Curborough Results 100813

This relaxing event was organised by the Midlands Centre of the British Automobile Racing Club and is run annually as “The John Clarke Sprint”. The late John Clarke used to be the Competition Secretary and I feel sure he would have approved of the good day of motor-sport we had in his name.

Many of the 500 Owners Association members know the Curborough Sprint course well, so it was disappointing that only four of us entered. However, we agreed that we had enjoyed the event and especially the relaxed atmosphere.

The four of us timed our arrival well and were taking race cars off trailers between 07.30 and 08.00 hours, setting up our 500's on the grass at the top of the slope of the paddock road, from where we could see the start area and know when to ready ourselves to start our engines; it is also an advantage to have the slope for push starting, although all 500's were equipped with roller starters. The weather started cloudy and cool but the sun came out and it was dry all day, making it ideal for 500 sprinting.

Two practice runs during the morning went well with the race cars behaving themselves – also the drivers! The timed competition runs after lunch break also ran smoothly for the 500's and all four of us were posting consistent times, although this scribe seemed rather slow and blamed wrong gearing – always a good excuse isn't it? The event was run so efficiently that a third run was offered; this was taken by Charles and Nick Reynolds and Jan Nycz but I dashed about with camera in hand.

As can be seen in the results, Nick was the fastest with Jan and Charles' times only 0.08 seconds apart, just over a second behind Nick. My time was some 5 seconds behind but I did have a smile on my face as I enjoyed the drive. The awards were presented shortly after the last run and Nick can be proud of his Class trophy, as can Jan with his second place award. Well done to both drivers.

We all enjoyed the event and we thank the Officials, Marshals, Medical and Rescue teams, Pam Mayo and Jodie for their catering, and all who worked to make the event a success.

Classified Results