Seventeen Morgans entered Round 3 of the club’s Challenge Series, which also was round 5 of the Thursday Club series.
Three of our members also raced in VSCC events
Quick Clicks:
Race 1 – MTWC Challenge Series Round 3 (words from Jonathan Garside):
There were 9 entries in the Racing Class including Nigel and Sarah Challis in their JAP 8/80 powered car, this being their first race meeting. Chas Reynolds was partnered this time by Hannah Enticknap. Neil Smith and Hilary Johnson were in their 8/80 engined car. Sue Darbyshire was in her blue Super Aero two speeder racing car with Maggie Bridge alongside. Pete Clews and Steve Cook were in their regular 100E OHV powered F Super. Gary Caroline carrying ballast had his JTOR engine Super Aero two speeder. The confusing entry of two Bibby/Tuer cars had Bill Tuer passengering for Hamish in Bill’s car and Maggie Tuer alongside Greg Bibby in his own car.
Touring Modifed entries were the F2s of Danny and Sandra Hodgson, Cathy Quinn and Phil Bridge and Tony Pearson with young Verity passengering in an ex Cliff Dearden car. Cliff was there to watch and advise. Chas Pilbeam was in his F Super Sports and the only non F Type was Richard and daughter Vicki White in their Matchless engined 1933 Super Sports.
Standard Class was represented by the single F Super entry of Chris and Ann Harfield and the Drivers class had the solo entry of Ewan Cameron with ballast in the ex Cyril Hale JAP Mk2 powered racer. Ewan is competing in this car on behalf of its Swiss owner and is in the process of applying for a Green card for it.
No major problems in a very damp practice session with the two Bibby entries heading Sue Darbyshire and Gary Caroline which were the only cars to lap in under 2mins 20secs which showed just how slippery it was. Duncan Wood had practised earlier in the day with the advantage of slightly drier conditions
The race was run in monsoon conditions with cars literally disappearing in the spray along the bottom straight. Greg Bibby made the best start from 2nd on the grid closely followed by son Hamish and Sue Darbyshire. Try as he might Hamish could not get past his Dad and passenger Bill Tuer likened the plume of water from Greg’s car being akin to having buckets of water thrown in his face. Bill’s wife Maggie was dry being tucked down in the leading car which she described as being water tight. Sue Darbyshire was slowly reeling the two leaders in and was closely followed by Neil Smith and Chas Reynolds. The leaders slowed on lap 4 allowing Sue to get even closer with Neil Smith closing on Sue and going past on the last lap to secure 3rd place. Sue ended in 4th with Chas Reynolds just 12 hundredths behind in 5th place. Gary was 6th some way back and had a 10 second penalty added for jumping the start. Nigel Challis came home 7th followed less than 2 secs later by Pete Clews with Danny Hodgson 9th being the last entry to complete the full six laps. Richard White was 10th on 5 laps followed by Chas Pilbeam, Cathy Quinn and Chris Harfield.
Non finishers were Ewan Cameron who did not complete the first lap and had we understand electrical problems and Tony Pearson who fell out on lap 2. Other problems included Cathy Quinn with a severe lack of brakes, relying on gear changes to slow her entry into most corners and Richard White who blew his offside silencer apart.
VSCC – Race 4 – Handicap Race for Pre-War Cars (words from Steve Uprichard):
The track was very nearly dry for Race 4. Duncan Wood was the sole Morgan Three Wheeler entry and he drove a fantastic race from Scratch. He was baulked on the entry to Hall Bends on Lap 4 and had he managed to squeeze through he may well have won. As it was, he had to settle for 3rd. Duncan made fastest lap by a margin of some 6.5 seconds at a speed of 64.60 mph, 3.30 mph faster than his nearest rival in a Frazer Nash single seater.
VSCC Race 9 – Vintage Racing Cars (words from Steve Uprichard):
A slightly greasy track again for Race 9. A small grid of only 6 cars included 3 Morgan Three Wheelers. Unfortunately for Duncan Wood and Gary Caroline, it was a race of attrition. Duncan was struggling with leaky head gaskets from the word “Go” and eventually retired having also lost a pushrod. The extent of the damage isn’t yet known. Gary suffered a loss of power on Park Straight, dropping over 1000rpm and he pulled in on lap 4. The trouble seems to have been caused by a very weak fuel mixture but no serious damage was apparent.
Sue Darbyshire (christened “Susie” for this race by the VSCC commentators) saved the day with a great defensive drive to finish in 3rd place ahead of a determined James Baxter driving the GN/AC Rabelro.
The Circuit
The Photos
Racing Photos from Dennis Rushton. Paddock photos from Don Stringer and Steve Uprichard. To view the photo gallery, click on any of the photos to bring up a larger version. You can scroll forwards and backwards clicking “Next” and “Prev”. Press [ESC] or click on the image to Exit.
We also have some excellent photos courtesy of Paul Down. Click here to see them.
The Results
Challenge Series results will be available soon. Thursday Club Results will be available soon.
Race Results as follows (click on the results for a closer look):
