Silverstone - 24th July 2004

Qualification:

Results:

Race Report:

Conditions: warm and sunny

Qualifying:  Graham Smeeton came off after a couple of laps when a cable came loose, but was allowed to start the race from the back of the grid.  William Smallridge stopped out on track with gearbox problems, having also had diff problems on Friday, but with help was able to fix everything for the race.

Having brought his trusty blue Midget with him, along with the recently acquired Paul Sibley car, Ed Reeve decided to qualify in the latter. 

Richard Perry on Pole - pre-race comment: “The worst bit is leading the cars - I’d much rather be second or third.   I feel very nervous.  Hopefully I’ll finish.  First?  I don’t know.” 

Race :  Good starts from Tim Storrar and Richard Perry, but poor from Reeve.  Smallridge similarly makes a slow start initially while Tim Hutchinson steams up the straight, and Mark Turner makes up places too.  Blanchett makes a good getaway up the inside.  Paul Draycott makes up places, and as the field disappear round Copse, he is way up the pack. 

With Perry in the lead from Storrar and a recovering Smallridge, they fly through Maggots and approach Becketts, where the field bunch up.  In Class C, Dignan swerves left, forcing Nigel Barker to take rapid action to avoid him, which results in him spinning onto the grass.  Unfortunately, he spins back out onto the circuit into the path of more cars, and Draycott can’t avoid him.  He ploughs into Barker, luckily hitting his back wheel, and spins him round again, and David Pymm has no where to go but into the back of Draycott.  Meanwhile, Actman, Langford, Smeeton and others avoid the collision.

The leaders sweep through Brooklands, Luffield and Woodcote, but without Reeve, who has pulled off near Abbey with gearbox trouble.  Perry starts to make a break for it, with the only challenge coming from Storrar.  Smallridge in third overall is leading Class B from Gareth Penn, Mark Turner, the Class A of Helme, Bs of Blanchett, Self and Visor.  Class C is led by Sapcote, Mooney, Dignan, Langford, Prosser, Actman, Bramley, Wilson-Spratt (WSM), and Staines, with Smeeton at the back. 

At the completion of lap 2, Perry is further in the lead, now by 3.5 seconds.  Self retires into the pit lane.  In Brooklands, a track battle is underway between Sapcote and Dignan, and Mooney tries to take Langford as they come out of Luffield.  Dignan and Sapcote, then Mooney and Langford are side by side in pairs across the line, the latter two separated by just 0.015 seconds. Prosser and Actman follow.   Further back are Bramley, Staines and Wilson-Spratt, and lastly Smeeton.  

The order at the end of lap 2 is: Perry, Storrar, Smallridge, Penn, Hutchinson, Turner, Helme, Blanchett, Visor, Dignan, Sapcote, Mooney, Langford, Prosser, Actman, Bramley, Staines, Wilson-Spratt, Smeeton.  Just 19 runners remaining. 

Perry extends his lead further as they come round at the end of lap 3.  Storrar is still second, Smallridge extending his lead over Penn to 1.5 seconds.  Hutchinson is third in Class, followed by Turner, Blanchett and Visor.

Class C is where the excitement is, despite having lost cars in the first lap collision.  Dignan is now miles in the lead, but behind him, Sapcote has Mooney not so far behind him, with Langford close too.  Prosser is closing down on Actman.  Staines is now behind Bramley, by about a car’s length. 

Perry is consistently doing lap times in the 1.37s, at least 2 seconds faster than his rivals, and hence his lead of over 6 seconds by the end of lap 3.  “Perry - stunning at Silverstone! “

At the end of lap 4, the order remains pretty static.  But in the C battle, Mooney is right on the tail of Langford, and Prosser is a little way back, but Actman had dropped down the field. He contemplates a move down the outside of the straight, passes Staines and closes in on Bramley, before taking the inside line at Copse.

Five laps down, and Perry is leading by 7.6 seconds from Storrar, with Smallridge nearly 9 seconds further down in third place overall, although strongly leading his class.  At the other end of the B battle, Visor is closing in on Blanchett.  In C, Sapcote has serious competition from Mooney, all over his rear bumper, and Langford is still hanging on in there too.  As they race down the straight, Mooney moves to the outside line to round Copse, but it looks like Sapcote retains his position.  Meanwhile, Actman fails to show and somehow, the WSM car is way ahead of Bramley and Staines this time round.  Smeeton is close by, and takes the inside line along the straight to overtake them into Copse.

The order at the end of lap 5 is: Perry, Storrar, Smallridge, Penn, Hutchinson, Turner, Helme, Blanchett, Visor, Dignan, Sapcote, Mooney, Langford, Prosser, WSM, Bramley, Staines, Smeeton.

On the completion of lap 6 the initial order remains steady, but, “drama and heartache” for Tim Hutchinson as he retires to the pit lane, having suffered a broken half shaft in the complex.  Now only 17 runners remain in the race.

Visor has got ahead of Blanchett and leads him by a car’s length.  Around Brooklands for their 6^th time, Mooney is still crawling all over the bootlid of Sapcote.  As they come around Luffield and into Woodcote, Mooney disappears from view in the commentary box, as he is that close to Sapcote the two cars look like one.  He reappears, weaves from side to side trying to get a shot to pass.  But as these two defend and attack, Langford seizes the initiative and looks like he takes the third position in class from Mooney into Copse.  (He said later that he “chickened out”).

Smeeton is now close behind the WSM car, but Staines has overtaken Bramley during the course of lap 6.

The end of lap 6 sees the race order as: Perry, Storrar, Smallridge, Penn, Turner, Helme, Visor, Blanchett, Dignan, Sapcote, Mooney, Langford, Prosser, WSM, Bramley, Staines, Smeeton.

On lap 7, it seems the attacking tactics of Dominic Mooney have gone into overdrive, and he spins at Becketts.

As they come into view for the end of the 7^th lap, Visor is right on Blanchett’s tail, as the pair continue to swap places. 

Sapcote comes round, under no more pressure following Mooney’s spin, with Langford separating the two.  Prosser is behind Mooney.  Out of Luffield, it is clear the order has jumped around again at the back of the field.  Staines overtakes the WSM car, Bramley behind him, with Smeeton at the back.

At the end of eight laps, Perry comes home to take his first lights-to-flag finish in the Actman Eyewear MG Midget Challenge Championship.  Storrar comes second, and Smallridge third overall, wins Class B, followed by Penn and Turner.  Third in Class A should be John Helme, but unfortunately he fails to complete the final tour, with his engine expiring, depositing oil near Ireland Bend.

Blanchett eases across the line ahead of Visor following a long battle.  Dignan wraps up Class C, followed by Sapcote and Langford.  Mooney falls victim to the oil from Helme’s engine, to become the ninth and final retiree from this race of attrition.

Midget Gems:

Peter Blanchett:  Great start.  Just got the power down, got it right.  I hugged the wall and stayed on it all the way through.  When I got to Copse I realised I passed a lot of cars.  So I thought “don’t mess it up now, Blanchett”.  Then Howard, who was a long way behind, suddenly shot straight pass me at Becketts, cheeky wotsit.  So the red mist came down, and we had a great race.  We must have swapped positions about 3 times.  Really enjoyed it.

Andrew Actman:  Start was the usual - backwards.  I watched all the people come past.  But at the first corner at the top there was carnage, so I got past them all.  I was chasing the 2^nd, 3^rd, 4^th pack when it happened - the half-shaft pulled out, on the approach to Abbey.

Gareth Penn:  I fluffed the start.  Tim (Hutchinson) had an amazing start.  I had a good battle with Mark and Tim for a lap and a half, and was chasing Will, but I had terrible understeer so settled for second. 

Ian Langford: Very good fight.  I’m glad Dominic lost it at the end, it was getting a bit of a struggle!  Car’s going really well.  Glad I missed the incident at the beginning too.  Nigel was in front of me when he span, and came back across the track just as I went past.  Very good race, very close.

Ed Reeve:  Gearbox broke… coming out of Abbey.  It’s unfortunate, but that’s racing.  I should think that’s the worst start I’ve made in 36 years.  Not used to the car yet.

John Helme:  The engine threw a rod on the last lap.  It just went bang, there was a cloud of smoke and I couldn’t see where I was going.  Fortunately there was no one around me and I managed to find the grass.  Up to then my race was good, and the engine had been going well.  If I hadn’t have gone out yesterday in the practice sessions, it would have held together today.

David Pymm: Nigel spun, went off and came back on the circuit.  Paul hit Nigel, I had nowhere to go, and I hit Paul. Very unlucky. 

Malcolm Self: My diff.  I came off near the complex.  I was going to take Blanchett, then “bang”.  He was behind me in qualifying, but I went to sleep a bit at the start, which is unusual for me, then 3 or 4 cars got past me.  I was getting back again, then the bang! 

Tim Storrar: Bit of wheel spin, and a bit scared of blowing the gearbox again at the start.  Fell off cam slightly.  Couldn’t do anything about Perry.  I’ve certainly got a high-end misfire.  Still enjoyed it.  Shame we didn’t have a couple more laps as he started to get caught up in back markers.

William Smallridge: Had gearbox, diff and electrical problems.  The misfire came back in the middle of the race, but another lap or so and … The start wasn’t good.  I think less than 10 got past!!  Nice to finish. 

Howard Visor:  Probably one of the most exciting races I’ve ever had.  Peter had a fantastic start, then I got past Peter and Malcolm, then I missed third gear coming out of Woodcote, my favourite trick, and they both got past me.  The next lap Malcolm’s diff blew, then it was me and Peter all the way.  And it was great. 

Nigel Barker:  It got very, very tight.  I was at the side of Peter Dignan.  The Class B cars had virtually stopped and we were heavy braking.  Dignan moved left and I ended up on the grass under braking, going round in a circle.  I took my foot off the brake and unfortunately came back onto the middle of the track, where Paul kindly graced the side of my car.  Then I had another boom when David Pymm hit him. 

I’d like to say a big thank you to everybody who helped me put my engine back in twice - Andrew Actman, Gareth and Mike Penn, Malcolm Self, and others.  I’d have packed up and gone home otherwise - which might have been cheaper!! 

Graham Smeeton:  It’s come back in one piece, and I’m happy with that.  Better than the last result - still nice and shiny!!  I almost collected Paul, and took an excursion over the grass.  Other than that I had a play with the boys at the back.  Got past them all, but had a spin in the complex on the last lap and they all got past me again.  I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Peter Dignan:  I got a rubbish start - I need to get coaching from Paul.  I came across a traffic jam at Becketts, and broke hard.  Don’t know what happened, we just came across a wall of cars.  It all just concertina-ed backwards.  My braking hard meant Nigel had to either go in the back of me or go out wide, so he went wide onto the grass and span off. 

Richard Perry: It was good.  You like to have a race, but sometimes you like to prove a point!  I had a good start.  I could see Tim in the mirror, but I knew if I could break the tow it would be easier to keep him behind me.

Dominic Mooney: I span at the chicane when I was in second, then hit some oil on the back straight.  I thought I’d blown a tyre or a half-shaft.  It was a nice feeling (crawling all over the back of Sapcote) but it didn’t last unfortunately.

Paul Draycott: Great start, in fact my best ever, but possibly the worst and shortest finish I have ever had. As they say, that is motor racing, and at least no one was hurt. A huge Thank you to all of the drivers and friends in the paddock who offered help/advice and support. Hopefully we will be back soon……now where is that spanner……..