Club Training Day – Bicester 30th June

The Morgan Three Wheeler Club Training Day

Words from Ian Parkinson. To see the photos from Don Stringer – click here.

Bicester Heritage Centre Test Track – Saturday 30^th June

Once again Bicester Heritage Centre proved to be the ideal place for a day of Morgan Three Wheeler driving experiences. The team of club volunteers arrived early in the morning to set up the stand ready for the entrants which this year totalled 41 people. Soon the area was buzzing with people signing in, being briefed, given their name tags and wristbands and told the procedures for the day. The club members who so graciously offered their Morgan to be driven by others started arriving too and over 100 people were partaking of the tea and breakfast rolls from Mrs Bishops J Type Van. As the official starting time of 10:00 am approached the first drivers took up their places in their chosen Morgan’s and the day began.

The first hour was very hesitant as 36 of the entrants were not club members so just did not know what to expect. However, the team soon began to make people feel at ease and a system developed. Stalwart Gary Caroline was in charge of driving activities with Sam Savage taking charge of allocating who drove what. There were times poor Sam was under siege with so many people wanting to put their names down and once again he coped admirably. Colin Seaton ensured rules were kept to and again Barbara Caroline and Lily Quinn did a great job in marshalling the drivers in and out of the pits.

To give an added dimension to this year’s event our Sporting Section were invited to attend. Tony Pearson, Sue Darbyshire and Rob Pike, who was still on a high from his Donington win the week before, brought their Morgan’s to the event.

It quickly became clear that the interest in these three racing Morgans was massive so after a chat with them it was decided to incorporate several sessions during the day whereby the racers took out entrants for a trip around the circuit. This was definitely a good move as it lifted the atmosphere of the event to another level. So, after a few racer sessions we returned to the normal format. A one hour stop for lunch gave everyone the chance to sample Mrs Bishops  Yorkshire Pudding Wraps which were awesome.

Lunch over and there was a different atmosphere, people were now comfortable with the Mogs and were keen to drive more different ones. The standard of driving was excellent and the ladies again were leading the way in mastering the techniques. More racer sessions gave some of the volunteers a chance to get a blast on the track and we also decided to give them a chance to drive their own Morgan around with an entrant as passenger.

As a finale to close the event we had a last racer session which had far more volunteers than we had time. In the summing up Colin thanked everyone for attending and there was a raucous applause from the crowd. I managed to surprise one individual who succeeded to drive the circuit with a cone in front of the Morgan he was driving, the cone was quite well worn after a lap of the circuit so I presented it to him. This was of course Nev Lear, from now on dubbed King Cone! He said he “thought he heard a funny noise”, anyhow he owes John Chatwin a new front number plate.

Colin, Maria and I wish to thank all those club members who came with their Morgan, both vintage and five speeders and allowed others the driving opportunity, the Sporting Section for supporting our efforts plus all those who came to assist in various duties, especially Barbara and Lily. Maria would like to give grateful thanks to Diane Adams and Sue Warren who stepped in to fill gaps at the last minute and helped Maria in the signing in process.

Verdict. Was it worth the effort? A big “YES”. To see so many people go away happy made it all worthwhile.

Ian Parkinson

Great Photos from Don Stringer.