Round 3 of the MTWC Challenge round at Prescott on 1st – 2nd June as part of La Vie en Bleu, a spectacular event organised by the Bugatti Owners Club at Prescott near Cheltenham.
The Hill:
click on the image for a closer look
The Words:
From Pete Clews – Competition Secretary:
Fifteen Morgans took part on a lovely sunny weekend and put on a superb show in front of a large crowd. First Practice gave everyone the opportunity to put in a sighting run and Hamish Bibby came out at the top of the timesheet. Tim Gray on his first ever run up the hill suffered brake failure at Pardon and dug a deep hole in the ‘kitty litter’ but he was pulled out, dusted off, checked over, pronounced sane and sent out for second practice! Second practice saw everyone trying a bit harder and Bill Tuer edged ahead of Hamish with a time of 52.98 seconds. The competitive runs brought out some excellent performances, In Standard Class Chris Harfield chipped another 2 seconds off his practice time with 77.45 seconds. In TM Class Chloe Pilbeam knocked another 2 seconds off but it was nowhere near enough to catch Cathy Quinn who was flying with a time of 67.72; however neither of them could match Dave Poplar’s 66.45 which took the class. Danny Hodgson drove superbly but lost out to Tony Quinn by 6 hundredths of a second. In the 2 Speeder battle Alastair Rew with his ‘new’ JTOR on the front of the Aero pipped Sue Darbyshire in the Black Super Aero on petrol by just under half a second. Ahead of these two was Chas Reynolds half a second behind Tim Gray which left Hamish and Bill to fight for our FTD. Bill took the laurels with a time of 52.96 having done 3 runs up the hill all within 2 hundredths of a second! A superb lesson in consistency. We have been invited back next year which is testament to the high regard in which the club is held.
The Photos:
Once again many thanks to Dennis Rushton, with the paddock photos from Sue Clews. To view the photo gallery, click on any of the photos to bring up a larger version. You can scroll forwards and backwards using the [,] and [.] keys. Press [ESC] or click on the image to Exit.
- The tension’s obvious in this paddock photo!
- Tim Gray poses for Sue Clews
- Danny Hodgson leaves the line
- Bill Tuer clips the marker post at the entry to The Esses. Apparently, Bill uses this marker as a “sighter” for the corner.
- Bill Tuer’s second run into The Esses. The marker post’s been bandaged.
- Alistair Rew at The Esses
- Bruce Grant at The Esses. Bruce did a “straight on” at The Semi Circle on one run, bumped down the field and got ready for his next attempt.
- Cathy Quinn at The Esses
- Cathy Quinn exiting Ettores
- Chas Pilbeam at Ettores
- Chas Reynolds at Ettores
- Chris Harfield at Ettores
- Chris Harfield at The Esses
- Danny Hodgson at Ettores. His nearside tyre’s taking some stick!
- Dave Poplar at The Esses
- Hamish Bibby at Semi Circle
- Pete Clews at The Esses
- Sue Darbyshire at Semi Circle
- Tim Gray at The Esses
- Tony Quinn at Semi Circle.
- Chloe Pilbeam excites at The Esses. Maybe she needs more ballast?
The Results:
click on the image for a closer look
Special mention must be made of Chas. Reynolds who, on Sunday, beat Sue Darbyshire’s 2011 record for pre-war cars up to 1500cc in a time of 53.82 seconds.
To see the results of the 2013 Challenge Series so far, click here and scroll down to June.
Not everyone had such a good day though: click here