Orange and black dominate at Cadwell

Cadwell Park - 2 August 1998

The fifth round of the challenge took place on Sunday 2nd of August at Cadwell Park in Lincolnshire. We were again guests of our friends the Jaguar Car Club. The championship is still very much open with a further three races and the prospects of some excellent racing left to complete the season.

We saw an average attendance at this meeting with fourteen cars participating probably due to the holiday period.

We would like to welcome an old hand on his return to the series in Jan Bulinski, racing in a Plus Four in Class C for his first race of this season.

On arrival at the circuit the weather was on par with the summer we have not been enjoying so far this year, cloudy but thankfully dry. One competitor nearly never made the meeting at all. The racer who was slightly lost thought his luck had changed on sighting another race car being towed on a trailer. He decided that the best thing to do was to follow the said car as this would inevitably lead to the circuit - wouldn’t it? The poor chap in question started to have doubts when the road signage told of the decreasing miles to London. Oh dear!

Scrutineering was held at 8. 45 am with everyone passing except Chris Springall and Jan Bulinski who both failed the noise emission test. Jan passed a retest upon fitting a ‘super trap‘ which is essentially a muffler that bolts on to the end of the exhaust pipe, having the downside of slightly stunting performance. So far as Chris was concerned the surplus to be removed was considerably more, being approximately ten decibels on each pipe. Chris and his mechanic were seen jacking the car up off the ground, removing both pipes and boxes which each in turn revealed a natty removable plate on the top of the boxes. These plates were removed with both parties seen liberally ramming large amounts of glass fibre in to the vacant area (an excellent sound deadener by all accounts). Unfortunately this was deemed inadequate giving the requirement of needing some additional padding to make the grade – still what are a pair of overalls supposed to be used for ? Chris re-tested his car and passed.

Our practice time was set for 10.00 am and was to last for twenty minutes. All went well for most competitors aside from Jan who was not impressed with the running of his car. Chris Acklam endured a similar fate as things didn’t seem to come together John Clarke managed a spectacular spin just before the mountain luckily missing the bollards and any damage that would surely have ensued. Peter Horsman managed to avoid a similar disaster by holding off a spin at Charlies bend. Simon McDermott raised his hand showing an intention to pit before the end of the session implying a problem, but upon questioning was said to be very happy with the car and confident of having done enough to achieve pole, which he did with 1. 42. 78. Second place went to Class D runner Rick Lloyd with 1:45.02 being 0.17 in front of Class A runner Chris Springall in third. Our race started at one minute to three with the weather conditions being consistent with those of the practice session. Rick Lloyd made an excellent start off of the line overtaking Simon McDermott to take the lead, Jack Bellinger made an excursion across the grass at the hill along Park Straight in a damage avoidance manoeuvre after being squeezed off the tarmac as Simon Orebi Gann and Chris Acklam raced side by side. Class E runner Peter Horsman also made a good start gaining a place over Simon Orebi Gann as did John Clarke who also gained a place. Class D runner Chris Acklam’s luck hadn’t improved by race time as he had a bad start along with Peter Sargeant and Jan Bulinski. By the time the cars had reached Mansfield bend Simon had regained the lead from Rick Lloyd who in turn had also dropped a place to Chris Springall and was now running in third just in front of James Paterson. The regular duel between John Clarke and Jack Bellinger looked likely to rear its head again as Jack again was racing very closely to John. At this stage of the race the two Class E runners had already started to pull out a substantial lead over Doug Taylerson, Peter Sargeant, David James and Jan Bulinski who were all involved in their own race.

By the second lap Simon had opened a full seventy five yards over Chris Springall who in turn had a similar distance over Rick Lloyd who in turn had James Paterson in hot pursuit. Simon Orebi Gann had dropped three hundred yards to this group although had regained a place from Peter Horsman. Chris Acklam had also gained a place from Malcolm Paul. John Clarke lost his place to rival and self confessed lover of this circuit, Jack Bellinger, who overtook up the inside just before the mountain driving out of his skin.

By the third lap Simon had really made the race his own pulling out two hundred and fifty yards over a hard charging Chris Springall with the following cars of Rick and James separated by one hundred yards a piece. The race was developing in to three separate races within a race with these cars being followed by a chasing pack of Simon Orebi Gann, Peter Horsman, Chris Acklam and trying very hard to stay in touch on behind Malcolm Paul. Jack Bellinger had pulled a convincing two hundred yard lead over John Clarke. The third set of racers was lead out by Doug Taylerson having three hundred yards over the chasing group of Peter Sargeant closely followed by David James with Jan Bulinski some one hundred and fifty yards back. By the fourth Simon McDermott was in full command having a six hundred yard lead over Chris Springall. Malcolm Paul had hard charging Jack Bellinger in his back seat but had successfully managed to stave off the challenge.

At the fifth Simon MCDermott appeared to have the race in the bag. Chris Acklam had managed to pass Peter Horsman, Malcolm Paul was still attracting the attention of Jack B who had obviously set his heart on relieving Malcolm of his position but to no avail as he was held in check.

By the sixth Simon was well and truly on his own with Chris Springall, Rick Lloyd and James Paterson who was driving very hard now back in close contention. Malcolm Paul was at last forced to relent by Jack Bellinger who passed him to gain another place – well done. At this stage Simon McDermott who was now starting to give a demonstration of a Class A cars power was coming up to lap Jan Bulinski. By the seventh we saw cars covering all of the track at various stages of their individual laps. Simon McDermott came around to lap a further three racers in David James, Peter Sargeant and Doug Taylorson.

By the eighth all cars remained constant aside from Jack Bellinger who was closing down Peter Horsman to one hundred yards.

At the ninth Simon McDermott was looking to be in great shape on this lap passing John Clarke. Chris Springall, Rick Lloyd and James Paterson all lapped Peter Sargeant, David James and Jan Bulinski who were all enjoying their own race. At the tenth and final lap James Paterson appeared to have a problem but had in actual fact been chasing Rick Lloyd a little to hard and outbraked himself at Park Corner where he pirouetted a couple of times but fortunately escaped any damage to the car. The race was totally dominated by Simon McDermott who of course won. Malcolm Paul won Class B, Doug Taylerson won C, Rick Lloyd won D and Peter Horsman won E. Well done to all winners. Our next meeting is Bentley drivers where we are promised a bumper field – see you there.

Jon Hopkins