Championship Settled at Brands

Brands Hatch 21st September 2002

The ninth round of the MMCC took place at Brands Hatch during a two day meeting arranged by the MG Car Club. Only fifteen Morgan drivers registered so our series was combined with the Peter Best BCV8 Championship, making a total of twenty one cars. Some of the MGs were on slicks, as their race series allows, so the battle for pole looked stacked against the Morgans. As the Morgans went out for practice in the sunny, Saturday, sunshine, Keith and Peter H were each determined to qualify in the best time possible as both were in contention for the overall championship.

During practice Rick was delighted to find that his car seemed to be handling well, while Keith had an uncharacteristic spin or two but was still managing to clock consistently good times. When the results were published Rick was found to have put in a storming lap and qualified on pole nearly half a second ahead of Keith and with an MG between them. Peter was the next Morgan, in fifth place, to head class B with his nearest class B rival in all senses, James P in seventh. The next Morgan was Paul B in ninth to head class C with Chas right behind in his 4/4. Kelvin in seventeenth place headed class D with David in twentieth leading himself and an MGC.

It seemed that the race the next day would be far from straightforward, complicated by the MGs and with Rick threatening to throw a spanner in the works of the overall championship points. However, much more serious events occured in the following Endurance race when both Peter and Rick’s John Eales engines blew up, destroying any further attempts at racing, and their credit ratings, in ugly, oily puffs of smoke. It seemed that Keith would indeed prevail, but such things are never certain until the flag is lowered.

Rick retreated to his hotel while Peter, in an attempt to boost the Morgan numbers, returned home to coax his retired Moss box from the garage where it has been moth-balled for the last two years. Happily it started first time arriving at the track the next morning just as Rick returned sadly to take his mangled engine and car home from the track.

Peter joined a number of assorted cars in an extra practice session, which included Mary and Andy, to warm up the engine and everything else on the car. He was then allowed by the Clerk of The Course to join the end of the Morgan/ MG grid with Steve Williams, an extremely speedy MG driver, who had also had engine problems but of a repairable nature.

The flag was lowered and everyone set off. Keith and Peter had bad starts, Keith allowing two MGs to get away first, while other Morgan drivers had mixed fortunes. Paul surged forwards to James’s front wing but could see Simon OG his nearest rival for the class C championship right behind him. Then Andy was going sideways across the track at Paddock Hill Bend with all those following desperately attempting to miss him. Chas who had been hit was also rather off course and he and Andy collected one another ending up in the gravel trap. In an unrelated incident an MG went off going up into Hailwood. The red flags began to wave furiously and those who could returned to the grid. Chas was pulled out first from the gravel, but drove very slowly around the track and into the pit lane where his lovely car was found to have a large hole in the shape of a tyre, in its front wing. Andy drove around much more quickly and after some hastily applied duck tape, and the removal of his bumper was allowed to rejoin the race from the pit lane exit.

The second start was more circumspect with Keith easing off the revs and maintaining second place rather than skidding. Peter too got a better start in a very unfamiliar car and quickly moved up seven places by out-braking class D into the corners to move up behind Leigh by the end of the first lap. Andy at the very back moved up three places while the MG of Steve Williams moved up fourteen places.

Paul B was seriously hassling James and the two had a real ding dong of a race with Paul getting ahead on the sixth lap and James setting up an overtaking manoeuvre about half a lap before managing to retake his position and earn his points as class winner on lap nine. Sadly despite Peter’s attempt to boast the class B numbers with his Moss box, Chas’s demise meant that full points were not awarded. Still James took consolation in being awarded 'driver of the day' for the tactic.

Paul maintained his place behind James and so won his class and fastest lap. Others in his class eliminated each other when Simon’s rear bumper came into contact with Chris D’s front tyre which meant that he had to retire on lap five with a rather flat tyre. Simon continued for two more laps when he too experienced handling problems and found that a valve had come off his tyre in the incident.

By the end of the race the Moss box had proved itself again and Peter had moved up into overall eighth place with Andy behind him. Phil McK was in overall tenth place having spent the race dicing with Leigh whom he beat to the line after Leigh had a little spin after trying to re-take Phil one last time.

Further back Mary and Kelvin were engaging in very close, stock car type racing. Kelvin’s car bore rather a lot of red paint at the end of the race having been hit from behind twice at Clearways nearly spinning around on the second occasion. He took fastest lap, but Phil G pipped both Kelvin and Mary to the line to take his first class win.

David was delighted to win his class as although there were no other Morgans in his class, he beat an MGC GTS who was four laps behind the winner while David was only three.

The honours all went to Keith who won the Morgan part of the race which gave him enough points to win the overall championship (despite only having two runners in his class after Rick’s demise). Phil McK, in tenth place overall, took second in the winner’s class, so he too went home a proud man.

The first and second places in the race went to the MGs but as they were on slicks that was hardly surprising, but meant that the Morgans did not look as competitive as they might. It was fortunate that the second place Steve Williams had started from the back as otherwise the race would have been very short as he finished a whisker behind the overall winner, Peter Collis.

Other class positions remain unsettled so the championship is going right to the wire at Silverstone next week. See you there I hope.

Ruth Horsman