Championship win for Nick Swift

All fame is relative. Glyn Swift and I found that out when we were trying to get his son Nick a new seat for Doris the Morris at the Autosport show.
The Managing Director of Corbeau Seats seemed totally underwhelmed at the prospect, until we showed him the picture of the car.
'Oh, it's THAT Mini', he shouted.
'I saw that one a half a lap in front at Brands. The crowd loved it, and I'm sure it would have won if the line hadn't dried out. Now, what was it you were after?'
It was the kind of reaction that Nick had been enjoying all season. Every time he put on his giant killing act against those huge American monsters in Class A, the crowd were behind him all the way. And even when he was competing for attention with the glamour boys in BTCC, the little yellow rocket still stole the show. He even won best drive of the day at one of those prestige meetings.
The Yellow racer was built by Swiftune of course, and the close season improvements to the head and pistons, and some help from Kent Cams, had boosted the power output to a somewhat impressive 152 BHP. Testing in Early March revealed that the greatest gain seem to be coming from the new Avon tyres, which, according to Nick, virtually eliminated the car's understeer.
Mini Spares had supplied many parts for the car, including nearly all braking, steering and suspension components, as well as forged crank, flywheel and clutch assemblies, also exhaust, wheels, badges and chromework.
The first race, at Thruxton, gave a foretaste of the kind of excitement that was become Nick's stock in trade for the rest of the season.
Practicing on a strange circuit for the first time, Nick was nearly 3 seconds off the pace in Class D. The Anglia of Neville Smith was his target, and during the race he spent 3 laps on the Anglia's tail, finally getting past him at the end of lap four. With one circuit of Thruxton to go, Doris seemed to be performing perfectly until, on the final straight leading to the chicane, the starter motor decided to engage at 8500 RPM. After it has ripped all the teeth off the Bendix, the engine started to pull again, but not until Smith had pushed through at the left/right chicane. In a last ditch effort, Nick scraped back past on the outside, and just managed to pip the Anglia on the line for Class D victory and a new lap record.
Was this the race of his life? Yes it was.
Round 2 was the race at Brands that many people are still talking about. On a wet circuit, Swift pulled away for an amazing 15 second lead against the Class A Mustangs and Cameros. Only the drying out circuit came to the rescue of the big Yanks, and one of the Mustangs finally got past Nick, so he finished 1 st in Class and 2nd overall with another fastest lap.
Did the crowd cheer? You bet they did.
For the next 3 rounds, the car was plagued with the kind of annoying problems that are normally reserved only for racing teams; Electrical water pump failure; Tyre blowout; oil filter leak, head gasket blowout, etc. Problems usually come in batches, to be followed by long trouble-free periods, and sure enough, Nick suddenly reeled off three great wins in a row. A couple of iffey problems slowed the car for the next two races, but with two races to go, Nick began to sense victory.
He needed to drive hard but in Round 13, at Silverstone, he seemed to overdo it, and drove, in his own words, 'Like a pratt', to finish only 4th.
Class D positions after round 13 were:
1st    Gordon Streeter    49 points
2nd    Nick Swift             48 points
3rd     Bob Bullen            46 points
4th     Neville Smith       40 points
It is not clear whether Swift senior gave junior a swift kick in the pants between races, but Nick came out of the starting blocks at Donington like a man possessed, or to be more precise, like a man who wanted to possess. He qualified fastest in class, then went on to win the final race of the season, together with a brilliantly well earned Class D championship.
Because of his earlier problems, he had to content himself with 2nd overall, but that was still an amazing achievement, conSidering the quality and power of the other entries.
Is he going to win it next year? Just pray for rain.
Graham Austin

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