Champion of Brands

[Jon Davis]

Driftwood . . . place your order and I'll see what I can do. Alternatively we can all head to the Hailwood's cafe for a Marshal's gut busting fry up!

[JNWRF01]

Originally Posted by Thundersports

Oh cock! Just looked at the MSV website and the COB is on a bloody Saturday why not the Sunday? I can't do saturday surely the COB as a crowd pleaser should be on a Sunday? Maybe i'm going all 80s ish again!

COB Crowd pleaser....have you been to a ex-F1 race since the 1980s... Even the FFF struggles to get a crowd of any decent description nowadays... The days of racing infront of 20,000 in the COB are long gone I am afraid...

[driftwood]

maybe long gone but there are guys who do want to see FFord races
anyway MSV should give free entry to spectators to swell the numbers its pathetic they charge £12-15 for 100 people to turn up pay security gate staff to collect money make it free and numbers will grow shops willsell gear and justofy the huge rents they pay!

[Asp]

Originally Posted by driftwood

anyway MSV should give free entry to spectators to swell the numbers its pathetic they charge £12-15 for 100 people to turn up pay security gate staff to collect money make it free and numbers will grow shops willsell gear and justofy the huge rents they pay!

Off topic comment alert I have to type this or my brain will explode! They'd have to pay gate staff anyway for Health & Safety reasons, and some restrictions are good to stop the unscruplous wandering in (present company excepted). But, I agree, promotions for events would be great. It's not just an MSV problem - but circuits can make money on eating places etc (and on circuit hire) so by opening things up they won't be losing much if anything. Thanks for reading, you've been a wonderful audience. Don't forget to try the veal and tip your waitress. We now return you to the topic

[FFmygale]

Originally Posted by driftwood

maybe long gone but there are guys who do want to see FFord races
anyway MSV should give free entry to spectators to swell the numbers its pathetic they charge £12-15 for 100 people to turn up pay security gate staff to collect money make it free and numbers will grow shops willsell gear and justofy the huge rents they pay!

Blimey....this happens less frequently than Jeremy getting his wallet out.....but amazingly, I actually agree with you here driftwood! If JP actually promoted free entry to meetings I am convinced he would actually make more money than he currently does due to a significantly greater crowd spending on food, merchandise etc. etc. and, in the long run, getting children interested in motorsports NOW, will surely lead to greater crowds in the future?

[JHY]

Originally Posted by Pink Panther

Jon,

The last two sessions where great. As you left I went out and it really was tipping it down but great to drive in. Serious river running across at Surtees!! Lat session just wet. Great days testing something for everyone. A lot of badly bent cars though.

See you soon
Andy

Oh the memories! Lining it up on the lefthand side of Surtees knowing that it would aquaplane over to the righthand apex, probably going quicker at that point cos it was before thay messed up bottom bend!

John Hayden

[driftwood]

I met JEB the other night and handed him my CoB entry form and mentioned the whole free entry thing old Sun Free days when John Webb sorted out a deal with the newspaper to get bums through the gates.No doubt he sold many more burgers t shrts beer in kentagon that day to cover the gate money he may have received from the 2-300 bobble hatters who regularly went to Brands meeting.

I amwooreid John that yoru agreeing with me as next Jeremy will be buing us both a beer!
tested at mallory yesterday was wet then dry for last session. I did a 49.6 in the wet and 5 seconds under the FFord lap record in the dry
..then i woke up!
JEB said he has 20 cars for saturdays race and the next round needs 35 cars entered for the GP circuit events and reported he has 5 Dutch guys who have already sent in entry forms and this meeting has the Bery Ray cup so John get that Ray 80 rebult to run at that event
Mr Hayden are you in the UK when we have 1 of the CoB events this year?

[JHY]

Doubt it I'm afarid. I'm still down in Abu Dhabi and it's difficult to plan ahead. I would like to get over for the festival though. Also I ould love to do the GP circuit again ...In my old car though!! I still rate it as the one of the best driver's circuits anywhere...it's still a pity about Bottom Bend though, tends to spoil both the Indy & GP circuits.
Cheers,
J

[Triple J Motorsport]

When is the GP meeting?

I can race it as it is but perfer to rebuild it...

If there is some sort of parade could drive the Ray Zetec and get "Father Ted" to drive the 80F was going to spray it white with a red strip like his car.

Originally Posted by driftwood

I met JEB the other night and handed him my CoB entry form and mentioned the whole free entry thing old Sun Free days when John Webb sorted out a deal with the newspaper to get bums through the gates.No doubt he sold many more burgers t shrts beer in kentagon that day to cover the gate money he may have received from the 2-300 bobble hatters who regularly went to Brands meeting.

I amwooreid John that yoru agreeing with me as next Jeremy will be buing us both a beer!
tested at mallory yesterday was wet then dry for last session. I did a 49.6 in the wet and 5 seconds under the FFord lap record in the dry
..then i woke up!
JEB said he has 20 cars for saturdays race and the next round needs 35 cars entered for the GP circuit events and reported he has 5 Dutch guys who have already sent in entry forms and this meeting has the Bery Ray cup so John get that Ray 80 rebult to run at that event
Mr Hayden are you in the UK when we have 1 of the CoB events this year?

[driftwood]

JohnW I reckon Father Ted would drive it like he did in the old days!!
why dont you fit a kent into the new Ray and come race CoB

GP track races May and July
John H
yes the bottom bend being altered was a real shame but it does offer more out braking over taking opportunities

[Alan Raine]

Originally Posted by driftwood

I met JEB the other night and handed him my CoB entry form and mentioned the whole free entry thing old Sun Free days when John Webb sorted out a deal with the newspaper to get bums through the gates.No doubt he sold many more burgers t shrts beer in kentagon that day to cover the gate money he may have received from the 2-300 bobble hatters who regularly went to Brands meeting.

I did that meeting with the PRS. 1982?

The crowd was huge. A massive grid of cars was lined up on the track in the lunch break and Joe Public was invited to come and have a look.



It seemed a success at the time, but as it's not been done much since, was it financially viable?

[driftwood]

i reckon it was I am suer Sun did 3 or 4 of them
remember Radio 1 road show events pop groups came performed DJ`s raced

[Thundersports]

The Sun free day at Brands attracted 25k in 1991 including a lunch time demo of Lotus with Hakkinen and Herbert trying to get under the Indy circuit record.

[driftwood]

yup remember that day
cant recall what we where running though!

[JHY]

rE. 'Sun Free Days'

I remember they had Page 3 girls sharing the winner's display car and they would occasionally remove their tops!!...Bumper crowds though, always nicer to race in front of a big crowd.

JH

[driftwood]

to racing in front of bigger crowds rather be on the winners car with page 3 girls!

[Thundersports]

Originally Posted by driftwood

to racing in front of bigger crowds rather be on the winners car with page 3 girls!

You don't normally get anywhere near the winners car!

That meeting with Lotus present also had Record Breakers present and the late Roy Castle was standing behind me as the Lotus pulled out the pit garage, I stepped back to stop my feet getting run over and knocked him flying which to this day I feel bad about as he had advanced stages of cancer then and was quite frail.

[driftwood]

sadly they dont have the winners lap of honour car but i have been on it a few times even have rare foto of said event

[Asp]

*Asp coughs politely

Erm, topic people?

Oh, and family content...

[Alan Raine]

Originally Posted by Asp

*Asp coughs politely

Erm, topic people?

Oh, and family content...

So Steve Parrish was talking about chickens?

[GlenF]

Good days racing today, thanks to JEB for organising. 16 cars but I'm sure there will be loads more for the 22nd May. (Weve put in 2 entrys today).
Close racing at the front and dry weather right up to packing up when it threw it down.
Count down to 22nd.

[blackcat]

C'mon then what were the results - Jon D, Kevan, etc - full report please !!

CLP

[Jon Davis]

I can only give a race report from my perspective . . . I still don't know who won as I don't really know the other drivers yet!

I qualified 10th with a 51.5 versus a pole of 50.4 . . . I am happy with this as it is 1/2 second quicker than in testing at the end of Feb and the car really is still pretty new to me and most certainly cannot be driven as wildly as my usual Hawke DL11 steed (CFF1600).

It rained pretty hard about an hour before we were due out . . . after a phenominally long break between qualifying and the race. By the time we ventured out there was a dry line but it was still very slippery off line. I nearly binned it on the green flag lap on Cooper Straight as I decided to boot it as Andrew Xavier in front decided to stamp on the brakes . . . I fishtaled past him all crossed up and got a very confused looking side glance! Driftwood used his superlight frame to make a stunning start, from 13th I think, to be in front of me in 9th by the end of lap one, maybe even before Graham Hill Bend though I can't be sure (he's banned from the forum for a while so the backlash won't come!) We then had a great battle for 5 or 6 laps before I finally nailed him along cooper straight. I then pressed on to catch and pass Andrew Xavier on the way into Paddock to take 8th and think I was catching 7th before the chequered flag flew. I was doing mid 53's with most of the time lost on the new slippery when wet tarmac on Clearways.

Great fun . . . roll on round 2.

I think Kevan finished 10th or 11th . . . TSL not updated with the results yet (feels strange being at home 24 hours later not actually knowing the result!!!)

[blackcat]

Well done Jon - it does seem a bit strange that TSL is not up to date, that is what i was banking on in finding out results - in fact i tried to call you on the mob this afternoon - you must have been sleeping thru the GP !

What cars are out - are they all new-ish ? Any point in bringing the Green Meenie down ?

I'll need to get some Croft pointers before 17/18th Apr for the CFF1600 round.

[Jon Davis]

Ah . . . now I know who you are! No missed calles on my mobile though.

TSL is now up to date and I wasn't catching 7th! The oldest car was mid 80's. My qualifying time was 51.5, with power understeer through paddock and clearways which I would have dialled out for a dry race, versus a 53.2 in the Hawke so I'll let you make your mind up on bringing the greeen meanie . . . I wouldn't come in the Hawke as I don't fancy flogging myself on the ragged edge of the car's preformance to then be a tail end charlie!