2000 Race Results & Reports		Race Dates
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Cadwell Park ,Lincs     26th March        MGCC

Well the first race has arrived and unfortunately my car is not ready, roll on Mallory. The first race of the season saw 25 Triumph drivers arriving at the circuit, including newcomer and fellow Class A competitor Rej Jane. There was also some familiar cars taking to the grid but another very quick spitfire driver has returned to the TSSC series, Kevin Ginger. Kevin proved to be the fastest of the spitfires in practice.

The Start of the race was delayed by about 5 minutes due to Andy Winterton  breaking down on the grid. Kevin Ginger made a good start to get the jump on Adam Ealand (TR3A) to take third. Jon Wolfe, last years class C winner didn't have a good start after his car jumped out of first gear relegating him to almost last. Jon managed to fight his way up the order but was not the only driver to have an accident. On lap  7, Andy Vowell came together at over 90MPH. Both cars went off onto the grass. Fortunately both cars were able to resume albeit further down the order.

Newcomer Rej Jane and Mark Field came together at the gooseneck where Mark was hit by Ralf due to Mark spinning his newly painted spit . Both cars finished the race with Mark's car receiving damage to the rear wing and boot floor.

Andy Winterton (unknown)and Martyn Adams (engine) both failed to finish.

The following table shows the final positions and times for all the race finishers.

Snetterton ,Norfolk     23rd April        Jaguar Car Club

Only 17 cars entered the second round of the season on British Grand Prix day. Jon Wolfe was back to winning ways with his new look car (le-mans bonnet). Jon had a good start and was up to 5th overall after the first corner. Martyn Adams was second in Class C but on lap 7 he let Andy Vowell slip through after a trip onto the grass. Steve Adams managed to finish 4th having suffered a severe misfire, caused by a high tension lead.

Stuart Eyres (GT6) did not finish after his engine overheated.

The following table shows the final positions and times for all the race finishers.

Mallory Park, Leics     28/29th May        BARC

I was up early on Sunday 28th to start the 2 hour drive from my home in Suffolk to Mallory park race circuit near Leicester. The two days would include the The TSSC/TR Race Monday 29th as well as the T.I.M.E (Triumph International Millennium Event). The T.I.M.E event included trade stands, autojumble, best car competitions and of course many triumph enthusiasts. Sunday was extremely wet with rain showers a consistent feature of the day. I was so grateful for the marquee, on many occasions to shelter from the rain. We were camping on Sunday night so left pitching the tent until the last possible moment but the rain held of overnight so we didn't end up sleeping in a puddle.

I have to admit to being slightly disappointed not to be racing here this weekend but the car is not ready and anyhow the race was oversubscribed so I would be unable to enter anyway.

Monday morning arrived and the weather looked a lot brighter. At 9am I was just finishing breakfast when I heard cars on the track, and somehow knew it was the TRs and TSSC cars. So when we made it to the track some of the practice/qualifying was over, but we were just in time to see the FBR spitfire driven by Steve Adams, lose the nearside wheel while negotiating the slow Shaws Hairpin.

This is a known problem with Spitfires!!. The halfshafts were originally designed for much less engine power and narrow crossply tyres. The extra strain causes the driveshaft to shear off at the hub thus losing the wheel, hub, and brake drum in one go. Fortunately this happened at the slowest part of the circuit and no-one was injured.

During the break I introduced myself to the other Class A entrants Ralf Jane and Nigel Gibbins. Nigel is also running with a 1500CC engine and everyone in the pits seams to agree that 1500CC is the right choice for Standard. This was Nigels first race!!

The following pictures were taken during practice at Shaws Hairpin.

  Andy Vowell Jon Low

I watched the race from Gerrards, a long fast right hand bend at the end of the start/finish straight. The start went ok with no-one spinning or colliding and everyone got round the first bend. I was concentrating on the Class A cars so didn't see a lot relating to the Class C cars but Jon Wolfe retired with engine problems about half distance. Ralf Jane and Nigel Gibbins were neck and neck with Ralf in front, until four or five laps in when Nigel managed to get in front. Nigel held on to take the Class A win and the fastest lap. The Class C winner was Steve Crane and driver of the day went to Adam Bagnell in his white GT6. Adam has made some significant improvements to his car and is now well up with the quicker cars.

Results as follows:- 

Pembrey, S.Wales    11th June     Jaguar Car Club

Only 15 drivers made the trip to south wales for the 4th round of the championship. This included only four TSSC drivers which was very disappointing. Jon Wolfe continued his run of bad luck and after an incident at the end of the pit lane his race was over yet again. This left Andy Vowell and Steve crane to fight it out for Class C honours. Steve gaining the class win by 5 seconds and gaining the fastest lap. Rej Jane was again the only Class A car and with another lap record and another 4 points he is beginning to pull out a good lead in class A. Jon's recent bad luck sees Steve take the lead in the class C championship and Andy Vowell now equals Jon in second place. 

Brands Hatch, Kent       8th/9th July     Aston Martin O C

The following table shows the finishing positions etc from this round of the championship

Cadwell Park, Lincs       30th July            Jaguar Car Club

The following table shows the finishing positions etc from this round of the championship

Silverstone, Northants  5th August        Peterborough MC

At last I had made it, the car and I were ready to enter our first round of the season. So the entry form was filled in and sent off with required cash. When the acceptance and the entry list had arrived I was shocked to discover that this would be the largest grid of the season with 28 cars in total and 13 Spitfires. It was also the first race this season that all the class A cars had registered. So I was in for an interesting day.

After the brake problems at the test day at Mallory Park (see Latest news 27th July) I was determined that the car would run trouble free so everything was checked and double checked before the car was loaded onto the trailer on the Thursday 3rd August. Friday I got home from work and finished packing the tools ready to be on the road at 6pm at the latest. On arriving at the circuit at 9pm the car was unloaded off the trailer ready for the morning. This felt slightly strange as I was not staying at the circuit and therefor had to leave the car unattended over night.

The schedule for Saturday started with:-

With signing on and the drivers briefing out of the way passing scrutineering was the next hurdle. This was my biggest concern but the preparation over the previous months paid dividends when the car past first time (well Almost). The Electric cut off remote pull cord failed as the scrutineer pulled it to test its operation. I couldn't believe it as when ever I finish working on the car I pull the cord to make sure the battery doesn't go flat and it always worked till now. This was fixed fairly easily and the car passed.

Practice at 10:00 and all I had to do was complete the mandatory three laps to qualify. So I took the first three laps fairly steadily to make sure I would be able to race. I then pushed harder and harder each lap and found the cars handling a little unpredictable with understear and overstear. I also found it difficult to get any grip but so did everyone else apparently. I also found that my decision to change the Diff ratio had backfired as the diff ratio was supposed to be a 3:89 but it turns out it was a 3:63-1 ratio which meant that I had no acceleration and although the theoretical top speed is higher I never reached it. Over all though a good session, which put me 24th out of 28 overall and 2nd in Class A. The qualifying positions are shown below

We were all called to the assembly area at about 2:10pm ready for the parade laps and for the race at 2:30pm. After the Parade lap I sat in my start position on the grid, looked at the lights RED and GREEN, my first ever race had begun. Even though I had the wrong diff ratio I still managed to get a good start, but not as good as John Thomson who got a flier and flew past. My start was good enough though to get alongside Rej Jane by Copse (the first corner). Though I was still unable to get past to take Class A lead as John Thomson was in my way allowing Rej, Nigel Gibbins and Alan Petit to get past me. I did manage to pass John on the club straight but the damage had been done and if I was not going to come last in Class A I would have to get past Alan Petit then Nigel Gibbins.  On lap 2 Nigel and Alan both started to smoke badly and I was beginning to find it difficult to see through the oil smoke so I held back but did manage to get past Alan down Club, although he retired on this lap so he was probably struggling. Nigel was Black flagged on lap 6 to give me second place in class A. Alan also retired due to the smoke.

Rej Jane was now ahead and although I was closing there were not enough laps to get close enough to put him under any pressure, so second place, 5 championship points and my first signature on my licence.

Kevin Ginger, Martyn Adams, Steve Crane and Andy Vowell had a great race with possitions changing throughout. Chris Smith, Steve Adams also had a great battle in the race, with Steve eventually getting past towards the end of the race.

The following table shows the race finishing positions

Croft,N. Yorks19th/20th August Aston Martin O C

The following table shows the race finishing positions

Oulton Park, Cheshire 2nd September Jaguar Car Club

As I was not at Oulton Park fellow Class A competitor Nigel Gibbins has sent me the following account of his day at Oulton. Thanks for this NiG.

I arrived at the circuit at 15.00 on the Friday amid a downpour of torrential rain - deep joy. Sat in the car for about an hour until it stopped and then unloaded the car and pitched the tent - I still wasn't completely sure the Silverstone oil leak was entirely fixed as we test started the car in an all too familiar cloud of blue. We took our time setting up and generally had a lazy day. Signing on was at 09.10 and practice at 10.25 so an easy morning was in store. Practice started without any major problems and out we all went. This circuit is very challenging and damp (quite scary) so I decided to let everyone past me to get a clear track, this took two laps! As I crossed the line for the end of lap 3 I started to go for it but a tank slapper at Druids with two TRs up me bum put an end to that and on lap five waved yellows at druids put an end to that one - then the chequered flag!!! And I had to come in - only five laps and all crap (sob). The good news was the car was performing well - no oil leak - but terrible handling? This I discovered was due to the tyre pressures being totally off. I had qualified last over five seconds off the pace of Rej who was the only other class A competitor.

NiG

The following table shows the race finishing positions and times

Zandvoort, Netherlands   16th/17th September  HARC

Race Finishing Positions

Donington Park, Derbys. 1st October   Aston Martin OC

This was a very popular race this year but unfortunately some drivers lost out do to too many entrys, one of which was Nigel Gibbins. This left Rej Jane as the only Class A competitor, but his car developed a misfire, although he managed to finish the race. In total there were 9 Spitfires, 1 GT6 and John Davies in his Vitesse that came under starting orders.  Paul Lucas was once again the first spitfire home (Paul has won every race he has entered this year, well done Paul)