Round 14 - Aintree, Saturday 24th June
Weather Watching
Last year when the TVRCC Speed Championship came to Aintree the event was cancelled part way through as it rained in Biblical proportions. Despite creating ditches and dams to deal with the rivers of water flowing across the track the organisers were forced to cancel the event. Prior to this year’s visit Jo and Steve had asked for one of the Northern entrants to write the report, subsequently I was “volunteered”. Hoping to create a good impression of our nearest sprint venue I was praying for sunshine so kept an eye on the BBC weather forecast throughout the previous week. The forecast for the Saturday was not good with rain forecast as possible throughout the day. |
We should have had more faith in the weather as we were blessed with the divine presence of Richard Bream who, as he continuously tells us, has never had a wet event and therefore we would be assured of sunshine. And so, we were. It may have started out slightly chilly but we were basking in the sun by the end of the day. Thanks Richard!
Eight TVR competitors were entered, but Duncan Woodcock withdrew at the last minute.
The day started particularly well for the Northern Contingent consisting of Heath Briggs, Bill Campion and myself when Jo gave us each a hooded sweat shirt that was so perfect the linings for the hoods even matched the colour of our cars. Nice touch Jo and very much appreciated. |
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P1 went smoothly with Dave Barrowclough in first place, followed by Heath and Jo. This was Heath’s best time of the day, (too many chips over lunch?). P2 was more eventful with the intake duct coming off Richard Bream’s supercharged engine. The good news was that Jo and I got another practice run when Richard was red flagged. The bad news was pulling the grass out of Richard’s car back in the paddock (from a “paddock misdemeanour”, not from any on-track action I hasten to add). After practice, the results were Dave Barrowclough 1st, Jo 2nd and Heath 3rd, 1.5 secs ahead of Shunter. However, Shunter reckons the proper northern pie he had at lunch (not a stew with a lid) gave him the edge to take 3rd from Heath by the end of the afternoon.
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Bill beat his PB after lunch and again on each subsequent run. Bill, Richard, Shunter and I all managed our best times on the final run, Jo thinks my best time was due to me offering her most of my chips at lunch time! With a quick car and an old slow driver there was only one place I was going to finish ~ last! But I still really enjoy my days out competing. No change to the top spot though and a second win of the season for Dave Barrowclough. Congratulations from us all and well driven.
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