StartlineOnLine

Startline OnLine

Monoposto Championship Cadwell Park, Saturday 21 May 2011 2000, Classic and 1400

Having watched the 1000,1600,1800 race in the inimate theatre of the start finish straight grandstand, I moved to the open sweeping upper curves by the parkland commentary box. There are worse ways of spending the afternoon....

Qualifying

Settling down to watch qualifying, it didn't seem right. Where was Tristan? Usually out promptly, he needed to return to his paddock slot and, I believe he had some difficulty returning to the track due to paddock congestion. If this is the case, surely an important learning point for the organisers? As a result he did only 3 laps of qualifying for fourth. Malcolm Scott did some quick laps and some cooling down laps to nab pole from the always smooth but quick Tony Bishop by 2 seconds. Impressive.As indeed was Steve Patania's 3rd.

Richard Purcell was also semi-absent. Hoping to get a good early lap in, he was trying to get the tyres up to temperature and overcooked it in the Hall Bends. What would have been embarrassment and gravel at most circuits was a bent wishbone at Cadwell, which in this section is more like a hillclimb (Doune, since you ask) than a circuit. The team fixed the car and the ever helpful organisers got Richard (and Jared Wood and Jeremy Timms) 3 laps in at lunchtime.

In Classic, Peter Venn was usurped from Classic pole by a promising, prodigiously talented young newcomer (it said on the £20 note tucked under my windscreen wiper), Jim Blockley in his RT3. It had been some years since Jim last competed at Cadwell (I think he said his gear ratios were taken from 1989 records) and he looked completely at ease. Better was to come.

Jim Timms suffered a breakdown which left him parked on Park Straight for most of the session

Race

Tristan had passed Steve Patania before reaching Coppice and Tony Bishop before the Gooseneck, and so on a very difficult overtaking track with some strong competition, he was second by the end of lap1. Malcom Scott looked to have the race under control, but one lap before the end, we saw the cars disappear towards Mansfield only to reappear with Tristan leading. I asked him how: "I wasn't really close enough, but popped out to remind him I was there, and locked up and ran wide. I think I was as surprised as he was when the gap opened up!! Sadly not down to a demon piece of driving or tactics, just luck really." .Whatever the reasons, it was a very good win by Tristan and really bad luck on Malcolm. Considering how "difficult" and "tricky" Dallaras are supposed to be to learn, Mono must attract some tremendous talent the way Malcolm, Tony and Steve have so rapidly adapted to their new mounts.

Also having a good start was Jim Blockley. Passing Steve Patania on the first lap, he then pursued Tony Bishop. Unfortunately Jim overshot on the way into the mountain on the third lap, and asa result Tony went off and ended up at the back. This was a great pity as Tony was going especially well. But Cadwell isn't an easy place to make up places, and things went from bad to disastrous when the engine let go in the biggest way possible as he approached Coppice for the 6th time. Tristan's supplied pictures of this mother of all blow ups (see down below) which left a huge smoke cloud over part of the circuit - anybody who is old enough to remember the F1 Alfa Turbo cars will have a good picture. Many sympathies to Tony.


Jim lights up the tyres with some optimistic braking...	...Tony has nowhere to go....	......except the grass

This left Jim with the task of defending against Steve, which he did until the last but one lap. Steve third, Jim fourth, an impressive resullt in a Classic. Unusually for Peter Venn he wasn't a major part of the action after the first few laps, with a small but significant gap between himself and Steve/Jim. There was a bigger gap back to Francis Philips who, in his Reynard 923 had a well matched race with Chris Hill and his OMS just behind. Such are the delights of Mono that it's hard to think of two more contrasting cars that are so well matched. A technical fault, which the commentator said involved a small fire, stopped Chris at Mansfield, but since the race was red flagged he was still running on countback and so qualified as a finisher. I think that's how it works anyway. Patrick tells me it was a CV fire. Another gap and it was Jeremy Goodman, lapping slightly slower than Jim in a similar car, but still showing that the RT3 is a competitive proposition. I suspect Antonio Impieri will ruefully endorse that, as if he had followed Jeremy much closer he would have had tyre marks on his front wing. Unable to find a way past (until DRS comes to Mono), Antonio was under half a second behind.

Tenth was a story in itself. Starting from the back of the grid, Richard Purcell made up 4 places between the start and Charlies, and then jinked around Richard Snuggs new (very pretty and rare) Dallara F387 on the Park Straight. It looked like he would take Richard on the right and then Kevin Otway on the left, but Kevin fought him off. By lap 2, Richard was past both Kevin and Mick Kinghorn, and then Geoff Fern. And there the recovery ended. With Richard unable to pass Antonio, afteer trying for several laps, he obviously realised it was a fruitless task and sat back to listen to Radio2. Although we did think we detected a slightly off engine note, so maybe there was another reason.

One of the best battles of the race was Richard Snuggs, Mick Kinghorn and Kevin Otway. They finished in that order, but in a close and exciting race they passed and repassed so that each led at one point. Another mini-race was Jim Timms, Terry Clark, Jared Wood ands Steven Griffin. There was little change of posiition, but they were a close group. A bit too close, in fact, because Jared passed Terry, on lap 7, and then Terry tried to pass Jim at Coppice where Tony Bishop was parked up. Sadly Terry's right front wheel caught Jim's left rear and both were out on either side of the track. With them being immovable, and only a couple of laps at most left to run, the race was red flagged.

Geoff Fern was seen to swerve about on the third lap, looking as if there was a fuel problem.That was his last lap. By reading Patrick's Sunday report I know it was due to a missing bolt in the suspension.

So, a lot going on at a very tricky but rewarding and picturesque circuit.

Tony Cotton

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