April 2008
Cover : Paddock at the Great western Sprint at Castle Combe
Photo : Andy Moss
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April 2008
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Cover : Paddock at the Great western Sprint at Castle Combe
Photo : Andy Moss
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The Bristol Pegasus Motor Club Backfire - April 2008
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2008 BPMC Events Calendar 2008
Changes shown BOLD
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The Bristol Pegasus Motor Club Backfire - April 2008
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Club Night
Monday 14th April
Come along for a drink and a chat from 8.30pm at the Weatshef, High Street, Winterbourne.
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Club Night
Monday 12th May
Treasure Hunt
Monday 19th May
The first treasure hunt of 2008.
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Wessex Sprint
Monday 5th May
Regs available from the website or from Carole Morgan. Marshals to contact Bob Hart - details below.
Production Car Trial
Sunday 11th May
Regs are now available from the
Website or please contact Andy Moss
on 0117 9041841 or e-mail
andv(o)mossdata.co.uk.
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Llandow Sprint
Monday 26th May
Entries are filling up fast for our
annual trip across the Severn bridge
to Llandow. Regs available from the
website or from Andy Moss - 0117
9041841. Marshals should Bob Hart.
Telephone 0117 9409772 or 07799
056176.
E-Mail bob.hart@blueyonder.co.uk
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The Bristol Pegasus Motor Club Backfire - April 2008
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thoughts down in writing, especially when they bring experience of other events of a similar format is extremely helpful.
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Last month saw the first running of the Great Western Sprint at Castle Combe. This event was organised with Bristol Motor Club and I think it is fair to say that the way it turned out was a great disappointment to the organising team. However I must say on behalf of the club a big thank you to all the marshalling team who had to stand out in some appalling weather in the afternoon.
As I write this, the event debrief meeting has not been held. The immediate thoughts of many drivers were that they liked the chance to drive 1 3A laps of the circuit, but it needs to be run without the delays and other problems that were encountered on the day. The problems of getting times out quickly to the drivers were also very frustrating for everyone. We have received some very constructive input from one of the experienced marshals and some of the drivers. All of these will be fed into the debrief meeting. I know it is a British tradition to have a good old moan, but the fact that someone has gone to the trouble to put their
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The week before I was at Castle Combe for the first race meeting of the season. Once again a good many club members were on the banking watching, most wearing woolly hats and big coats to keep out the cold wind. Those who were there saw club member Dave Cutcliffe making his racing debut in the Castle Combe Special GT race. In fact as well as Dave making his race debut, the Halsbury sports car he was driving actually made its first race start (it qualified last year, but never made a race start) and it made its first race finish. Dave qualified in sixth place and finished in sixth; he lost several places away from the start, but made them up over the duration of the race. Also in the race was Martin Baker form Woolbridge MC. Martin has been at our Sprints over the years in his rapid Morris Minor, but now he has acquired a Radical and he was out at Combe. At lunchtime the cars from the Castle Combe Saloons, FF 1600 and Special GT championships came out onto the circuit for the fans to get a closer look and have a chance to talk to the drivers. I was at Quarry
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The Bristol Pegasus Motor Club Backfire - April 2008
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vehicles. I know that they are not that Classic, but I found the display of Ford Escorts very interesting. They had many important cars from the world of Rallying and Racing. I guess that Escorts were the cars to have when I first started to get interested in motorsport and so I have had a soft spot for them. Well I could have joined the Escort club as David Sutton Motorsport had a Mark I rally prepared Escort for sale - the price was £75,000! If I wanted a Mkl Escort with a bit of rally pedigree (1972 RS1600 car driven to victory in the 2007 Safari Rally by Bjorn Waldegard), then all I had to do was to take my place at the Bonhams auction. I understand that the car went for £89,500, the highest price paid for Escort in an auction. If only I had kept my old my old Mark I Escort (it would have been a pile of rust by now!).
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Corner where the Special GT's were parked up. One of the Castle Combe commentary team was out interviewing the drivers. I bumped into Paul Bird who was talking to Rob Clarke and his pit crew. Paul and I were chatting when this bloke came up and stuck a microphone under my nose. I realised that I was now being interviewed and broadcast across the PA system. Sorry Paul, I denied you the chance for public glory!
Earlier in the month, the club paid it's now traditional visit to the Race Retro show at Stoneleigh. Thanks go to our driver, Martin Baker (our Martin Baker, not the Woolbridge one), who once again drove us up to the show and arranged the evening meal at the Gardeners Arms. I think the show managed to improve upon last year, with a very interesting selection of stands and display
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Looking forward to April, the Production Car Trial has been moved into May. The date we had chosen clashed with another Trial and we would have been short of organisers and entrants if we did not move. The May date should mean we have the chance for better weather, but Donny Allen has confirmed that she is available on that day and every time
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The Bristol Pegasus Motor Club Backfire - April 2008
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that she has been to Dundry, we have had rain - you have been warned.
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2008 GOODWOOD MOTOR SPORT SEASON
With the annual Goodwood Festival of Speed and Goodwood Revival motor sport events now just months away, plans are shaping up very well for a truly exciting and entertaining season in West Sussex.
This year's Festival of Speed theme - Hawthorn to Hamilton - Britain's Love Affair with World Motor Sport -promises a spectacular array of top racing drivers and riders with their cars and motorcycles descending on Goodwood from 11-13 July.
The popular Goodwood Revival meeting will celebrate its 10th anniversary from 19-21 September, as well as the 60th anniversary of the launch of the legendary Goodwood Motor Circuit, so you can expect many famous faces and machines to be seen in action throughout the event. Enhanced hospitality facilities, plus an all-new on-site Goodwood camping ground, may make you want to stay a while longer as well.
If you can't wait to get along to Goodwood until the Festival of Speed and Revival, why not pop along for the Goodwood Breakfast Club on the first Sunday of the month for a tasty meal and some great vehicles click here for details, or fly down for the Goodwood Aero Club Vintage Fly-In and Air Display to get close to the historic aviation action on 25-26 May.
Whichever Goodwood event you choose to visit, you can be assured of an enjoyable experience.
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There was surprising news the other week and that was that Grand Prix motor racing TV coverage would be coming back to the BBC. It will be good to see the racing without the advert breaks and with Freeview having four HD channels in 2009, one of them being for the BBC, us armchair viewers could be in for a treat, let us hope the racing itself is worth watching.
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I hope the BBC can arrange a transfer for Martin Brundle, his insight and comments are excellent, but the one thing they must do is bring back the theme music "The Chain", I am sure that Fleetwood Mac could do with the royalties.
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The Bristol Pegasus Motor Club Backfire - April 2008
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Date For Your Diary Future Club Night
Monday 8th September Club Night
For our September club night our very own Martin Emsley will 'Ramble'
Photo left - Martin attempting Wheelchair Land Speed record after previous
attempt ended in failure.
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The Bristol Pegasus Motor Club Backfire - April 2008
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DAVE'S RACING DEBUT
Report By Kieron Winter Photos By Pete Stowe
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Over the winter, the team offered Dave a drive in the car, so he had to take his ARDS course. Dave was able to test the car at Combe on the pre-race test day and there was some concern over the oil temperature. Come race day the car was on slick tyres when it started to snow at Combe, luckily this quickly passed and Dave was out for his first practice. He had problems with a slower car weaving to try and get his tyres warm making it dangerous to overtake him. Dave eventually got past him and settled down and qualified in sixth place. Just before the end of practice the oil temperature was high and Dave pulled off into the pits, the whole back of the car was covered in oil, including the tyres!
The team was very disappointed and thought that they would yet again fail to make a race start. However Dave convinced them not to go home, but to get the car ready. It was agreed that he would start the race, do six laps and then pull off before any serious damage was done. However in the pit lane just before the race, the owner leaned over to Dave and said "go for it".
On the warm up lap Dave had trouble getting any heat into the tyres, the car in front was doing some heavy weaving and when Dave put his foot down the turbo kicked in and almost shot him into the back of him. So Dave backed off which meant that he arrived on the grid with cold tyres. When the red lights came on, everyone revved their engines and Dave used to starting on his own in Sprints, realised that he could not hear his own engine! He was also concerned
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The Easter Bank Holiday Race meeting saw Dave Cutcliffe making his racing debut at Castle Combe. Dave was driving the Halsbury sports car, a home designed and built car from Bristol. The owner wanted to do his own design and was inspired by the Le Mans winning Audi R8.
Last year the car came to Castle Combe and the team employed a professional driver, however the car suffered reliability problems and it never made a race start. Dave Griffiths at Interpro had known Dave Cutcliffe for a long time and had seen the work that he had done on developing his Van Diemen Sprint car over the years. Knowing that he had retired and would have plenty of time on his hands (most people I know who have recently retired tell me they don't know how they had the time to go to work!), he suggested to the Halsbury team that they ought to talk to Dave to help them with engineering the car. So Dave got involved with the team, though he tells me that they did not always follow his recommendations!
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The Bristol Pegasus Motor Club Backfire - April 2008
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about the transmission making a racing start as the car had managed to twist the output shafts previously. This resulted that when the lights went out; his car was sat there with the cold tyres spinning and everyone driving around him. By the time the car got going he was almost last.
Dave settled down and started to pass the cars that had overtaken him at the start and in fact managed to lap some of the slower cars and just managed to avoid being lapped by the race winner himself. Dave was having some troubles with the gear change coming out of Quarry corner, but was OK at other corners. Compared to his Van Diemen, the Halsbury had less down force and Dave thought that he was doing 112 mph over Avon Rise, where he would do 130 mph in the Van Diemen. So Dave got the car to the end of the race and the car recorded its first finish. The team intend to be back at Combe for the race meeting on 5th May when the engine will have paid a visit to Interpro, let us hope that they make it two finishes in a row..
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MEMBERSHIP REPORT
By John Corfield
We're in a good position so far this year, and are running at 90% of last year's end-of-year membership. The geographical distribution has not changed from my last analysis (see the graph below).
Interestingly we have now reached the same number of partner members as last year. I'm hopeful, as it's still relatively early in the year, that we'll match last years membership and continue to prove that BPMC is a healthy club providing true value for such a low membership cost.
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For all the latest news
Why not visit our website
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Above : Nick Wood talks to Dave
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The Bristol Pegasus Motor Club Backfire - April 2008
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The Bristol Pegasus Motor Club Backfire - April 2008
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THE SOLO CHAMPIONSHIP
"SPRING ROSSOLO"
9th March 2008 By Alan Spencer
Following the event at Weston Airfield that many of the club members never got to do ( I was a little late entering ) the next event in the championship was held at the M5 services at Strensham in the lorry park.
I had managed to gain an entry in the Parsons ford not a car built for this type of event but it wasn't too bad as it is short and easy to place around bollards. We were to run 4 courses and had 3 runs at each with a full entry of 40 cars and competitors, Ross and District Motor club under the directions of Simon Harris and other club members pulled off a well run on time event.
I ran in the "kit special car" class with a very well prepared VW Scirocco - with no trim and a modified engine. This class is specifically for specials and modified cars.
As I have had many years practice in Autotest this event should have been a walk over, but if something goes wrong it will. On the second course I put in 3 wrong tests with mistakes in three different places on the course, what was I doing or thinking? That was the end of any good times for the rest of the day - I could never catch up after that.
However, looking at the results, modern saloon cars have come on in leeps and bounds since my last event in Autotest, they are very much quicker today, so I have to
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rethink or buy a good modern car to do well in any of the other championship events. Still it was good fun and big smiles all round the paddock area as all competitors had a good day on the tarmac, although it was very abrasive and wore out some tyres during the day.
The Lotus Elises were impressive as were the Subaru Impreza drivers and the car to have seems to be a Peugeot 106 GTI or Rallye - has any one got one, very impressive.
A very good day out, the Parsons was let down by its driver. Looking forward to the next round at Oxford on 19th April and the Dolphin M/C's event on the 7th June.
It's a great discipline and inexpensive Motor sport.
Below : Spence in our Solo last year
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The Bristol Pegasus Motor Club Backfire - April 2008
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Clubmans Championship 2008 Up to the February Nav-Scatter
Prepared by Chris Goodchild
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Marshals Championship 2008 Up to the February Nav-Scatter
Prepared by Chris Goodchild
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