Pulleys and Dogfood Tins

Snetterton , 21st September 2003

Another sunny race day! – in Norfolk? Twice in a month? Unlikely but true. An early start though a late race meant that there was great demand for bacon sandwiches in the bright start of the day.

We were hoping for a grid of 19 but sadly Tony Lees’ engine had blown in testing – captured on camera (nearly) by his family, with running commentary. Head gasket was the likely culprit and AA rescue from the A11.... Looking forward to seeing you next season,Tony. So we were down to 18.

Everyone got through scrutineering and at 9.15am were lining up for practice. Surprisingly the noise men were there (they hadn’t been in August) and a fast moving Chas Windridge reappeared in the paddock from the noise test. Chas had “worked his b******* off”, according to Helen (who should know) to get the car ready but 111dB was too much noise. Hasty remedial work reduced it to 109 but the limit was 108 and they would not let him play at all. Now down to 17 cars, practice started on time at 11.45am

Keith Ahlers and Rick Lloyd set the scene for the race by getting to the head of the others. And excited us all by entering Russell close together on the first lap, Rick locking up and spinning in a cloud of tyre smoke and raising a further cloud of dust. The first of several incidents of the day at that corner! 2nd time round for example, Kelvin Laidlaw did the very same thing, but without the excuse of Keith getting in his way that Rick had; Kelvin managed it all by himself with the help of his spare tyre on the offside rear. (Opportunity here for technical discussion about the effect of a larger tyre on limited slip differentials and advice – from Jack- to put it on front rather than rear because of fewer left handers.....) Rick came in after 7 laps as there was a vibration in his engine and it was difficult to change gear. The pulley turned out to be loose and Chas soon found himself underneath Rick’s car instead of driving his own, working on a solution. Keith saw that Rick had come in and, knowing that he had a faster lap, came in slightly early too, to drive through to the practice for the next race. James Paterson similarly, pleased with his lap time for Class B leapt out of his Morgan and into his very smart E type (which he says is the equivalent of the new +6) for the following practice. All this leaping in and out of cars and roaring off takes us back to the good old days of motor racing – very exciting.

Elsewhere in Class A and B life was thankfully more uneventful. Frank (The Gravel) Grimley avoided it (the gravel) and only complained about his poorly, sore elbow as a result of the lack of power steering. Philip McKelvey got quite excited as his Astrolap showed him his best time ever – unfortunately it must have been confused by the close proximity of another timer as it proved inaccurate. Phil Hollins found the time went too fast compared with the 40 minutes practice he had enjoyed recently at a TOCA meeting. But Chris Acklam spied a small round black thing bouncing down the back straight towards him – what was it?

Class C were the least eventful class with the only frustration being for Andy Green who came in to check his bonnet strap after one lap and then was called in by the marshals again after another lap when he had already fixed it. Chris Dady was unable to see how he was running as his broken timer is still not mended. Simon Orebi Gann was excited by his first lap of 2.2 seconds but then realised that it was a mistake resulting from close proximity of timers again. And Brett Syndercombe showed that practice makes perfect by improving his times steadily through the session. Class D had Jack Bellinger coming in alongside Andy to refasten his tonneau (the scrutineer must have undone it!) and then suffering later from wet feet as the car overheated and his water pump overflowed. He needed a lower pressure cap to cope with a leaky pump and then it gave way – don’t we love these highly technical solutions.... Mary Lindsay was hearing strange noises and wondered if she had a loose bolt on her alternator, and Philip Goddard had a quiet time though he managed to (fairly) block both Rick and Keith at different times.

In Class E Peter Sargeant had a fine time, and we finally solved the mystery of the “round black thing” that Chris A had seen. David James had seen it too. “Something fell off someone’s car and it hit me” and then he realised on examination that it was his pulley (off the engine borrowed from Rick Bourne). David and Peter went off into the wilds of Snetterton to try to recover it. A marshal had picked it up and, after much asking around the paddock for the bits to refix it, David discovered the originals lodged inside the engine cavity behind a hose. Meanwhile John Lindsay was using bits of empty dog food tin to mend Mary’s wobbly alternator – true Morgan engineering!

Late in the afternoon everyone gathered for the grid. Keith in pole position with Rick alongside, pulley reattached. James and Chris A lined up behind them in Class B and Simon and Andy on row 3 in Class C. Further back were Jack and Phil G on row 7 in Class D. The start went well for most. Keith led into Riches, then Rick was ahead at Sears. Going in edgeways with Rick on the inside, there was a minor coming together – a little paint exchanged but no more- and Keith was able to get ahead onto the straight. Chris A got alongside James but James kept his position and immediately started to pull away. Simon stayed ahead of Andy, just. Behind them, Phil Hollins had a bad start, losing three places to Frank, Philip McK and Chris Dady. Chris D, in fact got up just behind his fellow Class C competitors by overtaking Philip McK at Sears. Brett had a good start though the greater race experience of Peter, Jack and Phil G meant that they got ahead of him by the end of Riches. (Jack and Phil G both going into the corner sideways according to those who were there – Jack reported a controlled manoeuvre, Phil begged to differ). Kelvin and Mary watched Jack storm off and followed on behind with Mary braking late into Riches and losing ground. David at the back had nowhere to go but up the pit wall, so bided his time.

Lap 2 had Keith driving flat out to keep ahead of Rick, less than 0.5 of a second between them all the way around. James was pulling away from Chris A at about a second a lap and Andy keeping within a second of Simon. Frank hared down the pit straight at the end of the first lap but turned late into Riches, missed the apex and found a field (makes a change from gravel, I suppose). He was about to drive back on when a marshal shouted at him to stop – his tyre was off the rim. Otherwise this lap was a settling down lap for everyone apart from Chris D and Phil H who changed places on the Revett Straight and again at Russell. Next lap Phil H got ahead of Philip McK allowing Peter S the chance to battle with Class A for the next 7 laps.

Brett managed to get past Philip G on the back straight, only to lose it into the Esses because he was concentrating on Jack ahead of him. Brett gained the advantage of Philip before the finish line and then at the start of lap 4 pulled away from Jack at the end of the Pit Straight. He lost his back end into Riches but stayed ahead drawing away through the rest of the race.

Over the next few laps Keith and Rick were still neck and neck with a few changes of places – mostly at Corum – though each time round Keith remained in front as they crossed the start/finish line. Lap 4, Phil Hollins passed Chris D on the Revett Straight where the Class B car has a lot more oomph. And on lap 5 Chris A started to catch up on James (who was “saving himself” for the Jaguar race – in which he came last!) Lap 7 provided drama at Russell. As Simon and Andy came round Coram they came upon David going into Russell. David slowed to let them pass, Andy went the long way round, keeping to the tarmac and Simon locked up, went on the inside, across the corner and, failing to apply the brakes or steer away, hit Andy as he regained the track causing him to spin off. Simon recovered more quickly, but after a circumspect lap Phil H passed him on the back straight. They both played careful from then on. Andy recovered himself onto the track very quickly but went into the pits to check his car on Lap 8, losing himself a few more places. Out again for one lap he was concerned about his damaged wheel, retired from the race and went home.

Meanwhile in Class D Kelvin and Phil G were having a battle of their own. On lap 5 Kelvin got ahead on the back straight, and then Phil beat him out of Corum. Kelvin squeezed past again at the Esses (after a slight coming together – and their paint is nearly the same colour, so they neither of them thought it mattered). There were several other passing occurrences, Riches twice, The Esses, Coram, and then in lap 10 Phil discovered that the slipstream up the straight talked about in F1 really works and stayed just in front of Kelvin until the end of the race. Peter Sargeant and Philip Mckelvey were having their personal, but gentlemanly, battle. Philip being more tentative in the corners, particularly the Bomb Hole and Russell and then pulling away on the straights, gave Peter lots of work to do. They were less than a second apart for 8 laps and then on their last one Peter got past at Coram. Mary and David had fairly lonely races though Jack failed to lap David even having polished his car to go faster specially. Chris A gave us the last excitement at Russell with a final lap slide (which he had previously practised at the Esses) as he chased James to the finish line.

Throughout the race Keith Ahlers was less than 0.7 second ahead of Rick Lloyd, taking the flag with just 0.6 sec to spare. Class B was won by James Paterson from Chris Acklam (for whom the race was too short – he was catching James at the rate of a second a lap). Simon Orebi Gann won Class C but without any pleasure given the “off” of Andy Green; Chris Dady was a close second. Class D was a triumph for Jack with Philip Goddard in second. And Peter Sargeant, glorying in overcoming a Class A car, won Class E ahead of David James.

One race to come in the series – at Brands Hatch – it will probably herald the start of winter racing.

Kate Orebi Gann