Rounds 14 & 15 - Loton Park, 3rd & 4th August

​Ripples in Time
Producing the report for Loton is really quite straightforward.  AHD gets his fastest time in practice and leads going into lunch.  Moggy sandbags in the morning, then puts in a blinder in the afternoon to snatch victory from AHD.  Captain (Mark) Chaos realises he was half asleep on Saturday, refrains from alcohol on Saturday night and gives himself a talking to, then climbs up the leaderboard on Sunday.

​But wait; there must be ripples in the space-time continuum! That’s not how it transpires.  AHD actually puts his fastest time in straight after lunch on both days – when it counts in the timed runs.  This clearly unsettles Moggy, who puts in his fastest time of the weekend on Saturday afternoon – but that is still 1s away from his Personal Best and not enough to “snatch” victory. (He claimed that he wasn’t happy with his new tyres, but note the earlier comment about sandbagging!)

​Chaos manages a strong 3rd place on Saturday, within a smidge of his PB, so doesn’t give himself a talking to, and doesn’t refrain from beers and wines on Saturday evening.  Clearly, this new tactic works, as he beats his PB twice on Sunday afternoon, and “snatches” second place from Moggy.

​In the double-driven cars, the second driver normally gets the advantage of warm tyres.  Despite this, Shunter drives first on Saturday, improves his times all day, and secures a credible 4th place.  With warm tyres, he goes cross-countrying on Sunday afternoon, and fails to get into the top 5.  With cold tyres on Sunday, Jo gets her fastest time of the weekend to finish ahead.

​Hank feels disadvantaged all weekend, as he arrives late on Friday evening and is unable to find a level pitch for his tent (it’s called a hill climb for a reason).  After two nights of sliding off his camp bed, he shouldn’t be on top form.  On Saturday he beats his PB by a healthy margin to finish 6th, then smashes it by another second on Sunday to leap to 4th.

​In the mid-field battle, the big V8s should have the advantage at this complex hill, and the general wisdom is that anyone who just turns up on Sunday doesn’t have Saturday’s “practice” to help.  Steve T disproves this theory, turns up on the second day, and leaps into 8th place.  Dave, Richard and Get Carter have what could be described as a “good weekend out”.

​Shelagh and Pete take the more relaxed approach to the weekend, with each driving just one day.  Pete drives on Saturday, presumably so he can have more than one beer on Saturday evening.  (The ripples in time also affect the evening meal – first choice pub is shut due a flood two months ago; second choice is under new management and doesn’t open until Tuesday; but a fab (if late) night is had by all in choice number three).  Shelagh drives on Sunday, improves with every run (a feat only matched by Steve T) and basks in the glory with an ice cold G&T.

The surface of Loton was re-laid a couple of years ago, and is therefore perfectly smooth.  Perhaps it’s the power and noise of 11 competing TVRs that created the ripples in space.  However it happened, AHD is delighted with the anomaly.
               
Go on, put some numbers on it.
 
Shunter (Photography: Bobbox, Tess, Jo, Shunter)