Season Review

[Peter Mallett]

This will appear on my website (in a much edited form) but a lot of you have had the pleasure (?) of reading the ramblings and musings of a few of the demented souls who attended some of the Classic Saloon Car Club (GB) race meetings this year. As such, I thought it would be good to give you my view of the year. Good and bad.

The car first turned a wheel in anger this year, at a test day at Snetterton in early March. The first race at Silverstone was about a week away but it was the first day available due to work commitments. I was getting down to a reasonable time in cool, overcast conditions, when the sessions were stopped due to an off by another car. I was about 1.5 secs off the class record pace which was pretty good considering the inherent handling of my car which is not that good. Unbeknownst to me the head gasket developed a tiny hole that made itself evident at Silverstone 18th March.

The race was a lonely one really. I finished fourth in class, nursing the car, and really had little to do. However it was noticeable that my car was nowhere near as "chuckable" as some, including the Capris of Martin West and Graham Scarborough. This would develop into a recurring theme. I finished the first race of the season reasonably pleased. It was nice to meet Maisie & Chris (again) and Tim D and Bluebottle for the first time.

So, on to Mallory Park. Maisie and Chris turned up to provide encouragement with friends. Practice was wet and it gave me the opportunity to show what I can really do. I qualified fifth; just two cars from class pole. I was as close to "Skid" Scarborough as I would get for the rest of the year. Unfortunately the race was dry so I lost places and finished eighth and fourth in class again. I had a particularly good dice with a mini 1275GT, which I finally got by with a lap to go. After that race the mini was banned for being underweight.

Cadwell Park came next and it was fraught as usual. No ten tenthers there and a pretty poor showing. Terminal understeer in fast corners, which turned to "snap oversteer" out of slow corners. Finished around eighth.

Brands Hatch was next. A weekend meeting with (we hoped) practice on Saturday and racing on Sunday. Sadly the BARC decided the Group 1 racers could be shoved to the end of the Saturday practice day. Maisie, Chris and Tim came to wave the flag and I had a reasonable race. Between practice and the race we replaced some seriously worn anti-roll-bar bushes and took off some castor. The race was pretty good and I had a good dice with Sean Cockerill in his Sunbeam. And there is the crux of my season. The dreadful handling of the car means that whilst I get some good races with the smaller classes, I am unable to compete at the front where a class B car should be.

Then it was back to Mallory Park, on to Thruxton and then to Snetterton, where the Sparkster made himself known to us, missing out Lydden on the way. All much the same. Loads of serious effort and precious little results. The power in my car is pretty good but I have no way of getting it to transfer to the ground under acceleration. Then we get to Oulton Park. A good turn out of ten tenthers for my first visit to this circuit. . (Yes I know I'm old but work has always got in the way before). Even Craig made the effort and Mr Dan made his first appearance at a British Clubby. I had a great race with loads of locked brakes etc. but just failed to pass the Capri of Ian Drew for third in class.

Pembrey was er, a disaster. I qualified fairly well down and finished last due to a broken coil connector. The one-hour two-driver race was much better. Tim Clarke started us from thirteenth and got us up to sixth by the change over. I was heading for fourth when a Jaguar I was lapping punted me sideways across a corner. That cost half a lap, so fifth overall after an hour was very good indeed. Sadly it was non-championship.

Spa-Francorchamps was a non-championship race, which was, as ever, great fun. I missed the Knockhill round and then we come to Snetterton for the final Championship race of the season. The Ten-tenths gang was there and I had a great race with Sean's Sunbeam. We must have changed places four or five times and not a scrap of paint was swapped.

My thoughts on the season? Well, it was great fun. My thoughts on the future? Must get the handling sorted. That plus the engine and body rebuilds will cost money so it will be later next year before we get out again.

Thanks to all who turned up and thanks to those guys who gave me some good races.

Oh, BTW. We should be getting a championship round at Zolder next year. Let's hope the BARC come through on that one.

Cheers.

[SNH]

How about a review from you for TheGrid then Peter? & any other club racers?

[Dan Friel]

Peter,

Went to Zolder last year with BARC..

However, the rumours are that it won't happen next year due to the fact that they actually lost a whole lotta money on the venture last year...

However, they did take the wrong championships... so maybe your lot would fair better out there...