| Since my last newsletter, we have been to Snetterton and Brands Hatch. The entry at Snetterton was a little disappointing and I think the reason for that is that our practice and 2 races were all on 1 day, whilst that is favoured by some people, it obviously meant that one or two people who prefer the 2 day meetings were unable to enter. I was pleased that the HSCC were able to keep the entry fee low and give us two 15-minute races (20-minutes would be better) around the 300 circuit. For the first time this year the weather held off until we just about completed race 2, but then the heavens opened, a practise and 2 races on slicks wow!
I think for those who attended, it was a good meeting, Jamie and David Shaw had two good dices up the sharp end. How long before David can get the advantage? We then all went to join the French for the Anglo-French race on the Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit. There were 38 places on the grid, assuming that the French brought their 20. We had something in the region of 47 entries in total, shades of Monaco! In actual fact the French only brought 17 cars. I believe that they received the news that there was only going to be 1 race quite late on, though we were aware that this was the case for a long time, and this affected some of their entries. It meant that we could provide 21 and with a few drop-outs most of our reserves got a race.
The weather was glorious on Saturday and we duly had an excellent race. Ben Simms ran away with it until his half-shaft broke on the last lap and handed victory to Jamie Brashaw. David Shaw was up with them until he had a puncture, but still finished 7th. The top six were 3 Brits, namely Jamie 1st, Keith White 3rd and me 6th and 3 French being Leone 2nd , Barilla 4th and D’Aubreby 5th. There were good dices all down the field, though it was unfortunate that 3 or 4 cars got involved in skirmishes and suffered damage. Classic Formula 3 put on a BBQ on the Friday night in the paddock for our own competitors and our French friends. I must thank Iain Rowley, who I “volunteered” to do the cooking, along with Colin Painter, who did a marvellous job. I don’t think they could quite believe the volume of sausages, drumsticks and burgers that they had to cook and which got devoured. We received very nice e-mails from Bernard Honnorat on behalf of the French thanking us very much for our kind hospitality, which we were pleased to do. It is always good fun when we have races with the French, which is why some of our British friends race with them.
The other success, I think, at Brands, was the paddock parking, by keeping “non-working” cars away from the paddock, there seemed to be plenty of space for everybody, I certainly didn’t hear too many complaints and whilst we were still scattered around a bit, it was definitely better than last year.
Oulton Park will present the same challenges as Brands, as our race is on the Monday, but I believe the HSCC is going to adopt the same principles, which means there should be space available for those who turn up on Sunday evening or Monday morning, which has not necessarily been the case before.
There was air box testing at Snetterton and several cars failed to pull a reading, they know who they are and have been requested to make sure they are ok next time. The things to pay attention to that might get checked are rear wing heights, flat bottoms on ’81-’84 cars, 40 mm ground clearance (with the driver on board) and air box testing.
Laurent Valery Masson, President of the French Formula 3 series has been in contact with me regarding his calendar for next year, which will include some exciting Euro rounds. We are hoping to have some idea of that by the end of July and if so, I will post some details in my next newsletter.
In the meantime, have a nice summer break and my thanks go once again to Richard, Colin and Iain for all their assistance with the BBQ at Brands. At least it didn’t rain like it did at Cadwell Park and the food was excellent!
Hugh Price |
