Timaru

Very Hot news from the Kent Coast - Southern 32 League Meeting - Sunday 28 July

Timaru MCRC clubroom is at the Old Parks Depot, Cliftonville, Margate, Kent.

The Track

The track is 4 lane, 90 ft lap length,  MDF surface, with black poly paint and copper tape.

Current lap record 37.10 with a group 12 saloon. It is another excellent track in similar style to Roedale with the advantage of a longer main straight.  Don’t miss a visit the next chance you get.

For Photos etc see the Timaru web site

Production

It was the hottest day of the year and 21 racers decided to avoid sunburn by tackling the Production class, arriving from Bath, Wellingborough, Roedale, Luton, North London, Ipswich and of course Timaru.  Practice showed the need to learn the track carefully.  It was particularly important not to confuse the long and short straights that run parallel, as several were to discover throughout the day.

The Falcon cars were stunning on this track, especially in the hands of Alan Callaghan who set 2^nd fastest run with his, beaten only by his own Hornet/Wasp car.  Again there was a run off for last qualifier in the B final, young Davey Farrow beating Karen Pollen by 1 lap.  Graham Sampson only made the B final but took an easy win from Adam Le Maistre, then David (Dad) and Davey Farrow both in their first serious sponge tyre event I believe.  It was no surprise that Alan C won the A final but 2^nd place was a very close race taken by Mick Kerr by just 0.01 lap from Stan Kirk after a fabulous last minute.  Bill Jenner was 4^th.

Bill Prodger beat Karen to join the Farrows and Mervyn Hunt in the Overall E final.  David F came out on top from Merv, Bill and Davey.  David Austin had a comfortable D win from Adam.  Neal Callaghan won the C final to beat Neil Obee who had lost some practice time with short/long straight repairs.  Not far behind were Paul Austin and Nigel Harvey.  Tony Condon joined the series and took an excellent B race, coming back from nearly a lap down to catch and overtake Mick Kerr.  Alan C was favourite for the A final and he led from the start with Paul H and Ian F racing for second.  Just as Paul began to ease away, Alan fell off letting Paul and Ian through.  As Alan recovered, his pace threatened Ian's 2^nd place and they both caught and passed Paul when he had a small off, Alan moving into the lead again just afterwards.  Ian was now up close to Alan’s pace and stayed in touch as Paul fell back a little in 3^rd.  It just needed a couple of offs by Alan to put Ian in front and that was the way it finished.  Graham Sampson had a quiet run to 4^th place.

Le Mans 32

Karen decided to take the sun for the afternoon and Bill J went for some sleep after working a night shift.  Dave Harvey joined in, teaming up with Stan Kirk so there were 10 teams.  With John Secchi on holiday Paul H invited Bill Prodger to join the BISRA team for the day and they used Bill’s car too!  Ian F and Tony C made up the classic Ece’s team.  The race was for 48 minutes total per team.

Ece’s, Yer Maun and 1-0-2 set the pace in the first runs.  By half distance Ece’s were just 0.24 laps up on YerMaun but with the more difficult red lane to come.  Wellingborough had moved up to 3^rd.  The Ipswich OTH team had to stop for repairs after another short/long straight confusion moment.  In the third run Alan C put in the race winning section 5 laps faster than any other run and they took a 10 lap lead into the last section.  Ece’s caught 5 back but Yer Maun were well deserved winners.  Another quick run by Mick K and Adam closed Wellingborough to just 5 behind Ece’s.

Safely 4^th were 1-0-2, Dave Harvey in particular running at the pace of those in front.  A good steady run gave Timaru 2 5^th place.  The BISRA car was reliable but just a little off the pace 6^th.  Concrete Cows, the Austins, have had mechanical problems in previous rounds and were trying hard for reliability.  Things were a bit better but there were still a few pit stops on their way to 7^th.  8^th place OTH repaired their car (Radkovic) but amazingly the other driver had just the same accident again and another long stop for repairs.  Within seconds the Missile car, also a Radkovic, had an identical accident and retired on the spot leaving them 10^th and last.  The Farrows, Team David ran their S16D powered International 32 car and therefore had the satisfaction of finishing 9^th, one place higher than expected.

The winning car is apparently a Sampson/Mortimer chassis not an SCD as I have reported before.

·         Nice to see more fresh faces again and some returnees at Timaru.  Don’t forget all are welcome whether you do just one or two rounds or the whole series.

·         Neal Callaghan’s home club is Bath not Timaru so the Yer Maun win is even more impressive and that’s another club represented in the series.

·         On the tech front it was amazing how fast the Falcons went at Timaru.  Also nice to see an all home build car winning the G12 race.

Any queries on the series, call me on 020 8866 8571

Ian Fisher

Southern 32 – The series for you!