Classical Gas
www.classictrials.co.uk
August 2002 - part 1
Simon's Summer Madness
Simon Robson rushed to the fastest time of the day at Falcon’s Midsummer Madness Autotest on 21st July. Arnold Lane just piped Neil Bray in the following Mini battle and they were chased hard all day by Keith Pettit in his AH Sprite.
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(left) Rachel Lane receiving her award for fastest time in the Production Car Autotest. (right) Richard Leete getting some help with the handbrake on his first autotest! |
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Arnold Lane pointing the way to success in his new Mini while Peter Manning corners hard in front of the pictureaque back-drop ti Neil and Allison Bray's paddock. |
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Once again the weather smiled kindly on Falcon Motor Club, for the second round of the clubs summer Autotest championship at Upper Caldecote. There had been a little bit of rain first thing in the morning, but this served to keep the dust down in Neil and Allison Bray’s paddock. The entry list had most of the usual suspects present, but with a few interesting additions. Alan and Clive Titmus were driving their Vauxhall Corsa, after former Falcon member Alan bumped into Neil Bray, and asked if the club was still going! Alan used to be a keen Autocross competitor, driving an Imp in the 850 class, the motor reduced in capacity by using a very special short stroke crankshaft.
The other new entries were in the Production Car Class, running alongside the main event, where Rachel Lane and Richard Leete were driving in their first event. Drivers in this class can be as young as 14 and do not have to have a driving licence, although they have to carry a passenger who is an "experienced autotest driver". Richard was sharing the familiar Leete family Nova with Michael and Rachel was driving Arnold’s new machine. The silver 1000cc Mini City was offered to Arnold at a price he couldn’t refuse, so he didn’t! The F reg car had done less than 30,000 miles and apart from the doors being a bit grotty the body is in very good nick. The car hadn’t been used much for a while but a second hand clutch and a new set of rear brake cylinders soon saw it on the road.
Clerk of the Course Alan Davis started the day with a simple up and back slalom, although the spacing of the cones was a bit tight, so it was far from straightforward. Despite still being a bit sore from his biking exploits a few days before, Neil Bray got down to business and threw his Mini through the wiggle-woggle half a second quicker than Simon Robson in his Liege. Tests two and three were more open and a bit faster. Simon gritted his teeth, and using the excellent power-to-weight ratio of the lightweight Liege, he was fastest on all three. Keith Pettit was going very well in his Frog-eye Sprite, and was only just behind Simon to be second overall at this stage. Matt Robson threw his chances away on test three with a double Wrong Course, which dropped him completely out of contention. Tests four and five were quite long, with a whole series of long blasts, followed by 180 degree handbrake turns. These were ideal Mini tests and Arnold Lane was fastest now he had got the hang of his new Mini.
Simon and Matt had the clutch pedal stick down a couple of times, but soon fixed things with a rope to supplement the return spring! This didn’t help much on test six which had long straight’s separated by very tight 270 or 360 spin turns, and Neil took half a second from Simon and two seconds from Arnold.
At lunch Simon had a three-second lead over Neil, with Arnold a further three seconds behind, mainly because of a slow time on test two. There was a battle royal just behind, with Keith Pettit, Peter Manning (1275 Mini) and Bob Tatum (Fiat Panda) all within seconds of each other in three very different cars. Alan Titmus was remembering all of his old skills and getting faster and faster as the day went on, and managing to preserve family honours by staying in front of Clive! Tom Goggin hadn’t been feeling very well in the morning and sadly had to go home before lunch.
Test 7, the first one after lunch, was where Arnold Lane started to put in a whole string of fastest times.
Arnold Lane was definitely the star of the afternoon, setting fastest time on four of the six tests. Unfortunately he lost quite a bit of time on the other two, and actually slipped a further second behind Simon Robson, who was as consistent as ever to set fastest time of the day. Neil Bray was fastest on test eight but had to give best to Simon and Arnold on the day. Keith Pettit was fourth fastest overall with a consistent set of very fast times. Peter Manning was fifth overall and 3rd in class A in David’s Mini, with David just a few seconds behind. Matt Robson was very fast in the afternoon, but a double wrong course in the morning, and a penalty on each run of the last test kept him out of the results.
Alan Titmus really started to fly in the afternoon, setting some fast times and finishing in front of son Clive who was best Novice. Bob Tatum was only just out of the awards, his Panda not quite having enough power to compete with the Mini’s. Michael Leete enjoyed his day but didn’t trouble the scorer as they say!
Rachel Lane won the Production Car Class. Rachel and Richard both enjoyed their day and will get the chance to have another go on the next event 1st September when the class will run again.
A1 Peter Manning (Mini) 413.96 3rd in class A A2 Alan Titmus (Vauxhall Corsa) 426.04 A3 David Manning (Mini) 416.74 A4 Clive Titmus (Vauxhall Corsa) 474.68 Novice Award A5 Bob Tatum (Fiat Panda) 420.09 A6 Rachel Lane (Mini) 542.97 FTD Prodn Car Event A7 Neil Bray (Mini) 389.01 2nd in Class A A8 Arnold Lane (Mini) 387.44 1st in Class A A9 Michael Leete (Vauxhall Nova) 455.28 A10 Richard Leete (Vauxhall Nova) 570.43 C1 Tom Goggin (Escort) Retired C2 Keith Pettit (AH Sprite) 395.65 1st in Class C&D D1 Simon Robson (Liege) 380.31 Ftd D2 Matt Robson (Liege) 435.41
