Sports Car Report #3.11

By Bill Stone

The 25th MG Classic. Manfeild, 13/14 November 2010

Seven Historic Sports Cars turned out for this two-day event.

• Richard Wright. Beowulf Mk 1. 1700cc. Now running well again.
• Alan Hyndman. Triford. Falcon power, 2850cc. Reliable and quick.
• Gavin Bateman. Mallock Mk 4. 1650cc. A tidy car that is for sale.
• Brian Service. Mallock Mk 8. 1598cc. This 2009 Championship winning car is also for sale. He has his original Mallock U2 nearly rebuilt.
• Roger Greaney. Buckler DD11. 1600cc pre cross flow. This nicely prep-ed 1956 car is startlingly quick with a very competent Roger at the wheel.
• Bill Roughan. Mogul Sport Mk 1. Bill has had some handling issues but is hopefully getting then sorted.
• Bill Stone. Mallock Mk6B. 1500cc. So far my car has been very reliable and is handling well.

For this meeting the Sports Cars were grouped with the Formula Fords and the Formula Juniors. The FF’s were quicker than us and mostly ran in a group at the front. The Juniors ran at the back of the field and were lapped by the front-runners. All the races were 6 laps. Saturday was overcast but the track was dry. Sunday started wet but was dry by race 5, though very windy.

Alan Hyndman was the class of the field and could run 2 or 3 sec’s quicker that the rest of us. He won all four races. Richard Wright and I could run the same times and we had a great time. Close and safe.

I managed to take four 2nd places but twice he finished under ½ a sec behind. Just as well the start line was not further up the straight. He did have a spin and DNF in our third race but more on that race later. Bill Roughan and Gavin Bateman ran consistently close. Brian Service’s weekend wasn’t great. Snap oversteer and a dropped plug lead meant DNF’s in his Saturday races and he decided not to start Sunday morning’s wet race three, in hindsight a wise decision. By the final race he was back on track and finished a whisker behind Bill Roughan. Roger Greaney ran well in the first race but returning to the pits the clutch hose made contact with the exhaust and popped. He missed the 2nd race but run in that dramatic 3rd race and finished between Bill Roughan and Gavin Bateman.

The third race on Sunday morning was our third race of the weekend. It had rained and the big Classic saloons, out first, took a battering. The track was still damp for our start. We arrived at the dummy grid and found we would be starting in reverse order. The lights went out and the pack arrived at turn one to find a spinning FF that I think everyone managed to avoid. I was second across the line at the end of that lap. There were yellow flags waving everywhere and at the beginning of the back straight there was a tangle of badly damaged FF’s. Safety Car for a couple of laps, a red flag and a lengthy stop on the grid, another safety car lap, a rolling restart and a couple more laps racing to the flag. I felt that the reverse grid race was potentially very dangerous and after the race I saw the stewards and voiced my opinion.

So the overall Sports Car results: