Gurston Results 090912

Gurston Down 9th September 2012

A glorious sunny day greeted the nine drivers and their machines for the last competition of the year at Gurston, and our penultimate round. Everyone got ready and only the immaculate Iota of Stuart Barnes refused to start. However, once muck had been cleaned out of the fuel filter a couple of times, all was OK.

First practice was nearly trouble free from a mechanical point of view, with little work needing to be done; Mark Riley remembered he hadn’t adjusted his tyre pressures from the Brighton Speed trials the previous day, which led to a lively ride, and Ted Sharpe felt his clutch needed adjustment. Alistair oiled his plug and so was not too happy, but otherwise the times were good. Only Tim Ross recorded a failure when the car stopped halfway up. Tony Claringbould and I resolved to brake a little earlier so as not to get out of shape at Karousel and hope this would be the best way to improve future times!

Tony Claringbould - JP

The second practice saw most improve and again there was little work needed over the lunch period.

And so to the afternoon and the timed runs, with all nine raring to go. Everyone made it to the top, and with the exception of Alistair, whose engine was playing up, got an acceptable time. However, a fuel hose to one float chamber had split on the RGR, leaving Ted with only the methanol in the float chambers and the other supply pipe to get him back to the paddock. On my Iota, the bracket around which the rear leaf spring pivots had broken, bringing an end to the day’s fun.

Thus we got to the final run of the day, with seven cars lined up. First off was Tony C, who along with John Forsyth and Alistair were to go faster. Alistair managing to jump up to second position exactly one second faster than father John. However, Mark Riley was still the quickest on the day and so continues his run of success – well done.

The final incidents of the day fell to Tim, as on arrival at the top paddock he found a fixing bolt had fallen out of one front damper and a fuel leak meant he too only just had enough to make it back down the hill!

Stuart Barnes - Iota

Pos Name Car Run 1 Run 2 Best

Words and pictures by Mike Wood
 

1 Mark Riley Creamer-Kieft-JAP 40.76 41.53 40.76
2 Alistair Dent Hornet-JAP 48.63 42.36 42.36
3 John Dent Cooper Mk VI-JAP 43.36 44.37 43.36
4 John Forsyth Alfa-Dana-JAP 44.80 44.05 44.05
5 Ted Sharpe RGR-JAP 46.43 N/T 46.43
6 Tony Claringbould JP-JAP 47.29 46.56 46.56
7 Mike Wood Iota-JAP 47.70 N/T 47.70
8 Tim Ross Cooper Mk IV-JAP 52.27 53.16 52.27
9 Stuart Barnes Iota 52.89 54.88 52.89

A very orderly paddock

Tiger Tim