A packed AGM with loads of thrills and spills was followed by a packed Xmas Do with loads of thrills and spills, mainly of beer on this occasion it has to be said.

Ok then, the AGM.  I list the edited highlights with a more detailed version of events to follow shortly…..the shock news  of the day was that Long Haired Dave decided to stand down as co-ordinator to spend more time with his hair.

Dave of course stood in following the abrupt departure of Maggie Yeadon nearly two years ago now and as a result has been unable to race ever since.

The future for the PBIC is now by way of a workers type co-operative, or “committee” which were duly elected in.

The idea being that the workload of the co-ordinator which is a thankless task, let’s be honest, would be shared out by the committee to make life a bit easier for all concerned.

Richard Tinkler has agreed to continue as Club Secretary / Administrative Officer and also will perform the official co-ordinator function of signing off the various forms and documents that the MSA require each year.

Alan Jones of Miss Daisy fame and former co-ordinator of the BRSCC Fiat Challenge will act as Communications Officer and deal with many of the functions of running the series such as publicity - promoting the series etc.

Pete Burchill will continue to keep a tight hold on the purse strings and will continue as Club Treasurer added to this will be a new role of Commercial Officer, working with the committee to utilise his well known blagging skills to raise the profile of the series and obtain any concessions, sponsorship deals and the like to help us all during these hard times moneywise.

The Technical Officer in the shape of Vic Young was re-elected and some whipper snapper called Blaine Neaves has agreed to share the role which should prove interesting to say the least!

Drivers Reps are:

Class A James Darby

Class B to be agreed at later date

Class C Simon Hutchinson

Class D Pete Burchill

You will notice that there are only four classes here, that is because it was agreed by most present that the ridiculously vast number of classes needed to be combined in order to provide proper racing as opposed to trophy collection opportunities.

This format will no doubt need tweaking as the year goes on but at least it goes some way to getting class sizes up and hopes to group cars on their relative performance and lap times - as I understand it - rather than some of the arbitrary ways that classes were allocated in the past. But as I say this will need to be viewed as a work in progress and you can’t please all of the people all of the time as they say.

The main changes are the inclusion of the 3 F’s in class A with class F being abolished unless of course we get another 20 or so cars joining us!

Class D is for K engined cars and I think Pete Burchill offered to be the rep here too.

I am to continue as social secretary (more about the Xmas Do later) and I have been asked to take over the running of the official website!!!!! Fear not however as the vast majority of this will be done by the Comms Officer and that means I will still run the JR Website for the time being at least!

But you can look forward to a brand new Official Website in the very near future with some nice tricks to it and even better than this…..it WILL be regularly updated….interesting weather or not!

There were a few rule changes but in the main they relate to minimum numbers of cars on the grid to allow for trophies to be given out and also no more 3.9 V8’s in class B….yes really!

The Xmas Do

Although we were a little short on numbers which I put down to some drivers being unhappy at the way the series was progressing and also of course cash is getting harder for us all to find, but despite this I have to say the atmosphere was excellent and this was one of the most enjoyable Do’s I can remember.

We were treated to a brilliant DVD roundup of the year provided by Dan Neaves, the sales of which added over £100 to the club coffers. (copies still available and highly recommended for those of you who could not make the Do - just £5 each  featuring 2010 & 2011 seasons )

Long Haired Dave was suffering from man-flu and passed the baton to brother Alan to conduct the presentations, which were very well done even though we only heard half of what he was saying…so not all bad then!

Peter Best sent two representatives to present the trophies too and they seemed to enjoy their evening.

But the true highlight had to be Disco Dancing Champion “Strictly” Rob Spencer. He tripped the light fantastic with those twinkle toes of his from the moment the music started until he was politely asked to leave the dance floor by security.

I half expected Bruce Forsyth to turn up so professional were his moves!

The food was good and the wine was flowing, arggh my poor head the following morning.

Which of course brings me to the now traditional Christmas Caption Competition.

That’s right folks the chance to win some highly coveted Official Jonesey-Racing Merchandise. This year I have been spoilt for choice for suitable photos so I have given you a choice of two;

Have a great Christmas one and all and here’s to an exciting 2012 (can’t wait for Thruxton)

Jonesey

PS Unless I receive those bribes I will publish the others in a new album on the site later this week!

CAPTION COMPETITION: GET ‘EM IN!

Ooher Mrs

What can I say???

Well it’s all over for another year and a pretty mixed bag it’s been too.

I’ll start off my report in the normal way with a bit of a rant to get it over with and then I’ll concentrate on the good stuff.

What was the MGCC thinking of?….I thought the all comers race was supposed to be the Relay event, instead despite the regular drivers who have paid their fees all year long leading up to the final race to decide many Class Championship positions, we find that two Fiats have been allowed to race with us.

Is the MGCC that short of cash?

I understand that they had come over from Ireland and that having paid their money they were allowed to race but what were they doing here in the first place? And why were they gridded up with the rest of us instead of starting behind the pack?

The result was they nearly upset the Class A battle when one of them side swiped James Walpole as he  was fighting for Class A honours…what is going on????

Calm down dear, it’s only a Race report…Rant over!

We were treated with unseasonably scorching hot weather at Snetterton as the temperature reached  a tropical 30 degrees’ on track and even hotter inside the cars.

Sadly this was to take its toll on several engines including mine….

Qualifying

Ollie took 1^st on the grid closely followed by Brother Dan who was out in Blaine’s battle weary car.

Class B pole sitter was Pete Burchill who faced little opposition from Crippo who was still on Spanish time, but sadly so was his engine which was proving to be a little unpredictable, forcing him to start from the back of the grid.

James Walpole held off James Darby as they fought for Class A honours with little to separate them score wise.

John Binczyk took pole for the soon to be disbanded Class F from Vulcan driver Jason Simon….and of course those Fiats were also in there.

Race 1

It was good to see the return of Tripod piloted by Simon Hutchinson and also Lew Bergonzi in what could be his last race, so he says…

Also joining us was Chris Hughes in a Rover 100…or a Metro to you and me.

In true Snetterton fashion, having taken over an hour to get through scrutineering with their usual picky attitude and total disregard to race times we then had the delight of being called up really early and sweltering in the collecting area for ages….”piss–up and brewery” spring to mind.

The 200 circuit was new to most of us and as we set off the chicane (Montreal?) and the new never ending Coram were to prove challenging to many.

I made a pretty good start and managed to get up to third  before being passed  by Primrose through the chicanes second time round.

Crippo blasted his way from the back and by turn two had overtaken most of the field to be hot on the heels of the Neaves boys.

I was able to keep Primrose in sight but this was tricky as right in front of me was Sarah Budby in her ZR which had amazing acceleration but was less agile on the corners.

Just in front of her was Chris Hughes in his Metro, sorry Rover 100, and Binczyk was in front of them both. I also had to contend with a pink Fiat harrying me as well.

I had my foot flat down but they were all starting to pull away from me….what was going wrong? I checked the temperature gauge,  warm but not too bad, so I stuck the fan on to make sure.

Blimey, even the Fiats’ have gone past me now followed by Bergonzi.

They just kept pulling away, here we go round Coram, blimey off goes Bergonzi …right I’ll have the place thank you very much…but not for long as pop went my engine and off I went into the pits. Race over.

Lew managed to rejoin and continue despite ripping his gear lever out!

Thanks to the Vulcan guys for running over to try and help but my race was done.

And just to make sure Frank Thomson having killed his own engine ripped mine to bits for good measure!

Anyway back to the race and on track honours went to Ollie Neaves first, closely followed by Rob Spencer and third to tripod…despite copious use of the headlamps!

Crippo was 1^st in Class B and James Darby was taking the Class A battle to the wire beating Walpole and with fastest lap too that meant there was only a point between them for the Class A title.

The Silver Fox managed to hang on as the only F car still out there but he too was suffering with clutch problems and a lumpy engine.

The heat had taken its toll though with cars 17,52, 5,7 and me all DNF’ing…. car 7 of course was at the hands of Dan”car-breaker”Neaves, who thought the red glow in the cockpit was from the rising sun, it turned out to be the f***d-it light as we all know it….another car bites the dust!

Many thanks to you all for the offers of help and spares, but in the end the damage was to be too great to make any attempt to continue pointless and more likely to finish off what serviceable parts were left in my frazzled engine.

Although this guy probably doesn’t read these reports I was astounded by an amazing act of generosity by one of the Marshals, John Watson, who whipped a head off his MGB and brought it in for me on the Sunday….although I was not able to race I did manage to deposit my remaining  beer tokens in the Marshals Safety fund instead.  

Race 2

A lot of frantic repairs were conducted throughout the night which saw many, but not all, of the drivers back for a second go on the Sunday.

As the sun shone down a slightly reduced grid set off for the final showdown.

From the side of the track I watched a magnificent race between Rob “Oooh Betty” Spencer and Ollie Neaves.

Rob made a blistering start and was hounded to within an inch of his life by Ollie for several laps until Ollie had to back off, to preserve his engine as the needle went into the red.

Simon Hutchinson recorded a gallant 2^nd but was some way behind Spencer who was driving the race of his life.

Crippo, the famed after dinner speaker, finished a country mile in front of his next  class B competitor Pete “I’m ready for the driver weight regs” Burchill. But Crippo seemed only interested in trouncing bus driver Vic Reaves in car 77.

The two James’s meanwhile were at it hammer and tongs with all to play for and an errant Fiat playing bumper cars too, the old Carrot Cruncher used his suede and despite a truly epic fight by Darby, managed to win race 2 and retain the class A title for the 7^th consecutive year!

Although I have to say if this year is anything to go by he could really have an uphill struggle next year!

So massive congratulations to all concerned for another great year of racing.

Praise is due to our Championship winner Dan Ludlow, with Class B honours going to Crippo who did it the hard way but has clinched class B by a smidgen.

Class A the invincible James Walpole and class F of course none other than the Sly old Fox John Binczyk.

I should of course point out that these are unofficial results and will need to be ratified by the powers that be, which  means we should know the day before the 1^st race next year!

We now come to your favourite subject that of the Xmas Do…

I hear some of you have yet to buy your tickets no doubt because you are still, compiling your guest lists.

Now come on get a move on!!! Richard Tinkler is trying to sort out the table plans and arrange for the booze to be shipped in so please get your menus and payment to him ASAP!!!!!

Spare menus : just e-mail me or Richard Tinkler.

Dan Neaves would also like the footage from the last races to compile the DVD…don’t leave it till the last minute or your moment of glory will be missed off.

The 2011 Champ!

Greetings Race Fans!

Well its eyes down and look in as we approach the final countdown for 2011 at the revamped Snetterton.

The “200” new circuit format is likely to favour the local bods who have managed to get a bit of testing in while the rest of us have been enjoying the British Summer.

Class A is swelled to 9 entrants with the welcome return of the old Codger Lew Bergonzi….I say welcome, but what that really means is that I will be another place further down the grid!

Frank Thomson is optimistically also shown out with another shakedown run as we all wait to see what will go wrong with his car this time!

The fight for the Class A title looks to be decided between the two James’s with Carrot Cruncher Walpole having a slim lead over Blue Streak Darby.

Class b is still a bit thin on the ground although Crippo has finally found time to fit in a bit of racing between his numerous holidays.

Class C is a bit more respectable with the winner already decided if my maths is right in the shape of Dan Ludlow, who is not shown as entered for Snett but we all know he likes to psych out the opposition by keeping his entry back until the very last minute.

Class F looks to be having a last “hurrah” before the new rule changes with the Vulcan MGF doubling the normal entry with Jason Simon in the hot seat.

I hope to cover the new rules in a separate pre-AGM report in the forlorn hope of reducing the mind numbingly long meetings, I have suggested the introduction of a red light to stop the discussion dragging on or failing that perhaps Mr Walpole could bring along a cattle prod.

Having found the on track bar only lightly supported on previous occasions I will be drowning my sorrows in advance on Friday evening at the Breckland Lodge purveyors of fine ales and foods. (That must be worth a few quid off the bill surely?)

Lastly can I remind you all to bring your booking forms and chequebooks along to the track so you can get your tickets reserved for the Christmas Party / End of Year Presentations.

Also don’t forget all that video footage which can be handed to Dan Neaves in order to compile this year’s DVD.

See you at Snett (or the bar)!

Jonesey

World Exclusive!!!

PBIC to get new co-ordinator!

That’s right folks, you heard it here first apparently former racer Dave Brooke has volunteered to act as co-ordinator in place of that other bloke who didn’t do a great deal also known as Dave Brooke, what a coincidence!

The new Dave Brooke has wasted no time in updating the race scores and has already implemented a new rule namely 1.3.4 which no one has ever heard of.

Although not published I can reveal that this rule applies to all drivers and may be quite difficult for some to comply with.

Dave has decided to introduce a minimum hair length to be in force by the next race meeting. Dave is determined to bring back the Yeti look and has decreed that from now on any driver with head hair less than 18 inches long will be excluded from the points…..Mr Walpole will have his work cut out.

Donington Qualifying.

A total of 18 cars took to the track with 10 of them being in good old Class A “The Friendly Class”, which was swelled by the late addition of Lord Thompson who continues to move and drive in mysterious ways.

Lord Thompson declared himself to be feeling generally disillusioned with racing, mainly due to his failure to identify an intermittent fault on his car. He does even less maintenance than me so it is hardly surprising. Despite this problem he still found time to examine every other car for rule infringements and declared them all illegal except his own one of course.

New to racing (well I think Joe has done one race in the dim and distant past) was Joe Phillips in his not trick but very trick car. This has got all the toys on it that’s for sure but if it also had the bits it was supposed to have then maybe it would have reached the correct weight limit as well!

Alistair “ding-dong” Bell doubled the Class B entry when he appeared in the old Pat Fenn V8.

Class C managed four entrants with the addition of a bright green Sprite driven by Mike Robinson, and an immaculate FIA spec MGA driven by Martin Doherty. I could be wrong but these guys may only be guesting with us to get their licences signed up.

A more permanent addition could be that of  Ashley “Exocet” Woodward in his MG ZS, so called because of his poor aim around Redgate Corner.

Anyhow back to qualy:  I expected this to be a pretty tame affair but the green track caught out several drivers - first Exocet Woodward in car 17 who launched his ZS into the kitty litter on Redgate on lap 2!

I am pretty  sure Dave Brown had an off, and was that Primrose too?

The grid finished up with Dan Ludlow on pole with Carrot Cruncher James Walpole next to him and Dave Brown third …. This unusual formation mainly due to the lack of entries in Class C.

I managed a lowly sixth….. my excuse?…scrubbing in new tyres following the flat spotting incident at Thruxton.

Race One

With heavy skies we lined up for race one all happy to be back at this cracking track, all happy except Thompson who was still disillusioned.

A good start saw me up into third having passed Primrose hot on the heels of Darby and Walpole.

John Binczyk was in the mix with his F as was Nick Arden in his slightly smoky Maestro, looking to continue his winning streak.

Mike Robinson was going well in car 10 but this was not to last as we had the strange phenomenon of heavy rain on one part of the track and dry bits on others. This would see the slick shod cars struggle for grip and fall back.

Dan Ludlow had got off to a good start but suffered some sort of gear problem and being unable to get any gear other than 4th combined with the rain he decided to call it a day after 4 laps.

Joe “Tricky Dicky” Phillips was going well but rued his decision not to include an oil warning light in his list of toys and also a fuel cap would have helped as he dumped most of his aviation grade fuel over the track. He retired with suspected oil pump failure.

Frank Thompson retired with disillusionment.

Kev Hewer and the Grey Pig were making a fight of it with Piggott relinquishing  his favoured last place. Hewer was delighted as he had his first spin!

I was holding back Primrose but out braked myself into the chicane and saw Simon sail past. He then tactically fed me a couple of back markers and relegated me to fourth.

With Ludlow out, the win went to  Ashley Woodward who was flying round it has to be said.

James Walpole held back Darby to take second with the blue streak in third.

Quite a tricky race in the end but still great fun!

Race 2

This time the weather was more favourable and a dry race ensued.

I made a cracking start and was up into third by Redgate hot on the heels of Darby.

A trademark spin by James D put me up into second…WOW this could be it I thought and focussed on keeping up with James Walpole. Things were looking promising as the Darby spin had put a little distance between the front runners  ( I was one of them !!!) and the following pack when s*** b*****s argggh the bloody safety car was deployed after an errant MGF had parked on  the old hairpin…..I was absolutely gutted as the pack closed up again…….bloody bloody safety car!!!!!!!!

As we restarted I managed to stay in second for a while but was constantly bullied by “on a mission Darby” who was driving like a  man possessed.

As we headed towards the chicane he was flat out having already tried to pass me round the outside on the previous corner….out of the left hand window I saw him launch his car over the gravel trap before the start line…..well I guess he must be out this time I thought.

But no!!!! he went even faster and hacked back through the field to scream past us, on he went up to and past Walpole, on and on going faster and faster….I just couldn’t believe it.

Meanwhile Tinkler was now on my tail and as I tried to defend down the back straight he got on the inside as we approached the hairpin and I locked up and hurtled straight into the gravel trap.

Oh dear, I muttered quietly….no I didn’t…. I floored it through the gravel as I saw Nick Arden  nick  a place from me….but this was not for long as I took a leaf out of Darby’s book and went for it,  regaining the place on the exit of Redgate.

I made some ground on Tinkler but he fed me the slow moving MGA costing me another few yards as he retained third and pushed me back to 4th.

I don’t think I have ever been so close only for a podium place to gradually escape me I was well p****d off I can tell you!

So the race ended up with Dan Ludlow making short work of taking the victory without the mechanical problems of race one.

Ashley Woodward second and a good third on track and first in class B for Dave Brown who managed to pick up his usual panel damage for good measure.

First in Class A was the demon James Darby who also got driver of the race for his formation spinning, and fastest lap to boot!!

John Binczyk got  1st in class F and also fastest lap, but then as he was the only car in the class this wasn’t too difficult.

In fact I am thinking of buying an MOT failure Metro off Ebay and bringing back class E on my own, this must be a sure fire option for my championship bid!!

I should also thank the Silver Fox for giving a bit of ground so as  not to impede my rather futile attempts  to keep up with the two James’s.

So all in all another great weekend for the Peter Best Series.

Moving on to other  matters, I am drawing up  menus for the Xmas Do which will be circulated via e-mail by either our new co-ordinator or Club Secretary, or both to make sure you get them.

We have got a good deal price-wise this year as  a 3-course meal & ½ bottle of wine per head is just £35. The rooms are only £39 and we also have one hour of half price bar drinks…..it would be rude not to be there!

The Do is on Saturday 26th November at the Staverton Park Hotel Daventry and is open to ALL, even the occasional Silverstone drivers and those just doing a few meetings this year.

Don’t miss this chance to join your fellow drivers over a convivial beer or two.

You can book the hotel rooms now by calling the hotel on 01327 310283….use the banquet/function option not the reservations one and quote MGCC PBIC for the special deal on the rooms.

Please send your cheques and completed menus to Richard Tinkler, full details will be in your e-mails shortly.

Also Dan Neaves still needs any video you have taken over the year so he can compile the end of year DVD. Please get these to him (see link to TNR website) or bring them to Snetterton.

That’s all for now folks, as we gear up for the Grande Finale at Snetterton.

Jonesey

Or should I say where have all the drivers gone?

We are back at Donington at last following their F1 fiasco where they dug a load of holes and then went bust.
I hear the track is as good as it ever was so how come we have only got 16 cars shown on  the grid?… 9 of them –by far the biggest  class - are all in class A?

If we are not careful this could be an amalgamated race and no-one likes that.

Class F is once again just the Silver Fox, Class B just two drivers and Class C only a little better with four…..what’s going on?
I know times are hard but this must be our worst showing for a long time.

In class C it seems the regular drivers have just thrown the towel in and  left  Dan Ludlow to it…if it wasn’t for three new drivers he would be the only class C entrant!!. I am not good at maths but he may already have clinched the class and overall title anyway, but if not, on his current form Donington should seal it….I have had to guess this as we have not had an update to the official table since  Silverstone so working this out  has proved a bit tricky.

Class B is just as bad, with only Car 78 Alistair Bell (is he new too?) against old stalwart Dave Brown.

So I have to concentrate on Class A who are keeping the standards up.

New to us is Jo Phillips in his much talked about MGB. This is expected to be quite trick and the last I heard weighs no more than a feather…. I am sure the scrutineer is keen to look over this car….or he would be if we had a scrutineer, or an eligibility  rep, or a  co-ordinator….well at least we have a driver’s rep and I know you have to get up early to get past JD.

Of course we are getting up pretty early with a crack of dawn “sign on” and no doubt hernias all round as we try to quietly push our cars all over the place to avoid waking the neighbours.

Kevin Hewer is back with Black Bess after re-wiring the Olympic clock.

Primrose is back having resolved the head gasket issues, I am back still sporting the James Walpole performance drop link which inspires me with a lot of confidence but does nothing to improve my ability, maybe I should read that book Mr Ludlow mentioned a little while back?

Nick Arden will be looking to continue his winning streak after Thruxton, but the Blue Streak (see what I did there?) James Darby will be doing all he can to stop him.

Normally at this time of year I would be delving deeply into the points table and the fight for overall and class championship bids,  but  while I wait for the update and my Christmas dinner  I have  spent my time leafing through the Oxford Dictionary and came up with this little reference:

“Coordinator” can refer to a position within an organization with significant responsibilities for acting as a liaison between departments, stakeholders and information sources, which requires many non-administrative competencies. Somebody responsible for organizing diverse parts of an enterprise or groups into a coherent or efficient whole.

I always wondered what they did….

See you at Donington…try not to spread out too much with all the parking space we have reserved for us!

Jonesey

Here is a nice piccy of  Mr Arden trouncing  the opposition at Thruxton.

Courtesy Jamie Peters Evans

Yes that’s right shipmates you will see (or is that sea) this report has a distinctly nautical feel.
The main reason for this is the boat like characteristics of my car for most of its time at Thruxton.
But more of that later, first here goes with the round up of our visit to the quickest track in the UK, none other than good old Thruxton.

After qualifying the top three on the grid were none other than Dan Ludlow and a super fast Class B effort by Lofty Cripps, who pipped young Ollie into third….. a traditionally engined four pot giving the newer version a run for its money.

It was nice to see Pete Bramble back out with us in his concourse version of his B roadster, he had his fingers crossed that his head gasket issues were finally resolved.

Another shock was in store for the Class A racers as (told you to watch this guy in my last report) Nick Arden really got his Maestro dialled in and out qualified Carrot Cruncher James Walpole by almost a second.

This high speed track was looking to provide some high octane racing.

On my part I managed to put in one of my worst grid positions ever, giving the Grey Pig car 60 a worry as I vied for last position but actually managed 3rd from last due to John Wreghitt suffering a loss of spark.

It wasn’t for lack of effort, but no matter how hard I tried I just could not keep the B off the grass, as she lurched violently round each corner, making me feel distinctly sea-sick. I naturally put this down to my lack of ability.

Race 1
A frantic start ensued as cars swerved all over the place in turn one to avoid Crippo who lost drive in his Class B roadster.  From the back of the grid I was immediately overtaken by “On-a-mission” Wreghitt who had nipped out to buy a set of Ford Fiesta HT leads from Halfords after qualy and was making full use of them in the race.

I also had to fight off Max Whitehouse in his midget who wouldn’t give me an inch of track but sadly he retired 8 laps in.

My handling issues continued as my car lurched from one side to the other round the corners frequently tasting the cool grass off track for good measure.

This spurred on young Piggott in car 60 who decided to relinquish his favoured last position and make a race of it blatting past me with a cheery grin.
This was short lived as I managed to wrestle my car past him fully expecting him to return the favour at the next corner, but my mirrors were clear, where had he gone? Apparently a bit of over-exuberance meant the grey pig was eating some grass following a spin.

In the distance I could see the rest of the pack dwindling away with only the occasional glimpse of Wilson in his white roadster ahead.
A couple of laps before the end the front runners zapped past in the shape of Ludlow, Rob Spencer…blimey he was going well, Dan Neaves and Ollie, which was quite a feat since I briefly overtook Ollie  early in the race as he spun at Club Corner.

So the top 5 places all went to class C guys as you would expect, with Terry Holmes the last of these taking 5th place.  Brother Barry (Vic) now preferring to race with classes B & A followed a few places behind.

First for Class B was Alex Smith in car 54 which he is sharing presumably with a relation David?

Nick Arden in his Maestro car 36 trounced the rest of class A with a popular victory followed by James Darby and then James Walpole who had been hanging on with a burnt out clutch.

Race 2
During the break much discussion took place about the cause of my poor performance, when following a suggestion from Blaine Neaves an inspection of my car revealed that I had broken the n/s anti-roll bar drop link.

Naturally I did not have a spare so it looked like I would have to call it a day when James Walpole, who was loading up his trailer having retired with clutch failure, immediately offered to remove a part from his car for me to use.

This is why I like this series so much….despite being out of the race himself James sprang to my assistance without hesitation. Beers are on me JW!

He wouldn’t even let me crawl under his car to remove the part, insisting on doing this himself!!!!

With a superior Walpole part on my car I surely couldn’t fail. I was a bit surprised that it seemed to be made from platted straw but no matter I would give it a try.

A relatively long hold on the lights saw a bit of creeping going on, but I didn’t let that get on my pip. I floored it off the line and was delighted to find the Walpole drop-link had restored my B to its normal performance, as I nipped past Primrose car 18 things were looking good.

Sadly in my excitement I overcooked it and Tinkler nipped back ahead, but at least I was making a bit of ground this time out.
Wilson was closing behind me in car 50 but this time I was able to keep my trusty B on track looking to catch up with Darby and Arden.
In one of my famous last of the late braking manoeuvres I came close to getting past Darby on the complex but he soon closed the door.
On we went and by this time Burchill and Brown the two Vulcaneers were vying for position ahead of me.

 Tinkler went for the overtake and lost it just missing Darby and making me glad I had replaced my brake pads as he slewed across the track.
All this excitement meant I was up to third and so I pressed on fearing that Tinkler would soon catch me up…I had good reason to be worried as he got fastest lap in the class.

Then disaster, despite having a superior Walpole drop-link installed this was not the case on the other side which let go with a loud twang!! Here we go again….back to those stormy seas…

Well it was too late now, I just had to hang on and make the best of it.

Fortunately for me, but not so for Simon, Primrose’s high compression engine blew another head gasket and he retired.
Also out was Wilson who may have missed a gear and “buzzed” his recently repaired engine. This left Wreghitt & Piggott behind me, but I managed to hang on until the chequered flag.

The final result was a double whammy for Dan Ludlow , Ollie second and Crippo this time nabbed third on track and 1st in class B  having fixed the faults from race 1.
Blaine managed 4th on track, but am I right in saying Dan was actually quicker in the old man’s car….well he’s at a funny age bless him.

Class A was that Maestro again…. He was really flying.

Overall a very eventful weekend, but what a cracking track!!

Please, please  MGCC can we come back next year????

I have been asked to mention that the Christmas Do is booked and there is no need to delay in buying your  tickets. Richard Tinkler will accept all known forms of payment  and I think you can also reserve rooms at the hotel now.
It’s the same place as last year, I understand the bar will be doing half price drinks for the first hour…well that should be enough for most of us!

I have repeated the link to the Video provided by Team Neaves here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnon_82LemY
Apparently the first race was also recorded but Blaine left the lens cap on…..this also reminds me that Dan Neaves is compiling the Xmas DVD so get that footage in to him.

So to end, a cracking days racing and I understand Vic Reeves car 77 has asked if he takes four sparkplugs out does that make him eligible to run in class A?…
PS
I have been given some photos by the Vulcan team which I will add to the Photo Gallery at the weekend - many thanks to Jamie Peters-Evans who took them…and what has happened to Alan F?

I am publishing this interim report to hopefully address the war of words that is rumbling on between some members of our series on Facebook.

I fortunately do not subscribe to this site and if the unpleasantness that seems to proliferate there is anything to go by I am glad I don’t use it.

Let me start off by saying that as a rule I try not to get involved in the running of other classes as it is probably none of my business and also I have enough trouble trying to understand, let alone influence my own class, although I would say right now that all of the class A guys I view as true sportsmen, a fact that will be evident in my race report when I get back to typing it.

I would also say that I look upon all of the Class C parties involved as friends and do not intend nor wish to take sides.

What does upset me is that this constant bickering could start to reflect badly on the series as a whole and that does affect me and the other drivers personally.

Whilst I understand we all want to win there is a right way and a wrong way to do it.

I know that class A is sometimes looked upon by the fast guys as the poor relation in the series but I for one would prefer and intend to remain in that class for one very good reason. It self regulates and the drivers are all “club drivers”. They are very sporting and have not lost sight of the fact that we do this for fun and as a hobby, we are not F1 drivers and do not need to behave as if we are.

It is a shame that not all classes are able to self regulate but this being the case it must fall to the coordinator to take the lead in this matter, with the eligibility rep also.

The series is known as the friendly series but we leave ourselves open to problems when the running of it is so weak.

For the good of the series I implore Dave and Vic to arrange a meeting with all the interested parties to try and resolve this amicably.

If my late mother was still with us she would have told all of those concerned to stop acting like children, banged their heads together and got it sorted out that way.

This option is not open to us, so instead the co-ordinator must arrange a meeting which should be conducted in a civil manner to resolve this dispute.

To fail will no doubt result in the loss of some if not all of these drivers concerned, I do not want to see that happen.

I know there are strong personalities on both sides here, but it must be possible to resolve this like the gentlemen I believe deep down you all are.

I will leave this open for comments if you so wish for a short time (no offensive ones will be permitted).
I will then remove the option to comment and publish the race report which is something I would rather we remembered instead, as overall an excellent days racing was had by all.

Can I also remind you all that this race was held in the memory of a great driver, I am sure he would not like it to be remembered for the unpleasant comments that are currently being bandied about.

Please guys, let’s have a bit of give and take and let’s sort this out.

Jonesey

Yes that’s right, the piggy bank just couldn’t meet the high cost of Silverstone so I was relegated to the sidelines.

The sun was beating down on the gallant Peter Besters who made it out, a lower grid this year though , even with the one –hit wonders, resulting in the need to join forces with the Cock-shooters which would really throw the cat amongst the pigeons come race time.

Amongst the new faces to the PBIC, was the familiar one of occasional racer James “Penelope-Pit-Stop Pitt in his gherkin green roadster.  Apparently he chose the colour after completing  shelf-stacking duty at his local Sainsbury. They say there is no “epicure” for this problem.

A surprise late entry was the Silver Fox John Binczyk, who has just lost the plot to be honest.

Kevin Hewer was back in Black Bess looking to make some ground after shedding 40 kilos of weight from his car… well those rubber bumpers are quite heavy it has to be said.

Other than that the usual suspects lined up in the baking heat ready to do battle.

Race 1

The race itself was relatively well behaved until the “Silverstone Effect” took hold.

This resulted in Dane Neaves car 3, failing to complete a single lap when the failure of his solar powered battery charger left him without any current.
Out went James Darby who suffered a massive smash into an errant Cock-shoot car which was taking evasive action to avoid some oil on the track.
Simon Tinkler blew a head gasket and retired early leaving an easy class A win to James Walpole who was back on form once more. A good 2nd went to Nick Arden in his Maestro who is quietly racking up the points and third to John Wreckitt, who recovered well after taking the scenic route around the circuit. Legs of Doom in the Grey Pig returned to his favoured position of last in class A unable to catch car 27 Kev Hewer who drove a consistent race. (Did I mention that car 27 gave me some tickets?? What a nice chap)

Class B honours went to Crippo who had been hassling Rob Spencer’s V8 for the entire race, but just didn’t have the straight line speed to take him in his four pot roadster.

Dan Ludlow who made a  good start to the race pretty well coasted round to take the class C  & race win never being threatened by the frantic  Ollie Neaves who despite wringing the neck of his k-powered roadster could only manage second place, with Rob Spencer taking third.

Vic Reeves in car 77 was lucky to make 4th after a very close shave with car 30 Terry Holmes (is he really his brother??)  who executed a flamboyant reversing manoeuvre sending cars in all directions as they tried to avoid him.

Not to be out-done despite there only being one other class F competitor out there JB in car 71 felt he ought to spin it too, much to the delight of the crowd.

In the interval between the next race some frantic work went on to car 38 as Never –say-die Darby  ripped his car apart in a desperate attempt to get out for race 2. Sadly a bent chassis leg was to prove just too much for a trackside repair and he retired.

Simon Tinkler meanwhile was replacing his head gasket on Primrose car 18 in the hope that it would hold together for the second race….

Race 2

The slightly reduced grid lined up for race two and the crowd were treated to  an absolute master class in sandbagging , by the one and only Dan Ludlow in car 70. He played Ollie Neaves like a cat plays a mouse allowing Ollie to drive the nuts off his car and gain a short lead, all the while Ludlow was waiting, waiting,… never too close - never too far behind as Ollie tried to make a break for it. Lap after lap went by until the inevitable, the alarm clock in Ludlow’s car went off reminding him that only 5 minutes racing remained so he chucked the sandbag out and sailed past Ollie without even breaking a sweat and strolled to an easy second victory.

Meanwhile the “Silverstone Effect” had hit Ollie’s brother Dan hard in car 3. He had spun off in the first lap resulting in a very hard contact with the wall and his race was run, and I am sorry to say most probably his season too.

Simon Tinkler in class A was unable to make full distance either as surprise surprise the head gasket gave out again. A good effort but no doubt the combination of the scorching heat and the pace of the race proved too much, many drivers saying that the temperature gauges were in the red towards the end.

This left the way open for the Carrot Cruncher James Walpole to make it a double class A win, closely followed by the pair of Maestros…you had better watch these guys they are making a fight of it, and it’s nice to see the variety of cars that the PBIC is renowned for.

Class B victory went once again to Crippo in a repeat of his race 1 antics with Rob Spencer.

I should mention that the new regs for car and driver weights do not come in until next year but this has not stopped Pete Burchill in car 13 starting early. With no weight left to shed off his car he’s on the special K diet..no hang on  a minute that’s another class isn’t it? Anyhow he has shed a load of weight which seems to be working for him as he notched up two 2nd in class results this time out.

Class C and overall win as mentioned earlier went to Mr Travis Perkins himself Dan Ludlow in car 70.

Class F in their caring sharing way swapped round with  the Silver Fox beating a Gout ridden Paul Rigg into 2nd in this race.

An early bid for the Crank of the Year award was made by Dave Brown in car 26 as he took out the marker board flat out down the back straight with a resounding boom that scared the bejeezers out of the spectators I can tell you.

It was nice to see gentlemen racer Lew Bergonzi had turned up to watch…and it just shows how hot the weather was as he only had one jumper on!
Lew has not been out this year as (I am sure he won’t mind me saying) he has been a bit under the weather for a while. I understand he is due to have an Op in July and I am sure you will all join me in wishing him a speedy recovery from this, and look forward to seeing him back on track soon.

Now I will end this report with an appeal for assistance:

While at the track I came across this individual who was either suffering from heat-stroke or may well have escaped from a care-in –the –community programme.
He appears to be suffering from some form of delusions as he believes himself to be the Technical Eligibility Rep for the PBIC series.  I tried to convince him this couldn’t be right because as we all know the series doesn’t have an Eligibility Rep!!!!

If you know who he is and can help  identify him or know where he should be returned to please get in touch.

All replies in strictest confidence!

See you at Thruxton!
Jonesey

What’s this you say…a very early pre-race report?

Well not exactly.

Some of you may know that there has been some concerns about the forthcoming Silverstone MG Live Event, particularly about the costs to us as drivers and there has been some debate on the JR site.

Further to this Church Lane Racing have been in contact with the Race Committee and in order to keep you all informed I print below the reply from none other than Ron Gammons himself!!

I have wasted no time in compiling this race report as there is so much to tell you all, and also as it seems the official site has given up on writing them. (Dig dig!!)

So we all trekked up to Oulton and although we had a slightly reduced grid (only 17 cars but more of this later) we had three brand new drivers to welcome to the series, namely Rob Hedley in the Vulcan MGF Kevin “The Biscuit” Hewer  with his demonic black GT car … and Sarah “Busby”  Budby who was out in the lean green Dave Brown machine car 26. Eh, basically she was sharing a car with Dave Brown, not sure if that makes her brave or……..anyway, it was good to see them all out on track.

Despite the optimistic weather forecast I made in my pre-race report the heavens opened over Oulton overnight and also continued on for our early morning practice.

Does anyone know why we have to sign on soooo early??

Anyhow 17 took to the damp and rainy track to qualify and a very slippy affair it was too.

Fortunately no incidents to report other than I noticed a disturbing clonking noise from the rear of my car and the tendency to induce a bit of rear wheel steer round the corners.

Post-practice this was diagnosed by the Yeti Co-ordinator as loose shackles on the rear axle, clearly another downside to my minimalistic approach to race preparation.

This was swiftly bodged with copious amounts of washers to cover the large areas of stripped thread on the U-bolts and I was ready to race once more. Thanks to Church Lane Racing for the donation of nuts/washers etc.

Race 1

So we all trooped up to the rain sodden collecting area where we were held for about 25 minutes to ensure a nice level of water had filled the foot wells of our cars, or was that just mine? Who knows?

As we lined up on the grid the rain began in earnest and I made a very ropey start and immediately got stuck behind a slimline Blagger Burchill in car 13 and Dave Brown who both got to turn 1 first and made sure there was no room to overtake either of them.

The spray was horrific and worse still my car immediately steamed up on the inside making visibility like driving through the proverbial pea-souper!

The pack was pretty bunched up because of the conditions and I was soon on the receiving end of large amounts of hassle from returning driver Wilson in the clockwork albino…car 50 (I’ll think of a better name soon but how did I know he was painting his car white?) and Nick Arden in car 36 the Blue Maestro.

I should also mention that car 5 John Wreghitt had made a great start and was up the front of class A mixing it with the best of them.

Of course this was not to last and soon the adverse weather began to take its toll…perhaps if I had been a little more patient…arggh that hindsight thing again.

Anyway off off off went the clockwork albino at the first chicane having suffered a broken valve spring…off off off went John Wreghitt having suffered a lack of driving ability as he careered across the grass at turn two. Where he then spent several minutes entertaining the crowd in his pathetic attempts to re-join the circuit, culminating in him reversing for several hundred yards, but nonetheless successfully re-joining.

Off Off Off went…oh it was me as I missed the turn into the first chicane but rather than take the escape road like any sensible person I continued my turn and took to the grass where I performed several  pas-de-deux (spins to you lot) later voted as  a 9.5 by the marshals.

I think this, combined with my useless start was the beginning of my downfall, as I may have dislodged the rear, or maybe all of my exhaust brackets.

Never say die I thought , so I soldiered on and really wrung the trusty B’s neck as I tried to get back with the front runners.

This was helped when off off… (all right enough of the Murray Walkers) James Darby spun off at the carousel I am told it is called, or the Shell Oils Corner to the rest of us.

This allowed me to get up into third behind James The Mekon Carrot Cruncher Walpole (are these nicknames getting too long?) who was hunting down class A leader Simon Tinkler.

More do-or-die pills taken, I went for it and got alongside Walpole only for him to nip back in front of me. All the while I was being hassled by  the Blue Maestro who was clearly revelling in the wet conditions.

As we barrelled across the start/finish line I went for it again… looking to take Walpole on the outside of turn one , which I am pleased to say I was able to do. If only I had stayed on the track rather than completing the two full 360 spins on the grass. Still at least as I went round for the second time, waiting for the familiar Armco crunch, I was able to enjoy the sight of my entire exhaust system chasing Walpole down the track, if only I had been able to go with it!

So that was it for me as on returning to the paddock a full examination of the car showed my nearside suspension had also been ripped from its mountings and despite the gallant efforts of my fellow competitors and also Team Neaves, who were spectating, we were unable to locate anyone with welding gear in order to get my car back out on track.

Those who managed to make it to the end did not include me, or Rob Hedley who ripped his gear stick off, Wilson as mentioned, and Simon Cripps. He had a hell of a day - despite entering numerous races he suffered mechanical maladies throughout, probably damp related and failed to finish in either PBIC race and also most of the others he entered.

Results:

Dan Ludlow swept to victory in race one followed by Rob Spencer and Barry Holmes…is this right ??? Vic Reeves car 77 in 3rd ??…crikey what a turn up!
Pete Burchill took class B honours and Simon Tinkler took class A…. a massive “respect” is due to  Nick Arden in car 36 for taking 2nd in class A in his Maestro, well done!
Also the Grey Pig car 60 was going well on his spare engine which didn’t miss a beat all weekend even if it did smoke a little.

Race 2

An even smaller grid of just 15 took to the track for race two and this was soon down to just 14 as Crippo conked out before completing a single lap.

By now I had been relegated to the spectator banking where I enjoyed a great race, which was also dry too!
Rob Spencer in car 55 was the real show stopper showing a clean pair of V8 heels to Dan the Sandbag Ludlow who left his charge just a couple of laps too late.

And what’s this Vic Reeves 3rd again in car 77??? This is getting serious!

In class A, a really cracking race ensued with James Darby driving the race of his life against Simon Tinkler. Tinkler had the lead for a good few laps until Darby wore him down and executed a text book overtake at the chicane which Simon was unable to take back.

Walpole was once again relegated to third, and hasn’t won a race since…when was it last year?…, could the worm be turning?

Burchill took class B honours but in fairness he had little opposition from his fellow class B’ers as  Sarah Budby was the only other finisher. Much stronger competition was meted out by car 36 Nick Arden his Maestro really sounding on song for the whole race.

Rob Hedley retired once again DNF’ing but the writing was on the wall for him from the start as he did a crowd pleasing spin on the green flag lap with his over exuberant tyre warming antics!!

The two newbies had  a good time at the back of the race with Sarah coming out on top of Kevin Hewer (can I say that??)

Kevin certainly seemed to have enjoyed his day and said he was looking to shed around 50 kilos off his BGT which had started out life as a track day car but ended up as a full blown race car.

So, an interesting and eventful day for one and all.

Other Stuff:

Moving on in this mammoth report dear reader, now for the return of an occasional column I like to call “My ten pence worth”.

Surely the MGCC must have noticed the sudden reduction in the grid sizes this year which no doubt is due to the general economy and is likely to continue for the foreseeable future.

What can be done to help improve things?

Well in my view rather than have a few drivers paying a lot of money to race  why not try to encourage people back by reducing the entry fees?

The idea being fuller grids with a larger financial return overall but with less cost to the individual?

I mention this because I do feel, and this is borne out by looking at the entry costs to other series, many of whom attend the same meetings as us, I do feel we are now paying too much per race.

The majority of us are feeling the financial strain and it is about time the regular drivers to the series are given a bit of credit for regular attendance.

Does anyone actually negotiate the race entry fees for us?

I know at Brands last time out the non MGCC races were paying roughly £60 per race less than we did for almost the same amount of track time.

Secondly, with Silverstone coming up,  I understand the response for views regarding the 40 minute endurance race is roughly 50/50  for and against.

Some cars are running small fuel tanks and cannot actually complete the full race distance, some do not want to do endurance - & this is not an endurance series. Whilst some would like to do the full 40 minutes.

Personally I feel we are once again being pushed about as I hear that we have the possibility of splitting the race  into two 20 minute ones but this is not a favoured option of Mr Gammons, and we all know which series he looks after.

Further to this we all know that Silverstone attracts the once a year “I’ve raced on the Grand Prix Track” types who don’t support the series for the rest of the year but are happy to pitch up, nick our race points with cars that may or may not comply with our rules.

I also hear that very few of them actually pay their dues to take part (i.e. the race registration fee).
Is anything being done to tackle those drivers who promise to pay but then don’t? Not difficult in my view, no money no race, end of.

Also with regard to championship points, should the one race wonders be allowed to have an adverse effect on the championship hopes of the regular drivers who support the series all year?

Rant over!!

And finally, I hear that Miss Daisy has  a new engine installed and won’t need too much coaxing to return. I mention this as a few misguided people have actually asked me when she is coming back.
I understand  (fact is stranger than fiction) some Maestro drivers were inspired to join the series after seeing Miss D out on track….crazy but true.

I also hear that there could be another 15 or so Maestros able to race just lying about gathering dust.
Each to their own, but a full grid is a full grid in my book, and if race fees were more reasonable perhaps we could encourage more drivers to join us….

At present due to the cost & race length I have not entered for Silverstone so the pre-race report may be a little scant.

However, if I do miss this round out I suppose there will be more time to do the race report instead!

Cheers!

Jonesey