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Newsletter of Owen Motoring Club, December 2014
Citation preview
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.
Email Clare Bird with your
news-
k
Do we have an up to date
email address for you?
Let us know what your
email is by sending a mes-
sage to ad-
min@owenmotoringclub.
co.uk
Owen Motoring Club
Inside this issue:
Ernest Owen Pro-duction Car Trial cont.
2
NEC Classic Car show
3
Bright Sparks PCA 3, 4
Audience with Stu-art Derry
4
A Busy Three 6,7
Slithering Santa 8
Revs
December 2014 (now bi-monthly)
then nearly chucked it
away allowing Loughbor-
ough’s Dave Walker
(1600 Corsa) to catch
him. Not far back was
Owen’s Tom Bishop do-
ing really well in his 1400
Micra, at lunchtime Tom
was 3rd, a great perfor-
mance, but he slipped
back a touch late in the
day. In the same Class,
the other Owen mem-
bers Tim Beard and Dave
Allman (Saxo 1100) were
battling well finishing 3rd
Lucky with the weather,
overnight rain and a
lovely sunny Sunday for
4 rounds of 8 hills and 24
competitors.
Our Chief Marshal
Melvyn Cox had assem-
bled 7 marshals from
Owen MC and I did a bit
of phoning round the
night before to drum up
another 9 friends and
ever helpful BTRDA
chaps, so we were ready
to go!
All 3 Championship clas-
ses were well supported,
10 in Class 1 (standard
modern cars) which fea-
tured the Saxo VTR of
Dorset’s Mark Hoppe
(my old car I sold to him
earlier in the year), he
took an early lead and
Ernest Owen Production Car Trial
Sunday 31st August
By Nick Pollitt
and 5th just 8 marks apart, with Tom Bishop 6th just 1 mark
adrift of Dave. Mark Hoppe took the Class win and 2nd overall,
enough to confirm him as the 2014 MSA British Car Trial
Champion, and also of note was 4th placed driver John
Wadsworth in his KA, a result that gives him a Class win in the
MSA series...John is 80,
and in the 1950’s compet-
ed at Le Mans, and on a
number of International
rallies including the Mon-
te.
Class 2 (modified FWD
cars) was 7 strong and it
was Simon Harris and his
Golf Gti that leaped into an early lead which he retained after
a number of very impressive climbs, running him close all day
was Nottingham’s Neil Mackay in his Citroen AX, and then
Ilkley’s Rupert North in his little yellow Mini who at one point
looked like taking a win but the steepness of the afternoon
sections was a bit too much for the Mini.
Class 3 (rear engined cars and sports and kit cars) was likely to
be a battle of the Imps, but Brian and Kevin Roberts (all the
way from Bala) took their Dutton into what looked like an
unassailable lead dropping only a few marks by lunchtime,
with Warwickshire’s Steve Courts in his red Imp a little further
back. All changed in the afternoon, Steve steadily eating into
the Roberts’ lead, Brian dropping a real clanger on the 3rd
round and Kevin also making some errors, and then the
Dutton developed a fault..it was game over.
Steve Courts took the Class and outright victory after a really
fabulous drive.
A huge thank you to ALL the marshals... Will Barnes and Ra-
chel, Phil Darbyshire and Bob Cotterell, Mike and Hazel Ste-
Ernest Owen Production Car Trial Continued...
Page 2
TROPHIES!!!!!
We are now at the end of
another season of
motorsport. The
championships are
competitive and scores
will soon be finalised.
Please return your
trophies to Ruth
NOTICES
Tabard Amnesty
The club have ordered
some new tabards for
marshalling duties.
We have lost many tab-
ards over the last few
years when people have
forgotten to give them
back.
Please have a hunt around
garages, sheds, cars etc to
see if you have Owen tab-
ards that can be returned.
Please return to any com-
NEC International Classic Car Show After not initially being offered a place at this year’s show we were a little disappointed
with the organisers considering we have supported them through their good and bad
times since 2000.
At short notice we did get offered space re
a cancelation which we took up. Five cars
were shown, Pete Shenton loaned his fan-
tastic Mk1 Escort Sprint Car (Tarmac spec
rally car really) Martin Parkes Hillman Imp,
Derrick Wallbank Escort Harrier and Mark
Barnes brought two Fiat 500`s one being his
rather special ex Fiat works rally car, thank
you to you all for making the effort at such
short notice. Several club members attend-
ed but we surprisingly ended up with tick-
ets left over for most days, where were you all ??.
phens, John and Julia Baden, Paul and Ruth, John and Kaye, Melvyn, Darren and Ian......the
competitors were particularly outspoken saying what a great job the marshals had done.
My thank you also to Jude Preston and Graham for secretarial stuff and the excellent com-
puterised results, available within 20 minutes of the last car finishing, and to Terry Moore
for his invaluable assistance all weekend. It all seemed to run really well and we have
booked Catton for the Ernest Owen next APRIL 26th.....make a note in your 2015 diary!
Owen Motoring Club Christmas Party
The annual Christmas Party will be held at Aldridge Social Club
in the function room on Wednesday 17th December, 9 pm
Come along for a get together with other members.
Free buffet provided.
Page 3
Bright Sparks PCA Autotest—Sunday 19th October 2014
What a turnout! A full entry of 40. This was
beyond my expectations. Best ever!
I proves that the event now has a really good
reputation of providing fast, exciting and
flowing tests. There were plenty of smiling
faces all day long.
The quality line up included, “Maestro” Kevin
Hardwick who had won FTD for the previous
2 years and was on a hatrick. Also “Mr
Smooth” Nick Pollitt (Lotus Elise), the
“Master” Mike Sones (MX5), Tom Bishop
(Micra), James Nicholls (rally spec 205) and
Will Barnes in his new Fiat 500 “Fartbox”.
A warm welcome to Ben Heggs from Coalville
in a Fiesta and also five “sprinters” from
Shenstone (Rob Swadkin, Chris Gillie, Carl
Bounds, Mark Byng and Harry Whiting) I
had spent several previous Sundays “chatting
up” Production class sprint entrants to en-
courage them to have a go at autotesting to
improve their driving skills. Again all of them
enjoyed the new experience. Hopefully they
may pass on their experience and recom-
mendation to other sprint colleagues.
Thankfully the weather was good and pro-
ceedings started at 10.15am. As usual there
were 2 large tests each taking approximately
11/4 mins to complete.
Each test consisted of 3 runs with the worst
score being dropped. A second car was start-
ed when the first was about ¾ way distance
to reduce queueing time.
In an effort to avoid wrong tests I added di-
rectional arrows. However this seemed to
make little difference to some competitors
who decided on their own courses or ex-
pecting bonus points for knocking over
cones. One of the worst culprits was Tony
Bishop, navigated by Tom, who ended up
with three WT’s and 5 hit cones. A visit to
Specsavers I reckon Tony!
There was a heart-racing moment on the
main sprint course when a car went back
along the way it came resulting in a near
“head-on” with the next competitor. Luckily
he veered onto the grass to avert a catastro-
phe. I will have to add even more directional
arrows next time and go through the test
courses at the drivers briefing.
At the lunch break James Nicholls was lead-
ing on 273 with Kevin Hardwick 276, Ben
Heggs 281, Nick Pollitt 283, Tom Bishop 284
and Mike Sones 290.
After a few minor course alterations the
afternoon went without too many incidents
Good to see some new Owen members en-
joying themselves including Neil Holland in a
Corsa and Polish recruit Michal Kulpaka in a
BMW 3 series - a big car to throw around
(also the Sierra Cosworth driven by Shen-
stone member Carl Bounds).
The event finished in daylight by 4.15pm and
the whole proceedings ran very smoothly run
by very efficient marshals. A special thanks
Page 4
goes to Clare Bird, Darren
Kiernan, Roger Tolley, Barri
Wilmot, Ruth Langford, Roger
Tristram, Geoff Allman and
David Allman.
Special thanks goes to Mark
Barnes who marshalled on
the Paddock test and also
Paul Langford for looking
after the VIP’s. These were
people who expressed a de-
sire to sit in the passenger
seats of various cars during
the day to experience the
thrills and excitement in the
hope that they may join the
club and have a go them-
selves.
The results were fast in the
hands of Jude Preston ably
assisted by Graham Burgess.
Many thanks to Barri for
helping me set up on the Sat-
urday. A true club member.
Clare Bird supplied home-
made cakes to raise money
for Air Ambulance. A great
effort on her behalf to obtain
monies for this essential
charity.
The final result was so close
with Kevin Hardwick beating
Nick Pollitt by just 1 second.
James Nicholls would have
won by 13 secs but we decid-
ed to disqualify him as he
was running on “knobbly”
non - List 1A tyres.
He knew about this predica-
ment earlier in the day and
generously accepted the rul-
ing so that there would be no
ill feelings at the end. He just
wanted to have a good time
following his disappointment
the previous day when there
was an electrical problem on
the Cambrian Rally and failed
even to start the first stage!
As a gesture of goodwill we
gave him the Best Owen
award. He was happy
enough! An admirable atti-
tude under the circumstanc-
es. Such is his fine character.
Bob Cotterell
An Audience with
Stuart Derry
Many thanks goes to
Stuart Derry for enter-
taining us on Wednesday
8th October.
He told us all many sto-
ries of his rallying days
and had us all laughing
at various moments.
A good evening was had
by all and an impressive
£35 was taken on the
door towards Air Am-
bulance.
Events Coming Up
Wednesday 17th December - Christmas Party
Saturday 27th December—Slithering Santa Autotest—Curborough Sprint
Course
Looking Ahead
AGBO Stages Rally—Sunday 22nd March 2015
Page 5
NEWS
This newsletter will now be
issued bi-monthly.
The committee have taken
the decision to have a bi-
monthly newsletter in re-
placement of the magazine.
This is due to lack of articles
and rising printing costs.
Those that we do not have an
email address for will receive
a printed copy of the news-
letter by post.
Following the sale of my
Westfield in the early part of
2012 I’ve been renovating/
modifying my next competi-
tion car which is a 1965 Hill-
man Imp Super. There’ll be a
full write up in Revs
next year. My 49 year
old Imp was finally put
back on the road at the
end of July this year,
which is slightly later
than I had planned, and
I still need to put some
miles on it to get the new
engine run in. As I’ve only run
it locally I decided to trailer it
to the Annual Imp National
Meeting just outside Cam-
bridge on the 1st weekend in
August. There I was present-
ed with 2nd in class for “road
going competition Imps” by
Rosemary Smith which made
all the hard work so far worth
it. I then drove it back home
with Elaine following me with
the truck and trailer to add
on some more miles!
It made its OMC debut on the
club stand at a rather wet
and poorly attended Shug-
borough Classic Car Show the
following weekend. The pho-
to shows it beside a friend’s
1937 Buick 4 Door Sedan. My
final planned show appear-
ance for 2014 was at The
Shackerstone Festival in Sep-
tember. This is a very good
and well attended 2 day festi-
val, not far from MIRA, and
well worth a visit if you’ve
never been.
Although the car looked fin-
ished I still had a list of jobs
still to be done and plenty of
time....I thought. Imagine my
surprise when Bob Cotterell
suddenly paid me a visit one
October Sunday to say he
would like me to display it on
the OMC stand at this year’s
National Classic Car Show at
the NEC in November. The
long jobs list then had to be
prioritised to make sure that
it looked it’s best for 3 days
of inspection at this very pop-
ular show. The main job was
A Busy Three Weeks!!
By Martin Parkes
Page 6
Renew your member-
ship
It’s coming to the end of the
membership year so now’s
the time to renew. Most
members will get an email
reminder soon and those of
you who had this issue by
mail should have had a re-
newal form included.
Renewal and payment can be
to strip the front end of lights, grill, bumper
etc. so it could all be rubbed down, rust
proofed and then rattle-canned. New remov-
able spot light brackets were manufactured
so that my ex-Dave Greenwood Cibie Oscars
(carrying on the Westfield second hand parts
scrounging tradition) could be suitably
mounted although I didn’t have time to wire
them!
After a lot of work and a final polishing my
Imp was ready, initially I was going to drive it
there, but with a lot of Club equipment to
take I volunteered the X-Trail truck as
transport with my Imp on the trailer. Equip-
ment was collected from the new club con-
tainer on Wed, with the help of Anton and
Bob and by Thurs afternoon the Club stand
looked very impressive made even better by
the blue carpet scrounged from Quinton MC!
I then helped man the stand on the Friday
with lots of interest in all our cars and just
the right amount of visitors to the exhibition
enabling good relaxed viewing and photo-
graphing of cars during the day.
Saturday then commenced with a very early
start but for another car related reason.
Weeks before volunteering for the NEC I was
asked if I would help man a car wash for the
Welsh Rally GB just the other side of Welsh-
pool and having a free weekend at the time
said yes. I was on the road at 6.30 so I could
meet up with my brother and his son at
Welshpool at 8.00am.
By 9.30 we were set up with waterproofs and
2 diesel powered jet washers, the first
course cars started arriving just before 10
and then it was nonstop until about 15.00.
The car wash was at a village garage just out-
side Meifod as the rally cars came out of a
very muddy Dyfnant and made their way
towards the Chirk Castle Special Stage. The
poor garage owner must have wished he’d
have asked for more money as he was on a
meter and we must have partially drained
Lake Vyrnwy washing 160 competition cars
plus official cars! I finally arrived home about
19.00 very tired but still managed a walk to
the local pub for a couple of beers.
Sunday was another early start to get there
in time to miss the traffic and get our stand
ready for the final influx of visitors. This was
my busiest day with so many people wanting
to talk to me about my Imp and the Imps that
they’d owned in the past including Barry
Page 7
© 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
Come and blow away the Christmas
cobwebs at the Slithering Santa
Autotest.
The annual Slithering Santa au-
totest , which is a PCA so you need
a passenger, will take place at
Curborough Sprint Course on Satur-
day 27th December.
Traditionally it is a bit of fun for us
all to get out of the house after all
the Christmas festivities.
REGS and Entry form are now avail-
able to download a
www.owenmotoringclub.co.uk
Please, where possible, enter
online. This will save on your entry
getting caught up in the Christmas
post.
If you can’t compete then come
along and marshal. Be there by
09.30 to sign on as a marshal. Free
snack ticket. We should be finished
by about 1.00 pm.
Slithering Santa Autotest 2014
‘Whizzo’ Williams. I find that Imps are a Mar-
mite thing, people either love them or hate
them! As I’ve never owned or worked on one
before this one I was glad of any information
people were giving me and have tried to re-
member it all. About a dozen people wanted
to buy my Imp including one person who just
wouldn’t take no for an answer, he kept say-
ing that I could now build another one quick-
er with the money from the sale of this one
to him!
Once the show was over strip down was
completed by the time I’d navigated my way
from the car park back into the hall. I hall.
Have to say all the NEC traffic people in the
Hi-Viz green jackets that I met over the 3
days were all very helpful and polite. Once
the car was loaded I followed in my Imp back
to the trailer park for final loading and got
home about 7.30ish and Elaine and I were in
the local pub for a late Sunday lunch by 8
o’clock! Anton met me back at the container
for unloading on Monday morning. All in all a
very enjoyable, if busy, few days and thanks
for asking me Bob. Hope we get a stand at
the restoration show in March now.