MG Car Club International Festival

[gary396]

Originally Posted by John Turner

......Yesterday was our FISCAR race with an absolutely superb grid along with MGCC Iconic 50's grid. The race was a tad marred by a startline incident which saw 5 cars damaged of which two were John's lovely 356 Porsches so a weekend of peaks and Troughs for J R who, I'm pleased to say was philosophical about it. Anyway, I'll post some pics up, hopefully in the not too distant.

Looking down on the grid it looked like a fabulous collection of cars - well done to FISCAR for getting them together. It's the first time that I've had the chance to see them out but sadly wasn't in a position to take any photos. Great shame about the startline incident and the damage caused.

All in all a good weekend. Glad I wasn't camping though - looked a bit wet in places!

[John Turner]

Very gratifying comments from you all, thanks, and yes, Chris, I do have pics. The RGS Atalanta was a lovely addition to the grid, and the whole field was an absolute delight to see.

Tim, your comments noted, and will put pics up on here. Still trying to finish the Autosport 3 hours race at Snet first!

[terence]

Originally Posted by John Turner

Very gratifying comments from you all, thanks, and yes, Chris, I do have pics. The RGS Atalanta was a lovely addition to the grid, and the whole field was an absolute delight to see.

Tim, your comments noted, and will put pics up on here. Still trying to finish the Autosport 3 hours race at Snet first!

John,was the Atlanta the ex Peter Wardle car?

[Brian A]

If anyone is looking for specific pictures of the FISCAR race, let me know. Pat got a trackside pass and was taking pictures at Luffield. I haven't had a chance to look at them yet, other than her showing me a particularly nice grouping of Pia in the Farallac being followed by the Aurelia of LAK with me just about to pounce.

We'll be sorting out a good cross section of pictures to send to Richard Bell so he can include them in his write up. A job for this evening me thinks.

[Brian A]

Originally Posted by FastDB2s

We are never going to get near Brian A, as I think he always holds something in reserve.

You should be looking forward to Thruxton then - a nice power circuit for you guys with big engines.....

[FastDB2s]

Originally Posted by terence bower

John,was the Atlanta the ex Peter Wardle car?

No Terry, the Peter Wardle car was MG engined IIRC, this is the only Aston engined one, which is partly why we got the job.
It was owned for some years by a Dr Peter Garrod of Smarden, Kent until 2010, then it passed to its owner now,Chris Guest.

Should go well when we've sorted it.

[john ruston]

Now a Corgi type car.

[FastDB2s]

Originally Posted by john ruston

Now a Corgi type car.

You don't like it then John ?

[john ruston]

I like it but connection is that Chris Guest was the King of Corgi toys before he retired.

A really great fellow and only weakness is his love of those Bentley things

[FastDB2s]

forgot he was a Corgi man, he did tell me a few years ago when he was looking at something else we had for sale.

[terence]

Thanks Chris,just wondered where the Wardle car had got to.

[John Turner]

Starters - 22 (10 + 12)
Classified - 20 (10 + 10)

A 35 minute race with compulsory pitstop, qualifying suggested that Gareth Burnett in JR's Alta (27) would walk it, and it did! Great car, well driven and sounding fantastic, it is a shame that there was no-one to give it a challenge. Equally, qualifying, indicated that the lovely Cottingham/Diffey BMW 328 (5) would be unchallenged in 2nd place, and ultimately, that too proved to be the case although there were times when others seemed to be running close to it. 3rd was taken by one of the two fantastic big Lagonda V12 Le Mans cars (6 -Robert Lewis). MGCC sensibly added their MMM cars to this since neither sets of cars, lovely though they all are, would have presented much of a spectacle on their own. Although quickest in practice, by far, was Andy King's MG KN Special, it was clearly very sick in the race, lapping 12 seconds off its qualifying pace and retiring after 7 laps. It was thus, Barry Foster's Montlhery (17), that upheld MG honours to win the MMM race and finish 5th overall behind the Aston Martin Speed Model (37) of Lake/Alcock. 6th overall was Fred Boothby's MG J2 (14).

I share JR's concern at the general lack of Pre war racing, and all credit to MGCC for running this. It's no criticism of the VSCC either since they provide some excellent meetings but they do rely quite a lot on pre war specials for some of their races or is that just my imagination - please correct me if that is a poor assessment. The trouble is that a lot of these cars are now very valuable, costly to maintain, ill adapted to the wear and tear of modern style racing, and aren't getting any younger, anymore than some of the owners who understand the vagaries of running such cars. The problem is that once they disappear completely from our circuits, we're unlike ly to get them back. Right off my soapbox now! I'll do a couple of posts of pics, as we don't feature enough of the older cars on this forum:-

[midgetman]

Goodness! Is there a driver in the blue twin wheeled car?!

[John Turner]

Yep, that's Mike Dowler in his MG Montlhery C type (31) who finished 13th.

Some more:-

[John Turner]

And since I'm enjoying this so much, here's some more:-

[John Turner]

Last lot for Race 1 .......... I think!!

[john ruston]

Would just say that Nick Pellett shared the Alta with Gareth and started the car.He did very well for his first drive in the car.Did mention its a bit different from Talbot.

It was our first race of year and Gareth's first race of year.The Alta has now won 30 races overall since I bought it in 99 at most of major race circuits in Europe.

Problem with the race is that it was scheduled on same weekend as VSCC Mallory.

[John Turner]

Arrh, now I understand your comment to me in an e-mail. Sorry to have left Nick out of my report. He did not appear in results. Yes, I bet it feels a whole lot different to the Talbots.

[Peter Mallett]

Didn't get to take many pics but I got a few of the Morgan challenge here

[John Turner]

Thanks for that Peter, I only got to see 4 races all weekend and one of those was for the more modern MG saloons so outside the scope of this forum. However, am about to put some pics of Race 2, for Tim, which certainly had a large proportion of historic content.

[John Turner]

Starters - 33
Classified - 24

A half hour race, which contained some good racing, also contained two of my fellow 10-Tenths mods, Tim Falce and Ken Paton in Ram D type replicas, pitted against a range of modified but more conventional type old sports and GT cars. Ken (in 56) was particularly on fire early on in the race grabbing the lead on about lap 3 when he put his fastest lap of the race in and building up a small cushion. However, Poleman, Josh Files who had been pushed down the order early on in his Triumph TR6 (64) worked his way to the front of the chasing pack and gradually closed down on Ken to take the lead and win by just under 6 seconds. Andy Green's Morgan Plus 8 (85) was 3rd with Simon Cripps the first MG home in his B GTV8 (88) was 4th. Rob Spencer, who will ever remain in my mind for that incredible barrel roll at Coram at Snet a few years ago, was 5th in his B GTV8 (55) and Ian Prior, similarly mounted (91) was 6th. Tim Falce brought the other D Rep (61) into 7th, so good results for 'our' guys! The MGA class started with 6 cars but only 3 were classified as finishers, the first one home being that of Neil Cawthorn (in 37) in a fine 15th. One of my favourite club racing combinations Roger Connell and TVR Griffith (97) competed in this race but finished well down the order.

[Peter Mallett]

Qualifying and racing were both on Saturday for me so, we prepped the cars and got set to go. Logistically I had a problem because I was entered in the MGB 50 race, which was immediately followed by the JD Classics race in the Capri. So I approached Ron Gammons the CoC, who was obliging and gave me permission to pull off at the end of the MGB race, into the escape road at Brooklands, so that I could get into my car which Tim C would park in the assembly area. Of course this was subject to me finishing the MGB race!

I completed 15 mins of the 30 mins allowance for the MGB practice and qualified 34th. I was in a group of around eight cars all within a second of each other. The JD Classics grid was, sadly, not so large (58 for the MGB 50, only 16 for the JDC). But it included some important, original cars; the JDC Gp 2 Capri; the Robinson Gp1 Dolomite; the ex Dennis Leech Rover Vittesse, not to mention, what I hope is the original Holman Blackburn Spa 1976 Capri.

Unfortunately, I was classed as a group 2 car in the JD Classics (my car is actually Group 1) and thus I was totally outgunned by everything around me in my class, however I managed to out qualify two V8s and the Robinson Dolomite. Of course coming off the line, the V8s would jump me, which left me with Anthony to deal with. But before that I had the MGB race. I got a good start and I think I made up a couple of places. I let things settle down but my mirrors told me I had plenty of space behind, so all I needed to do was concentrate on going forwards. The group I was in was pretty close and it was looking to be good fun. Then, as I crossed the line to begin lap 3, I heard a buzzing noise and although the oil pressure was good, I switched off and coasted to the end of the pit lane. Upon investigation, the rocker shaft had broken.

So the planned logistics issues didn't materialise sadly.

Having experienced the expected loss of places from the start of the JDC race, due to the power of the V8s behind me, I settled in to chase them. And I wasn't doing too badly, until Anthony used his power (similar bhp to me but 200kg lighter) to pass me on Hanger straight, which I regained as we entered Stowe. Then I set out to chase down the cars in front. But, even though they were quicker on the straights, the V8s (and the Baldock Mach 1 is IMO drop dead gorgeous) were no match in the corners. So I caught up with the Mach 1 but it then slowed me by around 2 secs per lap! Anthony, on the other hand, was getting much quicker. The upshot was that as the Mach 1 pulled off for its pit stop, releasing me to go quicker, Anthony was already on my tail and cruised past as we exited Village on to the Wellington straight.

As it turned out I overtook the two V8s and the Dolomite (which retired with oil problems), albeit in the pits, because my average times were quicker than the V8s, but after the pit stops my race was pretty lonely even if I was going quicker. No prizes for this race but I have to say that the initiative is brilliant, and whilst my (group 1 - please note Duncan) car is a replica, it will be tremendous if the series can grow. Next round for me is the Gold Cup at Oulton Park. Hopefully we'll have the MG in the Guards Trophy too, although I also hope there'll be more of a gap between each race.

[John Turner]

Great post Peter; sad about the MGB retirement. I agree about the JD Classics; I didn't see the race but definitely worth developing if possible. Any pics of that race or indeed any other would be great, although I do have, for obvious reasons, our FISCAR race reasonably well covered (pics a bit later).

[John Turner]

Just a few more, for this one:-

[Tim Falce]

Thanks for posting the photos John, excellent as ever. Here's a video of my first few laps. I made a poor start, losing a place to Ulrich Vierhaus, which I soon got back and after getting past Grahame Bull and Paul Conway, EType and Morgan respectively I had a pretty lonely time and couldn't get anywhere near the leaders.