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Well no surprises here then. A very early start, 200+ miles to trailer the car followed by putting up the Marquee in a thunder storm. This was getting to be a regular occurrence and one which I have to say I could do without! Still, a friendly (though very wet) Paddock was waiting so we started to set up in the shadow of the two Big Rigs ie Tim’s GTF Sagaris Crew and the four Tuscan ,Team Wright Racing crew. Not too out classed then! The others were also started to arrive and the Paddock was filling up nicely with the largest Grid of the season. The first welcome surprise was that David Mason was at his first race for some years. David raced with the front running CDL team consisting David, naturally, Steve Guglielmi (twice Tuscan Champ) and our own Hui Marshall. David always showed excellent pace so we were all looking to see what he could do with his Tuscan after several years and some really old, rock hard tyres.
Also new in at Snett was Neil Sampson’s Chevy Tuscan. After a big prank a couple of years ago, Neil rebuilt the car and decided to put in a Chevy lump. Not just a Chevy lump, a 6L race tuned Chevy lump with upwards of 550 bhp. Should be quick! Practice was done and we all wondered how things would shake down.

A few beers and a butty or two were arranged by Graham (current champ) via a whip round and a contribution from the TVRCC, so a relaxing evening was had with the other Racers. The weekends are so busy that we usually don’t have much time for sociallising so this was a good chance to get to know everyone better.

The next morning, we were back on. Scrutineering was tight. Obviously we were nervous, but the car passed easily, a testament to Dulford Auto’s race preperation. During “Qualy”, David Mason didn’t disappoint! Straight in he pulled 2nd, only 1 tenth of a second behind Tim in his black GTF. A great performance it must be said. Darren, Hui and Dean all posted sharp times within a couple of seconds from pole on what is the big Tuscan power track. The only vagaries of “Qualy” were with a couple of the other Tuscans. Graham had a serious oil leak and even though he and Jamie from Castle Race Engines had the block stripped in a matter of hours, it was decided that discretion was the better part of valour and he would retire to check his engine properly. Serious damage could result if oil starvation occurred in race conditions and oil on the track could cause major issues for others. Neil’s Chevy Tuscan also had issues but qualified. His 6L race engine blew the guts out of his original Tuscan exhaust, but he managed a bodge that would see him through race day.

As for the races, I can only tell you what I saw from the drivers seat. The first race I didn’t manage to get my usual flying start due to traffic, but still making a couple of positions, I could see Tim and David “dukeing it out” at the front. The first 6 cars were tight for a couple of laps big slide from the Chevy Tuscan into turn 1 causing mayhem and causing several – notably Steve Glynn – to loose several slots. As the GTF and Tuscan fought it out at the front, they tangled slightly at Turn 2 around lap 7 and Tim went off and was unable to recover. The rest of the race went pretty much to form and we finished 9th with only the Big Boys in front of us.

During the break we were lucky to be able to relax a bit as the car was running well. Others weren’t so lucky. Neil with the Chevy was rebuilding his exhaust again as this time it had melted his repair and Darren Dowling was working on the rear brakes feeling that they were dragging on the straights. In the GTF camp several splitters were being replaced. Steve and Tim both had offs and with the splitters so low, there’s bound to be damage, you have to put up with stuff like that when you run proper Aero packages!

Two hours later we were back out for the last race of the day. Race two for us went better. With some luck with traffic at the start, I moved to 6th by the first corner putting a couple of cars between Jonny Wilson’s Cerbera and my Griff. Jonny was my main concern for the weekend with Graham Walden out of the game and the ultra fast Griff of Marc Hockin being a no-show. The RV8 Tuscan’s are not really in our league being 200+kg lighter and with similar power, but we are expecting everyone of them to be at Cadwell in a fortnight so things will be really interesting there! Anyway, after a good start and the jump on Jonny and Tony Abrams (Group B RV8 Tuscan racer) I pressed on trying to maintain my advantage. It took a couple of laps for Tony to catch me and he out dragged me down the main straight. It’s at times like that that I wish I hadn’t had to lose 50bhp to qualify for GroupB, but there’s no chance of holding a full blown Tuscan at Snett! I held on for a lap or two, but Tony slowly pressed out of range and then he was off. The rest was fairly quiet, just keeping pace ahead of Jonny to maintain third.

Thanks again to all who helped. Mike Caine for set up, Rich and Col from Dulfords for preparing the car beautifully, to Sponsors A Manning (UK) Ltd and Topcoats, and to all the other Racers for providing a TOP, FREIENDLY series for us to race in.

Oh and Hi to Arebrec and Little Miss Arebrec for saying Hello (I know that as Cerbie owners you were really cheering on Jonny!) Hope to see some of you at Cadwell!

Andy
Tvrcc TDO
TVRCC Tuscan Challenger.