Keith chalks up his 50th win at BDC

Silverstone - 31 August 2002

Saturday 31st of August saw the Morgan clan gathering for the ever popular Bentley Drivers Club meeting at Silverstone. Certain of the MMCC drivers had practiced on the Friday while others rolled up ready for an early morning polish on Saturday to show those vintage cars that the newcomers could also gleam in the late summer sunshine.

In the interests of impartiality, it is with regret that your scribe has to inform you of the first incident of the day, which took place not on the track but in the paddock. A certain blue car was in the process of being unloaded when its driver paused to eat a bacon roll and rather like Thomas in the “Thomas the Tank Engine” stories the car decided that as it was so familiar with the process it would helpfully roll off the trailer all on its own and alert its hungry driver of its cleverness by setting off the fire alarm bell in the garage by rolling, fortunately, into a wheelie bin which was in front of the brick wall on which the alarm was set. Happily only a small amount of remodelling of the rear end took place and offset that done by Mr Burry a few weeks previously. In his defence Peter didn’t load the car, which he always leaves in gear but for which he hadn’t checked before taking a rather expensive bite of buttie.

Billy B in the “old man’s car” also had a pre-track moment when he was happily driving along the motorway and noticed that the spare wheel which had been affixed by Jack using fishing twine was no longer attached to the car and was busy returning home. He retrieved it and was assisted by Keith, at the track, to fashion some sort of hook on the back of the car upon which to attach his brake light.

Twenty-six Morgans went out for practice, sadly Matthew Wurr had blown up his engine again, while testing the previous day, and Simon McD had hurt his wrist when he went out to play in a scary single seater the previous week, so those two contenders for class A were missing. It all began well with drivers hurling themselves about the track until suddenly it began to feel oily and slippery and a number of people had moments as they went around Priory and into Brooklands just in front of your scribe.

Edge had a huge spin at Brooklands, depositing fluid as he went until coming to a halt on the grass. He tried to convince your scribe that this was water and that his water pump had gone, but everybody else was certain that the fluid was oil and indeed the marshals began furiously waving yellow and red flags immediately afterwards as all the rest of the cars began to slide around.

Chas found himself twirling about on some of the ‘fluid’ as he came under Farm Bridge but managed to keep it on the track as he was overtaken by Keith, who was hoping for his half century win in the afternoon and was going hell for leather. Keith spotted the yellow flags and braked, saw the red and yellow flags too late, slipped on the oil and lost it. Keith going the wrong way then faced Chas as he began to turn into Priory. Chas took the inside line of the bend to avoid Keith along with a number of other cars also taking avoiding action. Keith who was by now steering madly backwards as his car hurtled towards the Armco and concrete wall of the emergency lane at the side of the stand. Amazingly he came to a stop about a metre from the wall/Armco in the only patch of tarmac rather than gravel and all watching in the stand released their breath. Chas drove on round, down the pit lane and in to safety and everybody else continued cautiously round for a very few more minutes until the session ended.

A rather subdued Keith came in to inspect his tyres, which had taken the full force of the incident and were found to have spotted through to the canvas in a number of places. Now to the unschooled observer, Keith always seems to carry everything one could possibly want in his mobile workshop, but alas no tyres, and so it was that Keith found himself preparing for his momentous race, wearing tyres which had been unused for at least two years borrowed from the visiting driver Grahame Bryant.

A cursory look at the results sheet seemed to suggest that Keith’s, and indeed everyone else’s best efforts in class A had been in vain as last year’s champion had somehow out qualified everybody to take pole in Noddy. Mutterings of genetically modified oil were heard as rumours of a new potato fuel being tested circulated until it was realised that the results were sorted by number order rather than miles per hour. Rapid calculations, later confirmed by computer, revealed that Keith was on pole followed by Rick; Edge was in third with Chris W in fourth. Peter H led class B in fifth with Grahame Bryant in sixth. Paul B led class C from eighth place behind Chris A. Billy led class D from twentieth with the visiting Matt Taylerson heading up class E from twenty third place, also his racing number. The genetically modified potato oil fuel proved unsuccessful as James found himself in twelfth place a long way behind his usual sparring partners (I know, it’s really because Silverstone is a power circuit, but the oil bit sounds better)

Anyway the day progressed with the old Bentleys and assorted rare and expensive old shiny machinery showing off their paces until the “Morgan-Tripp Memorial Scratch Race” was called and the alternative rare and slightly less expensive machinery assembled with Keith nervously trying to clock up his fiftieth win.

The commentators were engaging in cosy little chat as the race began so those of us in the Brooklands stand had to wait for nearly a minute until Rick came flying past with Edge fastened on his bumper followed by Keith in third and then Chris W going faster than he had ever been seen before pursued by Grahame and then Peter H (leading class B) and Paul B (leading class C). Billy was ahead of Kelvin and so led class D, and Matt had a good lead over class E.

It soon became obvious that much had occurred in that first minute when Simon OG came around last. Edge had had the surreal experience of leading the race at the start for the first three quarters of a lap until overtaken by Rick while Keith on his borrowed tyres had a bad start and was unable to find any grip. James P also had a bad start as he changed from first to second gear only to find that he had successfully achieved that manoeuvre some seconds previously so wasting valuable seconds trying to re-engage the same gear and had then to claw his way back up the field. Sarge had “a stonking start”, as did Paul C and Stephen W. Kelvin got past Phil B and Adam got himself in a good position to chase Chas. Paul B was ahead of Chris A and Grahame, but behind Peter H. Grahame overtook them both by the time they reached Brooklands but Chris was still behind Paul. Then it happened; Simon OG who had practised with no brakes forgot that he been fitted with a new pair and spun on about the third corner (well I can’t see through buildings and nobody seemed to know where he was precisely) as ever, the hapless Chris D met him on the spin but managed to slip past and Barry S was almost T-boned, but escaped this fate by driving onto some handy grass leaving Simon to collect himself and join the back markers.

The race was exciting enough even for the commentators to break off their chat from time to time to remark that all the Morgans looked the same but had different engines they supposed and that a black one was being overtaken by a blue one they rather thought. Actually it was fast and furious with action all over the field. Stephen W was having a good dice with Matt and Phils B and G. Kelvin was keeping them behind him as he tried unsuccessfully to catch Billy. Billy and Leigh were having fun as were Philip McK (despite a bad bout of a gout and a cocktail of painkillers and Red Bull) and Barry, while Chris D and Sarge were tussling. Andy made up lots of places the first time he went around Brooklands sneaking through when lots of others went wide. He was then in a good position to challenge Adam, who out powered Andy on the straights but slowed for the corners as he had lost his clutch and also his chase with Chas, allowing Andy the opportunity to challenge him.

Rick was still in the lead as they came around for the second time but Keith who was now in hot pursuit of the leader had overtaken Edge. Chris W was still in fourth place with Grahame in fifth and Peter in sixth leading class B with Paul B leading Class C from seventh place. This order was changed on the fourth lap by Grahame overtaking Chris W, Chris A overtaking Paul B while James P and Simon OG were steadily working their way up the field. David retired when a nut came off his carburettor and he was showered with petrol. Barry, who had been overheating, came in too on the fifth lap.

Rick seemed to be increasing his lead on the sixth and seventh laps following some duelling around Brooklands on the fifth lap. Then on the seventh lap Keith’s tyres came in and he passed Rick down the club straight as Rick was baulked into Brooklands. Rick then began to chase Keith for the next few laps. Chris W, who was perhaps driving his best ever Morgan race, re-took Grahame on this lap too. James P who had been chasing Paul B for five laps almost passed him on the ninth lap at Luffield but just at the apex turned off the ignition with his knee and had to re-catch his prey, which he successfully managed at Copse this time keeping his knees out of the way.

Keith passed the flag first, achieving his ambition to win fifty races outright and twenty Morgan races at the Bentley Drivers Club meeting. Rick who had so very nearly scuppered these plans closely followed him. Edge came third, Chris W fourth and Grahame fifth. Peter H was sixth to lead class B followed by Chris A and James P. Paul B was next to take class C while Billy in nineteenth place took class D. Matt took class E and ‘driver of the day’ from twenty first place. All of the class winners also added an extra point by clocking up the fastest lap in their class.

The afternoon’s sport for members of the MMCC was far from over. David had already entered the first race of the day in the Allcomer’s handicap (slower cars), Chris A drove John Clarke’s 1938 4/4 in the Dunlop Vintage, Sarge took out his +4 in the Libre Scratch Race and John C drove his own car in the Bentley Vintage & PVT Scratch. James P, Chris D, Leigh, Sarge, Andy Phil McK, Kelvin and Grahame B all entered the Allcomers’s Handicap (faster cars) and it is rumoured that a result was worked out involving James P in some of the glory. Then to round off the day Rick, Keith, James Edge, Simon OG, Andy, Adam, Peter, Chris W and Grahame entered the Allcomers’ Scratch Race. This race was particularly exciting as Keith on slicks was dicing with Craig Jones in his Lola T70 and Shepherd in an AC Cobra. both of which were involved in an incident at Brooklands and had to retire. Sadly the Lola was more than superficially damaged. Chris W blew up his engine on the first lap, which was also a very sad end to such a successful day. Keith then sailed off into the lead where he remained unchallenged to take his 51st victory with Edge in second place closely pursued by Rick. Peter had a really exciting race with a Morgan driven by David Rushton, not from the Challenge Series, with whom he diced all around the track. Eventually after two failed attempts to overtake Rushton at Luffield when Rushton closed the door on him, Peter was successful on the third attempt and they continued to dice all the way around the circuit with Peter under pressure, until Rushton lost it at Maggots allowing Peter to take fifth place behind a Porsche with Rushton coming sixth. Simon OG came seventh, Adam eighth, and Andy tenth.

Once again the Bentley Drivers’ meeting proved to be an exciting meeting with the Morgans doing well in lots of races. The points war is hotting up now so it is off to Brands next where the twiddly circuit is ideal for the late brakers. However the grid is so small that our race is shared with another series so if you value our MMCC series think about committing yourself to more races next season before it is lost.

Ruth Horsman