Old Stager Championship Round 5 - Carfax Stages 6th August 2016

Nineteen Historic crews out of an entry of 70 made the trip to a very hot Throckmorton airfield, near Worcester for the 5th round of the championship, including 12 mini crews contesting the Mini Cup. Ten stages were to be completed during the day, with each covering 7 miles of long straights and some very tight corners, see layout below.

We had missed the last 2 rounds while the engine and gearbox were rebuilt and a Minispares 4 pin diff replaced the Quaife LSD, to hopefully give us a more stable car over the undulating and twisty stages on the Isle of Man next month. Initial testing looks favourable, but the open diff gave no advantage on the flat stages at Throckmorton airfield last weekend.

All the top Mini Cup contenders were there, led away by Clive King who is one point behind Adrian Kermode in the standings. With only 4 rounds to count those teams who have scored on each round will start dropping their lowest score, with this round and 2 more on the Isle of Man to come.

 

Clive King/Anton Bird (Car 27) and Jim Brindle /Sam Bould in the Mini Clubman set the early pace closely followed by Pete Ellerby and Shane Gamble, with those 4 leading the minis after 4 stages. We solved our clutch and brake issues after the first 2 stages but were still rusty after a long lay-off and not on our usual pace.

 

Cooling the car, helmet and balaclava between stages.

The cars were beginning to suffer in the heat, the temperature now 28 degrees and Adrian Kermode’s run came to an end on stage 4 with a hole in the gearbox resulting in no oil ! Andrew O’Hanlon was suffering with high engine temperatures until the engine cried enough with only 2 stages to go. Pete Ellerby had a succession of issues with fuel pump, then condenser and finally a broken driveshaft finishing what was an excellent run up until stage 7.

At the front the fight was very close with Clive King and Jim Brindle only 1 or 2 seconds apart on each stage. Clive hung on to take the Class win by only 12 seconds after 70 miles and 10 stages , and finished an amazing 23rd overall. Shane Gamble with Max Freeman (Car 33) had a very strong run to win class H1 ahead of Paul Price/James Seymour and ourselves finishing 3rd in class and 5th mini.

 

Stuart Hart/ Catherine Farrell (Car 57) finished 3rd in class H2 and 6th mini home in the Mini Clubman GT.

Preview of Final 2 Rounds- Rally Isle of Man 15th to 17th September

This year there are no fewer than 19 Minis entered in a field of nearly 170 crews with it all to play for in the Mini Cup, between Clive King and Adrian Kermode in MC3 and MC2, and Paul Taylor in MC4. Into the mix this year come the super quick Irish crews of Ray Cunningham and Mervyn Johnston, both drivers with many wins to their credit. We are delighted again to welcome 4

Whether we can match our class win of last year is a big ask but the car is well prepared and the mods this year should make us quicker than 2015. Watch this space !

Thanks to Andy Manston at MandH Photography and Kevin Baldwin from Start Line Media for the action pictures.

Peter Horsburgh

Importation rules regarding vehicles are very specific: Only those over 25 years in age may be brought in to the USA without compilance to Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS).