No Fool Today

Date: 1st April 2007

Round 2 -Herefordshire MC, Foxley Estate, Hereford,1st April

posted by petercox on 04/09/07

Paul Swift extended his lead in the BTRDA Championship and started his challenge for the MSA Championship with another FTD in dry sunny conditions. Penalties for Alastair Moffatt (Mini Special) and Stephen Wild (ABS) on test one gave Paul the initiative which he was not to loose. The challenge was taken up by Simon Echlin in his Westfield and Malcolm Livingston in the Lotus 7. A late charge by Stephen took him past Malcolm when he suffered a gearbox problem.

The Foxley estate provides an excellent venue for autotesting. The concrete roads left from the wartime American army hospital offer a real challenge. Test 2 was set on a steep road which led to some interesting manoeuvres as gravity helped or hindered the throws. Newly erected fences restricted some areas but not all and one competitor did his best to widen the course by taking out a gate post, with no serious consequences.

Paul set some fast times which kept him ahead of the Mini Special of Alastair Moffatt and the ABS of Stephen Wild. The ABS had been repaired after the drive coupling failure at Curborough. However the replacement drive coupling had to be replaced before the Inter Association event the previous day. This had suffered during the demonstrations at the Race Retro Show where the BTRDA took autotesting to the public. Fortunately Rob Rolston came to the rescue with the necessary part. 

Broken drive components were being changed throughout the weekend. It was calculated that 20 Nova/Corsa drive shafts broke. Both Anthony Preston and Rob Rolston had CV joints fail on their Minis in their battle with Howard Everingham. Howard took the class win.

Breakages eventually settled the saloon class. Lee Matthews broke a drive shaft at the end of test 7 but only lost seven seconds as he pushed the Corsa over the line. He was less lucky when he broke another drive shaft on the last test and collected a maximum. This let Duncan Stephens in but he broke a drive shaft on his Nova at the same point on the last test. The lucky class winner was Gavin Dickson despite an off day with five penalties. Lee Valentine was fourth, just beating fellow Northerner Carl Sams by 1.5 seconds.

Steve Morten reversed positions from Curborough on son Ben and took the Striker to its last class win in the hands of the Mortens. Steve has sold the faithful car and will be under pressure to complete his new "big engined" Striker ready to mix it with the big boys. Look out Simon and Malcolm, he beat you in the class E car. What will Steve and Ben manage in the new car?

Malcolm Livingston knew that he had his work cut out to beat Simon Echlin in the dry conditions. The battle was close although not helped when a penalty was missed for Simon and then Malcolm collected a penalty of his own. Worse was to come for Malcolm when on his last test he broke a tooth in reverse gear which let in Stephen Wild to fourth place.

There was a close battle for sixth place. Duncan Wild (ABS) just squeezed ahead (perhaps due to the car's small size) of Steve Morten and Richard Pinkney (Caterham), only 0.7 seconds covering the three. The ABS shed a few parts during the day due to the vibrations on the concrete surface. One mudguard flew off on a 360 spin and Duncan ran over it as he drove to the finish. Chris Atkinson's penalties dropped him from a potential top six place. Chris and family have joined the motor home fraternity and he was seen relaxing between runs.

John Moffatt and team put a lot of effort in to an excellent weekend. The tests made good use of a challenging venue.

Duncan Wild

Results

1 Paul Swift (Mini Special) 743.2; 2 Simon Echlin (Westfield) 752.5; 3 Alastair Moffatt (Mini Special) 755.4; 4 Stephen Wild (ABS Freestyle) 776.0; 5 Malcolm Livingston (Lotus 7) 788.0; 6 Duncan Wild (ABS Freestyle) 815.1; 7 Stephen Morten (Striker) 815.6; 8 Richard Pinkney (Dutton) 815.8; 9 Chris Atkinson (Buggy) 820.7; 10 Ben Morten (Striker) 859.2.

Class Winners: Ernie Burles (Mini) 976.1; Howard Everingham (Mini) 867.7; Dickson; S Morten; Echlin; Swift.