Lydden is bl**dy long way away but a gem of circuit. The last time Shunter and I went was back in 2012 which happened to be the first sprint we ever did in the Chimasala. We fell in love with the circuit (and sprinting in the Chim) that day and we have been meaning to go back ever since. We finally got Lydden back onto the Speed Championship calendar last year, but then it went pear shaped for us as I had to work
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that weekend.
So we thought we would attempt to go this year. But then just as the calendar was arranged, his cousin booked her 40th birthday party event for the same day! So we had the typical dilemma of what comes first, TVRs or family? In the end we decided to try and fit in both. So with a 5 hour drive down to Lydden on Friday (with typical |
Friday afternoon traffic aaarghhh!), a 2-3 hour drive to North London for Saturday night (M25 was shut so we were a bit late for the party aaarghh!) and another 3 hours back home on Sunday (another leg in the sweltering heat aaarghh!) we were just about able to pack everything in.
But was it worth it? Oh yes indeed! |
We had six competitors. Hank defending his win from last year. Shunter and me seeing whether it was as good as we remembered. Ditto for Steve Dennis who was last here in 2009. And Jim York came along for the first time with double driver Richard Blacklee who was last here in 2004!
We had one practice run of 2¾ laps, followed by three timed runs. It was no surprise to see Hank in the lead after |
practice as the rest of us tried to learn / remember what we were doing. Onto the timed runs, with T1 before lunch and Jim 'the spin' living up to his reputation. Richard and I were watching as he lost control coming out of the hairpin. Just as we thought he had caught it, the back end stepped out again sending Jim into the tyre wall. Fortunately he had managed to slow everything down quite a bit by the time of the impact so damage was limited, although the timing strut did disappear never to be
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seen again. Fortunately the organisers kindly let Richard take his T1 run without the strut and we all helped fabricate a new one over the lunch break.
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In T2, Jim was being cautious, Hank had an excursion and so no time was recorded, I closed up the gap to Hank to 0.3 seconds on handicap, and Shunter, Steve D and Richard all continued to make improvements. Going into the 3rd timed run neither Hank nor I could improve, but then Shunter knocked nearly a second off his last run to leap into 2nd place.
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A very close competition with the final top 3 places just over 2 tenths of a second apart, and everyone returning managing to set a new PB. Lydden really is a gem of a circuit.
Jo Briars (Photography: Lina Borjesson) |