Tel's Tales Issue 068 - 9th and 10th July 2016
Entry posted by Terry Everall
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Blyton Westfield Sprint weekend
9th and 10th July 2016
Introduction
This was the long awaited Westfield organised Sprint weekend and also a Friday trackday attended by many Westfileds and a few Competitors. Much work had been put in by John Williams and his team of helpers and by this time they have already received our thanks. The weekend also saw a great effort in raising approx £730 funds for “Hope for Cancer” charity which was well supported and offered nice cakes and a raffle. Many of us arrived on Friday afternoon and some of us managed to park up in our paddock positions. There was a bit of light hearted mumbling about how the roadgoing classes had ended up on new tarmac but the slick cars had to contend with gravel areas so maybe we can look at this next year and also try to keep all the Westfield guys together in the same area so that Tim, Rich and Matt can keep everyone awake! There was some off track amusement provided by Matt Turner erecting his camper awning which lasted some considerable time but amazingly did not involve any swearing. Also in a short space of time and before beer refreshment Steve Everall broke one of my bestest camping chairs and then lost his car keys...talk about panic stations I have never seen him move so fast in his search to find them. They turned out to be in the cup holder pocket on my camping chair so I got the blame even though I never touched the keys. Mind you , I did loose the motorhome keys later on ....found them in the door lock! The track day seemed to go well and there was good track courtesy as well as some over enthusiast driving by some who seemed desparate to destroy their tyres with big slides and screaming tyres. Steve Carpenter and Roz Kennett were trying different suspension set ups and made good use of their track time and Adam Read was instructing again. The evening saw BBQs out and a “little” alcoholic intake as well as a magnificent sunset..... but the saying of “Red sky at night, shepherd's delight”turned out to be false as we awoke to a very wet morning of rain whick got heavy at about 0930hrs just as we got ready for P1. Due to the large numbers of Westifelds I apologise if I miss out some people or problems but it was a big paddock and I could not keep track of the many incidents etc.
Saturday
It was good to see Phil Nicholl's out to play (but there was no sign of Vodka jelly) as well as Paul Dew (aka Tigger) for the first time this year. Everyone was looking at weather apps on their phones and the concensus was that it was going to be wet on and off for most of the day. In P1 most of class G and H kept their slicks on and had very scary drives with no grip and unpredictable surface water but at least it cleaned the tyres up. As I was keeping dry I couldnt see a lot of the action but I know Tigger's enthusiasm got the better of him as he had an off exiting the Wriggler chicane but the car was ok when they pulled it out of the field and farmer's crops. There were the usual tales of near mishaps, lurid slides, no grip on the start line, opposite lock and lucky escapes. In P2 it was even wetter than before and some of us used our wet suits to keep dry and the slicks came off to be replaced by Wets for everyone. By this time there was standing water so keeping it smooth and dealing with the standing water was the main issue especially in the braking areas where most of us suffered as the cars just refused to stop. In practice we had about a 45 mins delay as the track conditions were assessed but most of us just wanted to carry on and deal with whatever we had to drive in. At last it stopped raining and after a break for lunch it was drying up quickly and the sky looked promising.
T1- Michael Skidmore had total failure of his clutch so unfortunately that was his weekend finished so he has had a bit of bad luck recently and he was keen to get the engine out on Sunday and see what had happened. ( turned out the clutch plate and springs had all collapsed due to his power and sequentail box). Steve Everall forgot it was still a bit damp on track and nearly went straight on at the Wriggler chicane and quite a few people had spins or had all four wheel off the course so had a Fail. Also all four wheels must be inside the white lines at the finish and quite a few did not manage that as they slid around the fast last right hand corner across the finish. I was determined to get a good first run but clipped a blue cone on the apex of a left hand corner which knocked my silencer back by 25mm and put a big hole in my left rear wing but that was quickly patched up with a bit of duck/duct tape in a matching black colour. Matt Turner had a spin and Mark Anson, in the OMS, was finding it hard to post a good time as he is still getting used to the car as is Mark Schlanker, both on OMS 2000M cars.
T2 – Matt Turner had a big spin after the finish and Tim Nunn pushed hard but did not have all four wheel on through the finish.
I wont try to analyse the resuts as we had 33 competitors out there and its hard to pick out individuals as there were some great battles in all classes.
Sunday
We had a better forecast for the weather today but the sky was full of threatening clouds and we did have some rain in late in P1 and P2. T1 was drying and T2 was bone dry. At various stages through the day people had spins, Richard Kerr went straight on at the chicane, Adam and Charlotte Phelps had fuel swirl pot lift pump failure on the Busa (luckily Rick Kerr had a spare) as well as a defective starter. In P1 Tim Nunn had a spin at the first corner and Rich Kerr was having gear shift issues. In T1 John Gilmour in the Kevin Jones's R1 car took out the timing gear at the finish. Paul Dew was getting to grips with his car at last and posting decent times. Phil Nicholl's car failed to start due to a broken starter motor so he needed pushing for rest of the day. Steve Everall went better than Saturday but his times reflected the apparent poor grip from the Avon ZZS tyre compared to the ZZR he was used to last year. Ian Davenport was enjoying being back in the paddock and put on a great display for the spectators at the finish line. Gary Bunn just got the better of Derek Hodder and Barny Francis put in a very good drive again and continues to improve. Maurici Revilla won his class on both days with excellent drives whilst Dave Cleaver was also well on the pace and beat some of the slick shod cars. Tim Nunn won class G on both days with Matt Turner taking second on Sunday with a great drive.
In the end we all had a busy and interesting weekend fighting the weather and the track. The paddock banter and support was the best this year and John and his team did the club proud. Thanks to everyone who helped.
The only downside was probably that very few people actually got anywhere near the difficut target times and scored low points in the championship.......maybe we need to move away from Target Times! Interestingly the Saturday event was nearly declared a 1.6e event (Wet rules apply) as approx 45% of drivers were more than 10% slower than the target time even though the timed runs were dry.
The date for our return in 2017 is already booked so get it in your diary early.
Terry Everall
Class G
competitor
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5
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