Tel’s Tales

Three Sisters 29th July 2018

Well with all the dry and very hot weather we have had during the last 7 weeks or so, what could possibly go wrong? Well 3 Sisters is on the wrong side of the Pennines in rainy Lancashire so does that give you a clue? We probably had the coldest and wettest day of “summer” so any chance of setting new records on the new tarmac were never going to happen.  It was initially a case of surviving the wet and cold during the practice runs which came very quickly as there were only 58 cars, 5 of which were in the speed series. 

There was myself and John Loudon in class G, Mick Skidmore in class F and Howard Gaskin and Steve Everall (with new front pads fitted) in class D. My day had started at 0445hrs from York and I put on a pair of shorts and my 2018  T shirt only to find out that it was freezing outside and I needed a fleece on to avoid hypothermia. By the time Steve and I arrived at the track it was 0715hrs and the paddock looked almost empty and even Mick and John were still asleep in their motorhomes ………until we woke them up by unloading our trailers next to them. The weather forecast was awful and for once it was accurate with rain and wind in the morning followed by more rain and showers in the afternoon with the sun arriving at about 1700hrs when we finished. About mid morning the standing water near the toilets was so deep that it was impossible to gain access without getting your feet very wet.

Practice began at 1000hrs (with waterproofs being allowed) and by 1035hrs we were lining up for P2. The track was really horrendous with standing water everywhere and quite deep in some places so times were very slow but the main issue was not being able to see through our steamed up visors. During P2 Mick Skidmore got it all wrong near the finish line and went down the grass bank towards a tree which he just missed but he did demolish part of the timing gear! At the end of practice Howard Gaskin was quickest Westfield and showing us how its done. We then had a bit of a break in the weather before T1 and John and I decided to put the slicks on, or should we leave the wets on , oh no let’s wait a bit longer, yes put the slicks on. It was a bit like a comedy involving tossing a coin! Anyway once they were on it was likely they would stay on and we would not bother with the wets again. In T1 Steve put in a very quick time to lead the “road based cars” and John was just ahead of me. In T2 I got 2 reruns and posted a quicker time than John and on T4 I also had a rerun and John was getting worried. In the end John posted a great T3 time of 50.47 secs and I could only manage 51.20 secs due partly to a misfiring engine. (that’s my excuse anyway) and was fastest Westfield. Steve Everall maintained his lead and went very quick on his final T5 run to post 52.70sec. As this was a wet event John Loudon scored 100 points and Steve scored 100.88 points so that was his best drive of the season. 

Best times:

John Loudon                50.47

Terry Everall                51.20

Steve Everall               52.70

Howard Gaskin           53.32

Mick Skidmore            53.33

Terry Everall

Class G Competitor