Sevenoaks & District Motor Club

The Acorn July & August 2010

Founded 1954

Motorsport at the Palace, May 2010

Sevenoaks and District Motor Club Ltd PRESIDENT: John Symes VICE PRESIDENT: Vic EIford

ACORN MAGAZINE

July & August 2010

The Editor, Committee and Club do not necessarily agree with items and opinions expressed within this magazine

OFFICERS and COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN: Chin chin@btinternet.com SECRETARY: Tracey Niel tracey.niel@ntlworld.com MEMBERSHIP SEC, Andy Elcomb TRK: andyelcomb@yahoo.com TREASURER: Clive Cooke clive.v.cooke@virgin.net ACORN EDITOR: Suze Endean suze_endean@yahoo.co.uk COMPETITION SEC, Ian Crocker WEBMASTER: ian@seight.com SPEED LEAGUE David Balderson CHAMP CO-ORD: balderson@ntlworld.com SPEED LEAGUE Russell Giddings SCORER: russ@jimgiddingsfurniture.com RALLY SECRETARY: Iain Gibson CHIEF MARSHAL: Chris Scudder chris.scudder@virgin.net SOCIAL SECRETARY: Rosemary & Nigel Mead mead.nigel@virgin.net PRESS & PR: Steve Thompson stevthom1@hotmail.com CPO: Dawn Travers dawn.travers@ntlworld.com WITHOUT PORTFOLIO: Darren Tyre darren.tyre@ntlworld.com WEB ACORN: Ralph Travers ralph.travers@ntlworld.com

Website - www.sevenoaksmotorclub.com

Copy date for the September issue is 18th August. Please send any copy to me by this date. I will accept copy by email to

suze_endean@yahoo.co.uk, or by post [typed or handwritten].

Editorial Ramblings So as you’d expect with this being the first issue of Acorn after Crystal Palace, there are lots of photos and thoughts from people who enjoyed the event there at the end of May. We competed on the Sunday and marshalled on the Monday and everybody seemed to be having a good time. As you are probably aware, this issue of Acorn is somewhat delayed and so is a July / August issue. I have tried to “update” articles and information etc as best as possible but you may notice things being slightly out of date in some places, but this is not down to the contributors. A few people have asked where Acorn is, so it is good to know that some people read it! As mentioned in the last edition, a new Acorn Editor is required as a change of job loca-tion for me is meaning that I am spending very little time at home during the week, and trying to fit in some motorsport at the weekends means I am having to cut down on other commitments, which unfortu-nately includes things such as missing the Bat and Trap social recently which I hear was a very good event again. If anyone is interested in taking over, or just wants to know more of what is involved, please get in touch. Since CP I’ve been out competing on a number of events, including co-driving on the Essex Charity Stages [an early bath after SS2 due to splitting the shell...], The Drystone up in Derbyshire [driving this time] where I had another good finish, the 7oaks Auto-solo recently and a few other events. The summer months mean a bit of a break for us until September when both the ASEMC Car Trial Championship and the Endurance Championship get underway again and so there are events on for us on most weekends up until Christmas. The 7oaks all day Autotest is coming up on Sunday 8th August and should be a good event again, before the North Weald Sprint at the end of August. There is also a Noggin and Natter at The Bell, Kemsing on 18th

August before Pig Racing returns to The Bell once again in September—details on the socials can be found in this edition of Acorn. The regs and entry form for all the all day autotest are available now from the website, www.sevenoaksmotorclub.com and the sprint regs and entry form will be available there shortly. As always, if you’ve been up to anything please send in a report or photos of the event. Suze Endean Chin’s Chairman’s Chat Well, it’s all over now – what is? – Crystal Palace! Was-n’t it good! We’ve had our debrief and met with Brom-ley Council and everyone is happy with the way it went; there are, of course, several corners to round off (figuratively speaking) and a few ideas from this year to be carried forward but in real terms we have a prestigious event to be proud of. Thank you to all who put in so much hard work to get there and to our spon-sors for their support. Make sure the 29/30th May 2011 is free from all other impediments. I must admit that, with all the preparations for the above event, my motor sport activities have been somewhat curtailed apart from our evening Autotest Series, which Stacey Thompson has again put together in her usual competent way. They’re still fun and I’m actually getting a bit better at using the handbrake (not a lot, though), numbers are not quite as high as last year and several of the juniors have grown into the ‘standard’ age range. To supplement that com-petitive ‘fix’ I’ve been persuaded to join the regular tourists to our Welsh speed weekend at Llandow and Llys-y-Fran which should be fun and sociable. As you will have read in last month’s Oakleaf, Suze is having to retire from the Editor’s chair having started work in Maidstone and living in Essex takes up too much of her days to allow to continue in that post. I think it’s not so much the actual travelling time as the passport control on the bridge. My thanks go to Suze for the fine job she’s made of it including the reduc-tion to A5, saving a lot in postage, and for working really hard to keep to the publication date, a task that all us ex-editors know is nigh on impossible. I hope to see you at an event soon. Chin

Forthcoming SDMC Events Sunday 8th August - Whole Day Autotest - Farningham Contact Stacey Thompson, Tel: 0208 300 2690, stacey1965@hotmail.com Sunday 29th August - Sprint - North Weald Preliminary enquiries to Ian Crocker, Competition Secretary, ian@seight.com

SDMC SOCIAL EVENT CALENDAR (Contact Rosemary or Nigel Mead, Tel: 01892

832420 e-mail : mead.rosemary@virginmedia.com.

Please contact The Bell if you will be purchas-ing food, Tel: 01732 761550).

WEDNESDAY 18th AUGUST 2010

NOGGIN AND NATTER At The Bell, Kemsing, anytime from 7pm.

New to the club? Wish to meet other members? Then come along for a chat over a beer and a

bite to eat.

WEDNESDAY 15th SEPTEMBER PIG RACING

At The Bell, Kemsing, from 7:30pm The cute little pigs are back!

38th Monteberg Rallysprint 2010 Following our exploits last year in the Porsche 911 Car-rera 3 Derek Webb and I along with 70 plus other crews, 50% were from the UK and Ireland, entered the 38th running of the Monteberg Rallysprint, held over part of the infamous Kemmelberg stage at Dranouter south east of Ypres. Late last year the Porsche 911 Carrera 3 had been sold and shipped to Hong Kong where it was to be used in an Asian based rally series. After much searching Derek purchased an extremely bright yellow 1972 2 litre Group 4 Mk1 Escort from Ireland which had only been used on a limited number of sprints. Over the winter Derek and I re-fettled the Escort, fitting new Tilton 6 point harnesses, polycarbonate rear screen and side windows, Corbeau seats, upgrading the front brakes to AP Racing callipers and discs, replaced the 15” wheels

to 13” minilites shod with fresh Kuhmo rubber along with re-vamping the suspension set-up to comply with full international FIA spec. The car had been built with GM electric power steering and a Quaife 5 speed sequential gearbox married up to a 2 litre pinto producing about 170 BHP via a 5.1 diff leaving it a bit down on top speed offset against a quick rate of acceleration, this lead us to enter Monteberg in the modified class as it would not be eligible to run in the FIA Historic Class. The weather forecast for the early May bank holiday threatened to be very wet and windy over south east Eng-land, northern France and the whole of Belgium, but as we arrived in Dranouter on Saturday it was pleasantly dry and reasonably mild. As on previous occasions when competing in Belgium, Derek and I along with our ser-vice crew were staying at the very relaxed B&B run by the Vanacker family in Loker where we also had the use of a local garage to securely store the car and trailer care of Bart Vanacker, who incidentally was competing in the VAS national event on the Saturday in his Fiat Tipo. Derek & I made a point in locating Bart in the service road, where Bart had kindly arranged for us to use the same service pitch on the next day, and introduced us to Frederick, whose house we would be setting up outside early Sunday morning. Signing on, at the local school, took place on the Saturday afternoon which was surprisingly unrushed and very quiet since there were over 70 crews entered on the event. After we had paid our 130 euro entry fee we re-ceived our road book, advertising logos and numbers which were duly affixed to the car. Scrutineering was also very relaxed and straight forward although, along with several other UK crews, we fell foul of a recent RACB rule change outlawing, on safety grounds, the use of clear plastic fuel level sight tubes on boot mounted fuel tanks. A competitor on a Belgian stage rally sometime last year had to change a wheel whilst on stage and failed to secure the punctured wheel inside the boot of the car. Unbeknown to the competing crew the un-tethered wheel had dislodged the fuel level sight tube and subsequently petrol had leaked into the boot space. Luckily this was spotted by an eagle eyed marshal at the stage finish time control who noticed fuel leaking from beneath the boot well whilst the competitors time was being entered on their time card. We were given two options by the scrutineer - either remove the sight tube and cap the holes or provide some form of protective cover plate to prevent the possibility of any stray objects dislodging the tube. At this juncture I was approached by a guy who just so happened to have a purpose made aluminium and toughened polycarbon-ate cover plate that by chance would do the job, “you’re not the only one to be caught out by this rule change, it’s yours for £50.00!” After checking with the scrutineer he said this would be acceptable for this year, however in future years the tube would have to be removed and securely capped. After a bit of haggling and offering what we thought was a realistic sum of £25.00 for the cover plate, came the reply “it cost us £35.00 to make.” Derek and I came to the conclusion that £35.00 was begrudgingly worth paying to appease the scrutineer and therefore allow us to compete on the event. As it turned out, after handing over £40.00 I got £15.00 change, obviously maths was not this guy’s strong point and the cover plate only cost us £25.00. The scrutineer questioned why we had entered the modified and not the historic class and upon being told the

Escort had a sequential gearbox, power steering and coil over rear suspension we were reassigned to class E ‘Experimental class’ along the likes of Darrian T9, Toyota Corolla, Escort RS & Mk2’s. Oh well we were here to enjoy ourselves, as Derek had only driven the Escort for 40 road miles before the event it would therefore be a learning experience to see how the car performed under competition conditions. This year’s stage had been shortened to 8.6km instead of 9.1km as in previous years due to road works taking place on the northern loop of the stage. With this in mind, Derek & I travelled to Dranouter 2 weeks prior to the event to check the pace notes I had made by looking at the detailed mapping produced by Google Earth, as it transpired the notes only needed fine tuning as they were 90% correct. Overnight the weather changed from dry and mild to wet and somewhat colder with a strengthening northerly wind. Derek and I made our way to

the service area, followed by Paul, Lewis and Mick, where we set up our pitch outside Frederick’s humble abode. With little chance of the wet conditions lifting it was decided to complete the first compulsory recce on new lightly scrubbed Kumho wets and as our due time of 9.44 ap-proached we made our way to start of the 8.6km stage. The first 1.95km of the stage was exactly the same as previ-ous years, albeit extremely muddy and slippery through the tree lined section at the 900m mark which was interesting to say the least with little room for error since the stage had been used by 100+ cars contesting the Belgium national event the previous day. After 1.95km the course deviated from previous years, encompassing a very slippery blind over crest right to hairpin left, where like many other

crews, we were caught out by the slippery conditions leading to a four wheel lock up before managing to nego-tiate around the hairpin. From here there was a fast down hill 300m straight to a square right followed by an-other shortish straight to a slight left immediately into a tight hairpin left with a lot of loose gravel on its en-try. Another short section lead to a down hill square right to left 2 combination followed by a fast flowing 450m sweeping combination of slight bends to another square right followed by a short left 1 – left 2+ , square left combination at the 5.25km mark. From here the stage was the same as previous years, fast and flowing with some degree of caution needed so not to be caught out by loose gravel and hidden ruts especially on the very fast down section leading to a square left – square right near to the stage start. On completion of the first recce we recorded a time of 6:43, which was respectable since, as mentioned earlier, this was the first time Derek had driven the Escort competitively and he was learning the cars handling, cornering and braking capa-bilities. The second recce was similar to the first as the wet conditions still prevailed. During the service break, before the timed runs started, we were approached by another competitor David Hind who was competing in a Peugeot 106GTI and who was enquiring about the car, as it transpired he origi-nally built the Escort in 2005. He was quite impressed that it looked in the same condition when he owned it 4 years ago. As our due time for the start of the first of three timed runs was a little way off, Derek and I con-templated changing the tyres from the Kumho wets to Hankook moulded slicks, however a short sharp spell of rain changed our minds so we stayed on the wets for the first timed run. It transpired the first 2km was still very slippery but after that the course was drying out and we managed to improve our time by over 30 sec-onds. Following service the decision was made to change to the Hankook moulded slicks and after a few hairy moments through the muddy tree lined section the car felt quicker, more stable and had more grip and with Derek coming to terms with the car’s capabilities our times dropped over the next two timed runs by a further 18 seconds with a best time of 5:44.21 giving us a finishing place of 47th O/A & 6th in Class, averaging a little under 90kph over the 8.6km stage. The overall winner of the event was Patrick Snjers & Jeannick Breyne in a Subaru Impreza N12 with a time of 4:37.14 (111kph). The first British crew were Mark Worley and David Gamblin in a WRC Subaru S9 who finished in third place a mere 5.37secs adrift followed by Steven Hendy & Aled Davies in a WRC Ford Focus a further 2.4secs down in fifth place. This years Monteberg Rallysprint was as usual a very enjoyable event, especially the hospitality shown to us by Frederick who, during the extended service halt, came bearing bottles of Belgian beer care of Bart, for us to imbibe which was most welcomed by our service crew of Paul, Lewis and especially Mick, who quickly became fluent in the local Flemmish dialect – ‘Beer’ !!! Archie Pelling, Co-driver to Derek Webb, Car No 44 Group 4 Mk1 Escort

Crystal Palace—30th / 31st May 2010

A few words from Crystal Palace Clerk of the Course, Andy Elcomb: Firstly I sincerely hope that everyone involved in Crystal Palace is proud of themselves, and the club, for what has been universally regarded as a real triumph. At the time of writing we are yet to hold a debrief meeting with Bromley Council, but the early indications are that everyone is already looking forward to doing it all again next year. We certainly hope that is the case as it is good not only for our club, but motorsport in gen-eral. Our thanks go to everyone - sponsors, officials, marshals, competitors, the displays and not forgetting the spectators or the park rangers and landowners. However, whilst pretty much everything went to plan over the weekend it wasn't quite perfect.... Whilst the role of Clerk or Event Director may appear to be almost glamorous - particularly when we had the opportunity to drive the excellent course / safety cars supplied by our generous sponsor Ancaster - there is a flip side. 7.30pm Sunday evening, long after most had left the park, anyone wandering by would have seen the rather strange sight of senior event officials moving rubbish bins around - and the Clerk of the Course actually inside some of them, jumping up and down desperately trying to make more space! Come Monday evening those same people could be found still taking down signs and picking up rubbish - so you can see that there can be pros and cons to taking on the responsibility of an event like this. So, if we can rely on the club membership to help out again next year, there is no reason not to go from strength to strength and put 7oaks well and truly back on the map. Mark that weekend in your diaries now please!! Finally, if anyone would like to find out more, or would like to become involved in the running of any of our events, then just pick up the phone or drop an email to any of the committee and we'll be only too happy to explain. No previous experience required as we all started from scratch, but the workload is so much nicer spread across a greater number of volunteers. In the immortal words of Young Mr Grace: "You've all done very well!" From Fyrth Cross's personal website: 1.6.10 Back from South London after a good weekend of sprinting, described below. Such a beautiful location made even better with B&B in the Sports Centre accommodation block, only 8 minutes from the High Street and food. With everything parked in the competitors car park it made a relaxing change to walk to the event in the morning. The pics are courtesy of Mike Broome. There are plenty of videos on YouTube and the like that give a flavour of the event. Motorsport at The Palace 30 & 31 May 2010 Thanks to the investment of hard work and money by Sevenoaks & District MC, Bromley Council and the com-mercial sponsors headed by Ancaster Nissan, motor sport returned to The Palace in 2010 after a 10 year gap. Whilst the original track has been decimated since clo-sure in 1972 it is possible to follow its route, part of which is incorporated into the sprint track. It is situated in 200 acres of park, originally established when the innovative pavilion built by Paxton for the Grand Exhibi-tion of 1851 was moved to Penge Place in 1854, subse-quently being renamed Crystal Palace. The location is magnificent, the hill top location looking south to The

Downs and north to Canary Wharf and dominated by the television mast, iconic to all South Londoners. Sadly the pavilion was completely destroyed in the 1936 fire but the terrace on which it was built still remains, for this weekend serving as the competitors and officials parking and camping area and the sponsor’s display area with a superb view above the track. The organisation was comprehensive with a complete but cheerful security blanket over the site from Saturday giving confidence to the early arrivals after battling their way through the Bank Holiday traffic. Competition cars drove down from the terrace into the grassed paddock, a regular shuttle of drop sides provided by Ancaster mov-ing tools boxes and bulky paraphernalia. The 700m track was technical with varying widths and surfaces, Sevenoaks having to relay one section of the original track at a cost of £14000 with the MSA chipping in a bit.

Other sections were coated with a marble coloured material for the Millennium which did not inspire much confidence. Happily it was dry for Sunday and Monday and grip better than expected. Initial viewing on Saturday suggested a ‘flat’ section from Quaife Hairpin to North Tower but that was obviously too good to be true and a ‘kink’ appeared for Sunday morning! Considerable quantities of armco were in place, 38½ tons the figure, all to be removed the following week and placed in storage, hopefully for 2011? The entries were both interesting and varied with cars not normally seen at our type of event. Clearly a predominance of drivers from the South East but a brief scan highlighted entries from Newton Abbott, Saxmunden, Paignton, Horncastle, Ship-ley, Market Overton, Glasgow and Bourne. The emphasis was

on sport and ‘Festival’ as Clerk Andy Elcomb eloquently explained at the drivers briefing – everyone were on view to a large public audience and indeed the Mayor and senior officials from Bromley CC were present on Sun-day taking rides on the course. Amongst many ‘pilots anciene’ present was Tony Crook, the driving light behind Bristol Cars. Sunday dawned dry and warm, blue sky and clouds, shirt sleeve weather. Scrutineering started at 7.15 and the paddock quickly filled, practice starting at 9.00am. Because of the nature of the event classes were in age defined groups of saloons, sports cars, electric and alternative fuels, modified and specialist, sports libre and single seaters, 91 cars listed in the final results. The venue was soon filling with spectators with plenty of see as there was also a large display area adjacent to the paddock and viewing was possible around most of the track with the upper terrace particularly popular. The large paddock allowed the public to wander comfortably with space to view and take pictures without hindering the drivers. Competition started at 1.00pm. Setting the style John Scott’s 1388cc Anglia won the first class with a creditable 45.32sec and Andrew Webber the next with 39.09sec in his 1800cc Elan +2. Ferrari’s abounded in the ‘moderns’, Nick Taylor in his 343GT with 38.51sec taking the class and indeed 8th overall whilst 2nd place man John Marshall in his 430 on 38.76sec was 9th overall. Early specialist cars and Clive Scott made good use of his ex-Sean McClurg and still sparkling 1500cc GSM Delta on 40.82sec for the win whilst Alan Bankhurst justified the trip from Horn-castle with 40.96sec in his quick 1680cc TVR Vixen in the 1967-1976 group. The most modern group and Clive Alston’s Caterham Superlight took the win on 39.52sec. The intriguing Electric & Alternative Fuel class saw two Tesla Roadsters, very impressive despite all those batteries, Glan Avignone on 38.78sec with the win and indeed 10th overall. A sign of things to come? Modified and specialist cars, the early class going to the pretty Sebring Sprite of Andrew Actman on 40.12sec although closely chased by Roy Edwards Escort RS2000 twincam on 40.19sec with ‘hot shoe’ Barrie ‘Whizzo’ Williams conduct-ing his 1293 Cooper S to 4th in class on 40.97sec. The modern group was settled by Richard West’s Sierra XR 4x4 with a first run 37.92sec and 6th overall so the times were hotting up. The early Sport Libre class was interesting; amongst others Simon Taylor’s de-mon black HWM, Peter Mann’s ex-Tony Crook Cooper Bristol and the exquisite George family Chevron B19 which was conducted to the win by the charming Amanda on 39.96sec. The later Libres were won by Mathew Oliver with 39.56sec in his RX4. It was now single seater time, the early class with John Sutton’s famous Maclachlan Austin 7 and the Eccles Lagonda Rapier, close together with Jane Metcalfe taking the award on 48.72sec in the Rapier. The large ’47-76 single seaters had Formula Juniors, F3 screamers, old and modern F3’s and FF in their mix, FJ supremo Duncan Rabagliati in his familiar orange Alexis FJ and Ian Bankhurst in another Alexis, this

time an F3 screamer.Unsurprisingly power held sway and Fyrth Crosse’s 1600cc Ensign LNF3 took the class on 36.42sec and 3rd overall, followed by David Brise’s FF Royale RP21 on 37.41sec and 6th overall. The modern sin-gle seater class was won by the unique, at least in the UK, 1000cc Stohr DSR sports racer of John Hewat with an excellent 36.92sec and 2nd overall. The day’s best time went to Duncan Cowper’s superbly driven 1300cc Dax Rush, clear of the field and the only car in the 35’s, indeed nearly the 34’s with 35.18sec. An impressive day with 3 timed runs counting for the awards in the afternoon and everything finished by 4.45pm. The large crowd certainly had plenty to hold their interest and were genuinely enthusiastic about the days sport, talking to the drivers and loving the paddock atmosphere. And another event on Monday! A duller day but it remained dry, to everyone’s relief. A similar programme to Sunday was planned with 95 cars in the final results, many of whom had stayed overnight whilst others arrived for the day including several from Sun-day’s French Day at Prescott. Again there was early activity with practice away promptly. Sadly an early runner had a serious accident after the finish line, rolling his car in The Glade, without personal harm. This was dealt

with efficiently and the organisers took the positive view that sceptical onlookers now knew that a serious incident would be dealt with professionally, something of course we already know. Thereafter everything went like clockwork; times no-ticeably quicker as drivers were benefitting from more track time and the track improving with use. Into the action again promptly at 1.00 and Henry Brooks started the day in his 1903 Humberette, this ‘Brighton’ vet-eran setting the style for Monday, the class won by David Loveys in his Allard K1 on 44.94sec. The following class saw Derek Pearce muscle his Mk2 Jaguar to an excellent 40.57sec and Andrew Webber again won the following group in his Elan+2 won 39.19sec. The modern class contained several Renault/Alpine/Matra cars so it was no surprise that Simon Taylor wafted to a winning 39.63sec in his mid-engined Ren-ault GTA turbo, surely one of the most underrated perform-

ance road cars produced. Specialist cars followed and the familiar grey Ballamy Ford V8 of Mark Brett was on form with a final run 41.93sec. David Wylie took the later class with the Speedwell Sprite, 41.37sec and closely chased by the XK150S of Michael O’Shea on 42.58sec. Alan Bankhurst repeated Sunday’s success, his well driven TVR Vixen on 40.65sec. The Electric and Alternative Fuel class saw a Lotus Exige steel the show, Martin Galpin with very quick 38.09sec on his first run to head Glan Avignone’s Tesla by only 0.41sec, these two 7th and 9th respectively in the overall standings. The early modified class and Chris Browne took this large class in his 2 litre Mk.1 Escort on 39.85sec, a class enlivened on both days by Ian Wright’s 4.7 litre Corvette whose tyre shredding starts brought rounds of ap-plause from the spectators, the tyre smoke lingering for ages! Another 2 litre Escort took the following class, Roger Burgess with a sparkling 38.01sec and 6th overall. The moderns and Ritchie Gatt had the bit between his teeth with 36.31sec in his Westfield SEiW, 3rd in the overall standings. A larger and equally interesting Sports Libre class also included Cooper Bobtail, Warwick Mk 2 and a Turner. Darren Tyre however found his Ford en-gined Sprite adequate for the job, winning with a third run 39.91sec from the Turner. The large ’47-76 single seater class followed, 14 racers growling away in the collection area creating a tremendous atmosphere, the fumes and noise redolent of past times at The Palace. This time David Brise took the win, 37.09sec in his Royale FF and 4th overall from another from the Bankhurst family, Ian in his immaculate Alexis Mk8 F3 screamer who every reason to be pleased with 38.28sec, followed by well known hill climber Malcolm Wishart who justi-fied his trip from Glasgow with 40.71sec in his Cooper T65 FJ, the actual car that Cooper built with hydrolastic suspension, quickly learning the error of their ways. Proceedings concluded with the post 1977 class and Mike Field was again flying in his Stohr DSR, an exciting last run 35.89sec to improve on Sunday and again 2nd overall. Monday’s best time laurels went to Fyrth Crosse in his 1600cc F3 Ensign LNF3, a first run 35.55sec staying clear of the edge at North Tower, unlike the last F3 race at The Palace in September 1972 when this Ensign parked on the sleepers that bounded the track. Once again competitors had 3 timed runs counting for the awards and a finish just before 5.00pm. Another suc-cessful day brought to a fitting end with Tony Crook graciously presenting the prizes with an interested word for each competitor. Satisfied competitors and spectators departed their various ways, Motorsport at The Palace having been revived, all unanimously hoping that the gig will be repeated in 2011. And a footnote; the official results were in competitor’s inboxes at 8.00pm Monday evening, something many other illustrious clubs seem unable to achieve.

Motorsport at the Palace raised over £3000 for local charities. Below is a photo of the charities receiving their cheques, and on the following pages letters from them after the event.

The Yacco As far back as the early 1930s, Citroën teamed with Yacco, an oil com-pany in France, for endurance testing on Citroën automobiles. These cars were tested at Montlhéry, a track outside Paris. The most famous car was a traction avant nicknamed “Petite Rosalie” which spent 134 days on the track in 1934 covering close to 200,000 miles at an average

speed of 57.8 miles per hour. By 1950, Citroën introduced the ever popu-lar 2CV. The Yacco Special 2CV a record breaker in the tradition of the earlier endurance testing, sponsored again by Yacco, a production car was chopped, lightened, lowered, and shortened to compete in the 1953 Bol d’or Race at Montlhéry. The “Barbot Special” succeeded in breaking nine international records–two of which were 12 hours at 90.9 kph (56.5 mph) and 24 hours at 85 kph (52.8 mph).

Specifications: Manufacturer: Andrè Citroën, Ingénieur-Constructeur Country of Origin: France Drivetrain Configuration: Front engine, front wheel drive Engine: 625cc, 2 cylinder, air cooled Transmission: 4 speed manual Top Speed: 80 miles per hour Years of Production: Not a production vehicle Number Produced: 3 Built by Mark Waghorn of MWM the modern day road leagal replicar of the Barbot Special caputures some of the spriit of Citroen's in those early days. The Yacco always draws attention & lots of interest wherever it goes. Information courtesy of David Balderson

Crystal Palace Sprint 30th / 31st May 2010 Having competed in sprints in 98/99 and enjoyed the Palace events, I was really pleased to hear the event was back on after 10 years. In recent years I hadn’t competed much except for a run at Brands in 2007 and the odd trackday. My choice of car was down to my Strada project which after 4 years is nearing completion or my Mini company show car. In the end it was simple as my Mini was taxed, MOTed and ready and the Fiat was still in bits, I had always kept my 7oaks membership so an entry was duly submitted and I renewed my licence ready to do battle again! Sunday morning was bright and dry so we set off to the Palace excited at the prospect of a

good day..... upon arrival I easily found my paddock space but my crew (the wife) was not impressed at having to wheel our gear down from the upper paddock! (Good job I left the spare engine at home! But that was not the only thing!). Signing on and walking the course taken care of, it was good to see Andy Elcomb and Colin Billings in charge and it felt good to be back in the paddock with such a friendly bunch. Returning to the car for scrutineering nearly ruined the day as to my horror my crash helmet was found to be out of date, January this year to be exact! With said hat impounded, I considered my options, I did have a brand new helmet I had planned to bring with me but for some reason it was still sitting at home and not in the support car as planned!!!!! My other problem was if I could borrow one as I have an affliction which affected my initial start in motorsport all those years ago....my head is too big for all standard size helmets! My original now out of date one took some finding and was a shoei motorcycle helmet in XXL, my new OMP one took six months to come from Italy, and so my only option was the wife offering to go home and get it but we weere looking at a good couple of hours so I would probably miss first prac-

tice. After consulting with Andy Elcomb he confirmed I could miss first practice and join in once my new lid had arrived but I didn’t want to miss a thing so I walked back to the paddock very annoyed at myself for mess-ing up, and ready to give up. However you can imagine my joy when the wife appeared with Martin and Gra-ham Sansom in tow, they had heard about my troubles and might have a spare lid I could use! The wait was tense as we waited for the guys to return from the upper paddock, but I was soon presented with a suitable open face helmet which although didnt fit like a glove would do the job as the picture shows! A check with the scrutineer and we weere back in business! Many many thanks to Sanspeed for getting me out of trouble! Even though the small lid made my chin look like Jo Winklehock! Walking the course showed the track had changed a little since 2000 particularly the run from Turn 1 to the Hairpin being quite a bit narrower than I remembered. The final double right hander and run to the finish where definitely narrower with the armco much closer in both cases, a few guys in the paddock voiced their concerns but I likened it to our very own Monaco, but was glad I was in a mini! With thoughts of maybe being able to compete with the bigger cars in my class, after practice I changed my mind on that... Practice proved how unsuitable the gearing was in my car for the course as I was pretty much in 2nd gear through the run with the limiter raised to suit. Although the cam in my 1380 Mini produces good torque the power band is very narrow so the engine really stopped pulling at around 6500rpm so my plan to run it to 7k didn’t work. Working out the gearing I was getting around 60mph approaching the chicane compared to the dax FTD car that hit 94mph so I think it was probably better specc-ed for this track. Getting a 43.01 in the official runs spurred me on to get into the 42s but a muffed start on the last run ruined it. I experimented with short shifting to 3rd to the haripin and chicane but as braking began the engine was just coming on cam so too fast into the turns. The slippery surface didn’t help with braking so I stuck to using 2nd and trying to master the corners. I improved through the runs but not enough to better my previous efforts all those years ago in my more purpose built sprint Mini but pleased as in comparison to the other Minis it didn’t disgrace itself. I was 3rd Mini, a tenth behind a Miglia Racer and 2 seconds off Whizzo in the BTCC Mini. All in, after the problems in the morning, it was an excellent day and I wished I had entered the Monday too! Hope-fully next year I can with the Mini and Fiat. It was an excellent event, well managed, superb crowd and Andy Elcomb and Colin Billings should be very proud of leading the event on the days as well as the amount of work that went on behind the scenes from everyone involved to give us frustrated racing drivers the opportunity to perform in front of a crowd at a classic venue for small cost in a proper competition. Thanks as well to the marshalls, the lovely girls working away in the timing shed missing all the fun, the list goes on so thank you all. I for one will be back chasing that quicker time next year.....and I won’t forget my helmet next time! Andy Davies Car 44

CRYSTAL PALACE MOTOR RACING REVIVAL 30th/31st MAY 2010 THE MOST SUCCESSFUL CAR AT THE BANK HOLIDAY MONDAY MEETING 56 YEARS AGO. COOPER BRISTOL - History of Car Displayed Peter Mann displayed his ex Tony Crook Cooper Bristol. In 1953 a racing driver bought the car without engine and gearbox from John Cooper of Cooper Cars. Geoffrey Taylor who had a small racing car and engine manufacturing plant named ALTA on the Kingston by pass gave racing- drivers Stirling Moss, Tony Crook and Peter Whitehead 2 litre Alta engines reputed to produce over 165 bhp to fit into three Cooper chassis. Earned Cooper Alta Crook's first race in the car was the 1952 British Grand Prix at Silverstone. Although well placed in practice the car retired with fuel starvation problems. It was raced in Formula 1 and 2 events for the rest of 1953. In a race at Snetterton the engine and gearbox blew up. The brake pedal was attached to the gearbox and when the box disintegrated there were no brakes!! At the end of the straight Tony, with no brakes, swiped an ice cream wagon and ran off the course at maximum speed into a field of cabbages. The cabbages slowed the car down but unfortunately one hit Tony in the face making him unconscious. Headlines in neat day's papers proclaimed “RACING DRIVER HIT BY CABBAGE.” During the winter of 1953 Crook removed the remains of the Alta engine and replaced it with a 2 litre BRISTOL engine and gearbox, at the same time widening the car’s chassis and body which enabled it to compete not only in F1 but Sports Car races. In 195 4 and 1955 it was hugely successful. In sports car races it had (usually winning) races against Archie Scott-Brown in the Lister Bristol and Roy Salvadori in the A.G. 6 Maserati. In fact it successfully com-peted in over 60 races in 1954/5 but in the 1955 Nine Hour Race towards the end in the dark Ken Wharton's Ferrari dropped oil and Tony spun on this coming out at the end of Woodcote, and was rammed by Stirling Moss who could not avoid him. Stirling was driving a works Porsche and leading the 1 litre class and was thus eliminated too. Crook spent two weeks in Chichester Hospital with the biggest bunch of flowers sportingly sent by Stirling. Crook rebuilt the car and kept it unused. In 1998 (32 years later) he drove it round Good-wood in the fifty years revival of the first race in 1948 (In 1948 Crook having been 2nd in his 328 F.N BMW). In the early 2000's he eventually sold the car but the driver performed badly. Fortunately it then passed into the capable hands of the present owner PETER MANN (who also owns Tony Crook's ex Monaco 1952 Frazer Nash) and a number of other potent cars. Peter drives his Copper Bristol regularly in Historic racing and sports car events and so does his very fast driver friend John Ure. COOPER BRISTOL, successful in five out of six events at CRYSTAL PALACE, AUGUST 1954: AUGUST TROPHY RACE FOR RACING CARS UP TO 2500cc Heat 2 – Won by TONY RALT, CONNAUGHT – CROOK 2nd but made fastest lap Final of August Trophy Race was won by Reg Parnell, GP Ferrari, 2nd Roy Salvadori, GP 250 Maserati, Crook was third off the start but unplaced Sports Cars up to 2000cc WON BY TONY CROOK ahead of Tony Brooks, Frazer Nash. Crook made fastest lap

and also established a new 2 LITRE RECORD for the course SPORTS CAR – UNLIMITED CAPACITY CROOK (2 litre Cooper Bristol) second to Tony Gaze (3.5litre HWM). CROOK AGAIN MADE FASTEST LAP and established OUTRIGHT SPORTS CAR CIRCUIT RECORD. GLADE TROPHY RACE (Up to 2000cc racing cars F2) CROOK THIRD. Race won by Rolt – Connaught, Crook

leading for several laps. Tony Crook

Bat & Trap

Fun evening at the Old Jail, Biggin Hill on 21st July, with lots of banter between the two teams. Both teams completely cratered on the 3rd set, but despite my team getting two consecutive traps and knocking out Rose-mary's team it still wasn't enough - so well done Rosemary's team, consisting of Chris & Liz Penfold, Rosemary & Nigel Mead, Carole Buxton & Brian Kirby. Andy's 'arfwits consisted of myself, David Balderson, Colin Shipway, John Symes and Phil Fawcett. Petra played with whoever was fielding (or was holding a sandwich) and the whole thing was admirably organ-ised and scored by Chris Dennis. Thanks, Chris, from all of us! Andy Elcomb

Sevenoaks Members in Action at Crystal Palace on Sunday 30th May 2010

Sevenoaks Members in Action at Crystal Palace on Monday 31st May 2010