Round 1 of the 2014 Morgan Three Wheeler Club Challenge Series at Loton Park on Easter Monday.

A report and plenty of photos are all here. Read on. Results will follow ASAP.

Ancient and Modern

Loton 2014 Steve Lister at Museum Corner Mark Reeves at triangle

Loton Park saw the Three Wheeler Club Competition Scene enter a new phase. Mark Reeves, R & D Manager at The Morgan Motor Company, entered his new 2 litre car. In contrast, Steve Lister’s 1927 Blackburne engined Aero gave away 86 years of development, 1 litre of engine capacity and 4 gears (the new car can go backwards too!) 

Loton Park Speed Hill Climb course is set in the beautiful surroundings of a deer park owned by Sir Michael Leighton, and is situated 9 miles west of Shrewsbury on the B4393 road in the village of Alberbury. The course is 1475 yards (1349 metres) long with an average gradient of 1 in 25 (4%) and the steepest of 1 in 7 (14%) and is rated as one of the country’s most demanding hills by competitors.

Quick clicks: The Write-up (click). The Photos (click). The Video (click). The Results (click)

The Hill: (click on the map to enlarge):

Loton Park 21st April 2014

 

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The Words from Competition Secretary, Pete Clews:

A superb day is the best way to describe Easter Monday at Loton.  We have usually competed on Sunday and Sunday was very wet whereas Monday saw the mist clear and the sun shine.  Secondly it was a historic day in the annals of Morgan three Wheelers because we had the first 5 Speeder taking part and finally we had 20 entries making a real spectacle, in our own paddock.  Added to this were the large number of club members who came along to support many from the northwest and midlands areas.  There seemed to be three wheelers dotted everywhere with a group of 5 speeder owners who had come to offer their support to Mark Reeves and Joanna Wallace in their first competitive event.  Mark is the R&D Manager at Morgan Motors and is very keen to get the 5 speeders on the track and offered to help other owners who came to prepare their cars.

The track was green after all the rain and the first practice runs were taken slowly. 

Things soon speeded up when the competitive runs started after lunch.  Tom Cowley had a significant birthday and was celebrating it with panache driving Tony Quinn’s Matchless racer with Lily in the passenger seat to stop him abusing it but he still put up a very fast time of 70.19, by far the fastest petrol engined car in Racing Class.  The methanol cars saw a duel between Hamish Bibby and Bill Tuer both passengered by Maggie Tuer and this time Hamish took the honours to be fastest Morgan of the day.  Tim Gray was enjoying his rebuilt chassis and was third fastest ahead of Chas Reynolds with Greg Bibby, Sue Darbyshire, Pete Clews and Dave Say completing the class after Alistair Rew with son Alex out for the first time, over revved the JAP and a valve touched the piston.  Danny and Dave Hodgson sharing the racing F-Type suffered gearbox problems which put the Hodgson racer out of commission.  Danny hopped into the TM car and did 81.42 for the TM class so he took the TM honours from Cathy Quinn followed by Rob Pike with his daughter Georgie in the passenger seat.  Georgie was the youngest of a group of newcomers and behind third placed David Poplar was Anthony Jenkins in his first competitive drive with a creditable 88.15.  Standard Class saw another young newcomer, Ian Hughes sitting beside Steve Lister whose Blackburne engined Aero easily saw off the father and son team of Chris and David Harfield.

The 5 Speeder was in Drivers class and Mark Reeves had set himself a target of breaking the 70 second barrier which he did with 69.24.  It was a milestone having the new car compete and Mark and Joanna will be at “La Vie en Bleu” Prescott and at Curborough why not come along and introduce yourself he’s just like the rest of us who enjoy racing our three wheeled cars.  The MTWC Challenge Round 1 was an excellent day’s sport with good company, good racing and sunshine let’s hope we can do the same for Round 2.


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The Photos: 

On the track, from Dennis Rushton. 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.

 

In the paddock, 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.

 

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The Video:

Mark Reeves in the Five Speeder – 2nd Run in 69.66 seconds. Click on Logo YouTube

 

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The Results:

Loton April 21 2014 Results

Note: Mark Reeves, No. 40, was entered in the Drivers Class, not Touring Modified. Roger Orford’s record from 2004 still stands.

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