Shelsley Results 160814

Shelsley Walsh 16th & 17th August 2014

A lovely Saturday greeted our merry band for what is possibly one of the largest meetings of the year at Shelsley. There were eight Coopers, ranging from the early Mk IV of Ted Sharpe to the late Special of Mike Lawrence, along with two Starides, the Alfa Dana and the IOTA CBP. Xavier and David Kingsland were to share the Cooper Mk V for this its second outing.

With such a large meeting it took a while before we were scrutineered, although John and Alistair Dent had been some of the earliest to sign on and thus secured an early batch run. They reported a quick track in good condition.

Practice
John Dent laid down an early marker at a fraction over 40 seconds which no one was able to beat with their first practice. He then shaved a few thousandths on his second climb only to be beaten by Steve L, who dipped under 40. Jan was waiting in the wings close behind, the only other driver below 41.

Alistair meantime had felt his engine was not running well and set about a rapid change only to find an initial lack of oil flow. On his second practice he was beset by more problems when the clutch came apart and this was followed by ignition issues, it was most certainly not his weekend! Otherwise there were few problems to overcome, and certainly nothing serious.

Being only the second time out, the Kingsland Cooper and Robin’s Staride were both being refined between runs and picking up speed.

Dennis Williams' Cooper-JAP

Timed runs
Sundays’ forecast said there might be some showers during the morning, but fortunately they failed to arrive, even though some of the passing clouds did threaten on a couple of occasions. Mike Lawrence discovered that his engine had seized momentarily after the second practice on Saturday and so arrived with his spare car. Alistair hoped his ignition troubles would now be behind him but more were to stop him on the way to the start line, bringing his weekend to a disappointing and frustrating end.

Classic Shelsley, Jan gets off the line

In the main everyone was happy with the first run so very little fettling took place once back in the paddock. It was therefore just a case of waiting for run two and hoping passing clouds would not upset things.

After lunch we all got ready for one final charge. The conditions were good and determination high. All went well and the finish paddock was full of smiles. The results showed improvements nearly all round with Steve just getting the better of John D. Robin was especially pleased with how the car was performing as he gradually adjusted it, having knocked over six seconds off his previous best. Xavier will probably be having words with son David after he was pipped by 5 hundredths of a second!

Results

Pos	Name	Car	Run 1	Run 2	Best	No Runs: Alistair Dent - Cooper Mk VI-JAP Words Mike Wood Pics Alan Hartfield
1	Steve Lawrence	Cooper Mk VIII-JAP	39.28	39.57	39.28
2	John Dent	Cooper Mk VIII-JAP	39.82	39.76	39.76
3	Jan Nycz	Staride-Norton	40.89	40.43	40.43
4=	Mike Wood	CBP-JAP	41.12	41.00	41.00
4=	John Forsyth	Alfa Dana-JAP	41.73	41.00	41.00
6	David Kingsland	Cooper Mk V-JAP	42.48	41.86	41.86
7	Xavier Kingsland	Cooper Mk V-JAP	43.00	41.91	41.91
8	Dennis Williams	Cooper Mk V-JAP	43.67	42.85	42.85
9	Ted Sharpe	Cooper Mk IV-JAP	44.82	43.92	43.92
10	Mike Lawrence	Cooper Special-JAP	45.26	45.04	45.04
11	Tim Ross	Cooper Mk IX-Norton	46.90	46.28	46.28
12	Robin Baxter	Staride-JAP	50.46	47.97	47.97

Serious business; Mike at the start where thousands count.....