The Parkinson Line.....at Oulton Park

Qualifying

It was a bit of a surprise when guest driver, one Martin Short, took the premier class pole by some six tenths of a second from Jeremy Timms. Third was Nigel Davers followed by yours truly, with Matt Jordan coming in fifth and Dane Catanzaro sixth.

General

David Parkinson as a Scout in 1934

There were some scout cubs in the paddock cleaning cars for some charity or other. I believe they were charging four pounds per car but Geoff Fern beat them down by two pounds. They took one look at my car and wanted twenty pounds.

Christian Horner is said to be "very jealous" of the Geoff Fern Hospitality unit.

I regret having to report that Simon Davey fell off his horse again whilst on holiday in Wyoming. I really hate to suggest it but if these falls, from horses, bicycles, walking etc continue, we will have to consider putting him in a home.

Geoff Fern has purchased a hospitality unit to bring to meetings. Unfortunately it’s too big to bring at the moment. However Geoff tells me that he’ll try to get it to Brands but will need an extra acre of ground to erect it. That’s on top of the acre he already utilises.

I had to have a word with gentleman Jim Timms regarding the unexpected class switch from son Jason. Though leading the 1600 championship he’s gone and bought himself a motor bike engined car and has abandoned the premier class. As the 1600 representative I take this abdication of responsibility very seriously and was considering a fine.After discussion with Jim though we decided to drop the matter in the interests of the club.

The James Timms Transport T shirt will need to be sized large to fit me by the way Jim.

Race

The 1800, 1600, 1000 and one 1400 race got under way in dry sunny conditions. I never saw Martin Short or Jeremy Timms, other than on the start-line, but had a very good race with Nigel Davers for the full period of the race and we finished within a few tenths of a second of one another. In the meantime Jeremy had got the better of Martin finishing first and second. Also very close. Nigel and myself followed by Matt Jordan and Dane Catanzaro completing the finishers.

Jeremy Timms leads Martin Short.

I don’t have a final race classification as Jeremy was unfortunately disqualified for being underweight at post race scrutineering but assume that only five finishers were classified. I don’t think he gets much chance to work on his car as he always seems to be tinkering during a meeting. So I believe that the weight problem was an error and one that I’m sure will not be repeated.

Dane Catanzaro was a welcome addition to the field as I think we’ve only seen him a couple of times this year. It is a bit of a concern that whilst we have sixteen drivers registered for the 1600 class this year, there were only six of us at Oulton. Eddie was on holiday so we knew that he wouldn’t be there but where are the others ? Get your cars out boys. It will soon be the end of the season. We haven’t seen much of Tony Cotton in the green Dallara thing this year whilst he never missed a meeting when he was campaigning the trusty 1600 Vauxhall. Get sorted out TC and get the Vauxhall out. (Anybody want a green thing? Bin men refused it. Asst ed.)

Just a cautionary note. Jock Sergison was driving the Avit truck and managed to hit Richard Snuggs trailer. He wasn’t quite so successful with Marcus Sheard’s Range Rover as he missed it by at least 5mm. You have been warned.

My friend Michael Dale is not in the 1600 class but I’ve got to mention him as he’s back to his cheating ways again having gained a ten second penalty for a false start. He said he couldn’t understand it but I think it should have been obvious when he got to the first corner two hundred yards ahead of everyone else.

David Parkinson

Disclaimer: The above represents only the unofficial view of the writer and not of the Monoposto Racing Club in any way whatsover.