Blyton Results 160613

This was a new event to the 500 Owners Association and was organised by the Midland Automobile Club at Blyton Park near Gainsborough, Lincolnshire. It is an old WW2 Bomber Command airfield in flat open countryside, on which a 1.5 mile motorsport sprint track has been constructed. The airfield has much history and the owners have acknowledged this with a small memorial and naming one of the bends as Lancaster: Gwen and I were camping and late in the evening we thought we could hear the sounds of bomber crews going to their aircraft and Lancasters taking off! The facilities are very good with an excellent restaurant, toilets and showers, and modern briefing room.

Currently the Sprint events do not attract many 500cc entries but having competed in two very enjoyable Sprints in the past three weeks I think more drivers and crews will be attracted to this fast form of our sport. The smiles on the faces at the end of this Sprint said it all.

Early morning saw Shirley Monro, Jan Nycz, Ted Sharpe and Alan Hartfield, unloading race cars and equipment, with a few friends or family helping; mugs of tea were in many hands. After signing-on at 08.00 we all got down to preparing the cars before a drivers briefing at 09.10, conducted whilst sitting in comfortable chairs indoors. As we were positioned at the end of the paddock furthest from the start, the 500 drivers explained their concern that we did not want to be queued because our engines would overheat. The officials had already identified this and assured us that we would be called by the paddock marshal when the start line was clear: this was carried out and there were no problems.

The two scheduled practice runs started at 09.30 and as the 500's were at the end of the programme it gave us more time to prepare cars and equipment. The organisation was very good, with three cars on track at any one time, and the drivers of the 75 competing cars behaved well, so the Clerk of the Course allowed everyone a third practice before lunch. The 500's had all run well in practice with no major problems and their drivers were getting quicker as they learnt the demanding course. Being used to hill climbs I found driving at Blyton very fast; the two chicanes and tighter corners were approached at a faster speed than I was used to and required hard late braking, and on the open sweeping bends I had to concentrate to use apex points to allow the car to drift accurately with right foot hard down. Yippee, it was great fun!

Jan Nycz - Staride. Looks quite steep for a hill climb.....

The weather was dry and the sun shone to make a warm day, giving good grip on the tarmac surface. The four 500 drivers freely exchanged views on gearing and which gear to use on which corner (500 drivers are so friendly), and practice times were good with about 9 seconds covering us.

In the afternoon after two competition runs the times were good and getting closer. Jan was fractionally over 90 seconds and Shirley, Ted and Alan were trying hard just a few seconds behind Jan. The Clerk of the Course offered a third competition run and the drivers of many other marques declined. All four of us decided to run, although there was no time to refuel. Running in programme order of Shirley, followed by Alan, then Jan and finally Ted, we all went out and tried very hard. I felt that I had bettered my time and after stopping in the paddock to exchange views we noticed that Jan's beautiful Staride was being pushed back; his car had run out of fuel on the last corner and unfortunately Jan believes the Norton engine is damaged. Jan would have beaten 90 seconds but still retained first place in class.

I thought that the third competition run times would stand but on receiving the results it shows that the Clerk of the Course declared them as final at 16.00hrs and before the third runs. So no times are given for our third runs and no time is given for Ted's first run. This is disappointing and my faster time of 93. something on my third run does not stand! The results shown are the official results.

The course owner Richard said that he hoped to see us competing at Blyton Park next year and I strongly recommend the venue. The 500's had not been seen competing at Blyton Park Sprint before and several people expressed their admiration of the cars: perhaps this is best described by one man who said “ I liked watching you guys go for it out there!”.

We all enjoyed the event and we thank the Officials, Marshals, Medical and Rescue teams, Catering team, and all the Staff at Blyton who worked to make the event a success.

Classified Results