Saturday 13^th July report By Hamish Roscoe

There are a number of weeks between events that I take part in (to suit geographic location and travelling time) so I was all prepared. This is a weekend where it’s a double header at the same venue and one of my must-do locations so that I can do the minimum number of events to count within my travelling window of a couple of hours driving. I take the Friday off work to load the trailer and tow vehicle with a view of setting off Friday evening. My woes (and luck) start here and all through my own errors and rushing. First, I collect my trailer from a friend’s business where it’s stored in his yard and I forget to raise the Jockey wheel. This and the winder post are destroyed as I drive off. the next couple of hours is sourcing a replacement of the correct diameter and getting the angle grinder out to cut off the old jockey wheel mechanism.

Argghh!

This is where my luck changes as whilst I have robust gloves and proper eye protection – (yes nearly time to wince ) the angle grinder kicks out and shreds my jeans only just grazing my inner leg above the knee ……. the “what if’s” still haunt me writing this. Finally, all fixed and loaded I arrive at Loton Park, a wonderful deer park setting and a great track layout and surface to race on. I unload my black 3a at the top of the grassed parking and camping area only for the trailer ramp to bounce damaging the OSF wing- the air was blue with self annoyance and frustration – but at least the 3 bad luck things were out the way……

Hamish settled in his camper

Saturday Race day - and its only me in my class 2b (tuned road cars) TR3a (with a bogey time of 66.5 seconds) and Len Olds our champion (with a bogey time of 65.43) with his class 3a (modified) full race TR4 on slicks- should I go home now? It’s a busy event with an assortment of cars, single seaters, Ferrari Owners Club, motorbikes and some sidecar outfits all having a go up the hill. A couple of red flags were quickly sorted as a few drivers were trying for FTD in practice. First practice sees me achieve a time of 67.58 but Len storms it out of the blocks with a blistering 64.84 already smashing his bogey time.

Practice 2 (but our first run to count in competition with our new regs) & I improve to a 66.26 just breaking my class bogey. Len follows me up and is timed at 65.49 not quite beating his bogey in competition that counts.

We have a lunch break and all eyes are on the skies as we have had dry runs so far but the black clouds are ominous and our race numbers are in the last batch so we, the Ferraris, Morgans and the bikes are the last to run. The heaven open- in a biblical manner and Len is quick to change from his slick tyres to a road going treaded version. Different wheels and different wheel nuts and spacers. Len is fitting his last wheel, and the last stud, when tightening with a torque wrench a long stud breaks on the osf. Now the bad luck is with him! He searches in his van and discovers he has spare wheel studs – and on the his TR4 they are the splined pull in type. On closer inspection its apparent that it’s the only stud that has been welded in !!! typical.

Len's broken wheel stud

With the clock ticking to the first timed run Len does a tour of the paddock and comes back with a battery angle grinder. We are now called by the paddock marshals to line up. The batch has to leave Len to his repairs and go and do our timed runs. This is all a bit complicated as in our championship, practice 2 at an event counts to the TR championship results thus, with it raining and very wet, Len has already set the fastest time that I can’t beat on the road. However, I have beat him on handicap. Yet there is still the official event placings to be determined via the 2 official timed runs. And with his stud and hub rebuilt Len misses the first timed run and I achieve a wet time of 74.54. The last run of the day is still very wet and has already claimed a Ferrari into the tyre barrier I get to a 71.58 and Len on his only official timed run finishes with 77.39. giving me a win on handicap and a win for the event, but no prizes as there was only 2 of us.

Sunday 14th July report By Conrad Rafique

My second event of the year having competed in the Mallory Park sprint back in April, where a warped nsf brake disc hampered speedy progress. A rapid change of the warped disc was completed on Saturday afternoon despite having done a few HRCR tour events, North Wales run and several runs up Shelsley Walsh hillclimb – Last Minute Motorsport again. I had an early start on wet and empty roads from Chester to Loton Park, between Shrewsbury & Welshpool, perfect for bedding in the new pads and disc. Having spent the 90s rallying and always trailering cars around the country, I drive the TR6 to and from all events.

TRs ready

Hamish and Len had organised our TR corner in the pits with the gazebo; then Jerry Vincent (TR7 Sprint class 2a) and I organised ourselves stripping as much as possible out of our cars – all luggage, spares and even spare tyres and tools. (Len would be disgruntled if we were carrying unnecessary extra weight – excess sump oil was even considered a candidate for weight reduction!)

It’s a fabulous hill, very technical with everything from square corners to a challenging double apex lefthander and some downhill parts too. Probably the biggest heart-stopper is Museum – a proper “how big are your g$$lies?” sector.

This fast steep blind summit towards the end of the track is quite simply - “how confident are you in 50+ year old brake design?”

It’s a Marmite corner – a blind summit into a blind 90+ right…. Our resident Maestro, Len (not the Austin Rover variety), emphasises that there is plenty of tarmac over the crest and his skill, bravery, and times support that assertion. Some were less fortunate, notably a Ferrari that ended up on top of the tyre bales during Saturday’s contest, and numerous red flags through both days for near misses from Caterhams, Clios, Morgans and of course the bikes. All the TRs survived, with us all gradually adding more speed, later braking (& more brave pills), with each timed run.

My first practice was a disaster with the engine having got very choked up whilst waiting in the start-line queue – the 6 coughed, spluttered and farted its way off the start line, only clearing its throat close to the aforementioned Museum, and a resultant glacial time of 87.95.

Len advised a more thorough warm-up allowing both oil and water to warm up before a really serious & repeated throttle blipping – and that seemed to work a treat with an almost 9’ improvement in practice 2 to 79.8 secs.

Conrad and Hamish

My fastest time of the day was set in my final run, interestingly where I recorded my 2^nd fastest speeds through the 2 speed traps on track. I was quite happy with that, knowing that she needs a visit to the rolling road for some attention and I always keep some brave pills in reserve knowing that we have the return journey home to complete.

Len and Hamish

The top speeds, measured on the fast uphill exit from Cedars, varied dramatically between the 4 TRs with Len and his class 3a car managing 85mph (on his 3^rd fastest run), Hamish in class 2b with 77mph (on his FTD), Jerry in the stealthy flying wedge-TR7 with 69mph (his 2^nd fastest time) and myself in road-going class 1 with a relatively sedate 53mph. The events allow for decent competition and of course some banter between runs. The highlights being “Conrad, don’t check those two spark plugs, you’ll end up cross-threading one and snapping the ceramic on the other”. This closely followed by Len’s insistence that we all go and check our valve clearances, especially Hamish, who claims not to have done so in this decade.

Other awards to consider for future TR Speed Series include – the largest amount of spares, parts and gubbins in a TR. I can assure everyone that Jerry is the firm favourite having transported many spares, chair, and even a trolley jack in the capacious TR7 (an adjective never used in the original TR7 sales brochure).

We rounded off the weekend with a celebratory toast to Len with his FTD and then set off to points North and South of Loton Park. A superb event, well organised by Hagley & District MC and a great track – if you’ve not been to race or spectate, add it to your bucket list.

Classes (a-d by bhp/tonne):

Class 1 Roadgoing classes [c: 111-130bhp/tonne]

Class 2 Tuned roadgoing [a: <130bhp/tonne; b: 130-180bhp/tonne]

Class 3 Modified [c: 280-400bhp/tonne]