CSCC Classic & Jaguar Weekend - Cadwell, 6/7 September, 2008

[Micky.H]

Comment accepted, just with the same statement raised in two threads it 'appeared' to be a complaint. Apologies

[John Turner]

No problem!

[Colin McKay]

Don't get me wrong, I was just posting a comment not a criticism. If the Sunday race had restarted I doubt whether I could have hung on to my place!

I certainly don't envy the officials, very often decisions have to made almost instantly and you will never please all of the people all of the time. I accept that they have a much broader understanding of events than a driver ever can.

Grovel over.

[John Turner]

A mixture of V12 and Straight 6 models, 17 cars started this race. The start was led away by Andrew Harrison's S6 (5) Stewart Lyddall's V12 (23) with the latter gaining the ascendancy:-


When the cars burst into view again out of Mansfield, Liddell had established a handy lead over a fast starting Chris Palmer (9) from the 2nd row firmly in 2nd whilst a train of cars squabbled over 3rd led by Lawrence Ball in the Gulf liveried car (63) up from the third row. Here is Ball in the Mountain with Andrew Harrison (5) and Gary Hastings (2) in tow. Liddell continued to build a cushion but a coming together at some point brought out the red flags. We had lost the cars of Gary Hastings and Michael Jobson. Also Harrison brought his car to a stop on Park Straight trailing his rear spoiler, so the restart, over 5 laps was less those 3 cars:-


At the restart Liddall again tok the lead but was never able to get clear, having Mark Russell (7) and Chris Palmer (9) on his tail the whole way to the flag. He appeared to have problems with his brakes, and although he won, just 1.3 seconds covered these 3 cars at the finish:-


Lawrence Ball was unable to make the same impression he had at the first start and finished 5th:-


Richard Crossley finished 12th, last of the classified finishers, with his 3.6 litre version:-

[COLIN STUBBS]

Originally Posted by AdamAshmore

Cool, which one is he?

He is on the breakdown truck and in the background of some of the startline shots... Im on one of the other BRSCC films on me trike in the kids playground. And no rude comments please it was in 1962!
Great pics as usual John.

[John Turner]

I'm not sure what regs apply to these cars as most are not those which I see at other historic saloon car events. Fairly small grid for this race which was redflagged (I think), but cannot recall why, and then restarted over just 5 laps. Roger Stanford stormed away to win by 20 seconds from the LC of Peter Woodhead, which just tells you how much quicker he was than anybody else in his Lotus Cortina. Here he is between Coppice and Charlies:-


Jeremy Wright later pulled his Austin A35 off the track, but Andy Johnson seen here tucked up behind Wright finished 8th in the Toyota Corona, a car which, pleasingly, stands out as 'different' and appears always to be well prepped:-


Robert Strutt finished 13th and last in his smart Morris Minor with, if the programme is to be believed, has a 959cc engine:-


Nick Jones Anglia 105E had a 1558cc, so a Lotus engine, then! He finished 7th:-


The only dice in the race but a great one was for 3rd between Thomas Laily de Ville (4 - Lotus Cortina - 3rd), Richard Sprigg (77 - Anlia 105E 1558CC - 5th) and Phil Manser (15 - 1293cc Mini Cooper - 4th):-


Celia Stevens was 12th in the Peerless GT, a proper old sports GT car based around Triumph TR mechanicals and probably in the wrong company here, but good to see, all the same:-

[Adam43]

The dice looks fun and the picture shows the hill of Cadwell, the mini-Nurburgring.

[John Turner]

Adam, that was just soooo not a subtle reminder; it was next on the list!

This was a 40 minute race with a compulsory pitstop, although most cars did not have driver changes. The promotion says that this series is for 60's cars but also states that cars from the 50's are eligible. Interesting since there were no 50's cars, but quite a few from the 70's, of which there is no mention. However, looking at the list of 70's cars present, I believe it is fair to say that they all started production in the 60's. I don't know what the level of tune is allowed in this series, and there is also separate class for Lotus cars. One of those, in this race, was an Elan 26R, so I'd have thought that would be the car to beat, but not so, as it turned out, hence my comment regarding the level of modifications allowed. Anyway, I much enjoyed watching this lot of varied cars charging round.

The front was dominated by the Lotus 7 of John Muirhead and the Triumph TR5 of Mark Campbell. They were 4 seconds a lap quicker than anyone else and drew away from their pusuers and although Campbell got ahead fairly early on he didn't really shake the Lotus off until the pit stops. He eventually won by 33 seconds from the Lotus who also had a half minute in hand over the third placed car:-


This race had 4 Reliants in it, and since I have a soft spot for these cars, having owned most versions (not 3-wheelers, though) over the years, I'm inflicting pics containing all 4 of them on you! The first is the Sabre 6GT of Iain Daniels and Neil Condliffe. Unfortunately, this was the only one of the 4 which failed to finish:-


3rd place was up for grabs with 4 cars having the pace take it. An early battle was that between the Reliant Scimitar GTE of Paul Turnbull and the Series 4 Lotus 7 of John Pringle who really hounded the larger car. Pringle got by in the end but then had to retire after 13 laps, so the GTE was a fine 3rd, and 50 seconds clear of 4th place at the end:-


A bit of a scrappy shot but one that illustrates two parts of the track at once. In the foreground, the MGC GT of Mike McBride heads the Jaguar E-type of Norman Davidson on what is presumably the fastest part of the track, Park Straight. The MG finished 18th and the Jaguar 21st, last of the classified finishers. In the background the two leaders, showing Campbell now ahead, have exited the Gooseneck and are heading into Mansfield:-


A gaggle of cars racing away from Mansfield led by the Triumph Herald Coupe (fitted with a 1500cc engine - out of a later Spitfire?) of Kevan Hadfield who finished a good 11th:-


Park Straight again with the Scimitar GTE of Ben Gough leading the Triumph Spitfire of Steve Adams. Gough was 17th, but Adams failed to finish:-


Another car with the pace to take 3rd was Malcolm Turnbull's TR6 but he failed to finish, only completing 9 laps:-


Adam Ashmore's rear end; well that of his MGB anyway, heading through Park, on his way to 10th. Another picture of this car at this race occasionally appears on the Home page in the 'Spot the logo' piece:-


MG Midget and Triumph Spitfire, still competitors after over 40 years. We've already seen that Steven Adams failed to finish. Neither, unfortunately, did the David Smith/Chris Dear Midget:-


The other car of the 4 that I mentioned capable of taking 3rd on pace, was the Lotus Elan 26R. Driven by Al and Nick Fleming, one of whom, I think was quicker than the other (or was there a problem early on?), as my memory seems to register this car really charging through the field in the second half of the race to finish 4th, but a long way adrift of the GTE:-


I like this pic of the E-type of Mike & Michael Wilkinson heading into Park chased by Adam, with what I think is the MG Midget of Malcolm Self a bit further back. In the background is the Singer Chamois of Steve Platts, heading into Charlies. Adam chased the E-type hard through the latter stages of the race and finished just 0.7 secs behind. Self was 19th in the Midget. Note Triumph Stag of spectator!:-


John Leslie, who unfortunately I failed to catch up with at this meeting (I've known him nearly 20 years) turns into Park with his Sabre 6GT on his way to 12th. Behind is the aforementioned Chamois, with flapping passenger window, of Steve Platts who finished 13th, just a couple of seconds further back:-

[Adam43]

Originally Posted by John Turner

Adam, that was just soooo not a subtle reminder; it was next on the list!

Subtlety was never my strong point.

[TorqueWench]

There will be another Reliant out next season - when John Junior has finished rebuilding his Scimitar (the ex-Luke Wos one)

[Adam43]

Great stuff. A road one has just moved into a village near me, I see it driving around. I hardly ever saw a Scimitar and now see them all the time, on road and on track.

[Tim the Grey]

I have a pair of Scimitars, with roll cages, just round the corner.

I may look into this further, as one IS bright orange...

[John Turner]

An interesting mix of cars for this 40 minute race with compulsory pitstop, although several cars did not have driver changes. I can't find results for this either on the CSCC site or that of Tsl, so am relying on memory and a few notes made by my son. I only know the first 4 places.

Future Classics, of course, is an all embracing term and is intended to include sports, GT and saloon cars of the 70's, 80's and 90's. It is also a silhouette formula, so there is a fair bit of modding possible!

One of my favourite cars from the late 70's early 80's was the Talbot Sunbeam Lotus, not least because in its day it was the ultimate hot hatch. I owned one from 1986; it was the newest car I've ever owned, and I used it for several years as a family/work, and yes, even towing, car. Hugely underrated and would blow pretty much anything off in a straightline, outside of the exotics, but it required some respect around corners due to its swb. Of course, they were used much more for rallying than racing. However, some did get to the tracks eventually and there aren't any quicker than Joss Ronchetti's beautifully prepared example. The engine has been taken out to 2.6 litre and gives out close to 290bhp. It was clearly the quickest car in the race and Ronchetti had built up a comfortable lead before handing over to Philip Seaman. Seaman kept it in the lead but after a few laps pulled off between Mansfield and The Mountain, peered underneath the car and retired it:-


The battle for second was a good one with the pace of the TR7 V8 of Martyn Adams/John Wolfe, down the straights, neutralised by the braking/handling ability of the Lotus Esprit S3, driven by Nikolas Olson, through the corners. The Lotus got ahead at the pitstops, and following the retirement of the Lotus Sunbeam had a handy lead, but the second driver, did not have the pace of the first, and he was hunted down by Olson who snatched the lead late on the race to take victory:-


If I recall correctly, Jon Jeffery failed to finish in the Davrian Mk8:-


The Mark Russell/Ray Ingman XJS:-


This so nearly ended in tears. The Neil Iceton Peugeot 205Gti tries an ambitious move through Mansfield on the Steve Jay/Richard Murtha Porsche 944S2. However, the status quo was maintained:-


The Alan Price TR7 V8 was 3rd:-


The first 3 series - the E21! The bigger than standard 2.7 litre straight six in Paul Dolan's 323i made a lovely sound, and went well:-


I can't tell you anything about this smart Porsche 944 since it does not appear in the programme:-

[Dan Friel]

Race results here:

http://www.smart-timing.co.uk/Result...0September.pdf

[John Turner]

Thanks, Dan. So in fact the Davrian did finish in 14th, so apologies to John Jeffery, and of the others illustrated above:-

XJS (17) - 6th
Porsche (35) - 15th
Peugeot (81) - 9th
BMW (61) - 10th
Porsche (94) - 16th (Driver - Richard Perks)

[John Turner]

A 15 minute race sponsored by 'JEC powered by Jaguar' and also part of the RAFMSA challenge, this was, as ever, dominated by sports cars, Caterhams predominantly, and won by Ben Shalders in his Caterham 7. However with respect to them the 'historic' element was further back. Giving a good account of themselves were Paul Turnbull's Reliant Scimitar GTE and Peter Hallford's Chevrolet Camaro. Both got frustrated and bottled up behind Mac McCarthy's Tiger Avon and after several laps Hallford blasted passed Turnbull (who didn't defend) on the pit straight to have a go at the Tiger. He was more successful, and went on to finish 11th, first of the saloons home. McCarthy was 12th, Turnbull 13th:-


Gareth Nutley, got the better of this Reliant pairing, and passed the Scimitar GTE of Ben Gough, in his later SS1 version! Nutley finished 14th with two Stewart Turner Locoblades almost literally glued to his tail, with Gough less that 2 seconds behind in 17th:-


Not really old enough, but I quite like the pic, and the car was a member of the RAFMSA class (as was the Gough car above), this is Paul Waterhouse tackling Coppice in his Peugeot 405 Mi16. He finished 22nd:-


Pete Hallford's Camaro was the oldest car in the race and it was quite a surprise to see him at this meeting, and in this race. Here he approaches the Mountain:-


In the Mountain, is David Ball's Jaguar XJS, on his way to 23rd:-


That brings this review to a close.