Gurston Results 220614

The rolling Wiltshire downs welcomed us in fine form with blue skies and a few white clouds for the first of this years’ visits. Nine 500s represented by five makes along with Charles Reynolds v-twin lined up to test their skills. John and Andrew Forsyth were to share the Alfa Dana.

Practice one was uneventful for most but Xavier suffered unexpected under-steer at Ashes, possibly due to cement dust on oil left by a runner in an earlier class, and left the circuit. Stuart’s clutch operating mechanism also failed before he could make the start line. In true 500 form, a chain link was adapted to do a repair to the gearbox lever that would last all day.

Practice two saw everyone make it to the top, broadly happy with the times. The Alfa Dana had been forced to change to a quieter silencer, something that Andrew felt had robbed him of a little performance.

Matching shirts but whys the seed drill attached to the Reynolds' Cooper?

Back in the paddock, team Reynolds, resplendent in matching labelled t-shirts, and helped by Jan, were busy curing a rev counter problem on the 500. It had refused to register much more than 2000 rpm.

After lunch the timed runs got under way and nearly everyone improved on their practice times on the first run.

Back in the paddock things were relaxed for all bar Finlay. A reluctance to start on the return run and unnatural noises were diagnosed as a possible timing cam failure, bringing his runs for the day to a halt.

The second run again went well for all but Charles and Mike. The Cooper had developed a magneto problem that caused a problem on one cylinder, whilst Mike inadvertently went for an ‘economy’ run – forgetting to turn the fuel on and not making it much past Hollow!

Old cars, older barn, lovely.

Results

Stig - looking cool