Goodwood Sprint Movie, July 2006

Goodwood Sprint, July 2006

Gurston Down Movie June 2007

As My blog now accepts movies you can expect to see a few being posted. Here's the first, probably my second practice run at Gurston Down in June.

Castle Hill Photos

Me! (Just after leaving the start line)
Saturday Night BBQ

Castle Hill Cornwall

Onwards to Castle Hill in Cornwall. Bit of a trek this one, but as it was a two day event it was worth it. Borrowed a trailer and towed the car down, stayed in a wonderful B&B near Lostwithiel www.botelet.com, can't recommend it highly enough. The only problem was the incredibly narrow lanes and tight bends, not easy with a trailer! We arrived on Thursday night so went exploring on the Friday, visited the Lost Gardens of Heligan (recommended) and had fish and chips by the river.
A small band of MG competitors had made the trip, so we had a nice little encampment and a BBQ on the Saturday night. We decided to have a little photo shot to! Its amazing how, once all the other competitors and event staff had gone home, a bunch of grown men suddenly turn into boy racers.....still a slight damp grass paddock and a handbrake, no choice really.

The racing was great, the weather stayed dry and I got a bit quicker with every run. Someone showed me how to 'hotwire' the overdrive so that it would be used on any gear (although not recommended for 1st or reverse!!) and all in all another great weekend. I'll definitely be making the trip back in later seasons.

Photo Shot!

Peter Hall in his rapid midget

Mike Coles very nice BGT

David Butlers seriously quick class A car (this is the class I want to move into, but Davids numerous class records in 2006 will have moved the goal posts a bit!)

Richard Withers very very fast Class B racer

Goodwood

Blisteringly hot day, but fantastic to be going flat out round England's most original race circuit.

Red (Yellow) & Blue at the Start Line

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Exiting the famous Goodwood Chicane

Halfway Round St Mary's Corner (this corner had several spinners and one big crunch during the day, fortunately only pride was hurt!)

Cooling off in the paddock.

Silverstone

So, one event under my belt and a busy week in the garage as Silverstone would be the following weekend. Had to build a fireproof casing around the fuel pipe (were it passes through the boot) and a looking bar to shut off any possibility of getting reverse rather than second!

Silverstone is the premier MG event in the UK, 3 days of circuit racing sprinting, shows stalls etc etc. I drove up on Saturday afternoon and camped over, ready for an early start on Sunday. Whilst it was great to be running on the GP circuit it wasn't as exciting as Guston down. Silverstone is designed for F1 cars, so a nearly standard MGB has alot of room to play with through the corners, still another fun day, and alot more competition than the previous weekend. We had a good battle for the top 3 places in the standard class, and I ended up in second spot.

Gurston Down

Gurston Down, June 2006

First ever event, my good friend Ben got up at 5am to come along and give some moral support. Quite nervous but all went well, a few tips during scrutineering (fuel pipe protector to be made before the next event!) some advice from some new friends and off to the start. Not the best times ever, but the car and driver survived in one piece and had alot of fun. I also discovered that a gate over the reverse gear is handy when trying to change into 2nd gear quickly, another job for the following week.

Not much blogging!

Ok, not much blogging for a while, guess I'm just not an iternet person. Maybe wrapping up the past year in a few posts, and mainly pictures will help. Then I can actually blog some current stuff!

So a potted history of last year. Only entered six events, Gurston Down, Silverstone, Goodwood, Castle Hill (Saturday and Sunday) and Castle Coombe. Quite a learning experience, the car handles well but is underpowered, and come the end of the year I did end up first in class, with a nice glass trophy for my efforts. Made alot of new friends and had alot of fun!!

Transformation begins!

Believe it or not I did consider racing my wife's frogeye (and she consented...sort of)! However at 6ft tall there was no way I was going to get me, my crash helmet and a roll bar under the hard top, and as the car is all steel and very original it just didn't seem right to take it racing, so that left my MGB GT. The B had been sat on the drive for 18+ months after I blew the engine at 100mph on the motorway. I brought a good secondhand engine straight away but never got round to fitting it. So the engine finally went in. The front and rear suspension was changed with new springs and uprated dampers all round, a stiffer front anti-roll bar and upgraded front brake pads (as well as braided steel brake lines). Some minilite wheels with Yokohama's should keep it on the road!

The engine got a tubular manifold and large bore exhaust, K&N air filters and electronic ignition. And that was it.......I just wanted to get the car together and handling well to start with, rather than worry about power. This going to be a long term project.

Safety wise the car got a rear cage (with the option to fit a front cage), racing seat and four point harness and a cut out for the engine.

A few number backgrounds, and other stickers just for effect, and the car was just about ready.

I got a sprint race licence from the MSA and joined the MG Car Clubs Speed Championship for some hill climbing and sprinting.

Work in progress. Chopping the frame of the webasto sun roof to fit the roll cage (on day I'll get rid of the webasto and weld the roof up)

The inside finished (sadly the lovely motolita steering wheel would soon be replaced by a 13" race wheel).

I can't remember how I discovered this (the car flew through the MOT and I never noticed anything when doing the front suspension) but about 3 days before my first event I found the front king pin was wobbling all over the place. A call to my parts supplier and the night before I was going to get up at 6am and head for my first event I was out on the drive replacing it!!

Even with the last minute drama everything was still ready to go on time.

History......

I've started this blog twice now, but forgot my user name and password twice (and couldn't retrieve them)!! So I'm going to have to recap the last 18 months in a few posts, and then pick up from there. This blog will primarily be about racing my MGB, and other internal combustion related stories, but I may also through a few family related items in to!

First some History.........

There's no getting round the fact that I am a petrol head, in certain company this is great and makes one a very cool and popular person, however with a large majority of people they just think your a bit sad! I have my father, and his parents, to blame really. As a boy my dad went to loads of motorsports events (they used to take their own scaffolding to build and mini grandstand to watch from), and of course he introduced me to motorsport. We've always lived quite close to Silverstone so I attended everything from Grandprix's to formula ford, worldsports cars, historic festivals and so on. Fortunately I got to attend GPs before it all became a commercial farce, as a result I've been able to wonder freely into pit garages (not just the pit lane), sit in GP cars speak to several GP drivers and even bump into Ayrton Senna who was wondering across the back of the paddocks after Saturday practice.....Dad even managed to get his foot run over by Alain Prost's Ferrari!!

Unfortunately Dumb & Dumber, and FIA (Ecclestone and Mosely) turned F1 into a joke, killed off Worldsports Cars because it became more interesting than F1 and ruined LeMans.......which kind off turned me off modern motorsport.

In the mid 90's the Coys Historic Festival at Silverstone really grew in size and excitement, and it was possible to wonder among priceless racing cars without being shooed away! I remember one time wondering past some trucks, well away from any crowds, and finding Nigel Corner's V12 Ferrari Dino parked on the grass, and I had it all to myself!! And an undying passion for historic racing was fuelled.

Ok this is rambling a bit...... being a petrol head one tends to drive a bit quick, and off course you think you know a bit about driving too!! The desire to compete has always been there, and I'd always wanted to get involved in classic or historic formula ford, not having the funds for racing single seaters I decided to put one of my road cars on the track.....but which one?