Last BHR Event of the 2016 season
From Jonathan Garside. MTWC Eligibility Scrutineer.
Saturday turned out a bright and warm day with a strong breeze, and was the last BHR meeting of the year. The paddock was almost completely full on all sides but spectator numbers around the track were not huge. There were some 195 solo and 50 sidecar entries of all shapes and sizes up to 1986 in date, but with few pre-war machines. The latter of course included the B3 Morgan entries. Unfortunately there were just two Morgans entered being the F Types of Dave Hodgson/Ann Harfield in their overhead inlet 100E engined car and Tony Pearson/Sandra Hodgson in their E93A SV version. Sandra’s husband Danny was piloting the Buckland B3 entry passengered by Verity Pearson. The principal reason for this shortage was the HARC British Race Festival at Zandvoort which was to take place the following weekend and had attracted an entry of some 10 Morgan 3 wheelers including many of the regular competitors. Spotted lurking in the paddock were Cliff Dearden and Brian Woods, also Chris & Ann Harfield had brought with them an early flat rad 4 wheeler (on a trailer) obviously not as reliable as a 3 wheeler!
The first 3 wheeler race of the day (race 4) was, like all races, over 4 laps of the 2.20 miles full circuit which had both F Types circulating in close company with Dave Hodgson finishing less than a second in front of Tony Pearson surrounded by sidecars, with Tony just getting the faster lap. Race 2 (race 15 of the meeting) had a similar result but this time Dave trying harder and finishing almost 12 seconds ahead and with a faster lap time. Your correspondent did not stay for the Sunday meeting but can thoroughly recommend the Tapas menu at the Bull Hotel in nearby Horncastle where he stayed overnight with his better half. The results for the Sunday show that in race 25 of the meeting both Dave and Tony put in similar performances as the 2nd race on the Saturday with Dave again having the faster lappery. So endeth the BHR season with packed grids but few Morgans.
