photo from Mann Motorsports
Manx Classic – 27th – 29th April 2017
The Manx Classic has been run for more than twenty years, and the Manx Motor Racing Club has a great track record of producing exciting and friendly motorsport events for classic and sports cars. Two Morgan Three Wheelers were entered for the event.
From Sue Darbyshire.
A predicted dip in temperature for the week of the Manx Classic still made the event warmer than last year’s event and we were treated to some lovely sunshine as well, although the wind was chilly.
Only two Morgans competed this year, my own and my old F type racer in the capable hands of our great friend Nancy Thomas. We were still trying to sort out the issues with the Super Aero resulting from our complete re-build after my Mallory crash last September. Silverstone had been a little problematic as we had silly failures which took us out but which were easily resolved. However we had no great expectations from the car and were simply hoping for a solid event with finishes if possible!
For the first time in many years the Sloc was back on the schedule of three hillclimbs as it had been resurfaced. Only in the Isle of Man could a road in the middle of nowhere, going from nowhere to nowhere be resurfaced, strangely for the length of the hillclimb course only.
The second hillclimb was Creg Willeys which is on the TT course at Glen Helen and the final one was Llergys Frissel at Ramsey, incorporating the famous Ramsey hairpin, Waterworks and Gooseneck, all such evocative corners from TT history.
Nancy had a great event, going faster this year than last year and improving her times on all events. She had a minor problem at the end of day three when water from a morning shower got in the track rod ends and caused a bit of wheel wobble but she was well up to dealing with it and it barely slowed her down.
My own fortunes are best glossed over but suffice to say despite casting various parts of my car at the scenery we got reasonable times on all three hills and finished second pre 41 overall in the wake of one of the rocket ship Fraser Nashes of the Smith family. This was no mean achievement as we had spent a LOT of time working on the car between runs and at night between events and this was recognised by the organisers when they presented George with the Nil Desperandum award at the prize giving for his considerable effort in keeping the car running for three days.
