Competition News October

And now some contributions

 

From Alistair Rew…

My last event for the year was VSCC Prescott long course hillclimb on 20 September.

 It was great to see Steve Wickers out in his Matchless Super Sports for the first time. He and his enthusiastic crew, Brett were talking about it at Wiscombe and impressively turned the talk into action… now for Brett to take the plunge too…?

 Steve’s best time came during practice as some carburettor challenges spoilt the timed runs.

 A fortnight earlier at Loton Park, Tom Golland had some clutch issues in the lovely ex Nick Woods flat sided Aero, thankfully resolved in time.

 With mixed weather forecast, Tom threw the gauntlet down and the pressure certainly built up when the heavens opened when I was on the start line making it a close run affair…

 My sister, Steph, came along to watch – probably for the first time in about 20 years -reminiscing as the sights, smells and atmosphere are timeless..

 I know Dennis Rushton was lurking somewhere taking photographs but this time there was no spotting him on the way up…

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From Stephen Wickers…

AOX 418 has languished in the back of the garage for far too long, a casualty of work, family life and building projects.  To the best of my knowledge the car was put together by Phil Kennedy and competed in the 1970s.  I took the car to Wiscombe to spectate in the spring and after some encouragement from the MTWC team there that day and from my friend Brett, (who not so secretly wishes to acquire a Morgan), I was given enough of a squeeze to make headway and get the car running again properly.  Indeed on the way home from Wiscombe my feet started to feel a little damp and the aroma of petrol emerged.  That was the first of numerous fuel, oil and water leaks that have needed attending to.

Over the summer we got the car running well, unfortunately though on a non period Amal Concentric which I learned is not appropriate for competition.  A compliant pre-monobloc Amal was fitted.  We are still searching for carburetor nirvana though as the pre-monobloc has been a little more challenging to get running sweetly.

A Green card and VSCC buff form were achieved over the summer and I managed to get an entry in for what is perhaps the last event of the year, the VSCC Prescott Long Course meeting.  A trailer was hired for the day, scrutineering achieved and the rain gods held off.  The engine though decided it didn’t want to idle.  This made getting to the startline a little challenging and noisy as I had to keep some revs on to prevent the engine from cutting out.  Another small learning point was that the chock the Prescott marshals use did not fit under the rear valance to chock the rear wheel or fit under the front mudguards to chock the front wheels. Hence keeping the car in the correct position on the sloping start line was difficult for the marshals.  Combined with an inability to idle resulted in what could be described as some significant noisy procrastination.

After all the start line entertainment we managed to complete three runs before withdrawing from the last run after a firm refusal to start.  The car though drives beautifully, the brakes are great, but the car is currently somewhat “all show and no trousers”.  Noisy but slow!  There is scope for improvement though and as we drove home the “ to do list “ was written.

A really fun and enjoyable day was had which has provided the enthusiasm for some winter fettling and some more outings in 2026.  Off now to buy a trailer and try and work out how to stop the gearbox leaking……..Thank you for the encouragement back at Wiscombe!

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VSCC Prescott Best Morgan Times

Stephen Wickers:  80.47 secs (Class 2 – Std & Mod Sports cars 751-1100cc

Tom Golland:  72.05 secs (Class 8 – Special Sports cars up to 1100cc

Alistair Rew:  67.08 secs (Class 14 Racing cars 1101-1500cc)

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Tony Quinn

Competition Treasurer