Sunshine Saturday at Snetterton

Saturday 7th April 2007

The Power Torque Morgan Challenge started the 2007 season on a cold but dry, sunny day in Norfolk.  36 drivers have signed up for the Series and 28 of them were racing.  Half a dozen of them also participated in the Thoroughbred race (with great success - Andy Green coming second and Chris Acklam 3rd). We welcomed 3 new drivers - Kathy Sherry, David Frow and Stefan Scieszka; and one returner, Paul Burry.  Sharlie Goddard is now in Class C8 having acquired AEL, a former Championship-winning car,  and John Emberson has upgraded to Class B in his modified Roadster.

After various alarms at scutineering – out-of-date harness, cut-out switch mis-wired etc,  the Morgan qualifying session started promptly at 10.40am.  The 28 beautiful, shining Morgans swept out of the pit lane onto the track signalling the start of the season and those on the pit wall, including the marshalls, felt a surge of emotion.  Practice was relatively incident free, though John Emberson knew he still had work to do on his brakes and David Frow feared his gearbox had gone as he only had second gear left by halfway through.  All cars (with drivers) were weighed after practice and all found to be above the minimum – some well above!  But is it the car or the driver?

Then the long wait until the last race of the day gave us plenty of time to catch up on the winter’s news and discuss ways of losing weight.....  John Emberson adjusted his brakes further and David Frow discovered that it was the gearstick linkage that had gone, not the box itself so a mend was possible.  We were called early and the race started ahead of time.   Most of the Morgan supporters were watching from the slope above Russell, including a large number of AngleMog members, so we had to rely on the commentator for our information about the start.  The left-hand side of the grid apparently got away quicker and without incident, but John’s still troublesome brakes meant that he had an off at the first corner and rejoined at the back of the pack.  Peter Horsman maintained his pole position however and pulled ahead of the field.  Immediately behind him Andy Green, Tony Lees and Chris Acklam started battling for 2nd place – a battle of which more later.

Simon Orebi Gann and Andrew Thompson got ahead of Ray Higgs and Richard Plant and Tony Rivers passed Richard and Philip Goddard.  Stefan, in his first ever start made up two places,  as did Steve McDonald putting into practice his sprinting expertise,  Sharlie,  and Uhlrich Vierhaus.  Mary Lindsay made one of her usual excellent starts gaining 3 places as did Mark Gilbart-Smith celebrating his recent engagement to Ali in style.

Then into the race proper.  28 minutes plus 1 lap gives a lot of room for manoeuvres.  Peter Horsman gradually extended his lead while Andy and Tony Lees tussled for 2nd place.  Chris Acklam was up with them for the first five laps or so but then (some might say sensibly) gave himself a little space away from them.  Watching at Russell we saw some extremely close racing, excursions  onto the grass at times and screaming tyres.  Listening to the excellent commentary we know that they exchanged places sometimes two or three times a lap – What price Formula !?!  Paul Burry in his new yellow and silver Roadster kept up near Chris for a while but sadly on lap 10 his inertia cut-out was triggered as he strayed onto the rumble strip after the Bomb Hole and he took refuge on the grass inside Corum behind the marshall’s post.  All these safety devices in a modern car which need to be overridden before you can race properly....

The next group of racers providing entertainment to the crowds was Simon, Andrew Thompson, Ray, Tony Rivers, Richard and Philip.  Ray skilfully overtook Andrew T on the 2nd lap and then Simon on the 5th to regain his starting position, and Richard managed to get ahead of Tony R on lap two and then indulged in some extremely close racing with Andrew throughout the rest of the race.  He got ahead in lap 9 and then Andrew retaliated during lap 19.  They were both hot on the heels of Simon but he held the line and kept them at bay.  Tony R meanwhile was being harried by Philip and started driving a little less smoothly and when he strayed onto the dust on the inside of Russell, Philip got past.  Tony R did not give up but a repeated attraction for the grass on the exit from Corum did not improve his performance.

Next came Peter Sargeant, Stefan Scieszka, Peter Henry and Leigh Sebba closely followed by Steve McDonald and Tim Clark.  Peter  S stayed ahead of them all until Peter H managed to get past Stefan in lap 5 and then passed him on lap 10.  Stefan sadly had to retire with clutch problems at the end of lap 11.  Tim manoeuvred past Steve by lap 3 and then caught up Leigh, sticking with him, raising some dust clouds along the way, but never quite managing to get in front and Leigh finished 0.5 sec ahead.    Mary Lindsay was mixing it with the lookalike Roadsters of Ulrich Vierhaus, Andrew Potter and Roger Whiteside, with Suzanne Sears and Mark Gilbart-Smith close behind.  Mary got ahead of Andrew P in lap 4 and held that until lap 7when he retaliated.  The next lap Roger also passed her and on lap 13 Suzanne finally got past the “widest car in the world”.  All new racers feel that they have gone through some sort of initiation process when they overtake Mary for the first time in their faster cars!   Mark G-S is still waiting to do so though he had a good try on Saturday.  At the back of the field the two Davids were also neck and neck, cheek to cheek, too close for comfort, for about half the race with David James holding his line and preventing David Frow from getting past the old master.

At the finish line Peter Horsman (Class B) was the overall winner, having shown us what Jack Sears (who was there watching his daughter) described as “a perfect drive”.  Tony Lees (B) came 2nd (winning Driver of the Day for winning the battle with Andy Green).  Simon Orebi Gann won Class C6 with Andrew Thompson 2nd;   Philip Goddard won Class C8,  Leigh Sebba 2nd;  Winner Class D was Mary Lindsay, Mark Gilbart-Smith 2nd;  and Kathy Sherry was the lone competitor in Class A so took the cup for that.  If you aren’t there you cannot win! 

Looking forward to the next round at Brands Hatch on Sunday 6th May.

Kate Orebi Gann