PMSC Lotus Championship 2006 - Gurston Down 22/4/06

[Twiz]

Event Report
Gurston Down - 22/04/06 View Race Results


Paul Matty Sportscars Lotus Championship 2006
Gurston Down 22nd April

This was the first event of the 15th Year of the PMS Lotus Championship. There had been quite a lot of changes to the competitor profile this year with some people dropping out, new people coming in, and, in the case of the current champion, Dave Hampton, a move from ‘road’ to race’ class for the scratch award. More later!!!

Another difference was that Paul and June were there. Rumour has it that this was because of a slight error on the dates of their normal holiday! This was Junes first drive at Gurston and only Paul’s second since our first visit in 1995.
We were also pleased to welcome Peter Dickinson in a very nice and original Elan S3 FHC from 1967 and Greg Ellaway in an unusually liveried 61. They got stuck in and I’m sure they will enjoy the coming events.

For the first time in my memory this event featured more cars in the ‘race’ section with a total of 9, than the ‘road’ (or proper cars as many would have it) with 8 entries.

Dave Hampton had managed to get the gearbox back into his new (ex John Rand) BDA engined 69 and he was trying to assess the gradient of the learning curve ahead of him! My thoughts are than he just needs some more time in the car to get accustomed to the night and day change from the Elan but also, of more significance I think, is to get some modern, and a bit less racy, cams into the engine.

The morning dawned dry but very cloudy and misty, but the forecast was for a big improvement by mid to late morning and that was what happened. As an aside, this was the 3rd year where the weather was reasonable or good for the Saturday event but crap for Sunday. The sun is obviously continuing to shine on the righteous!

We were in the first batch behind numerous Austin Seven’s. I don’t think it was their fault but I found the start and the plunge down to Hollow very slippery and despite new tyres never found quite the grip that was apparent last year. Everyone took it relatively easy (of course I mean everyone but Nick!). Dave Hampton excessively so, by coasting down the hill, trying to find a gear. The potentially fastest car ended up slowest of all. The only way was up from then on!
With the meeting running smoothly it seemed next to no time before we were called again. This time people were taking things a bit more seriously! Jane, first off, improved on her PB by a second for a 43.69. Peter Dickinson, not surprisingly took a big chunk of time off and the 47.26 was a really good effort for his first visit in a standard Elan with 145 section road tyres. Grayham Parker was going well, despite some fuel tank leakage bothers (which may have cramped his style a bit later on) with a 40.17 being nearly ½ second under his PB. Dick Swindall, making one of his usual long distance pilgrimages was edging up on his PB. He was buoyed up by a win at Kames the previous weekend in the Scottish Sprint Championship. Nick Glazzard took a 1/10th off his PB with a 39.25 though his performance last year was hampered by a slipping clutch (the only reason he didn’t break a driveshaft?) I did a 38.43. Dave Richardson was next up with his lovely 18 FJ. This was first time out with the car and another learning curve to climb! Another guy with a similar task was Greg Ellaway. Gurston is quite a tricky venue to learn and, despite this, he was taking some good chunks of time off each run.

Tony Wallen produced his usual smooth drive and got with ½ second of his PB. Dave Hampton next up was finding more gears this time but the light switch power delivery was concentrating his mind (and maybe other parts!). Still at 8 ½ seconds this was one of the larger run-on-run improvements! Botty was next and his 37.5 was still over 2 seconds from his previous mark though he was enjoying the grip of new tyres (the old ones must have been bad!). Steve Millward, the last of the 61 pilots, was 1 ½ seconds away from his best last year. June’s car was still suffering from the high revs misfire that afflicted it all last season. I blame the mechanic! Paul was on his third iteration of changing everything and now, I think, it must have some serious diagnosis on a rolling road. Nevertheless, June took 4 seconds off her first run time for a 45.29.

Paul was running in the 35 after an extensive engine rebuild and trying to take it easy. Last up was JC, somewhat fitter than last year (at least he didn’t fall asleep in the van this time) and his 36.04 was only about ½ second off his PB and close to his 2004 record. He was feeling quite optimistic about attacking Tony Shute’s 34.73 record of last year.
The meeting was running so well that lunch was taken about 11:50 and Paul, Nick and I set about the task of handicapping. With 6 new car or driver combinations at Gurston it was quite a tricky task.

We were in our cars, ready to go for the start of the competitive runs at 12:50. Jane led off and immediately flattered the Handicappers skills by exactly achieving her target of 43.10, now 1 ½ seconds below her PB before this event. Ian P was next, and despite his new (and much quieter) diff was just over a second of his mark. Peter Dickinson was putting up good times with the standard S3 Elan and improved on his morning best to go to 47.14. Dave Elliott had decided that this was the competition now. Either that or the effects of the previous nights beer had worn off and he took 2.3 seconds off his morning times and went 1 second under his old PB on 42.29. The Handicappers weren’t to be fooled however, since we knew there were quite a lot of improvements on the Cortina this year and so this still left him some way off the 41 second target set for him. Grayham Parker put up his first sub 40 second run and with a 39.92 closed to 0.12 of his handicap. Dick was continuing to improve. This could have been because of the fairly lively previous evening at the Queens Head in Broadchalke where Kay, Dick and I had dinner. I say lively since not only did 2 pints of beer have to go back because they were distinctly ‘iffy’ but twice Kay’s steak was returned due to cremation. Dick was on form though and seemed to be quite taken with at least 3 young (?) ladies in the pub, at least judging from the frequency of the comments he made. These comments can’t be repeated and I know you won’t tell Diane! Anyway, back to the competition. Dick’s 40.40 closed him to within ½ second of his PB and target. Nick was next, and, apparently was now not going to take it so easy on the tyre warming. His easy is equivalent to everyone else’s norm. So I watched the usual snaking all over the track though even this was bettered on his last run when the start line marshals all took a step back! Anyway, Nick was going well and, being particularly brave through Hollow and took another 0.4 off to go to 38.89. I was next, still losing time on the start, and definitely not so brave as Nick through Hollow, tried to make up as much as possible towards the top of the hill. I was very close to the limit through the finish but when I looked at the times at the top hut, although the 37.71 was OK my speed was ‘only’ 84mph. Last year I was hitting 94 and I am sure this run had been quicker. Anyway, no matter but I think a lot of people were suspicious about the speed trap times at the top.

Dave Richardson was the first of the single seaters and I think he may have been doing a bit of wrestling with the gearbox because he was slightly slower than his best morning time. Then it was Greg who was really getting to grips with the car and took another 3 seconds off and his 40.94 was just 1.44 over handicap. Tony Wallen was also running very well, as usual, and a very good 37.35 was 6/10ths under his handicap! Dave Hampton was improving slowly but was obviously not really happy in the car yet and couldn’t show anywhere near his normal total commitment. Botty improved to 36.60 still some way off his PB based goal. Steve Millward was going well and got to within about ½ second of his set time. June was coping quite reasonably with the misfire by short shifting to keep the revs below the critical point, though; with such a small engine this did sacrifice some speed. Nevertheless another 0.9 seconds came off to go to 44.39. Paul still had the ‘Running in – Please pass’ sticker on the back (remember them?) and was saving himself for the last run! John Crook improved to 35.93, within 0.44 of his PB. So, after the first run it was Tony from Jane with Grayham third.

With no significant incidents in any of the other classes our final run came up at about 2pm! Jane improved again to go 0.29 under as did Ian Parmenter following on with another 0.7 leaving him 0.57 over. Peter Dickinson continued the trend with another ½ second leaving him 1.76 over a fairly tough handicap. Dave Elliott improved again but not by enough as this left him 0.93 over. Grayham didn’t better his first run time. I’m sure the fuel tank situation was playing a part here, and he ended up 0.12 over. This still just pipped Dick Swindall who, despite a very good run ended just 0.13 over. I’m sure all Dick needs is a bit more time in the car!

Nick was next and in his usual determined manner pulled out a stonking time with the 37.59 taking him to a well deserved 0.66 under a tough handicap. I still couldn’t get the same start times as last year, and, together with traction loss out of Karousel was quite pleased to get to 37.22, 0.10 over. My Hollow speed trap at 89 was my best but the finish speed of 87 was still not right.

Dave Richardson obviously got more of the right ratios at the right time this run and improved 1.3 seconds to go 0.85 over. Greg Ellaway continued a really good first meeting for him with another 0.8 reduction to leave him an excellent 0.62 over. Tony Wallen continued on his impressive way by improving yet again to go to an unassailable 0.86 under. Dave Hampton also improved, by a second, but this still left him in a very unaccustomed position of ending the day 5.81 over. Botty took another ½ second off to 0.78 over but I think he had be expecting better after his enthusiastic comments about the new tyres. Steve was emulating Jane and his final best ever run here run took him to 0.12 under. June, still hindered by the misfire just pared just a few hundredths off her first run time. Paul was, I’m sure, still caring for the machinery a bit and although he improved by a second this still left him 2.18 over. JC was last up but had some dramas on the climb and slipped back into the 36’s. He realised this was a missed opportunity to attack Mr Shute’s record but had to be content with a 0.93 over. So by 2.20pm or so we had finished!

So on handicap Tony Wallen took first place from Nick in second. Mrs and Mr Millward were 3rd and 4th respectively. I was 5th and Grayham 6th.

On race scratch is was John Crook just ahead of Pete Bottrill then Tony Wallen.

On Road scratch I was first from Nick and then Grayham.

Next meeting is Loton, and since Kay and I are on my customary Scottish sojourn, Nick will take over my duties as he has done previously.

See you at Shelsley!

Jon

[Sy V]

Twiz

A very welcome report, thanks for that and welcome to LEC.

Simon V

[Twiz]

Hi Mr V

9 more to come over the next few months... hope you and any others enjoy the content

Rgds Twiz

[mikeh2]

Hi Twiz (or Jon)
Are you competing in an M100? It would be nice to see one on the hills again. I know Jane Millward switched to a classic Elan a while back. Best of luck at a wet Loton this weekend.

[Sy V]

Jon write's 'em, Nick has posted it. Elan +2 competitor.

[Twiz]

Hi Mike

There have only been a few people in the PMSC Lotus Championship that have used the M100 in anger...

Jane Millward is the stalwart, with Roy Bury using his on occasion... The problem with the Elan M100 on the hills / sprint is the turbo lag.

Having owned one of these great performers myself i would have to say the turbo coming in as you exit a corner and as you aproach a corner can be a bit of a handfull and you do need to keep your wits about you..... to say the least......

Would be nice to see one competing again though

Rgds Twiz

p.s. report on Loton on the way later this week...... what a meeting.... still drying out

[mikeh2]

Hi Twiz,
Interesting to hear your comments about turbo lag. I should be doing 4 or 5 runs up Prescott this Sunday- perfect opportunity to put it to the test- but with a degree of circumspection.
Mike

[Twiz]

Hi Mike

Good luck, i hope that its dry for you... Prescott is all in the first corner..

Twiz

[mikeh2]

Managed an amazing 10! runs up Prescott Hill today. By keeping M100 in the max torque zone (<5000rpm), taming the turbo was a bit easier. Certainly it was possible to use a tight line on Pardon Hairpin in 2nd gear and go round very smartly. The only really tricky bit was coming out of Esses too quickly with resultant understeer through the Semicircle. Overall a satisfying day and the Elan performed very well on what is possibly the most technically difficult hillclimb in the country. My previous 50 or so runs up Prescott have always been in rwd non power steering cars, the Elan was a pleasure to take up the hill (in the dry anyway).

[Twiz]

Hi Mike

10 runs.... blooming heck approx 10 mins if you were on the pace then..

I think that Jane M best time for Prescott was a 60.62.. back in 2003.

Good job it was a dry day though

Best regards Twiz