Revs - July2014

Graham Hill Trophy Spr int, 15th June 2 014

Do you have news

about what you

have doing or what

you are going to

do? Let our new

editor know and

we’ll put it in Revs.

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Owen Motoring Club

Inside this issue:

Sprint cont 2

Classic Car Run 2

Volunteers 2

Car preparation 3

Events 4

We’re on the web 4

Revs The newsletter of Owen Motoring Club

July 2014

Autotest “specials” are not allowed to enter. I decided to retain the two field format and made the tests fast and flowing with added feature of arrows on stakes pointing to the entries into gates. This was to make it simpler to follow the correct course and reduce the number of wrong tests. It looked like a “rally stage” on grass to create an “ambiance”. Alas the weather was not so good with persistent showers throughout the day. This meant that fast times were unobtainable Cars were still able to traverse the courses but at a slower pace. Times were around the

This year there was a fantas-tic entry of 35, way beyond expectations, which included last year’s winner Sam Wil-liams in a Micra. Other nota-bles included James Nicholls (Punto), Tom Bishop (Micra), Kevin Hardwick (Micra) and a surprise appearance of the “Master” Mike Sones in his MX5. We also saw the unusual sight of a Mini Pickup driven by Dani Hands from Mid Derbys along with a Ford Connect van driven by new Owen members Barry/Jack Mansell. There was also a good turnout of Coalville and Cannock members. The great thing about Pro-duction Car Autotests is that almost any vehicle can take part. It is aimed at the club-man on a limited budget.

two minute mark per test instead of about 1¾ mins. However the competitors still enjoyed the skill of control-

ling their vehicles.

The large entry was split into two groups at each field and this did lead to longer waiting

periods. However I think that some competitors were de-liberately holding back with an eye on the weather. Three attempts were given on each test with, as previ-

Happy Landings Autotest

With just weeks to go and with low entry numbers a decision was made to use the new figure of eight course at Curborough. This was a popular move for com-petitors and we ended up

with a full entry of 65 cars.

Owen members competing were, Paul Glendenning and Wayne Parke sharing an MG ZR, Derek Wallbank, (Clio Sport Cup), Nick Pollitt, (Lupo GTi), Dave Green-wood, (Westfield).

The morning practice runs

went of with out a hitch excepy fro the retirement of Ceri Evans, bro-ken drive shaft in the Westfield. The afternoon timed runs saw most competitors get-ting their best times on their second attempt. Shortly after the start of the first runs a brief period of rain damp-ened the track slowing most of the field until the last few classes. Most were around

five to ten second s slower

than their second attempts.

Most drivers had not used the new layout with the crossover and were learning the lines through there. Then

Page 2

bership of organisations changes and the number of

volunteers become fewer.

Owen Motoring Club needs

your help.

You may have read Anton Bird’s request for help with the AGBO. Perhaps there is one of those jobs you can

do.

Simon Whittick has been organizing, as secretary or clerk of the course , five of our completion events.

As you no doubt know motor sport cannot take place with-out all the people who volun-teer, organisers, marshalls etc. The same with your club. All the committee are volunteers. All the people who help at our events are

volunteers.

We are the same as many clubs and volunteer organi-sations across the country where the organizing is done by just a few people. As time goes by the mem-

Perhaps you can help on

one of these!

Do you have some mechani-cal knowledge and experi-ence? Perhaps you could

scrutineer at an event?

We will give you as much

help and support we can.

Volunteers needed

how to tackle going down Woodside the “wrong way” and into the Flagpole hairpin, left hander, to go back up the

main straight.the wrong way.

The track had dried out for the second set of timed runs and we eventually saw David Owen, no relation, with a FTD time of 55.91 seconds. David was driving an OMS 2000M. It is remarkable how quick these small motorbike

engine single seaters are.

How did the Owen members do? In class SB, standard cars 1401—2000 cc, Paul Glendenning 3rd in class with a 72.20 s. Wayne Parke 8th, 75.25. Derek Wallbank

10th, 77.05s.

Class 1b, modified road going sallons 1401—2000cc,

Nick Pollitt, 2nd 73.47.

Class 2A, Dave Greenwood

3rd, 63.54.

It was Dave greenwoods first time out in the Westfield for four years and he was really pleased that he came away with the Graham Hill Cup for

the best Owen MC driver.

Congratulations Tony Mat-thews and his team for a well run event as usual. It was worth while changing to the new layout and it met with very favourable comments

from the competitors.

At the end of the day Tony announced that this was the last Graham Hill sprint that he would be involved in. Owen Motoring Club would like to thank Tony and Shirley for all that they have done over the last 50 years to organise the sprint hat has and always has had a great reputation.

Graham Hill Spr int cont . Dan Lister has applied

for training to get an MSA clerk of the course

licence.

Kevin Perks was dr iving his Skoda rally car at the

Goodwood Festival of Speed. Kevin said it was

a great experience and fantastic to mix with the

top drivers.

Kevin Perks in his Skoda

People

Your club

needs you

increase in numbers in future

years.

Bob Cotterell and Anton Bird put on a nice little route start-ing at Catton Park. Anton had produced a superb road book with proper “Tulip” diagrams to help the crews to navigate themselves around the route. The route took cars north towards Der-by for a stop at Elvaston

Castle Country Park. The route then headed south to end up at Curborough for the afternoon action at the Gra-ham Hill Sprint. A dedicated car parking area was set aside for the classic cars.

The cars and their crews were given the opportunity to drive around the Curborough track behind a course car.

After an absence of a year the classic car run was on again.

There was s m a l l entry than usual but this was expected. We hope that there will be an

Class ic Car Run—15th June 2 015

Page 3

no corrosion on pipes and sensibly routed – rubber pipes free of cuts, chafes and twists. Some cars are known for the plas-

tic brake fluid reservoir falling off.

SUSPENSION AND STEERING JOINTS – good condition – secure

boots – free of play, including rack.

FUEL – Fuel tanks within interior secure, protected, vented external-ly. This doesn’t usually apply to a standard production car as the fuel tank is not inside the car. If it is then it must be isolated from the

passenger compartment.

EXHAUST AND NOISE –

Securely mounted and silenced in accordance with MSA recommen-dations. Is your exhaust quite

enough and is it likely to fall off.

ELECTRICAL –

Battery securely mounted – wiring in good condition, free of chafing, +ve terminal insulated, -ve termi-

This article is for those of you who want to take part in club events, Owen MC or others, like autotest, autosolo and production car autotest. Pre-paring your car for these kinds of events is really just making sure it is in good condition and safe. Scrutineers tend to have their own ideas of what they like to look for but listed below are items from our scrutineers

check list.

STEERING CONTROLS -

Condition of steering wheel, security of wheel to column, condition of joints and mount-ings. The scrutineer will prob-ably rock the steering wheel back and forth as well as try to move the wheel up and down

to check for excess free play.

BRAKES - Firm not spongy pedal – no creeping under pressure – secure pedal box –

nal braided or with yellow markings – switches mounted in reach of driver.

ENGINE BAY –

Free of excessive liquid leaks – exterior spring to each

throttle spindle

Effective bulkhead between

engine bay and driver.

COCKPIT INTERIOR -Free of sharp projections and edges – no loose items – driver seat rigidly fixed. And passengers if competing in a

PCA.

EXTERIOR BODYWORK – Sound condition – no holes or loose panels or protruding edges, wheelarches must cover tyres full width. (Reference to relevent page of the Blue Book “Cars must have an effective perma-

Prepar ing your car for competit ion

ous, the worst score being dropped. Following the non-arrival of the caterer (I sincerely apolo-gise to everyone) the event started a little earlier at 10.15am. It was good to see that the “arrowing” worked with hardly any wrong tests. The lunchtime scores showed Tom Bishop leading followed by James Nicholls and Allan Humphries in a Ford KA. The afternoon ses-sion saw continued heavy showers. The tests were run in reverse. The battle for the lead became very close with James winning by just one second over Allan Hum-phries. We only had one wrong test throughout the day, which is brilliant, and very few hit stakes/cones. Mind you the gates were 10 metres apart!! May I take this opportunity of

thanking the wonderful mar-shals who stood out in the ele-ments for several hours. With-out these people there would

be no event.

Barri Wilmot (along with Will Barnes) helped me set up the day before. Anton Bird, Roger Tristram (Scrutineer), Melvyn Cox, Kaye Turner, John Downes, Paul Langford, Clare Bird, Ruth Langford and of course Lynn and Simon Whit-tick for looking after the secre-tarial duties and results. It was great to receive many compliments from competitors particularly new member Barry Mansell who thoroughly en-

joyed it all.

Finally a special thank you to Mick Wilson who joined the club on the day. He and his wife very kindly dashed off to fetch their barbeque to provide

us with much needed burg-ers and sausages. I am sure that Mick will become a great asset to our club with his kind-ness and generosity. We shall look forward to seeing him on future events, possibly in an organisational capacity. He is just the sort of individual the club needs.The top five final placings were:- 1. James Nicholls, Micra, 941 – 1st Overall 2. Allan Humphries, KA , 942 – 1st Class A 3. Tom Bishop, Micra, 947 – 2nd Class A 4. Steven Griffith, Fiesta, 961 – 1st Class B 5. Adrian Blower, Saxo, 973 – Best Owen Mike Sones, MX5 1040, 1st Class D Scott Blower, Saxo, 1106 Best

Junior

Bob Cotterell

Happy Landings cont.

This is the first of the new

style monthly Revs News-

letters which will go out via

email and available on the

web. Next one will be in

August. Then, in Septem-

ber, the will be a fully print-

ed magazine. This is pri-

marily for those members

without email. The maga-

zine will consists of the

article that appeared in the

newsletter plus new news.

It will, however be posted to

all members as well as

being available on the web.

Please keep an eye on the

website for events and

dates. We’ll be sending you

reminders. If you would

rather not receive remind-

ers of events you can log in

to the website and unsub-

scribe . See back page

3rd August—Crimson Dynamo Autotest. Our championship Autotest held at Birmingham Wheels. Round of the MSA British, BTRDA, AWMMC and ANWCC autotest championships. Marshalls needed. Meal voucher for marshalls and a breakfast voucher for any one who gets

there before 8am to help set up. Clerk of the course, Simon Whittick. Secretary, Lynn Whittick

10th August—Shugborough Classic Car Show. We well be there with a display of cars.

20th August—club BBQ on the Chase. Join us at the BBQ site at the Cannock Chase Visitor

Centre.

31st August—Ernest Owen Car Trial. Our championship car trial at Catton Park. This is the one we had to postponed from January. Round of the MSA British, BTRDA, AWMMC and

ANWCC autotest championships. Clerk of the course, Nick Pollitt, secretary Jude Preston.

16th September, (Tuesday) - meal at the Pie factory

Events Coming Up

© Owen Motoring Club Ltd, 2014

Owen Motoring Club Ltd, A Company Limited by Guarantee Registration No. 1378393,

Registered office, PO Box 10, Darlaston, West Midlands WS10 8JD

Owen Motoring Club

Motoring in the Midlands

since 1959

We’re on the web

http://

owenmotoringclub.co.uk

@owenmotors

Have you looked at our website? Do you use it? Go to our website to see what events are coming up and the latest club news.

You can renew your membership, when the time comes, by logging on. To log on use the email address we have for you. If you’ve had an email from us then we have the email address. Your password is what you’ve used on our site before but if you don’t remember that then click on the forgot password link and you’ll be sent instructions on how to change your password.

MSA website at http://

msauk.org

If you are running a reasona-bly modern standard car then it should comply with no problem so long as you keep

it well maintained.

When you arrive at you event empty your car. That’s both boot and inside. If your spare wheel is in the boot either remove it or make

sure it is secure.

nent windscreen or aero

type screen.

TYRES - must have mini-mum tread depth of 1.6mm at start of event. No MSA List 1b tyres permitted. Make sure you have enough tread on your tyres to drive home legally.

GENERAL - Comply with all applicable MSA technical regulations – not be fitted with tempo-

rarily repaired parts.

The MSA blue book can be downloaded from the

Prepar ing your car for competit ion c o n t.

Did you know that we

are a member of all the

associations below?