Shelsley Classic July 22/23rd

[mk1]

Well I'm back & dried out. Was a great weekend with only a few downsides.

Starting off with the positive, it was great to meet up with some good friends, forum members & new acquaintances, there were some great cars there, & a super selection of Minis. My favourite had to be Simon Goodliffe's "Cooper-Buick" for anyone who doesn't know what I am on about, imagine a 270bhp front wheel drive unguided missile with a 3.5 litre Rover V 8 engine in the boot. The weather was glorious yesterday, but was pretty dismal on Saturday. This was only really lightened up by being parked up next to my good mate Steve Murphy, who kept us laughing all day. Saturday night was thankfully dry, & a convivial night was had as always.

On a less positive note, It was very slow with just two runs a day & 5 or 6 hours between go's. I can't help but feel that squeezing over 180 cars in over the weekend was a triumph of greed over common sense for the organisers.

Well done to Matt Clark who (as usual) cleaned up in his beautifully prepared SMMC powered MK1 Austin. The only person who could best his was a superlight weight Maguire special.

Thanks also go to Pete F who managed to talk them into letting 25 Minis enter, the largest single make group there, and of course curating such a splendid display of interesting & notable Minis as well as the competition cars.

All in all a great weekend.

M

[Pete]

Yep they need to look at the format, I have given them feedback and the weather, same as Goodwood got, one wet day and one nice dry one. I’ll take that over two orrible wet days for sure! But very few offs during the weekend considering and I hope the driver of the TR7 will be ok.

I really enjoyed it as the weather got better and abit of the Shelsley magic came back. Saturday night was good fun, and the craic in the ‘Mini village’ in the paddock was good. I think I should have forfitted my runs to commentate on the Minis because that was very scant. Enjoyed meeting some racing heros dotted around the paddock and Minty ran great all weekend, took a passenger up who’d won a ride up the hill though they tried their best to slow us down. Killjoys.

Well done to Matt Clark on winning the ‘Matt Neal Trophy’ and Derek Kessel on his class win. Sorry that Anita Taylor didn’t make it and Nicky Porter had the same issue I had earlier this year when a wheel bearing seized on his trailer. Hopefully next time!

Well done to Cliff for coming along and a couple of others off the forum.

Lovely day and so busy on Sunday and of course it chucked it down when I got home. Situation normal!

Not sure we’ll ever see this sight at the top of the hill again so I’m thankful to Rebecca and Annie at Shelsley for letting us play!

[big-un1967]

Nice to see you all over the weekend. Great spirit shown by all. Regards Paul

[Richspec]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrQMInmq7GI

[Pete]

Various pics…

[Pete]

A few more

[Pete]

More pics

[Pete]

And more

[Pete]

And more

[Matt C]

What a brilliant weekend! Fantastic to have so many Minis competing and displayed. Certainly one to remember!

[hanlminiman]

EDM (EJM)) Thanks for image Pete. Had a great weekend. Wet and sunny.
Another view with KTT.
About 360 sleeps to next year's event. Can't wait.
Cliff

[Pete]

So little interest on here though generally Cliff. I’m as baffled by that as you probably are. Each to their own though!! You likes what you likes.

[rpb203]

Looked like it was a brilliant event Pete, not sure I’ll ever have a car to take part but will mark the date in the diary if on again next year.

[Exminiman]

Was surprised by so few vids on Youtube as well.

To be honest I had’t realised it was going to be good as it was, was going to spectate, but baled out in the end, because of the weather.

If same format next year though, will be firmly in the diary, regardless of weather.

Maybe a live stream would be an idea if its not to complicated or expensive ? Sure their are lots of Mini fans a distance away or abroad who would love to watch…

[Pete]

Looked like it was a brilliant event Pete, not sure I’ll ever have a car to take part but will mark the date in the diary if on again next year.

Same weekend next year Gary, just need to talk them into letting 30 Minis run though. I saw Tim Benian there who I had a good chat about Unipowers with, im clearly not over mine!

It was packed on Sunday but it’s fair to say we were very lucky with the weather.

[Oneball]

Great photos. Doesn’t look too wet but a bit of a change from last year when it was 30 plus. Shame to miss it but other duties called!!

[rpb203]

Pete that’s always the worry that I have with my Unipower, and even more so if I don’t get my arse into gear and get it done!

[Richspec]

Was surprised by so few vids on Youtube as well.

To be honest I had’t realised it was going to be good as it was, was going to spectate, but baled out in the end, because of the weather.

If same format next year though, will be firmly in the diary, regardless of weather.

Maybe a live stream would be an idea if its not to complicated or expensive ? Sure their are lots of Mini fans a distance away or abroad who would love to watch…

Most of the vids Ive seen concentrated on the Ralli 22, Group B stuff and theres a few with the vintage cars, very little of the Minis to be seen. I wanted to go and spectate / meet the crews but just too much on at home and the forecast was shocking so rather a day in the workshop instead.

[Pete]

Don’t get me started on weather forecasts. Fair to say it’s not for nothing that Goodwood only sell tickets in advance.

[BAD942B]

Looked like it was a brilliant event Pete, not sure I’ll ever have a car to take part but will mark the date in the diary if on again next year.

sounds like a great meeting, will go next year