Anglesey – Ty Croes. 22nd/23rd July

Round 5 of the MTWC Challenge series was hosted by VMCC “British Historic Racing” on 22/23 July at Anglesey – a fabulous circuit with a glorious backdrop of sea and Snowdonia. Thankfully the weather was perfect for the 9 racers making the adventure.

New to Morgan circuit racing, having successfully campaigned his 1928 Super Aero in VSCC hill climbs, Rob Pike entered his recently acquired 5 speeder with Petra Rarko alongside. Equipe Rew returned to circuits after a long absence in No 83 with Becky Washington on loan from passengering car 38.

Sadly, mechanical woes prevented both Chas Reynolds and Tom Cowley racing on Saturday – mangled pistons were later compared over beers.

The Mogs put on a great show, Hamish Bibby piloting Bill Tuer’s car with Mia Simons-Weston alongside lead home dad, Greg Bibby / Paula Heaney after close formation dualling all race long. Close behind, Austin Smith / Julia Perry celebrated 3rd place after fantastic close racing with Danny Hodgson / Bronte Pearson and impressive debutant Rob Pike / Petra Rarko, with Rob nicking 4th place on the last lap. Equipe Rew scored 2/10 in the thrill stakes as Alistair spent more time taking in the view than racing.

Sunday again saw young Mr Bibby leading the field home, this time chased by Chas in 2nd, reaping the rewards for his efforts after a heroic trip back to Macclesfield and Alan Wright’s for a rebuild aided by passenger Jim Edwards. A round trip of some 300 miles! Behind Chas, Greg beat Austin Smith by just 0.5 secs – the 5 speeder acquitting itself impressively.

Thanks to Bill Tuer’s push-starting efforts, Alistair was fortunate to make the grid after stalling the slow starting 2 speeder Aero. Only 5 seconds separated Danny’s fast cornering F2, Rob’s 5 speeder and Alistair’s Aero at the end, with Alistair this time leading the trio following some close racing.

Cathy Quinn set her disappointments aside after the problems with the Super Aero to respond to the pleas for marshals on Sunday helping the very well run event continue.

(Jim was passengering Chas. Reynolds for the first time.)

This weekend was an inspiring display of dedication to MTW racing. After a fabulous 9/10th’s of Saturday’s practice the engine sadly went off song. Upon return to the paddock we discovered a faint whisper of compression on cylinder 2. Chas swiftly suggested no more could be done in Anglesey so we set to removing the engine for a further investigation back at his workshop.

We arrived in Macclesfield around lunch Saturday and removed the NS barrel to discover an overheated piston, scored bore & loose little end bush.

A trip to Chas’ engine man was in order to resurrect the damaged components. After some ‘plateau honing’, precision bush manufacturing and crankcase swilling the engine was ready to be assembled.

We made it back to Ty Croes before midnight… The engine sparked into life early Sunday morning and all was well.

Teething trouble caused us to miss the first race unfortunately but we managed a well deserved 2nd place in the Morgan only battle after a fierce duel with the Bibby boys and a 5th place against the sidecar outfits. Overall a weekend of ups, downs & many miles but none the less a great insight into what racing is all about.

Chas and Jim on track