CRIPPS SLIPS BUT STILL WINS RACE!

Greetings race fans.

The Cadwell Race Report is a little later than you are used to due to an outbreak of Man flu in the Jonesey Racing Camp.

Thanks to all of you who have told me to get a move on…so here it is.

Friday evening and the Jonesey Racing team arrived at Cadwell with the trusty B sporting it’s 3rd new head gasket in as many days.

The usual banter was exchanged in the Cadwell Clubhouse that night as drivers munched their way through the dried up remnants of the Cadwell Quiche over a pint of amber nectar.

Saturday dawned dry and clear and with the PBIC dominating the race card with four races in total, practice was soon underway for classes A,F &T for race one.

To save space for the race report I won’t dwell on the practices, but suffice to say there were no major incidents for any classes and I was pleased to find my head gasket had survived my rather tentative qualifying session.

RACE 1 classes A/F &T

Starting some way down the grid I was surrounded by T types and making my traditional poor start I was soon following them!

My progress was hampered (out comes the excuse book) by car 90 Peter Edney who was dumping large quantities of fluids on the track and over my windscreen.

He retired early on and was not to return in race 2.

I then had to face up to the formidable John Bussey in car 2 who as always really gave me a run for my money in the widest T on the track. His motto is the older you are the faster you go, not sure if that relates to the car or the driver.

We were also joined this time out by the Maestro of Andrew Sharpe. Sadly I have been told this was to be it’s last outing before sale as Andy is looking to join the Midget Challenge next year.

I saw little of the front runners this time out, but all the usual suspects were there and a good win was achieved by the Carrot Cruncher James Walpole setting a cracking fastest lap of  1.49.

He was followed by gentleman racer  “I’m counting my pennies” (although we all know he’s got loads of them!) Bergonzi , who took second place in class A with the blue streak good old JD in car 38 coming in third in class A but fourth on track behind Paul Rigg in ‘Kermit’ the lime green MGF.

I have to say this time the split grids really worked well. The groupings of cars were very close in terms of lap times and it allowed us all to enjoy a “proper” race without the faster classes bearing down on us with their headlamps blazing. (You know who you are!!) Much more enjoyable for me and in my view a good format for future races when possible.

Race 1 groups B,C&E

The split races allowed me the opportunity to watch the other groups’ race and what a race it proved to be.

In honour of the anniversary of WW2, Team Neaves had formed their Big Wing Squadron with Commander Blaine taking Stan & Ollie out for a bit of formation driving.

This race took off at a blistering pace and Sandra Clark debuting her white MGB was subjected to some low level passes in her first race in the series.

The battle between Cripps and Ludlow or Lofty and Sandbag as we better know them, raged on all race with the little metro turning in a fantastic lap time of 1.45 seconds. Amazing.

Stan Neaves in car 3 broke formation and dived past Commander Blaine to convincingly take his place on the podium in third at race end.

Car 13 of Blagger Burchill was putting in very respectable times and was clearly enjoying his race, managing to hold off Vic Reeves in car 46, who had handed his V8 to brother Bob Mortimer in car 37.

John Yea was back after his problems at Mallory and was driving car 74 like a maniac, depositing large amounts of rubber on the track under heavy braking for the mountain.

A fantastic race to watch, especially Team Neaves as they sounded like a swarm of angry wasps buzzing round the track. Sadly Ollie in car 4 suffered a spate of ignition related problems that were to dog him throughout the day.

Race 2 classes A,F&T

Qualification for this race I think was based on the 2nd quickest lap in qualifying which luckily for me put me ahead of most of the T types.

I made a much better start this time out but not as good as Mr Bussey who nipped in front of me and then proceeded to take on the role of Mr Edney and start dumping fluid on the track.

Fortunately I managed to get past him a little quicker this time out and started to make inroads on the leaders, but first I had to get past Alan Brooke in car 40 and Wreckit in car 5.

A terrific dog-fight (still with the WW2 theme see?) took place between my arch rival Brooke in his Red Baron Metro. (Slipped into WW1 there).

We swapped places on several occasions with Alan using his no braking cornering technique to the full.

On the very last lap as we all flew down towards the tight left hander at Mansfield,  I was hard on the heels of Wreckitt,  with car 40 snapping at my exhaust pipe.

Wreckitt locked up into the corner and I saw my chance to nip through on the inside! I went for it…and all was well until I locked up too!!!

I could see the whites of John’s eyes as we both drifted towards the outside of the track, sadly for John he got to the grass first which allowed me to continue past,  closely followed by Alan in his Metro.

I closed on Primrose piloted (WW2) by Simon Tinkler and as we went through the woodlands a kamikaze dive from Alan caught me by surprise as he zoomed past, half on the grass fully locked up into the hairpin.

We all scrabbled round and I managed to grab a gear and get past Alan as we went round barn, only to see the chequered flag waving…..the race had flashed by but what a corker it was!

At some point Lew Bergonzi had spun off and finished behind us, but the race was won by Paul Rigg in Kermit as he frogmarched his way (how do I think of these?) past Walpole and Darby.

A great race once again!

Race 2 B,C&E

This time it’s personal!!!

Cripps and Ludlow were at it again, storming off for race two and opening up a massive lead on all others who followed in their wake.

The crowd was treated to some fantastic power slides by Lofty Cripps as he hurled his GT round the twisty Cadwell Circuit. Not to be outdone, Sandbag was just as spectacular in his front wheel drive dog-kennel.

The rest of the field battled  away with Commander Neaves in third following the early landings of Stan and Ollie due to mechanical failure….(I am being generous here Stan don’t you think?) in their K powered roadsters.

Peter Andrews was clearly enjoying his outing in car 33 as he baited Terry Holmes in car 37 with various feigned overtaking manoeuvres.

Dave Brooke was further down the field than he prefers and was unable to make use of his headlamp technique from 7th place, which later turned out to be down to an over-zealous gear change which snapped the knob off….sounds painful!

He finished the race having driven in 4th gear all the way!

Brian Ratcliff in car 61 decided his best way to get noticed was to perform some ballet style pirouettes on the infield by the mountain.

After a couple of failed attempts to drive up the hill on the grass he realised his only chance of rejoining was to go back to the bottom and try again, much to the enjoyment of the watching crowd.

The race was dominated by the antics of Cripps and Ludlow until we heard over the Tannoy that Cripps was out of control…we waited with baited breath for the two front runners to appear and finally a somewhat battered Ludlow emerged, but where was Cripps?

His race was run as we heard he had met Mr Armco and was unable to continue.

But the twists in this tale were not over yet.

Ludlow took the chequered flag and won the race…or so we thought but after a stewards enquiry the final classification gave the race result  as follows:

1st Cripps
2nd Ludlow
3rd Neaves

Now correct me if I am wrong here….but I thought races were only classified on count-back if they were red flagged?

Very strange.

Anyhow, that was Cadwell for you…yet another cracking days racing….does racing get any better than this I hear you ask?

Well not in my book!

I am pleased my car held up and that although there was a little contact this time out, everyone walked away unscathed.

All that remains now is to prepare ourselves for the final race at Snett.

I look forward to seeing how the championship stands when the official positions are released and we once again get our calculators out to see who stands the best, if any chance of an end of year pot as dropped scores come into play.

Pit Lane Gossip

Mr Yokohama says thanks to Paul Rigg for shaving all the tread off his new tyres with hairdryer.
Legs of Doom discovers 15 years is too long to keep his economiser fuel regulator.
Wilson attends Cadwell but forgets to enter car.
Peter Andrews considers racing V8 next year.
Alan Brooke declines to comment on rumours of engine change.
Church Lane T shirts prove to be big disappointment.
Legs of Doom  tries new race technique…switches to B&H from Silk Cut.
Silver fox misses race due to hunting ban.
Burchill up before clerk of course for driving too slowly…it was only a matter of time Pete!

See you at Snett!

Jonesey