Silverstone - 10th April 2004

Qualification:

Results:

Race Report:

Conditions: Cool and damp.

Due to low numbers of entries prior to the closing date, the MG Midget Challenge was separated onto different grids.  The Class C’s were out with the Total Butler mob, and the B’s and A’s went out with the Cockshoot Cup.

Qualifying: 

The first session of the day was on a damp, slightly drizzly track.  Consequently several cars slid their way around the National circuit, and the Total Butler reigning champion Lew Begonzi smashed his car out of contention for the year at Copse.  Several other incidents caused heart-stopping moments for the Class C drivers, with TB cars spinning ahead, but everyone qualified and started the race.

By the time of the third session, it was still damp enough to warrant wet tyres.  Gareth blew his engine in qualifying and was forlornly towed back to the paddock.  Peter Tipper’s beautiful blue frogeye A Class suffered brake problems in his qualifying session.  He played around in the paddock, thought it was resolved, and went out to do the minimum 3 laps with the Abingdon Cup qualifying session (that Shaun Rainford was in, in his red Austin A40).  Unluckily for Peter, the problems returned after a couple of laps, and he failed to make the grid for the race.

Race 1: drier than the morning

A good start from Car 101, Peter Dignan and number 12, Stuart Bramley.  David Pymm gets ahead of Paul Draycott.  Ian Staines is on the inside down the pit straight.  At Becketts, Dignan is the first of the Class C cars. 

Dignan crosses the line in 6^th place in the overall race at the end of lap 1.  Dominic Mooney follows, then Andrew Actman.  Pymm, Staines follow, with Draycott and Langford crossing the line side by side, and Bramley bringing up the rear.

At the end of lap 2 the order is Dignan, then Mooney, with Actman and Pymm close together.  Staines is still just behind. Draycott, Langford and Bramley follow.  Dignan’s lap time was 1.17.452.  Mooney was 1.19.268, Actman 1.20.228, Pymm 1.20.004, Staines 1.19.994, Draycott 1.23.836, Langford 1.24.215.

Dignan crosses the line, followed by Mooney.  But the action is for third place, where Actman, Pymm and Staines are all very close.   Meanwhile, into Woodcote, Bramley makes up a couple of places, and Draycott battles ahead of Langford over the line. 

The gap between Mooney and Actman was 0.628 seconds, Actman and Pymm 0.200, Pymm and Staines 0.102 seconds.

The next lap, Actman, Pymm and Staines fly by the commentary box, with Pymm goes looking for the inside line into Copse.  Bramley, Draycott and Langford follow.

The Pymm to Staines gap was 0.184.

There are 8 and a half minutes plus one lap remaining.

Dignan takes the tight inside line across the line.  Mooney, then Pymm, Actman and Staines appear, Pymm obviously having taken a position somewhere on the previous lap. 

Pymm really is the man on the move, as by the completion of the next lap he is right up on Mooney’s tail, looking on the inside.  Staines does similar with Actman at Woodcote.

Dignan’s lap time was 1.17.170, consistent with earlier in the race.  Mooney lapped in 1.18, but Pymm recorded a lap of 1.16, and is gaining on those ahead of him.  Out of Luffield, Pymm gets Mooney by taking the inside line into Woodcote Corner.  Actman and Staines are not far behind, while Draycott and Langford battle on behind.

As they travel down towards Copse, Pymm consolidates his second place postion.   Mooney is 0.165 behind him.  Actman a further 0.448 seconds further back and Staines 0.417 behind that.

Over the line, it looks like Langford is closing on Draycott.

Dignan and Pymm cross the line.  Mooney, Actman and Staines are still close, and Staines takes another look up the inside of Actman into Woodcote.

Draycott is extending his concertina-ing lead over Langford. 

Three and a half minutes to go.

By the time they are into Luffield, Staines has got ahead of Mooney.  Out of the complex, he is all over the back of Actman, looking on the outside, then the inside, forcing Actman to heavily defend his position instead of concentrating on catching those ahead of him.

This time through the complex, Langford is significantly closer to Draycott.  But the gap is extended as they cross the line.

Dignan is currently ninth in the overall race.  Pymm, Actman, Staines, Mooney and Bramley are 12^th, 13^th, 14^th ,15^th and 16^th respectively, although Bramley is all on his own some way back.  Draycott is 20^th.

Dignan crosses the line again.  Pymm does likewise, way ahead of Actman, in turn way ahead of Mooney.  But there is no sign of Staines….until he reappears someway down the field, behind Bramley. 

Dignan crosses the line, having done a lap of 1.19, followed increasingly closely by Pymm, with a lap of 1.16.

Dignan is now 11^th overall, Pymm 12^th, Actman 13^th, Mooney 14^th, Bramley 15^th.  Staines, Draycott and Langford are behind, and after one more lap, the race order finishes thus.

Race 3: Cockshoot Cup and Andrew Actman Eyewear Challenge - Class A and B.

From the second row of the grid, Tim Storrar makes a tremendous start, heading between the two cars ahead of him, one of which is Ed Reeve, the only other Class A car in the field.  Storrar takes the inside line towards Copse, hugging the pit lane, side by side with Reeve.   Round at Becketts, Reeve is first but cement dust, put down to cover an oil spill in the previous race, is flying.  Reeve spins it away, uncharacteristically, whilst leading the field, and more cars spin behind him.  Fortunately, there was no contact with anyone else, but he has given himself an awful lot of work to do.

At the completion of lap 1 Tim Storrar is in 2^nd place overall to John Hewitt, but leading the Andrew Actman Eyewear MG Midget Challenge.  Next come Mark Turner, William Smallridge, sometime Midget Challenge racer Andrew Storer, and Peter Dignan, in his Class C car impressively fast. 

Peter Blanchett is forced onto the grass on the outside of the pit straight by an ambitious, or overly aggressive Cockshoot cup car, loosing a lot of time.

Next lap, and Smallridge is ahead of Turner into Brooklands.   Ahead of them, Storrar has set the fastest lap of the race so far 1.09.7 seconds, 0.15 seconds behind the actual race leader Hewitt.

On the third lap at Becketts, Reeve catches and overtakes Dignan as his recovery progresses. 

By the end of the lap, Storrar has become the new race leader.  Smallridge increases his lead over Turner to 2.798 seconds, who now has Reeve close behind. 

Blanchett and Howard Vizor cross the line, 0.626 seconds separating them. 

At this point, the red flags are out, as a result of the marshals difficulties in recovering the Mike Holdsworth MGBGT in gravel trap at Becketts, which has to this point been under waved yellows.  The tow rope snapped!

The racers reform on the grid in the order in which they finished before the red flag (over 2 laps completed, but less than half distance).  The delay causes one or two problems with car engines, however, and Blanchett fails to make the restart.  8 minutes remain on the clock.

Tim Storrar once again makes a fantastic start away from the line (burning out his clutch in the process). But Ed Reeve steams up from the fifth row.  Smallridge is ahead of Turner again. 

Storrar leads clearly from the Cockshoot clan, with Reeve ever closing the gap. 

Howard Vizor, having no Blanchett to play with, encroaches upon and takes a position from Dignan in the Cockshoot. 

Storrar has improved his fastest lap time to 1.08.144 and is pulling away.  As Reeve and the Cockshoot racers battle each other.  Meanwhile, Smallridge is lapping in 1.12’s, Turner in 1.13’s, hence the widening gap.  Vizor is doing 1.15’s, but this is trying to save himself from 3 (dangerously) heavy MGB’s with whom he’s having a great battle.

The penultimate lap, and Reeve is right on the tail of Storrar as they come out of Woodcote Corner.  Storrar’s previous lap was 1.09 dead, Reeve 1.08.30.  They are separated by 0.7 seconds.

Reeve has just done the fastest lap of the race, in 1.07.915. 

As they come out of the complex for the final time, blue flags are being waved furiously to clear a way for the leaders.  Reeve dives down between them, but can’t quite catch Tim Storrar who takes his first race win by a gnat’s whisker of 0.153 seconds over Reeve.

Midget Gems:

Peter Tipper:  On behalf of Gary Tingey, would you like an ice-cream?

Peter Blanchett: I got pushed off in the first half of the race coming round onto the main straight.  I was along side him, he [a Cockshoot racer who will remain nameless] just kept coming out.  He was going to follow his line whether I was there or not.  I had to take to the grass.  

I had a really good first half of the race.   When we re-formed on the grid [with much confusion] and held us for a long time, I think it was too much for the engine.  It cut out on the second parade lap.

Paul Draycott:  No good.  Not competitive at all.  I’d like to go home now.

Peter May [spectator]: Relatively straight forward for Dignan, but he went off at Copse in front of us, and from then on Pymm and the others were closing right in on him.

Andrew Actman:  I was a twit.  I’m just not quick enough.  I’m getting old, and I’m a coward.  And these b*ggers come past me.  A good tussle with Ian Staines.  I was very pleased to find he wasn’t there at about lap 9 - he spun off at Copse thank goodness, because we’d been just about touching each other at every corner up till then.  But it meant the two of us had been falling back from David.  Once he’d gone, I started catching David, and he was catching Dignan. 

Mark Turner:  Smallridge just went!  It was boring, just tried to get used to the car.

Ed Reeve: Not quite good enough.  I should have been up the front but I span because I was on brand new slicks.  They hadn’t been run or scrubbed at all.  I went into Becketts too fast and it was unhandleable.  It was very exciting on the last corner of the race.  Up the inside and outside of those back markers.

David Pymm:  Super race.  Good start, a little bit held up in the first corner, but after that a really good race.  Haven’t had a good race here for a long time.  It’s usually my jinxed circuit.

Tim Storrar:  Brilliant!  Absolutely, yes!  Good start first time.  Got the lead.  Ed spun and I nearly hit him.  Then caught and passed the Cockshoot.  Had an excellent 2^nd start except it did first gear in, so my freshly rebuilt gearbox has gone!  On the last lap with Ted, left him room, but we were there with a whole bunch of back markers.  Somehow, we went round, in between, over, under and got him!

William Smallridge:  Always nice to finish a race, but it was a bit lonely.  I thought Mark would give me more of a fight, but unfortunately it was a bit spaced out. 

Howard Vizor:  Really great fun, really enjoyed it.  I got tapped off at Maggots by somebody, and I had to go across the grass on the first lap. I had a good second start and no incidents after that.  Good battles with three MGB’s. 

Peter Dignan:  The wet helped in the morning I think.  I fell off the track at Copse.  I turned in and the car decided not to turn in.  I took the wider line on the extra tarmac (!) and after that I slowed down.  ….until I saw this yellow thing in my mirrors, so I decided to speed up again.