TEL's TALES 06/17   3 Sisters 21st May 2017

As most of you know the future management/liquidity of the Three Sisters venue (or parts of it) are under review and it is to the credit of Longton DMC that they managed to keep this event on. The entry was not massive so everyone was looking forward to good weather and lots of runs in the normal LDMC tradition. The weather did stay dry all day which was a bonus as some weather forecasts had predicted a bit of the wet stuff which we would not have been amused about particularly those of us on slicks. There were 11 Westfield club members, many of who are also LDMC members, so some good completion was on the cards. P1 was completed in about 40 mins without any problems at all and Dave Cleaver’s pace showed he was out for maximum points as was John Hoyle. Del and Gary had managed to put their spare 2litre honda engine in the car whist the bigger engine is repaired and with the supercharger they were going to be fast. With motorsport you always get an unforeseen problem and this time it started in P2 and continued into T1 with major anomalies in the recorded times and delays due to reruns. The LDMC officials were on the case and did their best to sort the problems out for the afternoon runs which , in general, went well and meant we had 6 timed runs which is good value for money. During the day John Hoyle was suffering from an electrical fault on his gearchange system and his rival Dave Cleaver got stuck in with the laptop and his IT knowledge to help sort it out. The efforts even included calls to Kevin Jones at home in Harrogate to see if he could come up with any ideas. In the end John just ran with all the high tech disconnected so he could get a decent time. Mick Dent was enjoying his first visit to the track but was a little off the pace in his slick shod Busa so myself and Adam read came to his assistance to  adjust the suspension and also get the wishbone bolts loosened as they were stopping movement of the shocks.He also had a sticking throttle which caused a nice spin but no damage. Matt Turner and I were ready for the battle in class G and it was Matt’s first time out this year to defend his track record. I had an interesting day softening off my suspension to suit the radial slicks I am using this year which is work in progress as I still do not have as much rear end grip as I would like. Steve was alone in class D and posted some consistent times throughout the day. Adam Read was in class A2 and had his personal ding dong with Maurici Revilla in class B2 who managed to keep it on the black stuff this year and avoid the tyre wall. It was good to see Steve Wilson out in his black Lotus Elise and he won his class to score well in class J3. The highlights of the day were Matt Turner beating me by 0.05secs on the last run (I am usually the master of this technique) which made his day, Del just pipped Gary in class H whilst Dave Cleaver took a well deserved FTD and only bothered with 2 timed runs as he had maxed out on his score. Five Westfield took the top five spots with very close times and they were Dave Cleaver, Derek Hodder, Matt Turner, Terry Everall and Gary Bunn so it was a Notts and Derby plus Yorhshire clean sweep. Mick Dent and John Hoyle were also in the top 10 so a great Westfield performance particularly as there were a few Cateringvans competing.

A great day for all and no serious damage to a car with the promise of a return visit in July (which I can’t do as my family have booked me on a holiday!). I may see some of you at Pembrey in two weeks time.

Best Times were

Class A2            Adam Reid         48.12sec

Class B2            Maurici Revilla   49.64secs

Class D             Steve Everall      49.23secs

Class F              John Hoyle         46.35secs

Class G             Matt Turner        44.91secs

                        Terry Everall       44.96secs !!!!!!!!!!

Class H             Dave Cleaver      43.73secs FTD

                        Derek Hodder      44.82secs

                        Gary Bunn         45.11secs

                        Mick Dent          47.49secs

Class J2             Steve Wilson      54.20secs

Terry Everall

Class G competitor

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