Blyton Sat/Sun 11^th/12^thAug 2018

On Thursday I was in shorts and T shirt as I got my car ready for the weekend run by Longton and District Motor Club who had a very small entry but the event still went ahead. I had spent 2 weeks trying to track down an intermittent fault which was causing a misfire or fuel starvation. I spent hours remaking connections on the wiring loom, changing the fuel pump, all relays, plugs , coil sticks and all sensors as well as checking earths for ECU and Power Commander. I was very apprehensive but in the end the car ran well so it was worth the effort and hours in the garage with the multimeter etc. I loaded up and met Steve on the way as the skies were looking full of rain and the forecast was poor but I still had shorts and T shirt (clean ones) on. Soon after we arrived I swopped to jeans, pullover and fleece as it was freezing! At only 16deg C.

Joh Loudon arrived soon after us and got his car out to check it over and suddenly saw that his alternator bracket had broken yet again. Welding was not possible so he beefed up the bolted connection with large washers and it survived the weekend with no problem but a thicker stronger bit of steel is needed to cure the problem.

The guys doing the timing were SPEED TIMING SERVICES and we had a good chat with them as they were B19 members. One thing that was evident right from the start was that those evil little flying things with no purpose on earth called wasps were present in massive numbers and plagued us all weekend. 

Saturday was dull but quite warm but even though  we had a late 1030hrs start we still managed 2 practice and 8 timed runs, on the Eastern Circuit, by 1630hrs.

During P1 Steve Carpenter became the first of several people to take out the timing gear at the finish line. His penalty was a bent steering arm which he managed to straighten and re-track the car so was good to go. Tony Smiley has now moved onto slicks and got his Passport sorted out by a very friendly Chris Mansley. During P2 I saw the dreaded warning light on my dash showing an engine management fault. Amazingly I managed to read the flashing code and later looked up that it was an Air Intake Temp sensor fault which I traced to a hidden loose wire to the sensor and that cured it…..phew! We had 2 timed runs before lunch and Del and Garry had problems starting due to the lithium battery……or was it the alternator and lower mounting bolt that broke later. They did a magnificent job removing a broken bolt from the block and kept the show on the road. John Loudon was having gear selection issues but was still banging in good times. Amazingly after 4 runs it was only 1250hrs so we took lunch. Timed runs started again at 1350hrs and during T3 Garry’s an

Alternator belt broke but a spare was found and Steve Carpenter helped the lads replace it quickly. T4 saw Del trying too hard and he spun. Howard Gaskin had gearbox issues and had to withdraw from Sunday as did Steve Everall due to a failed major clutch issue causing clutch slip.. Tony Smiley was particularly pleased with his performance and he won the best novice award. On a day when things went wrong my Sealey Impact gun decided to give up the ghost so looks like I need to see my bank manager to replace it as these tools are not cheap. At the end of the day John Loudon was fastest Westfield with a great time of 69.42 secs with Garry Bunn next on 70.71secs and then me on 70.72secs. Biggest scores with 101 points each were Howard Gaskin and Steve Carpenter who beat the target time (records).

On Sunday the paddock seemed a strange place with no Steve or Howard present.. Simon Waterfall joined in the fun in his ex Kev Bamber car. Although the weather forecast ( or several forecast apps) was for rain we did not get any all day so the track was dry and good to drive on even though it was a bit damp after the overnight rain. It was quite interesting on slicks but the times began to drop as once again we had 2 practice and 8 timed runs.. Competition was close in all classes and today I was fastest Westfield followed by Garry Bunn and then John Loudon.

All in all it was a great weekend but it was a shame we lost a few cars and that LDMC lost money on the event. Perhaps a candidate for best run event of the year?

Terry Everall

Class G competitor