MGCC HERITAGE RELAY RACE REPORT

Well what a saga that was!

Next year I think the team should be called "On a wing and a prayer"

I will put my report in as soon as I can, but it may not be till Wednesday.

Not the result we could have had, but we had major issues all the way through the event, and it was an amazing group performance to keep a car on the track. The way everyone responded and helped out was fantastic. It was also great to see Hutch again, and he did a great job assisting with the repairs

Ed, despite his slipped disc was our saviour and kept the team rolling between all the disasters. I hope your backs not too bad, it's a good job you had your "man" (Bill) with you

Great support from Sumo and Adrian as well, and Sumo's chilli was superb.

We learnt an awful lot yesterday, and we will be back again next year for sure. We will have a whole season to get our cars to a more reliable state, and then we will be able to take better advantage of our experience Hopefully Hutch will have one of his Midgets back on the track as well and will be part of the team

Arrived late Friday night after a convoy with Ed who has chosen me to be “His Man” for the weekend, he has a slightly sore back so cannot lift much more than a port bottle hence his needing “a man”.
Silly Ed keeps speeding up and then slowing down as his lone crusade against my cruise control continues.

Nice social evening round at Billy’s gaff led to an early morning finish and a few sore heads the next day, not that there was much going on for us but we watched a few races one had 21 Metro’s in it cracking grid. We had to mess around trying to fit ourselves in amongst the hoards of empty trailers in front of the garages we failed in the end and ended up spread around the paddock.
9 AM start was welcome and we looked forward to a relaxed morning, we never got one I’m afraid.
After practice Ian’s throttle cable was sticking again, the liner keeps melting due to its proximity to the Turbo. We all stuck in together and fabricated a new set up that is rerouted under the turbo and it is now only the steel cable near the hot stuff and it then enters the outer sheath via a p clip mounted on the Alternator bracket and then round to the injectors.
It was a real rush job but in the end with some great teamwork Ian got out just in time to take his place on the grid.
He set a cracking pace and we were up to 5th at one point Sumo and Adrian were doing the timing and the boards Ed was waiting patiently ready to go out.

Ian came in a little early and Ed was caught without his gloves (or Cameras) on arghh between us we had messed up our first change over, as Ian was at the end of the pit lane before Ed got going ho hum.

Ed was soon up to speed and doing a cracking pace, everything looked good.

Ian had knackered his clutch cable now, luckily Ed’s spare Tiger issue cable that would fit
Soon Ian’s car was up on a jack and Ryan and he started the refit.

Ed comes in Billy goes out, Good change over this time. We start getting his car ready to go out again because Ian was still on jacks..
Billy only lasts a couple of laps and comes in all panic stations
Ed was our only hope he was empty of fuel Sumo was flapping and wanting to send Ed out for a couple of laps lol, after we chased him off we Brimmed Ed’s tank and sent him on his way, lots of minutes lost there.

Billy’s looked terminal so I went up to assist Ian and Ryan, it was not going well I assisted for a bit but then had to get back to the garage, Luckily Hutch was there to assist again and pretty soon it was fixed and brimmed ready to relieve poor Ed.

Ed in Ian out
More cracking lap’s, things were going OK again but we had slipped down to bottom of the field, one of the scrutineers told me that it had been noted that a number of officials had noticed that the Blue Fiesta was being incredibly brave at the first corner or his brake lights had failed. Bigger fuse needed next time Ian.

Billy’s leak put down to oil filter seal fixed and with bodge tape?
Ian in a few laps early Billy out, we were ready this time and it was a good handover.

Ian’s front Brake pads worn to metal Hutch called up again

Billy broke down again after one or two laps more time lost until we find out, unfortunately we were not near a tannoy so could not hear many of the announcements.

Edward the great was sent into action again he was really earning his Burger King Crown today poor fellow. But the Tiger and he were performing brilliantly.

Billy’s car was eventually towed back “OIL everywhere”, the poor Hornet must have thought it was back with a previous owner when it used to look like it had parked next to the Exxon Valdez all the time. It’s quite ironic that Billy was talking a lot about retirements and race stoppages in earlier races and suggested reliability would be one of our strong points, perhaps he should pre book us as number 13 next year as well “lol”.

Ian’s “slightly better” new pads were fitted and he took over from Ed for the last half hour, the Little Fiesta ran well right to the flag.

15th place out of 26 teams was a real result for us considering the hurdles we had to jump. If the cars had been 100% reliable we were confident of a place in the top 5 at least but all things considered it was a great team effort.

Things needed for next time:
More fuel (Not the best having to queue at the pumps whilst your car is waiting to go out)
More Assistants (on the mechanical side especially)
Red 205 GTi so I can have a go.
More Port.

All in all a cracking social race meeting with large grids and large smiles.
Lovely chilly made by Sumo and cooked to perfection by our runner Jilly,
Nice to see Hutch again too.

You forgot to sign off mate "report written by Bill Brown age 12&3/4 years "

Good report mate

As reported by Bill, lots of socialising on the Friday night, well into the wee hours. We then watched the racing on Saturday and it rained all Saturday afternoon.
On race day, it was lovely and sunny, but the track did not seem that grippy for qualifying. Ian was fastest with 1:28.904 (3rd fastest in session), then Ed with 1:29.542 (8th fastest in session), then myself with 1:29.818 (7th fastest in session). This was approx three seconds down on what was expected, but the was order of pace and the spacing of pace is what was expected.

Ian had been elected to start and was 7th on the grid. He was oon into 1:25 second laps and consequently up to 5th place. 16 minutes into the race and he hit problems and had to return to the pits. Ed was in the middle of manicuring his nails, so wasted some time putting his gloves on

Ed did a great stint and got down to 1:27.355. I was out next, but on my second lap there was suddenly a spray of oil as I exited Murrays, so I dove into the pits with no oil pressure. Unfortunately Ian’s car was still being repaired and Ed was needing refuelling. Helped with refuelling Ed before getting to work on my car, but 7 minutes were lost. Turned out the oil filter seal had popped and this seemed to be a result of the oil filter threaded boss screwing itself out of the oil pump. There were no flats on the boss to tighten it with a spanner, so sorted it as best I could and then wrapped the filter to the block and engine mount with gaffer tape to stop it turning. Bill and Sumo pushed and steered me back to the garage as I strapped in, put my helmet on and started the engine, then out the other side of the garage and onto the track. The engine was cold and I had to be mindfull of the oil pressure, but thankfully there was a safety car intervention and I was able to warm up behind that. Once the track was cleared I was off but having to work through the snake that had produced by the safety car. Got some good laps in till there was another safety car, but this time I was third in the snake and on the re-start the three of us at the front made a suprise break from the others and i I posted a 1:27.306. The car was going really well now and I had closed up on one of the big MGB V8s ready to make my move. Unfortunately the gaffa tape was now hot and the glue had softened and the tape departed the filter! As I entered the Esses the oil light came on and so I exited the track just before the Bomb Hole.

Prior to this event, I was hoping the Mk2 would be approaching the reliability of the Mk4, but it looks as though there is still a little more work to do. The new engine (all £320 of it!) was pulling well, so I hope there is no lasting damage, and it still has a couple of “lives” left.

I should be racing the Mk2 at Snetterton in November against Ed in the Tiger, and if this races times are anything to go by, then we should have a good battle on our hands (Ed did a 1:27.042 later in the race, against my best of 1:27.306).

A summary of the results:

Started 7th on the grid and rose to 5th within a few laps.
30 mins – 7th
1 hour – 14th
1.5 hours – 19th
2 hours – 19th
2.5 hours – 25th out of 26
3 hours – on the way back up again and 18th. Also 2nd in class out of 4 and just 13 seconds adrift.
3.5 hours – 16th and now first in class by a measly 2 seconds.
4 hours – Ian takes the flag and were 15th and 1st in class.

Regarding the results, we sometimes had to wait for cars to become available whenever another calamity struck us and at least 11 minutes were lost with no cars on track while the recovery of a previous car was completed. This equates to 8 laps and would have placed us 4th overall.

WE WILL BE BACK

Myself and Ryan arrived on the Saturday teatime.I had previously been fettling the car since its last out outing at Silverstone.She had been treated to some metalwork being cutaway a new dizzy cap rotor arm and coil. The throttle cable had survived race two at Silverstone intact so id wrongly assumed all was sorted.

The car was unloaded and pushed into the garages by Billy and Ryan after refusing to start.A quick check once in the light revealed that i had wired the datalogger tach signal to the wrong side of the coil a quick swap around and she was running.We had a few small jobs to do elsewhere on the car including changing the front pads and fitting the wheels with the newly fitted Toyo 888s.

The Sunday dawned Bright and sunny and i was feeling up for the days racing ahead.Waking up on a race-day without a bad head is a novelty i quite enjoyed.Into the car for qualifying i decided to go nice and steady to allow the new tyres and brake pads to settle.The car started to come to me pretty quickly and the new Wilwood brake pads required hardly any bedding in plus i was suitably impressed with the new Toyos feeling more grippy than my ageing slicks.About 2 laps from the end of qualifying i could feel the throttle pedal tightening again indicating that bloody Nylon liner had melted again i also had a small misfire under higher boost loads which i was fairly certain was the spark plugs.

Some crazy spannering took place in the interlude between qualifying and race start and im indebted to Ed Bill Sumo Sumos mate whose name escapes me and Billy who did a superb job of getting the car to the start.We closed the bonnet and i made my way to the assembly area in double time sitting in the car with moments to spare whilst gathering my thoughts i noticed a very angry looking Gentleman making his way over to me to have a word with me about my speed in the paddock i agreed that he had a fairpoint and apologised unreservedly escaping with just a Rollicking !

Race start was not great got away well in first and second and then managed to grab Fifth (its time to concede that the Gearbox is probably past its best) but i settled into a good pace managing to ease away from the cars behind and just about keeping those in front of me in sight it was one of those days when the car was flying. The tyres felt great and its probably the most neutral the car has ever been.Going through the Bombhole was like being on a rolle rcoaster with the back end of the car just starting to drift on the power on the way out a quick flick of the steering wheel had all back in line then it was into Coram sawing on the steering wheel like i was on Historic Dunlops.It was unfortunate then that clutch cable decided to snap on the change to fifth on the Revit Straight.Game over it would take to long to complete a lap in a high gear as when the car is off boost it takes to long to build the Revs so i elected to go straight into the Pitlane without warning the team.

Ed very kindly offered me a spare clutch cable of his Tiger which Myself Ryan Bill and later Hutch spent the next hour or so fitting as is often the way in life it was about half an inch short to go on comfortably so in the end i left the bushes off the clutch pedal to allow it to rock a bit.

Back out in the next session and i was loving it.I have never driven Snett in a quick car before but it was quickly becoming a favourite and this event was starting to remind of the Birkett when it was on the old Silverstone International Circuit. Again it was to be short lived braking hard at the end of the Revit straight the brake pedal went to the floor which grabbed my attention again there was no time to warn the team i just had to come in and hope they were ready.

Super Hutch and Ryan to the rescue again! After fitting there best asbestos hands they managed to remove the wheels and discover that the new brake pads had completely expired. But unfortunately the pistons had over extended slightly and they showed the patience of a saint to work the pistons back in. EBC yellows had lasted a season and a half including a Birkett Relay and the Wilwood just 70 minutes.

Back out again this time to take the run to the flag Sumo brief had been simple "we are approx 30 seconds behind the team ahead of us and you have twenty minutes to ctach and pass" With the bit firmly between my teeth we were off chasing the straights and attacking the corners non of this unfortunatley showed in the lap times as there was oil all the way around Coram resulting in a different line.But non the less we were all in the same boat so we just had to go for it ! Go for it we did i passed the other teams car with time to spare egged on by Bills big daft grin and thumbs up off the pit wall ! Nice one i knew that i was doing what needed to be done. Braking at the end of the Revit straight again the Clutch pedal fell off fortunately we were on the last lap and the chequered flag was a welcome sight.

A superb weekends racing for me and one of those weekends that really cements my love for the sport.I have also grown a soft spot for Snett to and really enjoyed its fast corners.My commiserations to Billy not sure what to say as in all the time i had the car the one problem i never had was the oil filter loosening.When i did stop and have a gander on the pitwall she looked to be flying. Many thanks to Ed if were not for him and the Super 6 the game would have been well and truly over before it began superb effort mate and some cracking driving.

To everybody who came over and gave a hand fed us and supported us Ryan,Sumo,Sumos Mate, Hutch (great to see you) Bill B, Gilly if ive missed anybody my apologies but it was a great effort "Triumph against Adversity" if you will.

Hopefully same again next year when this time we will smash it

AAARRRRRRRGGGGHHHHHHH I hurt!!!!!, the backs fine (no worse than it was before the weekend) thanks to my man doing the donkey work, (thanks Bill, your job trial went quite well, I will let you know if you get the full time position) but the rest of me is not functionally properly. my hands are cramping as I type, my legs are sore but most of all my neck is floppy! out in the car today as a passenger and my workmate takes a roundabout with relish and I brace and my head falls over! cant type much more now as I ache all over. but thanks to every single one of you who all played there part in a great team event. Thanks again to Bills kitchen for supplying me with sustenance along with Sumo's epic Chilli. I will have a look over the car and see when I will be out again. Now where that radox?

Anybody been able to find any photos ? There seemed to be a lot of photographers there but ive been unable to find any online

A report and accompanying photos will eventually appear here:

http://www.mgcc.co.uk/motorsport/race-results-and-reports/

however, not seen any elsewhere.

Cheers Billy I will keep my eye on it

Here is some phone stuff from the pit wall, yes yes I know I got the date 10 years out lol

The report and results are here:

http://www.mgcc.co.uk/motorsport/snetterton-race-report-the-season-finale/

However, there are no photos with the report

Theres a couple of photos here:

http://www.dsdigital.co.uk/photo-galleries-2014/gallery47?pagename=photo-galleries-2014%2Fgallery47&g_page=1

No Billy!
Its a shame he did not have any "Pit photos" lol