The Parkinson Line.....at Snetterton

The weather was kinder than expected. We had occasional spots of rain and the weekend was intermittently sunny and cloudy but the qualifying and races for both days were dry and all participants were able to run on slicks.

Saturday Qualifying

Nigel Davers took a comfortable pole in spite of what was thought to be a fuel pick up problem on his RF89 which reduced the number of laps he was able to do. He was followed by Luke Rosewell in the Ray, Mat Jordan in the FVJ and me in the Reynard. Fifth was Matt, double T, in another FVJ making one of his irregular outings. Next up and going well was Jake Mayes, see general, followed by Adie Heath and Eddie Guest.

Saturday Race

I got a good start and left Mat on the line to move into third place and then got Luke round the outside on the first corner only for him to get me on the inside into the second corner. Ewen Sergison came past round about this time. A brake problem had restricted him to only completing the three laps required to qualify and he’d started from the back. He’s in the 1800 class and I only mention these guys now and again but the drive from Ewen must have been something because he passed a load of cars and finished second in his class. Back to the 1600s. I got past Luke again and pulled a bit of a lead and then he was behind me again and pulled a slightly scary move on me into Agostini when he dived through on the inside and finished up on the grass. The next few corners were much the same and I was getting a bit wary when he dropped back and I was able to build a cushion which I held to the flag for a good second place. Or should have been except that I passed Nigel Davers who was limping along slowly towards the end of the race. Luke got second with Mat third and a very good drive for Jake into fourth place. Matt and Adie finished in front of a struggling Nigel who managed to get the car home. The only non finisher was Eddie Guest who had a core plug blow out.

General

Luke came up to me after the race and apologised for some of his manoeuvres. His brakes were giving him problems. The Clerk of the Course also penalised him five seconds for getting all four wheels off the track on more than one occasion. This didn’t affect the finishing order.

Jake Mayes is sixteen years old and this was his first race. He’s had quite a bit of experience in Karts and knows and has raced against Luke in the past. The car was a 97 Jamun which is owned, I presume, and prepared by Myerscough College. I found him to be a very likeable and personable young man and hope we see him again. Although we’ll obviously ban him if he gets to good.

There were two noticeable absentees from our little clan. Michael Dale was one of these who took a late decision to pull out when he was offered a half price cruise to the Norwegian Fiords. He reckoned it was cheaper to go then paying two hundred pounds for petrol to get his truck to Snetterton. Further he can afford to drop the points anyway but with Ewen, Paul Britten, Phil Nicholson, Jonathon Baggott and Marcus Sheard all going so well he believes he has little chance of repeating his second place in the championship. I understand he’s looking to sell his truck and buy a trailer so if anyone out there is looking for a 7.5 ton truck, see Michael. Or better still, see me and I can get some commission.

The other missing person was Jock Sergison and not forgetting of course his lovely wife Nina. Jock has recently had surgery and is convalescing. So get well soon Jock. I was a bit surprised at Nina though as I know Jock is a bad patient and is taking some looking after but she had some time when he was in hospital and could easily have baked a few cakes for the boys. It would have been good therapy for her.

I went to see what had stopped Eddie’s car and found the irreplaceable Simon Davey replacing the missing core plug. Eddie had evidently replaced the one that blew out and required some expertise so the same thing didn’t happen again.

I was chatting to Nigel Davers, the 2010 and 2011 champion, about some of the problems he’s been plagued with this year. I wonder if he might be looking for another team next year. All joking aside Geoff Fern is now running round like a blue a- -ed fly looking after all the other Fern cars and scarcely has time to fuel his own.

Ewen Sergison repairs a lot of exhausts during the course of a season. When he’s finished the repair he always writes AVIT in weld on the exhaust. Latest victim was Nigel.

Sunday Qualifying

The gremlins got stuck into Nigel’s car yet again and he was only able to complete enough laps to qualify, albeit at a slower pace so it was Luke on pole followed by me, Jake, Adie, Matt and Eddie with Nigel bringing up the rear. Mat Jordan was in there somewhere but is not down on the bulletin but I know he started the race so something is slightly amiss. I got seven laps in before bearing problems forced me to stop and get transported in. I was in stress for the next few hours until Ewen did an emergency repair which got me out into the race.

Sunday Race

I can’t remember now if I ever passed Luke but I was behind him for a while until I missed gears and allowed Jonathon Baggott and Kevin Rootes by. Then they got past Luke and I’m behind him again. It was quite good as he was taking Williams much faster then I so I went faster and had no problems other then on the back straight my car was substantially quicker than his standard Kent engined Ray and I could have passed him on every lap but with getting on to the straight much faster I was having to lift off way before the corner. Don’t want to blow up the new engine. Knowledge for next time. In any event Nigel stormed past us mid way and disappeared into the distance leaving Luke to finish in second, me in third, with Mat fourth. He was followed in by Jake, Matt, Eddie and Adie. There was some confusion with the RF95 of Kevin Rootes. It was badged as an 1800, was down in Sunday’s race as a 1600 and turned out to be an 1800. It has got to be confusing when 2 litre Pintos run with 1800 as do 16 valve Vauxhall 1600s.

Jake Mayes performed extraordinarily well at what was his first meeting. These new drivers are good for the club but why can’t they be fat and fifty plus?

David Parkinson

Pictures still to come.

We may not bother.

The cars look much the same as the last time I suppose though I wasn't there.

If everybody's read the report it's barely worth spending time getting the pictures and posting them.

On the other hand it's something to do if the asst ed can't get into the garden because of the rain.

Well, that's filled the column up.