Tel's Tales Snetterton May 2017
Entry posted by Terry Everall
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TEL's TALES 05/17
Snetterton weekend 13th/14th May 2017
Well I am just back from a great weekend run by Borough 19 at Snetterton where we had 13 speed series cars on the Saturday and 15 on Sunday so it was a good turnout and a well run event. I delivered another set of Force rims to Pete Goulding and also transported a nosecone. Despite the worry about paddock space due to a massive Mini/racing weekend on the outer track we were mostly on the tarmac apart from a few who arrived on Sat am or Sunday who were on the grass but found it ok if annoying that they were split from the rest of the Westfield crowd. Having arrived late on Friday a few of us walked the track to see if it was all still there…..and as usual Steve Everall spent most of the time picking up nuts, bolts, screws and washers of all shapes and sizes from the trackside and I pocketed the good ones for future use. There was some debate about whether John Hoyle could walk at all as he had damaged his knee at work and looked in a lot of pain walking, never mind driving. As he does not drink alcohol I could not offer him any pain relief. Sadly Derek Hodder and Gary Bunn had not made it as the engine repairs and clutch installation had not gone smoothly and the engine had to come out again. I understand they eventually found a broken clutch plate rivet jammed in the clutch housing behind the springs. Steve Carpenter and Roz Kennett only completed the install of the £180 replacement engine from ebay (after the Ty Croes big end problem) at 2100hrs Sat night but they did manage to compete on Sunday.
Saturday
Weather was good and we all passed scrutineering and got 2 practice runs and 1 timed run before lunch on a dry track which seemed a little lacking of grip early in the day. Simon Bainbridge had his son with him who was being very professional as pit mechanic and wheel cleaner/polisher during the weekend. I noticed Steve’s car had the end of the nearside bottom wishbone bent upwards so later we got out the big hammer and straightened it as he had forgotten to bring his spare wishbones with him but knew where they were in his garage! John Hoyle was quickest in practice but at the end of P1 Steve came with the oil warning light on and the oil pressure gauge reading zero but the engine sounded OK which was a bit odd. I checked the sensors were ok so it did not look good, however John Hoyle said he had previously had issues with a sticking release valve in the dry sump pump. So as usual the Westfield crew got stuck in and with John, Dave, Mick and myself and a clean bucket and trays we drained the oil and removed the dry sup pump during P2. I found a small piece of grit on the valve so we cleaned it and put it back in and the job was done with oil pressure now ok. Mick provided a massive industrial sized roll of blue paper towel son we mopped up all the spillages and all was good with the weekend saved by Steve’s mates. Steve has asked me to thank everyone! John may have been going fast but his timing strut was deemed inadequate and not sticking out far enough so that was quickly modded. In the timed runs Dave Cleaver was seriously quick and smashed the class target time/record with 88.24secs on his first run. John Hoyle was chasing him but it looked like the ZZR tyres could not deal with the grunt and power he has. Steve was so happy with his car repair that he was sideways for much of the time. Jason Brown was getting to grips with the track and eventually beat the target time by a good margin on his last run. In class G I had been having a good battle with John Loudon and was over a second up until on the last run lady luck appear for John. Mick Skidmore lost it on his run and went off meaning that John Loudon and Dave Cleaver got a rerun… so now maybe he had warm tyres and put in a great run to beat me by 0.47 secs. As a result I have now requested that he is renamed Mick Skidless! In class J2 the 5 competitors were matt Hillam, Steve Broughton, Carol Torkington, Pete Goulding and Paul Morcom in a wide variety of cars. In the evening there was a live rock group in the bar which most of us really enjoyed as we had a few refreshments. Mick Skidless, Steve and I were still in there at 2345hrs until they finished and once again I was reminded that Steve knew all the words to the songs but not necessarily in the right order as Eric Morecambe once said.
Sunday
It rained during the night and the practice runs were very wet and slippy with most of having an entertaining drive and a few slides and odd car angles as we got round the circuit. I think Roz Kennett had an off in P1 but the car was running well on its £180 engine. Steve Carpenter was trying so hard that he had an off in P2 so he would not feel that he missed out on anything Roz had done. Steve Everall had two big moments at the start line hairpin and Pete Goulding did a nice 360 deg spin for us. During the day John Loudon had to fix his alternator bracket alignment and then his alternator would not charge so he just used battery power. Once again Dave Cleaver set the pace and was showing us how its done and he only bothered to take 1 timed run as he smashed the target time and record with 88.16 secs. After T1 I was leading john Loudon by 0.04secs but in T2 he posted a very quick 91.24secs to beat my old record of 91.37secs and take the points. Jason Brown beat target again and Steve Carpenter also broke target time so the rebuild was worth it. A great weekend and I have only mentioned a little of what went on…
The battle is now hotting up as Dave and John Hoyle are scoring big points but there is still plenty of time for others to challenge.
Terry Everall
Class G competitor
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