Tel's Tales Blyton July 2019
Entry posted by Terry Everall
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Blyton weekend 13th/14thJuly 2019
As usual the trackday on Friday was well attended and most people were very happy with their track time and the open pit lane as well as the tuition package offered by Alan and Nick Mugglestone of Triple M Motorsport. Mick Dent was out practicing but his car suffered brake binding , a failed bottom rose joint on his ARB and the threaded end of his flatshifter sheread off. Good use was made of the phone so that a die was obtained to rethread the gearshift rod and a replacement left hand threaded ARB rose joint was obtained before practice on Saturday. Mick Skidmore was there in his now turbo charged XE engine car. Adam and Charlotte Phelps were getting some practice in the partially rebuilt Busa following quite a bit of damage (bent rims, upright failure, wishbone damage, broken steering rack and cracked body panels) at Prescott when John Phelps had an argument with the scenery. Unfortunately Richard Houlgate had to withdraw from the sprint as his clutch slave cylinder failed and could not be repaired. Tony Mitchell ( AMM Photography) was there to take pictures during the trackday which are available from his website. Steve did a few laps to get used to his new Honda fireblade car nicknamed “Terry’s spare car” for some reason. As evening approached the rain started at 1915hrs and that curtailed any track walk or outdoor festivities.
Poor John Williams was suffering from a very bad cold as well as the stress of being the Event secretary so he and others went off to the pub for the GF Meal deal!
Saturday.
By 0600hrs the overnight rain had stopped and the track began to dry out slowly. Signing on and scrutineering went smoothly and quickly and by 0900 we were ready for the first practice runs. As the Eastern track was still quite damp there were a few offs as people tried but failed to find grip on the yellow painted rumble strips. Steve had problems with overheating and we found that the water pump relay or fuse were at fault and we continued to monitor the situation throughout the day and indeed over the weekend. We installed a bigger in line fuse and borrowed another 4 pin relay from Derek Hodder. The worst failure happened to Jason Brown and that put him out on practice 1 as his nearside top wishbone adjuster sheared and damaged the wishbones etc so that was a sadly frustrating game over for him. Also in big trouble was Simon Waterfall who lost a bolt fron the gearbox to bellhousing connection which flew around battering the clutch case etc. Amazingly the Mugglestones went home and got an engine lift and Simon and Alex Gaskin( plus others) removed the engine, repaired it and reinstalled the engine in time to get a timed run in before 1600hrs and win his class.!!! The two practices were over by around 1100hrs so we went straight into the first timed run which was held before lunch at 1145 hrs. In T1 John Hoyle broke the class record easily scoring 101 points and for the rest of the day he helped on the start line. Matt Turner and I started our great battle again and we both broke the class record and battled throughout the day to see who would be quickest. Adam Phelps was also flying against a hard target time (class record) Steve was getting quicker but was still adapting to the revs, lightness, paddle shift, flatshifting and pure adrenalin of the blade car. Martin Harvey was going very well and Howard Gaskin and Keith Adams were having their usual battle and Howard was on his new Avon ZZS list 1B tyres. All the class B and C cars were putting in some good times. Michael Skidmore was using the extra power he now had however he blew a core plug in practice and got a lift to Scunthorpe in a Porsche car to get a replacement which he and John Hoyle replaced quite quickly so he was ready for T2. Steve Arkley, who had travelled 9.5 hrs from way up in bonnie Scotland was getting to know people and loving the track. Andy Silman was out for his first competition in several years in the Siltech car and from what I heard has caught the bug! We broke for lunch at 1145hrs and in afternoon we had 4 more timed runs. There were battles going on not just in classes but between drivers.
During T2 Del decided to use all the yellow rumble strip exiting the lefthander at Bishops and he ended up in the field but there was no damage to the car as far as I know. It was a fantastic day of competition and the top 9 cars included 8 Westfields and were only beaten by Glyn Sketchley’s single seater Force. Many people had PBs and were pleased with their results and we were all happy to have had 2 practice and 5 timed runs.
The three people beating the existing records were John Hoyle, Matt Turner and myself so it was good points for the Yorkshire area.
The evening BBQ went well with the usual banter, beers, red wine sampling and leg pulling and the Marshalls were well fed and watered with Ian (Tolfree) and Andy Banks hosting the proceedings. The rain started at about 2130hrs so it was an early finish for some and the rain persisted during the night but had cleared up by morning.
Sunday
Today saw the continuation of the battles of yesterday but using the Outer circuit . Mark Anson had travelled up from the Lydden sprint on Saturday and arrived on site late so was looking a bit worn out as he had also been stuck in a traffic jam for around 4 hours. At least he had a toilet, food and drink in his camper van. Mark Bishop (class A) had been offered a double drive of Craig Spooners class C car as he had not been able to repair his own after last weekend at Harewood. Today we would get 2 practice and 6 timed runs so there was a lot of activity in the paddock all day long. Practice went well apart from Graham Frankland on P1 who lost his bottle of sun cream somewhere on the circuit when it fell off his boot cover. John Williams had a bit of fun presenting it back to him at the awards ( luckily the marshalls found it and could not stop laughing about it.) John Hoyle and Adam Phelps set the pace again and were determined to repeat their Sat success. Timed runs began before lunch and after T2 Steve Arkley left as he had such a long return journey to make but he had loved the weekend and is chasing the Novice trophy. At some stage, maybe even Saturday, Simon Waterfall suddenly felt he feet getting a bit warmer than usual and eventually realised that it was hot water leaking from the heater hose but he was in the middle of his run so could not stop. The result was some nasty blistered feet….hope it heals quickly mate.
Mark Bishop and Craig Spooner went well until the engine expired with some internal head damage at the end of T4/T5.
John Hoyle on ZZR tyres set a great time again as did Adam Phelps in class H who was 3rdoverall. Derek Hodder won his class on the day beating Garry Bunn by around 1sec. Charlotte Phelps achieved a PB and was very happy. Steve Everall went better today and is getting the hang of these sewing machines I think. Martin Harvey won class D against Howard and Keith so had a good weekend. Tony Smiley in the Busa had a few technical issues but I think he posted a PB. Andy Silman got to within 0.4 secs of the class B record with a time of 68.56secs. So what have I missed out????? Ah yes the continuing battle between Matt Turner and myself . I had beaten Matt on Sunday at Harewood with my last run so he was out for revenge. He had already just beaten me on Saturday and was keen to repeat it as he had no respect or sympathy for old people! What a great day it was . Matt had a few slides and spins as well as attacking a few innocent cones but he was flying. By T3 he was leading by 0.02sec and by T4 he increased this to 0.6 secs. As we both closed in on the class record previously set at 63.99secs by ACW. In T5 I really pulled my finger out and recorded the fastest at 63.03secs and as Matt waited for his run his supporters told him the news…bet that went down well. Anyway he went for it and I was gob smacked that as I watched he recorded something like 62.85secs to get ahead of me. However, just as I was about to throw my toys out of my pram there was a debate about whether his time was valid. Apparently Matt had passed 2 red flags at the end of the run but not seen them I had every sympathy for him as its impossible to see those flags when you are concentrating so hard on the track and trying to stay on the gas. His time was not allowed and as you can guess he was not pleased. Being a good sport I gave him a big hug and said get out there and do it again mate and blow me down he did just that on his last run recording 62.81 secs. He came back shouting “Oh Yes , Oh Yes” so a fantastic result.. He got his revenge so we will see what happens when we next meet at 3 Sisters.
The people who beat target were John Hoyle, Matt Turner, myself with Derek just 0.5secs shy of class H target. Mark Anson won his single seater class and picked up another 101 points with his T2 being the fastest.
So a great weekend and hope to see even more taking part next year and thanks to John Williams and all the helpers for a well run weekend.
Terry Everall
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