TEL's TALES 04/17

Ty Croes, Angelsey weekend 29^th/30^th April 2017

This event was run by MG car club (NW) with 2 laps of the National circuit on Saturday and 1 lap of the International on Sunday. The weather for all 9 Westfield drivers was very windy and very cold but despite the weather forecast it did not rain apart from a few early showers on Saturday morning during practice.. The big bonus was that it was a medium sized entry, well run and we got loads of runs particularly on Sunday. From a personal perspective I was happy to be back in action as I had clutch failure and then the big ends went at start of April so I have had almost zero seat time and not really scored any points. I have installed another blade engine and used the honda HRC kit ECU and Powercommander V, so had to get it on the rolling road again. I do hate watching as the engine is mapped and has it neck rung at in excess of 14000rpm and watching the oil pressure , water temp, etc is very traumatic. Happily all went well and it produced some reasonable figures. I have also had to work with Steve changing his gearbox after an expensive rebuild due to the cost of quaife gears. Thanks to Graham Millar for a brilliant service and quick turnround.

Saturday

Some of our southern softie drivers were sharing a garage and quite early on Saturday they were working on changing John Loudon’s alternator as it failed during the start of practice which he missed (lucky he had a spare and had previously driven the circuit so knew where the corners were). I got to the noise test only to find out that my tacho was not reading the correct revs so I just blagged it and got through. It was clear that apart from the Westfield classes there would be some “personal battles” going on and some quick times were expected. In the timed runs I was one of the first to have problems as in T1my flatshifter decided to give up the ghost and have me missing gear shifts so I was not amused and disconnected it for the weekend….now I had to learn how to change gear using the clutch. Steve was having his usual battle with Mick Skidmore who started to lose oil from his gearbox. Steve Carpenter and Roz spent ages helping a guy called Chris in his ailing Westfield which appeared to have sensor or wiring problems but they kept it going all weekend using a spare battery Steve had. As the day went on it became clear that some of the target times were going to be very difficult to achieve ( class G ??) We had one practice of 2 laps and the track was cold with limited grip. During the day things got a little better but it was hard to go faster. Dave Cleaver in class H on slicks, chased by John Hoyle set the pace and did a 106.65secs against a target of 106.37secs. John Hoyle scored high again as he beat the class F target with 109.77secs on his last run. John Loudon beat me in class G with a good drive and 110.26secs against a very hard target of 107.94secs. Steve Everall was wearing odd shoes on each foot for some reason. I thought it was some new speed enhancing technique but it was because he was having trouble with a painful left foot!. The evening was great as we all ate together in the bar and had a good craic until we were thrown out.

Sunday

Mark Bishop was out first still running in a true road going class and finding the targets hard but had a smile on his face all weekend. Dave Cleaver was constantly adjusting his car geometry and I joined in, using the flat garage floor, to adjust my nearside front camber. John Loudon was convinced that he needed wider front tyres as his new slicks were getting some severe abuse on the fast International layout and my new slicks were not looking much better. The times were not consistently available to drivers as they finished, so a few of managed to get onto the TSL website for live timings. Fastest 3 in practice were Dave Cleaver 87.15secs, John Hoyle ( on ZZR tyres) 88.73secs and me on 90.33 secs. At the end of T1 John Hoyle had problems with the clutch cable needing adjustment and I had an exhaust manifold pipe fracture almost in half. Once again the Westfield “crew” sprung into action and with an old diet coke can, some jubilee clips, snips and some gloves to stop hands being burnt a repair was effected and I have to thank all those who helped including Dave Cleaver, Steve Carpenter, Roz Kennett, Mick Skidmoe etc . I hardly got involved and the repair was great. In the end we had 5 timed runs and set some good times. Dave Cleaver was once again fastest with 85.77secs and beating target. John Hoyle beat the target with 88.128secs  against the 89.50secs target and packed in after two runs. I managed to get revenge against John Loudon and our times were very quick with 88.13secs and 88.44secs against a target of 88.02secs. Steve Carpenter had gone well all weekend but his ST 170 engine expired with big ends knocking on the last run. Roz Kennett was very pleased to pick up the fastest Lady award.

So a great weekend and enjoyed by all with some good drives on the ragged edge.

A few repairs and I hope tpo be out and see some of you at Snetterton

Terry Everall

Class G competitor

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