My mini is sitting this one out, but I heard yesterday that I have an entry accepted for my Vauxhall Nova hillclimb car and I believe that I'm also driving my father in law's Ecurie Ecosse Imp (single seater) for demo runs. Hopefully they'll accept lots of minis!
I'll see you there. Our club wristbands, passes etc arrived today.
The show has shifted to the left looking at the map provided, rather than being in front of the castle as normal.
I still have spaces to fill on the stand, if anyone was wanting to attend.
All the miniclubs are together in one row, miniclan, Cumbria,lothian and tynemouth.
Wanna see what I'm playing with? Youtube Channel
Caution may contain 8 Ports, Xe's and VTec's, I don't do standard!
Yes I noticed that they are having a different display on Saturday and Sunday. Saturday is obviously for modern modifieds and Sunday is for classics. I still might do both days though as there will obviously be a bit of a crowd there.
Did you receive the entry list (and presumably final instructions?) via e-mail or post? I've received nothing yet since the e-mail earlier in the week with my competition number.
I believe Richard's Nova ended up in my neck of the woods in the in the late 90's and as far as know the GpA driveshafts on my car are actually from his one. You can file that in the "useless facts" file.
I understand that the ex Louise Aitken Walker Astra that he drove is currently "under restoration" somewhere. No doubt it will be the "original" car by the time it emerges.
A long one for both Adam & I, but what a wonderful event! Not just the Sprint, but everything else too. A Massive car show, stalls, celebrities, you name it. I think that this event is going to become very big indeed.
As far as the Motorsport is concerned, I think all the competitors thought "Hum, doesn't look too interesting" as we initially walked the course or in my case drove down it towards the start for my practice run. How wrong we were. What looked like a relatively easy track with a couple of sweeping bends & some huge chicaines, proved to be very tricky indeed. A real test of nerve for all the drivers. Those driving small cars were at a distinct advantage. Some of the bigger cars, Jags etc, were really up against it.
As far as I was concerned, I was a bit cowardly to begin with, but by the end of day one I was running what I thought was a respectable 9th OA & 4th in class. Malcolm in his superb 1600 Nova was already doing very well indeed. Finishing the first day in 4th place over all. Adam in his 1930 Austin 7 was by far the smallest car there & was managing to show a couple of Bugatti's the way amongst others.
Over night I decided to swap from Avons to Slicks, in the hope of getting a bit more power down. This proved to be a very poor decision. On my first run on Sunday I hit one of the chicaines on the way up, damaging a tie bar mount & making me the only car of the weekend that needed recovering. Very embarrassing indeed! Although with some help from Malcolm & Adam I did get the car running again, but my weekend was effectively over. Both Malcolm & Adam continued to get quicker & quicker all weekend. With Malcolm finishing a fantastic 1st in Class receiving his trophy from Jackie Stewart himself. And Adam, although being well down the finishing order doing his last run less than a second behind my best run of Sunday.
In all fairness the track conditions were "Challenging" all weekend, the surface giving the more powerful car a lot to think about. I think it is safe to say that it is not surprising that the fastest car of the weekend was a rally car. A beautiful & very rare HSR Chevette.
A thoroughly brilliant weekend was had by all. I am sure that when the event happens next year there will be some improvement & tweeks made. I know the traffic was an issue for the punters & the people who were staying overnight could have done with a few more facilities in the evening, but overall we had an absolutely AMAZING weekend. Best event of the year so far.
Adam & I always like travelling north of the border where all motorsport seems to be well organised by friendly knowledgeable enthusiasts & yet again the marshalling at the weekend was absolutely exceptional!
Here are a few snaps taken by the Mrs. Hopefully we will see some better ones later.
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