A couple of familiar names were in action at Silverstone over the weekend, only one in a Morgan though!
Tony finished 16th. overall and second in class D, lapping at 66.65 mph! Not bad for something that old!!! Oh! He was driving the Viper.
JCC was also 2nd in his class in the Fox & Nicholls Trophy a mere couple of 10/10ths adrift of the class winner in a Brooklands Riley after fighting his way past a gaggle of cars.
Was he delighted with his performance? When a media hack tried to interview him after the race all he could talk about was some chap called Wycombe who was in line for promotion. Who he is and what he is hoping to be promoted to is a mystery to me.
More pictures on the general motor racing site including a couple of errant Bugattis.
Hi Bob,
It was good to see you waving on the back straight. Thanks for the great photo. The Viper was great but the driver was asleep at the start so forgot to turn engine on until the "5 seconds" to go board went up! what a twit!
I watched John's race from the grandstand at the complex and he had an epic battle with an Aston and those pesky Rileys.
All in all a fun day.
Cheers, Tony
Hi Tony,
I'm glad you recognised me waving, I did not want you to think you had fans!!! I thought the Viper was going pretty well and it was a fairly awesome sight at full chat down under the bridge.
There are several more pictures on the 'general' site which I hope you like.
I was under the impression that the clever drivers always tried to keep the engine cool at the start to avoid overheating. Well, so Brundle is always telling us, perhaps 'twit' is not the right word. How about shrewd?
John did well, but somehow his Morgan looked rather small compared with many of the other cars around him, which may account for his driving style!!
It owes nothing to the laid back attitude of Farina or Moss, although there is a slight resemblance to the Hawthorn 'hunch', but that was due to Mike's height, I fail to detect any influence from the BSM, which advocates a 'ten to two' configuration on the steering wheel. I must admit I never seen the 'one minute to twelve' grip before, but whatever the reason it appears to work. Maybe JC could enlighten us?
Bob, the style can be called "hanging on in there". The hunch is just that, I thought I might win but it was just a hunch!!
Tony and I both qualified way out of position in our respective grids on the greasiest, oiliest, dampest track I have ever experienced. Grip - nah, traction - nah, understeer - loads, oversteer - even more, sideways - always!!! Great for Morgans not sure about Vipers. Terrible for Peter H and his Lotii.
In our exalted starting position we were only ever to go backwards in the perfectly dry conditions of the race. My race was compromised by having to leave the track at Becketts to avoid a spinner and see how high the car would fly over the curb - quite high is the answer and the Morgan's friction dampers don't - ouch.
A pesky Riley shot past as I regained the track and so I had 8 laps to undo the damage. An even peskier Aston Ulster and Bentley 4 1/2 decided to mingle with our class battle. It was close and having passed and re passed the Aston a few times I finally managed to pass the Riley on the last lap to pip him by 0.3 secs. And I didn't use KERS!!!
Thanks for clearing that matter up John, I must admit that I had left my programme in the car when I arrived at the complex, and could not remember which race you were in, so I was suprised to see a familiar figure in a familiar car pass through my view finder on lap one.
I recovered enough to catch you embroiled in the melee with the Bentley the Aston and a veritable horde of Rileys on several occasions, as you will no doubt have noticed on the usual site.
I am sorry that when I interviewed you after the race, I was a trifle bemused by your reference to Mr Wickham, for while I have my pride I have no prejudice.
Well done to on your success.
Bob
Now where about's is this Becketts place, I shall have to position there next time.
