Race Report Silverstone June 2010

YOU KNOW WHEN YOU’VE BEEN TANGOED.

Greetings Race Fans….well where do I begin?

To say Silverstone was full of thrills and spills would be the understatement of the year!!!

As predicted the PBIC fielded a massive 36 cars for the Race over the Historic Grand Prix Circuit, with many of the drivers taking advantage of the Friday practice session.

For some reason I thought we had 42 on the grid but maths never was my strong point.

There are loads of drivers who attended this event, none of whom are known to me so not much I can say about them really.

One familiar face returning to the fold however, was James Pitt car 39, in his gleaming B Roadster. He informs me the colour was a special purchase from none other than the former Phoenix Participant and MG Trader Jeremy Rogers, who it was nice to see Spectating following his recovery from a serious road accident earlier this year.

Qualifying on Sunday was relatively uneventful with many of the driver’s attempting to learn the track and also put in good times.

The return of Weasley did not go according to plan as his little yellow midget decided to have a tantrum and throw a wheel off after four laps.

Simon Cripps took pole although this was in his Roadster and not the V8 as shown on the entry list.

The shock qualifier had to be Alan Brooke in his upgraded Metro taking second….WOW!!!! Even beating back his bearded brother to third!

Other than Beaker in car 43 it was clear the long track was going to suit the V8’s as they littered the front rows.

As for  good old class A all the hard practice by Darby on Friday was of no use as the man-machine Walpole was there again, but if pole is part of your name what would you expect.

THE RACE

With the race fast approaching we all trooped off for our beasting, sorry I meant briefing by Ron Gammons, who may be able to say “I told you so” with some conviction next time we meet.

The atmosphere was electric as testosterone mixed with Castrol R and saw the PBIC drivers in a state of high excitement and perhaps a bit over-excited in some cases.

The revs rose to a crescendo as the lights went out and 36 gas peddles were floored simultaneously, the grid hurtling to the first corner as one.

This was clearly a recipe for disaster and Mr Bump-and-Grind Bergonzi wasted no time as he nosed along some slower drivers in his path. I believe this is called “finding a space”.

Round the first corner we all went, smoke dust and fumes filled the air. So far so good, a few cars wobbled a little bit but we all kept going, approaching the left kink, few more wobbles, brake lights , think it will be ok….is that someone on the grass?

Then it happened….Clockwork Orange was on the grass flat out and suddenly he was back on the track, only this time at a 90 degree angle cutting across the rest of the pack!

WALLOP!  Straight into poor Old the Moons a Balloon, er… John Moon….shoving him across the track instantly , right into the path of Dave Brown – WALLOP! again… followed by KERBOOM! (too many Batman comics) as Moon went up in flames….cars went  all over the place trying to avoid the crash as smoke and debris flew above us.

No surprises, the race was red flagged immediately, not something we are used to fortunately in this series.

I am not sure if car 14 Barry Proud got caught up in this but he certainly did not return for the restart.

Nevertheless many of us did and with a slightly depleted field we went and had another go at it.

ORANGE SQUASH

We got away a little more safely this time  but unfortunately for me, the Clockwork Orange still had the pip between his teeth and as I tried to nip through on the inside  at a left hand corner he shut the door on me….HARD!

Contact!!! … and that will be another new headlamp and a trip down to Wings-r-Us for me then.

It was a little surreal though, as I felt the impact and then saw Wilson scrape past the front of my car as he spun round. Then he finished off by scraping the new wing I had just put on the passenger side, following the damage I suffered when Mr Tinkler and I got too friendly last time out.

Racing doesn’t get tougher than this!!!

Still I thought, at least I am still going and that should be enough excitement for one race, so I set about chasing down Tinkler when oh no…here we go again….this time Alan Exocette Brooke left the black stuff stage right and booted it (ahh the good old front wheel drive) and rocketed  back onto the track at greater speed, making a bee-line for Primrose (how do I think this up?). 

Simon (Racing under the alias of Richard) lifted, and went into a spin.

Crikey it’s all go this racing lark, but this let me nip through but clearly enraged Simon who set about his recovery drive like a man possessed.

After a few laps I could see him bearing down on me at a phenomenal rate and this time out I could not hold him off and he passed me around lap 5 and then shot off into the distance.

Well they do say a practice session is worth 2 seconds a lap. They may be right.

Then there was the déjà-vu moment….is it?  no it can’t be…it looks like the Vulcan Bomber Burchill behind me.

And sure enough it was just like old times as he blatted past me on the straight. Hmm, but not that quick on the corners though, I just had one brave pill left, so throwing caution to the wind floored it round the next corner as Burchill braked….quite a nice four wheel drift I thought as I veered towards the ample run-off area, but I kept my foot in and as my tyres screamed in protest managed to keep ahead of unlucky car 13.

Before I knew it the race was run and to be honest it was just nice to get back with most of the car intact.

Back in the pits I found a few other drivers had got a bit closer than they would have liked.
Peter  Andrews in his much improved V8 had his right wing hanging off after a scrape with Terry Holmes and both failed to finish.

Alan Brooke having successfully rejoined  was shown as a non-finisher although he had done the full 7 laps….what happened there?

RESULTS

Simon Cripps was back with a vengeance and took the win in his Roadster with Beaker getting 2nd overall in tripod and taking the class C win, with Ollie Neaves 3rd overall.

Pat Fenn had his best placing in his V8 so far  with 8th over all.

Bump-and-grid Bergonzi taught the whipper-snappers a lesson in class A and took the win there and grinder, sorry I mean driver of the day! Carrot and Darby took the other silverware. A good effort on Darby’s part though getting the Class A fastest lap in a hard fought race.

James Brice pipped the Silver Fox to the class F result.

This really was a drive-it-like-you-stole-it type of race full of excitement granted, but maybe just a bit too rough in hindsight.

I am pleased to report that John Moon is out of hospital and I have re-listed his comments below.

I am also happy to have been able to fill in the gaps for him regarding the crash!!

All in all a very enjoyable day and I am only glad that the majority of damage was mainly wallet related and not too bad injury –wise.

I am sure we all wish John a very speedy recovery.

I am off to start the repairs once again and look forward to seeing you all at a slightly calmer Mallory perhaps?

There are already some discussions taking place with regard to venues for the Christmas Do, but I will mention this in another report as I have blathered on quite long enough in this one.

Cheers!!

Jonesey.

************************John Moons Comments********************

Hi all, Just feeling well enough to find this and contribute. Came out of hospital yesterday. I have no recollection of either the race or qualifying. So as far as I’m concerned I’ve never been on the Silverstone GP circuit! My mechanics just brought the car back - doesn’t explain how my helmet came off and how I cracked my ribs….If anyone has any in-car footage or photos I would really appreciate them- it may help restore my memory.
Thanks for all the good wishes, appreciated.

John Moon