnel from Graham. This club is brilliant at keeping cars running and helping when the going gets tough. At this stage Dave Cleaver began to suffer problems with gear selection on his Sadev box electronics etc and he withdrew from T3 and T4. Also prevalent during lunch and later was the debate about BREXIT and admiration of Graham Frankland coffin. Sorry I meant toolbox storage mounted on the front of his trailer although we did think it would make a good bar with a few kegs of beer and pumps on top of it. In the end the astest Westfeld was Garry Bunn with 44.49secs just 0.04 secs quicker than Del on 44.53secs. John Loudon had a good event breking the class record twice and ending with maximum points and a time of 46.27secs on his first run. I struggled and ended with 46.72 secs and Dave Cleaver's best was 45.60 secs also on T1Graham Ware beat John Gilmour and was well pleased . Graham Frankland ended with a best of 51.91secs from T3, Steve Everall with 51.28 in T1 and got a trophy for 2^nd in class whilst John Williams enjoyed himself with a steady run of 56.75secs in class A1.

See you all at Blyton

Terry Everall

Class G

competitor