Six Hour Relay - What Really Happened?

[Bob Bull]

Three teams of Morgans were entered for the 750MC annual six hour relay race held at Silverstone on Saturday, three disparate groups of drivers less concerned about winning or overall position, than in finishing above the other two teams. Friendly, yet deadly rivalry with three Team Managers charged with marshalling their resources to the best effect in order to overcome all problems whether of a mechanical nature or caused by outside events. Did one such manager go too far?

During the race one Team Manager caused two of his drivers to be out on track at the same time, a clear contravention of the rules, but giving an obvious advantage as the team would be able to log twice as many laps as their rivals.With some sixty years of experience the ploy was soon spotted by the organisers, and the resultant two laps deduction from the teams score dropped them out of contention.

Following the incident questions were asked down the pitlane; was this a blatant attempt to manipulate the result, or simply gross incompetence on the part of the Team Manager?

For legal reasons we cannot name the individual concerned, suffice to say it was not the imperturable Andy Downes or the splendid Catherine Emberson.

Several questions remain unanswered at this point in time;

Why were they the only team not sharing garage space, why the need for secrecy?

Why did they try to shift blame to an innocent member of another team by claiming they were distracted by him spinning along the pit straight?

According to their version of events, while distracted by the gyrations of said driver their own competitor passed un-noticed so thinking he had retired sent out a replacement, however this begs the question as to why their 'spotter' on the pit wall was missing from his post at the vital moment?

The spotter, a very successful and experienced driver himself, indeed a current Champion Road Sports Champion was apparently sheltering from the rain when one might have expected him to be on duty during a critical point of the race.

Naturally, despite the gross dereliction by the spotter, the buck must stop with the team manager, as he is solely responsible for all decisions made. Is it possible that an experienced manager could make such a basic mistake, or was something all together more sinister going on?

No doubt the truth will never be known, unless ......................................................................

................... should a driver be dropped from next years team might they, in a fit of piquet blow the whistle in return for immunity from prosecution?

I suspect that Jean Todt may well come to regret his decision to run for President of the FIA.

Bob Investigative Reporter.

[Kelvin Laidlaw]

I am flattered to think that my own modest efforts to advance the progress of my team during the Birkett Relay may have caused sufficient interest amongst our fellow competitors to have lead to a breakdown in their command structure. My manouvre, which cost all of about three seconds was, unlike Piquet and the F1 Renault team's efforts not pre-planned. I would be the first to defend our Skipper at any future FIA inquiry.

Kelvin

[JERRY KNIGHT]

As always Bob an extremely enlightening and balanced report of the Birkett. Well done .
Funny thing was I met an extremely nice ,witty young gentleman pretending to be you ! Very strange.

[Bob Bull]

It has been suggested to me by a certain party with a peripheral interest in this affair that I may have been too harsh in my interpretations of the facts.

With my well established reputation for balanced and fair reporting I would not wish to cast a shadow over any reputation, or besmirch anyone's character, by seeming to pre-judge the outcome of any enquiry. I would, therefore like to state unequivocally that I have no evidence of wrongdoing by any party involved with the un-named team, and would apologise unreservedly if I have caused anyone to infer otherwise.

I am sure it was just a simple blunder of monumental proportions.

Jean.

[Chris Acklam]

Funny thing was I met an extremely nice ,witty young gentleman pretending to be you ! Very strange.

There must have been several such doppelgangers around, Jerry. I was accosted by one purporting to be a well-respected reporter who produced some well-thumbed pictures and posters of dubious subjects and quality from about his person. Suffice to say that, after being shown one of a semi-naked man in a compromising position (literally getting his leg over), I retreated rapidly, but not before seeing that one R Bull of Beds actually sold tickets to watch these filthy practices.

I was so shaken that it took me a while to recover, during which time our team inadvertently had two cars out on track at the same time. The timing is significant. I suspect a dastardly plot.

[Philip Tisdall]

Bob, a fine report, well at least some of it. I wonder if I might be allowed add a bit to try and rectify some of the incorrect content of your diatribe.

Adding, Team Manager & Incompetence together, is a bit harsh. In fairness, the Team Manager, was provided with incorrect information by a “spotter” who was, in fact on the pit wall. The said Team Manager was only acting on the information fed to him.

The other spotter you chastise was in fact discussing tactics when the said incident happened so no blame should be apportioned to him. He did not need to shelter from the rain, as you suggest, as the team had a shelter on the pit wall. I am sure that with your observational powers, you noticed it.

I understand that the spotter in question was momentarily distracted by a rival team member, spinning down the pit lane. Yes, I fully agree that one should not be distracted by anything while “timing” but as the “spinner” was a fellow Morgan Racer, whether a team member or not, one is always concerned for their safety, especially after having had a car slam into the pit wall in front of the “Spotter” and seeing the damage it caused to the car.

I hope this clears up things a bit……………..

[keith morris]

Speaking as a part time spotter for "one of the other teams" - if spinning was going to distract a spotter then we would have been distracted for pretty much the entire 6 hours!
My stint at Luffield may have lasted only a couple of hours but the gyratory "entertainment" was continuous - thankfully with minimal serious damage to most participants.

As a spectator I can only admire all the Mog drivers (and the drivers of other teams put on the track to interupt the real racing between the 3 Mog teams!) for managing to keep the cars on the track at all, let alone race for 6 hours. I have yet to see the "final" results (if there is such a thing) - but I understand that the top two Mog teams were only separated by around 30 secs after 6 hours - close racing indeed and a joy to watch and be a (small) part of.
Iver Driver - enthusiastic supporter of the continous bacon roll machine!

[Mary Lindsay]

As a driver in the Morgans for Fun team I can report that I had fantastic day's fun, due in no small part to the efforts of Kate and Simon Orebi Gann who put the whole team together and to Andy Downes who then held it all together on the day of the race. The pit crew and support crew were great and everyone stayed until everything was packed up and everyone was ready to go (I think we were the last to leave!).

The food was amazing and Kate, Mary Oliver and Liz Burry worked hard to make sure that we were never without food and drink of every sort during the day - thank you.

We shared our pit garage with our friends in the Guten Morgan team, and they are a lovely friendly bunch too. The Morgan Lady and Gentlemen team were closeted in a pit on their own, not I suspect of their own choosing but because that is what the organisers allocated them.

Our team greatly enjoyed the private Morgan dice with the other two teams and had it not been for a couple of unfortunate misunderstandings in the Morgan Lady and Gentlemen team I think we would all have finished on the same lap, what a finish that would have been!

Well done to all drivers in the Morgan teams, let us all meet up again to do it again next year.

Results are here:
http://www.750mc.co.uk/images/uploaded/ ... 0Relay.pdf

[Catherine Emberson]

We thought Kelvin was auditoning for the latest craze. Strictly Come Morgan Dancing. He certainly cavorted down the pit straight with flair and imagination. Most of the other drivers who tried it out ended up in the pit wall so congratulation Kelvin for winning that round.

Guten Morgans had a pretty good day. Tony Rivers set us up for a competitive race with a fantastic first stint. It was a pity that we had obviously been singled out by other teams as target practice. We had 4 if not 5 (I'm afraid I lost count) incidents with other cars causing some considerable damage. Roger Whiteside had to have panels pulled out, new rear lights and a new wheel (and another trip to the scrutineer!) after he was bashed in qualifying by an aggressive driver (for what purpose when the grid positions had already been set?). Tony suffered 2 panel bending incidents in the first session of the race and somehow carried on with a front panel rubbing on a wheel. John was knocked off by a BMW in his first stint (also requiring a new wheel and panel repairs) and then in his second stint 20 minutes before the end of the race a MR2 decided to add to the damage already caused. For any spotter at Luffield you may have noticed John shaking his fist at the offending driver in frustration and rage. Did either of the other Morgan teams suffer in this way? The race was very close at the end but it may have been even closer if we had been able to avoid some of these incidents. We were told to stick to the racing line when being overtaken by faster cars but obviously some of them either didn't understand this concept or decided that it would be easier just to ram their way past us!

Many congratulation to the other teams and many thanks to everyone who helped make our day run so smoothly (despite the damage). The weather was awful but we had fun. There will now be a number of drivers who have improved their wet weather driving technique so it will be interesting to see if this impacts on results in next years Challenge.

Catherine

[keith morris]

[For any spotter at Luffield you may have noticed John shaking his fist at the offending driver in frustration and rage.quote]

Yep - we saw the fist shaking!
IMO - considerable skill exhibited! - trying to point your Morgan in a straight line with one hand and gesture with the other.

The majority of the drivers were well behaved - but unfortunately with that number of teams there are clearly going to be a few Xbox 360 drivers who can't tell the difference between a computer game and the real thing and those who can't tell the difference between a 6 hr relay and a 10 lap sprint.
For example the overtaking under yellows was so rife as to be laughable etc etc.

[Bob Bull]

May I add my congratulations to all of the drivers in the Morgan teams for their performances in mostly atrocious conditions, while by far from the slowest cars on the circuit, there were a lot of much faster cars all about. Watching from various vantage points around the track it seemed to me that the saloon cars had the most agressive drivers, maybe because they were dry. In addition some of the cars were so small that it must have been very difficult to see them coming with the constant rain and all of the spray thrown up.
Despite the weather I enjoyed the whole six hours, for while the rain made it tricky behind the wheel, trackside it did provide much interest, while of course the splendid hospitality of the Morgan pits was truly appreciated by this member of the Media. I am sure I do not need to add that the friendly atmosphere and welcoming smiles added much to the event, and I can only hope that my modest efforts with the camera will go some way to saying, thank you, to you all.

It was nice to add a few more faces to names and shake a few more hands, and kiss a couple of cheeks, ................. and now we turn to the ladies!!

Not all of my pictures will be posted on the site just yet, you may have to wait a little longer to see some of the more emba ........!

OK! Katy?

PS; Of course I don't really think anybody cheated.

PPS: did any drivers find a certain red MGB acting as a mobile chicane?

[Andy Green]

We win as a team or we loose as a team

Everyone had a great day and did their best for the team

A special thanks to the 750 MC and all the officials/marshalls etc etc who did a great job

Congradulations to everyone in both the other Morgan Teams,including all the supporters etc

We will be back

[Bob Bull]

we loose as a team

Andy,
There were no losers, only time gaps. Congratulations on a great effort by the whole team.

Bob

[TonyLees]

I thought we very a very tight-knit team, nothing loose about us.
Had a fab time, result a mere blip in an otherwise fun event.
Respect! to the drivers in those changing conditions to say nothing of that well known intrepid reporter sallying forth into the mist.

[peter rafter]

JERRY KNIGHT wrote:
Funny thing was I met an extremely nice ,witty young gentleman pretending to be you ! Very strange.

JERRY, in the light of the above statement you may struggle with the MSA competitions licence application form for section 3.6 and even 3,8 for this and next year, unless of course.....