Round 15 - Curborough, Sunday 1st July
|
Sporting Greats ‘OUT’
|
lapper at Curborough and they were not wrong! Fortunately for competitors, NSCC had really got their act together:
|
P1 – 9:15am – 20C – still and calm
Straight out of the box, Steve Mogg throws down the gauntlet with a scratch time of 64.42 sec, 3 secs clear of Iain Stallard and Rob Pack and 6 secs or more than the rest of us mere mortals. |
|
|
|
|
P2 – 10:15am – 23C – slight breeze
It’s getting sweaty now but Iain grabs the baton and matches Moggy’s 64 secs leaving the rest of us in awe with only slight and progressive improvements. On handicap, Iain is now 2 secs out in front with 4 other cars tightly bunched in the 63s (Pack, Stallard Snr, Moggy and Hankins). |
NSCC announced their intention to squeeze two timed runs in before lunch in order to attempt to beat the expected increase in heat.
(Great! That should help as I always do better before lunch rather than after and I really don’t want to be totally humiliated by my young son.) |
T1 – 11:15am – 25C – no breeze, no shade
Iain goes off first and improves yet again. Rob sets off hard in pursuit – ooops, huge lock up, big smoke, obviously trying too hard but he still knocks a second off his best practice. Moggy is concerned that there is a problem with the rear of his car |
|
and its ‘shocking’ handling. Hank in his 2500 is catching up and learning the track fast as is new, for this year, Steve Thomas in his Vixen. In previous years, it has been well demonstrated that the smaller cars are particularly suited to this venue.
|
True to their word, and as a reward for competitors’ good behaviour, NSCC called us for our second timed run before lunch.
T2 – 12:30pm – 27C – very still, very sweaty Even more improvement from pesky |
Stallard Jnr, who is now fastest on scratch and handicap and breaks Dad’s longstanding course record into the bargain. Stallard Senior puts in a better run to move up to second on handicap behind Iain with Moggy and Pack close behind.
|
|
|
|
|
A lunch time review shows that we all have to up our game if we are to get decent points as Iain is now 1.5 secs out in front.
|
T3 – After lunch – 28C – Scorchio and even more sweatio
A Vixen cockpit so isn’t the place to be on a |
hot, sunny day! I can’t improve but Iain breaks the course record again just to rub salt into the wound. Rob snatches second
|
|
|
|
from me by 0.01sec and Moggy, still cursing the handling of the Griff, settles for 4th. Peter and Sheila Ash, can obviously handle this kind of heat as they put in their best times of the day.
We were offered more runs but all, to a man and woman declined.
Not only did Iain take the 25 points and his first trophy of the year, we learned that he had been nominated for a marshals award for ‘Most Spirited Driving’ – note to self – don’t let Iain near the keys again! Geoff Stallard (Photography: Pete & Shelagh Ash, Mel Booth, Rob Merry) |
|