Chairman's Chat

In last month’s Backfire, Alan Spencer wrote an article about his adventures on this year’s Exeter Trial. Alan happened to mention in passing that Channel 5 were out filming two of their presenters who had entered in a car. As he was running close to their car he had seen the TV crews out filming. It was a day or two later that I tuned into Fifth Gear and who should appear in several shots, but Alan in the DPS. One of the shots had a very nice close up of the club badge on his car. I hope all this TV fame does not go to his head!

Follow up:

In the shots of other cars I spotted Mal and Donny Allen’s Marlin, with Mal’s elbow hanging over the door. However I did not spot Mark Tooth and Rob Gilmour who went on to win a Gold medal on the event. This also meant that Mark achieved a Triple as this event counted in place of the cancelled 2007 Edinburgh trial – Congratulations Mark. I thought that the TV report was very good and gave a good insight into one of the oldest forms of motorsport for members of the general public. It was also impressive to see the crowds of spectators out on the hills throughout the night.

Talking of spectators, I ventured over to the Forest of Dean to do some spectating myself on the Wye Dean Rally for the first time in several years. It was a lovely day with the sun shining brightly and there were plenty of spectators out enjoying the event. I took in the Serridge 1 stage in the morning, had time to go back to the car for lunch and then cross over the road in the afternoon to watch the Speech House stage. From memory, Speech House is a fast and flowing stage, and not far into the stage we found a sweeping 90 degree bend to watch at. I soon recognised a few familiar faces amongst the other spectators
as Matt Marples and Mark Astin had also chosen to watch at the same corner. It was good to see a wide selection of cars on the event, there were one or two ex-WRC cars, Andy Burton’s unique Cosworth powered Peugeot, lots of Evo’s and Subaru’s and first through the stages, the 1400cc class cars. However much to my delight there were a good number of Mark II Ford Escorts who were very happy to hang the tail out, they were joined by a few Mantas and a Sunbeam from the same era. Also very entertaining were the Land Rover Discovery and Freelander entries. I was expecting them to struggle around corners, but no they looked very stable and were certainly trying.

In February we had our first guest speaker of the year, when David George came to talk to us about Project Thrust SSC. David gave us a brief history of the Project and some of the struggles they faced with Engineering and financial challenges. David joined up as a Platinum Club member and when the team got out to the Black Rock desert he was able to take his holiday and go and join them. David described what was involved in preparing the car for a run and I did not appreciate how many people were involved. The Platinum club members were involved in the preparation of the course either marking out the run lines of walking the course to look for stones and other debris that could cause damage to the car’s tyres or engines. The Club members also performed perimeter security duties to try and stop people driving onto the desert during the runs. It was when on this duty, that during one of the runs, the parachutes of Thrust SSC failed and
the car overshot the end of the course. David happened to be in the location close by and was asked by the team to get to Thrust SSC. So he set off in his Camper Van and was the first to reach the car to offer assistance to Andy Green. David also had the chance to go up in one of the microlights that were used by
the team and fly over the desert.

David was there the day that Andy Green broke the land speed record which had been set by Richard Noble in Thrust 2, but he had to return home and missed out on the day when the car pushed the record further and broke the sound barrier. It was an excellent talk and David brought along part of his collection of memorabilia which included a lump of Black Rock that gives the desert its name and a sample of the sand from the desert floor.

March is going to be a busy month, especially with an early Easter. We
have a Nav Ex, a club night where you can come along and have a Noggin & Natter, a visit to the Race Retro Show at Stoneleigh, the marshals training day at Castle Combe and we finish off with the Bristol Seat Great Western Sprint.

There will also be a race meeting at Castle Combe which features the Classic racing cars from the 1960’s, 70’s and 80’s as well as the first round of the three CCRC championships, this is a race meeting where in the past I have met up with many club members. Behind the scenes there has been a lot of activity going on. Club members attended a MSA training day for non-licensed officials at Exeter. The Wessex Sprint organising committee has met and the regulations are now available. The Llandow Sprint team have also met and Secretary of the meeting Mal Allen is getting the paperwork sorted and entries Secretary Andy Moss will have the regs out shortly. The team behind the Great Western Sprint have also been finalising the details for the event. Chief Marshal, Nick Wood, has received excellent support in the call for marshals; Clerk of the Course Martin Baker has paid several visits to Castle Combe and with his deputies Mark Chater and Bob Hart the layout of start line, assembly area and Paddock are being confirmed.

Entries for the event have been coming in and at the time of writing have passed the 85 mark. As there is a limit of 100 cars, then those who want to enter and have not done so should take action now.