I was at Cadwell with Tim yesterday. Boy was it hot. Luckily Tim brought a gazebo for us to sit under.
Practice went OK with Tim qualifying 11th (out of 17). Shortly after practice we found the battery was dead! A loose engine earth strap was found, and luckily we found a nice kind bunch who let Tim use there generator and charger to charge the battery. Come race time the car started OK.
After about 5 laps the race was red flagged due to the Ford Falcon barrel rolling and ending up on its roof in the middle of the track. After the restart it was a quick 4 lap sprint to the flag. Tim ended up 7th (I think) a couple of places behind Roger Godfrey.
Hopefully there will be some video to load up later in the week but in the mean time here's some stills
The rest of my pictures can be found by clinking on the link for the slide show
tim did try and get me to go to this, I was quite up for it, but just ran out of time, the rebuild of them motor in my car has just taken so long after I saw 10 plus out of it at donington last year
bet the guy in the falcon is gutted, not the sort of car that you can find a half decent shell for cheap monies in the uk!
The thing is with the Falcon it was torn apart as the wings, bonnet, bumpers, boot etc etc are all fibreglass. I did not see the wreckage but by all accounts it was a bit of a mees. Luckily the driver was out of the car straight away unscathed.
I was not there today, but I am sure Tim will give his account of todays action.
surfblue63 wrote:The thing is with the Falcon it was torn apart as the wings, bonnet, bumpers, boot etc etc are all fibreglass. I did not see the wreckage but by all accounts it was a bit of a mees. Luckily the driver was out of the car straight away unscathed.
I was not there today, but I am sure Tim will give his account of todays action.
Vegard wrote:If it runs fibre glass bumpers, it's illegal
Under HSCC regs or Appendix K?
Not under original Appendix J? as the Falcon that won the 64 Monte on scratch before the handicap was applied was homologated to the spec Alan Mann wrote, not the spec any production car fitted...
Checking through my pictures carefully I think the Falcon was running pressed alloy bumpers. In the shot I posted you can see the rear bumper is sticking out a bit. On the previous lap it was not. If it was 'glass it would have just cracked and stayed in place I guess. Also the red Mustang had gained a bit of a dent in the bonnet! Later on there was some tyre rub on the drivers side of the Falcon, so there were obviously having a bit of a ding-dong for the lead before the red flag.
Sending the footage to Stuart today so you will see the amazing disintegrating Falcon. Bits of body is one thing but to see a fuel tank lying in the track does startle
The rest of my footage will be fairly routine . Impressed with Roger Godfrey's son-in-law Dean who took over Rogers car in the second half so he can lose his novice cross prior to going to Spa with HSCC in September. He has hardly done any competition since his youth, only did 4 laps in practice at what is a pretty demanding track and was straight on it! We had our lonely time with the Imps in front of us. They have now got the edge on us a bit more , as have all the Fords even on a small twisty track
Still, it's such an epic place to be and race. In the evening they showed the new McLaren film in the restaurant and on the screens around the spectator area with the sound coming out of the pa system. Met loads of new non-mini faces including one old gent who was very happy to explain the detail on the Classic Clubmans they were looking after . Turned out he was Mr Mallock. Loads of historicly aged competitors around barbecues and drink, lovely weather ....
surfblue63 wrote:Checking through my pictures carefully I think the Falcon was running pressed alloy bumpers. .
certainly the galaxeys ran alloy bumpers in period, so I guess they would be allowed now.
some of the 1960's American cars also had full alloy wings and front panels pressed as homologation specials from new, they where more to do with the drag racing in the states and they are mega rare - I think they make bmc alloy mini panels look almost common and easy to get
Tim Harber wrote:Met loads of new non-mini faces including one old gent who was very happy to explain the detail on the Classic Clubmans they were looking after . Turned out he was Mr Mallock. Loads of historicly aged competitors around barbecues and drink, lovely weather ....
Ray Mallock is a nice Fella by all accounts - runs some fairly high level international sportscars, but still competes in early Clubmans cars his Dad built.
When I had the last Clubmans project I emailed him on the off chance he recognised a couple of unique features of the chassis. He didn't, but helpfully pointed out that "Your prop shaft might be a bit long"
I've uploaded Tims footage of the first race at Cadwell, showing the aftermath of the Falcon roll. look out for the scary looking lump of a leaking fuel cell in the middle of the track.
you know that its a good crash when marshalls are giving it Mexican waves to slow you down and people are waving flags not even wearing orange overalls
some video of event, fast forward to 14.05, distance video of end of incident and pics
quote on video from Steven Drury
"The Ford Falcon comment at the end of your video is incorrect. The car was actually knocked off the circuit by Warren Briggs in the Mustang who was excluded from the event"
