New (ish) VSCC Formula

[The Fat Clerk]

Saturday @ Oulton Park saw the VSCC run a 40 minute race for a Formula not seen so far this century - The Longstone Tyres Light Car Club Race.

37 cars took the start & 31were classified finishers, with the winner completing 11 laps of the 2.69 mile International Circuit.

Some cars were recognisable to me, like Morgan Super Aero's & Austin 7 Chummy's, others such as an Amilcar CGS & Carden Cyclecar certainly weren't.

Fabulous race with a great atmosphere in the Paddock and with the crowd (yes there was one).

Well done to the VSCC, love to see them @ Mallory next year.

[apriliadriver]

Dougal Cawley + Longstone were the engine room for this fab,um, race - a revival of what used to be a commonplace feature of VSCC meetings from 1953 to (vestigially) 1975. The light cars entered dated from 1913 to 1930 powered by engines from 498cc to a massive 1500cc. It was a great lark and a tribute to the 'VSCC-in-exile' as the Light Car Section is often known.

[dwh43scale]

Off to Mallory, camera in hand, this coming Sunday for the VSCC Bob Gerard Memorial Trophy Meeting.

[The Fat Clerk]

Originally Posted by dwh43scale

Off to Mallory, camera in hand, this coming Sunday for the VSCC Bob Gerard Memorial Trophy Meeting.

See you there.

[jerryk]

Originally Posted by The Fat Clerk

See you there.

I saw your name on the list Dave . Kettles on .

[The Fat Clerk]

I'll bring along some reading material.

[delta]

Although I test at Mallory many times each year I recon its been ten years since I last raced at the track. Looking forward to the weekend.

[jerryk]

Originally Posted by The Fat Clerk

I'll bring along some reading material.

Marvellous

[grantp]

Originally Posted by delta

Although I test at Mallory many times each year I recon its been ten years since I last raced at the track. Looking forward to the weekend.

I was going to suggest a bit more recently Iain, recalling a 500cc outing a while back. But I think that was VSCC in 2015 and you had some problems in qualifying and did not, in the end, start the race.

Went looking for some pics but have only found a subset so far and none with you in the output post-editing so I suspect I may not have found the optimum archived source!

[delta]

Originally Posted by grantp

I was going to suggest a bit more recently Iain, recalling a 500cc outing a while back. But I think that was VSCC in 2015 and you had some problems in qualifying and did not, in the end, start the race.

Went looking for some pics but have only found a subset so far and none with you in the output post-editing so I suspect I may not have found the optimum archived source!

Did you want to come Sunday GP. ?

[grantp]

Originally Posted by delta

Did you want to come Sunday GP. ?

Seriously considering it if I can get past the hordes going to the truck racing at Donington!

AFAIK there is no other family event to consider. But I'll probably stick mainly to the outside of the circuit for a change. Not to be anti-social but because I fancy snapping at the hairpin an on the outside of the Esses with the very long lens!

Obviously I'll pop over the bridge to say hello - just feeling a little too old to try to carry the gear all around the track when it's one of the most accessible tracks to visit with a car!

Grandchildren are wonderful creatures and can be very entertaining but 6 days in the past 9 is "sufficient". Physical recuperation required. A day snapping at Mallory will seem like R&R. (With a car ....)

Hopefully.

[delta]

A very enjoyable day. So nice just to go back to Mallory and just have a good old fashioned race meeting,.. There were many spectators which was good and the paddock atmosphere was just how racing used to be when I raced with 750 M/C.
Down side for me was my two Gemini cars which suffered more failures with engine issues and diff. In qualy I saw HRTR5 parked up and must admit I called it a day after 6 laps as I started wondering what had broken on his car. I then returned to truck to be greeted by Colin McKay with a few FFFFFFF!!!!!!!!!!.
Duncan had missed qualifying as he was out on the town the night before.
So I lined up P5 and had a reasonable start but dropped to sixth approaching Gerrards. Everyone was a bit hesitant at the start so I managed to get a couple of places back as we came out and was now 4th. Couple more laps and I passed John Arnold for 3rd going into the Esses. Now to get P2 and I pulled in Nick Taylor in another "very fast Elva 100". We had a brilliant ding dong for a few laps then I got a good run out of Devils Elbow and got him up the inside of Gerrards. Pulled away a little but Nick had a few lunges at me going into the hairpin which made life very exciting and I hope spectators enjoyed this tussle. With two laps to go I think the diff bearing failed on R/H side as I lost the brakes and then had to limp home in 3rd but still very happy to give the owner of the Lola MK2 a result.
Brilliant day and so good to catch up with lots of tenthers. Dropped off to sleep ,last night and thought I wonder if that result might get me a Goodwood invite. One can dream. Happy days.

[dwh43scale]

https://flic.kr/s/aHsmWsTDST

A few shots from yesterday. Lots more to work through. Good result for Iain, too !

Nice to see the Darracq back out as well.

[The Fat Clerk]

Thank you to everyone for making it such a great day.
Hopefully every driver got a race despite the problems with their cars, we did do quite of lot of swapping, so I guess peoples programmes would have had a lot of alterations.
The Marshals were there in numbers and still smiling at the end despite the rain, I knew the weather was coming and tried to get ahead of the timetable as much as I could. The spectators were there in numbers and there was a gorgeous collection of vintage cars on the banking.
I understand the same weekend for 2022 has already been booked, see you there.

[Rudernst]

I had an eventfull day at Mallory

My car, the Mitter DKW Formula Junior, was excluded from the qualifying, because according to check performed at the entry of the assembly area, it was too loud.

I understand enough of procedures to realise that it was no use to argue, so we did not, we made the car quieter, passed the test, and I got to race.

so far so good..

At this point I need to add that, once we cooperated and had muffled my car (and got it to run reasonably ok again, which was quite a challenge) everybody in race control and the marshalls were as helpful as possible to enable me to at least start from the rear and get a race.

The problem that I have with this incident is this:
My team has, at my insistance, its own noise meter.
We check the car at every stage of development to make sure it complies
The reason why I am so methodical about this is that doing one race day in the UK means 3 days of travel for me, so its 72 hours of travel for 45 minutes out on the track, out of which I lost nearly half.

The car has run in the current iteration for quite a while,
I has sucessfully passed several noise tests for 108 db and complies.
There is no rockwool packing in the silencer to burn out

So why has my car failed the noise test at Mallory when it passes at Silverstone and Oulton Park and Brands Hatch ?
The answer is simple
At Silverstone the test is conducted in an open area suitably removed from the paddock and the track
At Mallory it was done at the paddock exit near a live track, in a confined space with a large building reflecting or echoing noise.
And that, in my opinion, was the problem
Not my car.....
Mallory has a dedicated noise test area, which was not used that day.

I understand the problems that the current Mallory team has regarding noise and neighbours and I fully support noise abatement measures

I just dont want to suffer from arbitrary or faulty application of the rules.
This nearly ruined my weekend completely.
I was my personal level headed reaction to the problem that saved me.

This is meant as constructive criticism not as a hatchet job.
Because, in one years time, I will have to make the decision, whether to enter this event again.
And to do this, I have to be certain that I am allowed onto the track with a car that is compliant and the the procedure to establish this is fair, consistent AND HAS BEEN PROPERLY VERIFIED !

But the fact the "we had to fail so many cars today" should thrown up a read flag, not about the cars, but the procedure

I anderstand that the marshals , the scrutes, mosto of race control are volunteers and that they gave it their best

Buuuuut, sometimes, the best, unfortunately is not good enough.

Apart from that, it certainly was a wonderful event, in timeless VSCC style.

Rudolf Ernst

[The Fat Clerk]

The Scrutineers along with the Medical Team, Recovery, Timekeepers and VSCC staff are not volunteers they are paid to be there, everyone else - Orange Army, everyone in Race Control etc are.
I'd say cars failing the noise test was about average - I think it was 5.
Different venues have different noise limits, Mallory's was 108db which is higher then the normal 105.

It was nice to meet you and we hope to see you again.

[dwh43scale]

https://flic.kr/s/aHsmWyoBn5

Formula Junior race including a few of Delta plus Messrs Ernst and McKay. Playing with new 24-70mm zoom lens and slow shutter speeds so lots of speed blur !

[john ruston]

Talbot Largo wins Pre War sports cars.
Great result Max’s first win
Pace Historic’s prepared

[dwh43scale]

Originally Posted by john ruston

Talbot Largo wins Pre War sports cars.
Great result Max’s first win
Pace Historic’s prepared

[Simon Hadfield]

But the point is that several of the cars that failed the noise test were cars that have been racing for some time and in other venues have consistently passed the noise test.
I personally saw some of the much earlier cars failing and then told to lower their revs and surprise - they passed.
So the issue here is not that there is a limit but how and where the testing to ascertain said limit was carried out.

[midgetman]

I remember failing the noise test at a sprint at Castle Combe in my daily driver, an unmodified MG Maestro. They tested it in a queue of cars full of bounce back and external noise.

I did remonstrate with them and they let me go on track "but would monitor me on drive by". I never heard another thing from them of course. I didn't think I would, given that the previous week I'd passed at 85dba, and the marshal had said "I'll write 90dba on the sheet otherwise they won't believe me."

The gauges are brilliant. The people using them not so.

Sent from my AC2003 using Tapatalk

[The Fat Clerk]

The gauges are brilliant. The people using them not so.

Sent from my AC2003 using Tapatalk[/QUOTE]

That's a fair point, it's down to the Scrutineer on the day.
As he's a Judge of Fact if he tells me a car's to noisy I have to go with that.

[delta]

What I will say is that Mitter had fair turn of speed .

[dwh43scale]

Originally Posted by delta

What I will say is that Mitter had fair turn of speed .

[dwh43scale]

All galleries from Sunday at Mallory now on Flickr - https://www.flickr.com/photos/dwh38/...57719738395781