Mallory Park 25 July 2010 Morgan Sports Car Club - Non Championship

Fun in the Park

What a difference a year makes. Last year's MSCC Mono race was over-subscribed, but this year just 10 cars turned up. Fortunately the racing was entertaining throughout (most of) the field and (most of) the entries had a good time.

Qualifying

With the Formula Ford/Academy race also undersubscribed, the organisers (ably bolstered by many of the CSCC regulars) chose to combine qualifying which led to 23 cars on track - busy but no more so than most Mallory events, and it has to be said a lot less mixed than another race where, wonderfully and long may it continue, the grid included a Radical, a Rover Metro, a V8 Westfield, various XJs, a Lotus 23 (replica we assume) and a Jaguar AJ6 powered Vauxhall Firenza.

Qualifying was much to form, with new Mono entry Ray Rowan in a Dallara 398 at the front. Whether "busman's holiday" is the right expression I don't know, but this outing was relaxation after last weekend running a British GT Ferrari 430GT3 at Rockingham. He was followed closely by Jeremy Goodman's Ralt RT3, now behaving impeccably when not in Belgium.The Dallara was on a 24mm restrictor, rather than the permitted 25mm and rubber which probably last saw racing tarmac when Michael Schumacher was still a legend and Vettel was still at school. Stuart Digby followed a good 1.5 seconds behind Jeremy, and in turn a second ahead of Tim cameron. Tim managed only 6 laps, due to fuel pressure problems, resolved over the lunch break by judicious re-plumbing of the fuel system on the newly re-engined Jedi.

Just over half a second covered Tim, Anthony Bishop in the carbon Formula Renault, Terry Clarke and Nick Catanzaro in their familiar FVLs, marks 2 and 1 respectively. 4 different cars, 4 similar times. Len Turner was a bit on his own, and finally Joe Venner and Eddie Guest (the Lola twins) squared up for a fight in the 1600 class.

Race

Lap charts don't tell the full story in all cases. They seem to for Jeremy Goodman and Len Turner both of whom circulated with little battling. Jeremy said afterwards "I was a bit bored. It was a twenty minute solo sprint as far as I was concerned." The expected battle between him and Ray Rowan did not happen, but the fight between Ray and Stuart Digby was something to behold. This is where the lap charts lie. They show Ray taking the lead from the start, a change of position on lap13 and Ray recovering on lap 24. But there was more to it than that. On several laps the Dallara man nipped past Stuart at the hairpin, only for the nippiness of the Jedi to retake the place on acceleration towards devils Elbow. Both enjoyed it, Stuart said afterwards "That was brilliant racing!", and Ray was very complimentary about how clean the racing was. Eventually, he took the winning place with a move at the hairpin which Stuart wasn't able to recover from.

Anthony Bishop got excellent racing value, having two epic struggles. It began with Tim Cameron, the Jedi back in health, where they were inseparable for 4 laps. The hairpin then played its part as they exited together and unfortunately came together, only gently but enough for Tim to be out on the spot with suspension damage. My personal guess is that with Renault Michelins being notoriously hard, and Tim's tyres having seen better days, somewhere the traction was less than optimal. With Tim gone, Anthony's place looked secure though not easy with Terry Clarke and Nick Catanzaro in pursuit. Each was separated by about 3 seconds until lap 13 (quite a significant lap) when Anthony was slowed (lapping?) and Nick seemed to slow a little, reason unknown, and lost touch with the battle. Terry carried on regardless so that he was soon on Anthony's gearbox. He took his chance as the leaders came through to lap them, cheekily following Ray and Stuart through. Anthony didn't let go and finished just 4 seconds behind the rapid Terry.

Whilst Len appeared to be untroubled on his run, Eddie Guest and Joe Vennor had the makings of a good race, until Joe had a problem on lap 8 and fell back around 20 seconds. This was a great pity as their times were close and Eddie's final margin was...around 20 seconds. What a nail -biter that could have been!

A fun meeting, with a friendly atmosphere, what a good way to spend a summer Sunday!

Meanwhile (1)....

In the Formula Ford races, club administrator Simon Davey won his class and was giving more modern cars (and a few more modern drivers) a hard time. With the race being won by a budding professional Aussie in a works Ray run by Don Hardman, Simon's performance is pretty impressive.

Meanwhile (2)....

One of the characteristics of racing in the UK is that there's a smile, whether of humour or nostalgia, to be had everywhere at an event, even the scrutineering bay, where it was good to see an old friend of the club, David Baxter. David started scrutineering in 1962, and has been involved in SUNBAC (SUtton and North Birmingham Automobile Club) since 1960, where he used to run their Silverstone meeting which was our traditional season starter. As well as circuit races, he's run Curborough sprints for them, and so on a personal note he's been responsible for many a happy day I've had. He unfortunately had sad news. Many of us had hoped that those early season clubbies would return, but it looks as though SUNBAC will be running no more meetings. Having been founded in 1908 and run races, speed events and trials for cars and motorcycles, many may feel they will have lost an old friend when SUNBAC disappears from the calendars.

Tony Cotton

Pix TC and Graham Easter

Stuart Digby either examining his laptop or inhaling Vicks Vapour

The start and Stuart Digby tucks past Jeremy Goodman to pursue Ray Rowan

This was an unusually wide gap

Lonely JG

Terry Clarke's FVL

Anthony Bishop and Tim Cameron kept close company for 4 laps