Mallory Park VSCC 240705

An excellent turnout of seventeen cars made the journey to Mallory Park for our second meeting with the VSCC. The ‘usual suspects" were joined by Martin Sheppard (Cooper Mk XII) and Nigel Ashman (Cooper Mk VI), who had made their debuts at Cadwell Park, Marek Reichman (Emeryson) and Roy Hunt (Martin) made welcome returns, both having been missing from the 500 Paddock for two years. After letting Simon Diffey successfully prove the car at Cadwell, Mark Palmer would make his race debut piloting his Cooper Mk IX. Hakan Sandberg also returned, having replaced the Norton engine damaged at Cadwell with a Triumph Twin. Moral support was provided by James Holland, Simon Frost and Richard Fry.

Practice was cool, but dry, with the expected rain holding off. David Lecoq led the class with John Turner and James Culver close behind. All fourteen other cars were evenly spread behind, broadly in expected order, with Mark Palmer unsurprisingly holding up the rear as he settled in. Marek Reichman (no brakes) and Bob Culver (“a valve conflict situation”) were unexpectedly low down the order, but both able to fix their problems. The same could not be said for the two rookies, Martin Sheppard and Nigel Ashman, both having bent valves. Despite the best efforts of Simon Frost (who appeared to rebuilding several engines simultaneously), both would have to scratch from the race. Disappointing, as Martin was clearly gaining confidence in his car, and Nigel had set a very impressive time for his experience . Other incidents were relatively light - Roy Hunt suffering a misfire, John Turner snapping his throttle cable, James Culver (variously fuel, oil and brakes), and Paul Hewes (in the Mk XI he will be using at Goodwood) suffering what is probably best left at “a chain incident”.

A bit wet! Bob resorts to his hand while Mark simply has to close his eyes.

Over the lunch break, the rain finally arrived with a vengeance, and by race start conditions were very poor. Mr Turner was spotted sneaking off to the tyre shop for a new set of rubber. Not immediately of much use as he promptly stalled on the grid. Those behind him on the right hand side of the grid, particularly James, Geoff and Marek were delayed. At the front, though, David Lecoq got away cleanly but was surprised by Mike Fowler, making another blinding start, and reaching Gerards right on the tail of the Juniors. Even more impressive was Shirley, up to fourth!

First time around, Mike led David from Neil, Shirley, Geoff, and John Chisholm. John Turner had finally got away some thirty seconds late and was setting up a charge back to the tail of the field. James Culver was rapidly moving forward, passing John and Shirley on lap 2, then Neil on lap 3. Marek also, now with brakes working, was also beginning to move through the field.

Conditions were truly appalling, with even the front wheel driven Emeryson willing to get either end sliding randomly. At the start of the third lap, Paul Hewes half spun at the exit of Gerards. Unfortunately a flying John Turner finished off the job, striking Paul hard on the front axle. Paul retired with badly bent steering, but John was able to continue, albeit with a very crumpled nosecone.

David Lecoq attacked Mike Fowler and would find his way into the lead on lap 6. James Culver was bearing down on Mike at around a second a lap would take another couple of laps to get close. Then on lap 7 David found the Petty stumbling and dying, citing water ingress “somewhere”. Unsurprisingly given the atrocious conditions, others were suffering the same problem, particularly Neil Hodges, whose engine would repeatedly die at the exit of Gerards before just catching again on the straight.

Nothing to see but spray, Mike!

Marek quickly dealt with Geoff Gartside “I thought he were a Junior and let him past!” and set after Neil’s hobbled Cooper some six seconds up the road. But it was John Turner who was making heads turn. Revelling in the conditions (the grin was clearly visible through his visor), John had carved through the midfield and was catching Neil and Marek at around seven seconds a lap. As they dived through the Devil’s Elbow to complete lap 8, Marek eased to the right to line up a move on Neil. Fortunately, he just spotted John bursting out of the spray and aiming for the same gap. Three abreast across the line, John was through. In his wake, Neil just managed to hold Marek behind through Gerards, only for the engine to stutter again, and Marek was through to fourth place.

Up front, James passed Mike for the class lead on lap 9 as the race-winning Lotus 22 of Mark Gillies lapped them both. To confuse them even more they found themselves battling with the Alexis of Duncan Rabagliati and the Lola of Tupper Robinson.

Further back, another interesting battle was between Shirley, Roy, and John Chisholm. Shirley was putting in an excellent performance, and the Mk IV was running cleanly again at last. Similarly, John appears to have finally ironed out the reliability issues with the Arnott and despite the conditions was rightly pleased to complete a race distance for the first time. Later, John beamed “It’s just great to be able to complete practice and race without breaking down. Maybe now I can start sorting out her handling, she’s not to keen to go round corners. Not particularly interested in going straight, either….” Slowly he eased up to Shirley and managed to find a way past on lap 9 for seventh place. Roy was picking up speed, and finished a second and a half behind Shirley - another lap would have seen him through. Completing the finishers and lapped by James were Richard Utley, Hakan Sandberg, Bob Culver (nursing the engine) and Mark Palmer right on his tail.

John Turner, drive of the day

John Chisholm, Arnott

Classified Finishers

Paul Hewes, Shirley Monro, John Chisholm and Marek Reichman.