Masters Top Hat Snetterton 29 March.

[terence]

Yes Peter,thanks Masters. Have a good flight Pete,at least you know it will be warm when you land.

[Alan Morgan]

It was good to meet up with Terence and Peter - one day I'll actually get to meet John Turner! I good day for us, Jim Woodley and Iain (delta) Rowley got a good second in the Westminster, which made the wind and rain a little more bearable.

It was a shame to see so many damaged cars this early in the season, though...

[G.Walker]

The Touring 70s race looked a disaster, a 45 minute race with only 4 cars!!!

[terence]

Yes,great shame there were so many casualties[cars] that is.Poor Michael Pearson now has a rather hefty repair bill for his Renault,but at least he suffered no injury.

[John Turner]

Originally Posted by G.Walker

The Touring 70s race looked a disaster, a 45 minute race with only 4 cars!!!

When I read this, I thought - did I really not notice only 4 cars on track? So I immediately referred to the results sheets. Phew! The cars were sharing the race with Stars of the 70s (although the first 3 in that class were stars from the 60's - work that one out) and there was some good racing. The Touring 70s were, as you say, decimated, losing half its small field of 8 cars. The obvious omissions were a couple of Batmobiles to put amongst the Capris. Hope it's just early season blues!

It was good to catch up with Peter Mallett. You know it's cold when he comments upon it, since he has spent time in Russia (somewhat more suitably attired of course!) and that wind certainly was pretty bitter. The rain held off until the last few laps of race 3 (Oldies but Goldies) and didn't return although it left the track 'iffy' for the early part of Race 4.

It was also great to finally meet Roger Wills ( he had an 'interesting' weekend altogether - he was at Donington, the following day!) and Terence Bower. Andrew Kitson, our 'resident' Snetterton man was there, but I'm sorry I didn't meet either Alan or Iain (now that you have 'outed' delta, Alan!). No doubt we'll catch up, eventually!

This was a great meeting to start my season. AK tells me that this is the first time Top Hat has been to Snet, so I hope it stays on the calendar, as along with Cadwell, this is my 'local'. I'm pleased with the results with my new camera and will put some pics up as usual, but there will be loads more on my new site (ooops, a self promoting plug!) in due course.

[terence]

Funny driver on the A11 John,Audi with it's hazards on.

[John Turner]

Yeah, some nutter who steamed passed me at 210mph and then pulled in front of me and flashed his hazards (glad it was nothing else!) at me. I wasn't sure who it was, but you were on my shortlist of culprits, Terry!

[Farbrooke]

Originally Posted by John Turner

This was a great meeting to start my season. AK tells me that this is the first time Top Hat has been to Snet, so I hope it stays on the calendar,

Top Hat at Snett in a very wet Oct 2001 and I think Oct 2002 but may be 2003

[Peter Mallett]

I think it was the first "Top Hat" meeting at Snet rather than a Top Hat pre 66 race.

[rogerwills]

I stuck around for the prize giving (as had a pot to collect ) and Julius made a point of saying it was not the first time Top Hat had been at Snetterton.

[terence]

2003 was the first visit,same as Cloth Cap.And,as said,very wet for The Jack Sears Trophy.

[John Turner]

Apologies, but I had my resolution settings on low, by mistake. Didn't discover it until halfway through Sunday morning at Donington! Only applies to the P&P shots as I used a different camera for the on track shots!

The first picture is of Rob Brown's HL Special being noise tested. I know nothing about this car; more info. required!

The rest are hopefully self explanatory!

[Farbrooke]

Consulted the lap chart book

20/21st October 2001 - Top Hat race on 21st - wet practice / damp race -

19/20th October 2002 - Top Hat - Cloth cap - 50's saloons - sunny

2003 saw Snet replaced with Mallory

[terence]

I appologise for that,does'nt seem that long ago.Just checked my results sheets,Oct 02 was the year Whiz and myself did it ,and yes,it was sunny and dry.Cloth Cap must have been 01,finished sixth O/A,four Marcos'es had the top four places whilst I pushed a TR4 over the line a 1/3rd of a second in front,now that race was WET.I must have been enjoying myself since!!!

[John Turner]

Four of the cars we lost in the morning qualifying period.

Tony Eckford owns this Le Mans Tiger Coupe but he rarely gets to drive it and it is usually raced by Chris Beighton and Roger Finnimore. All the more frustrating then that whilst he was practicing in it, the nearside driveshaft sheared inside the hub, the caliper mountings broke and the wheel parted company:-


Ivor Miller's Mini Jem failed to get to the race grid but I don't know why:-


The same applies to the Mark Plumtree Galaxie:-


Did anyone get them to handle properly? Brave men - Mike Pearson and Dave Devine entered the Oldies but Goldies Pre 60 race in this Renault Dauphine Gordini. It was rolled in practice!:-

[Peter Mallett]

The Mini Gem suffered the same fate as the Renault Dauphine Gordini.

[rogerwills]

I saw the Mini Gem incident. He spun at Sear and was sitting on the exit of the corner when a Jag of some form came around and totally collected him. Big impact!

[John Turner]

Graeme Dodd indicates his intention to pit in his XK120:-


The driver of the Marco Brustio/Nicholas Smith Alfa GTA indicates the Mike Wrigley is to pass him on the left:-


Michael Peet gets a bit out of shape in the Sunbeam Rapier S3:-


Jim Woodley locks up his brakes in order to avoid punting the Alan Pritchard/Geoffrey Vaughan Ford Zephyr Mk1


Peter Mallett demonstrates that Capris have body roll!:-


Whilst Alan Daffin shows what happens when you get off line. The Pearson/Devine TR4 hopes not get involved and has his mirrors full of poleman, Shaun Lynn's ex Lauda/ Hezemans GP2 Capri:-

[Peter Mallett]

I hadn't bothered with the results but checking on the website yesterday it looks like I got the second fastest class lap. So, with another twenty minutes I reckon I could have won!

[terence]

John,did the Smith GTA pull out of qualifying with a collapsed prop bearing?

[John Turner]

Sorry, Terry, haven't a clue! I spend most of the time out on the circuit, and not picking up on the stories, which is why I'd make a hopeless reporter. Some would say, I'm just clueless! Anyway, more pics hopefully later on today - I'm actually going out with my good lady this morning!

[terence]

Originally Posted by John Turner

Sorry, Terry, haven't a clue! I spend most of the time out on the circuit, and not picking up on the stories, which is why I'd make a hopeless reporter. Some would say, I'm just clueless! Anyway, more pics hopefully later on today - I'm actually going out with my good lady this morning!

Dont spend too much on me John

[Andrew Kitson]

The Mini-Jem needs glueing back together again.


Wishful thinking?


Like modern British F3 which suffers from a lack of imagination - all the cars seem to be white, black silver & red - Top hat have gone baby blue! A lot of cars this colour for some reason!




Shaun Lynn's Capri & Cobra


Roger's car with exhausts stuffed with brillo pads!


Peter fills her up with juice with Terry's help. Good to see you all guys..

[Andrew Kitson]

By the way John, that Dodd XK was one of three or four that were black flagged and pulled out of the race for pit lane speeding. Graeme looked furious with race director Dave Scott for such a penalty, his co-driver committing the offence.

[Peter Mallett]

Yes,

Rather interesting scenes after that.

Andrew, apologies, my brain was obviously iced up, it was good to meet you at Snetterton too.

BTW, can you spot the 10/10s stickers?