Article by Dave Jenkins

Glorious Goodwood played host to the 15th and latest round of the TVRCC speed championship recently, and 13 of Blackpool's finest turned out to grace the historic Sussex circuit as it prepared itself for the renowned revival meeting.  Despite the forecast for showers throughout the day, we took solace with the local word that it was actually to remain dry at the foot of the South Downs all day, thankfully they know their Cumulus from their Cirrus and Nimbostratus in those parts and they were proved right.

The practice runs got under way as local lad Alan Hugh Davies set off first to show us how to take on the fast and intimidating curves of Goodwood. What he did actually show us was that there was still a slight damp patch at Madgwick, the first bend on the two and a half mile circuit. His Chim wiggled and wobbled its way around the double apex right-hander but kept its nose generally in the right direction as he recorded a very respectable 107secs. Other early pace setters included Paul Edwards in the T350c, his 11th event of the season winning him the award for most travelled competitor of the year.  Well, it would if we had one. John Wilson was barely a second behind on handicap, although a mechanical problem curtailed any further part in the day's proceedings as his car joined the queue of Cerbs in need
of attention. Steve Cox returned a time to match his excuse, "I ran a ducks and drakes lap for debutant James Kay, show him the way around." James returned to the paddock on completion of his first two laps of any circuit in his 4litre Chim, grinning from ear to ear but
complaining that the V8S in front had been holding him up all the way round. Tony Bradfield however, proved that the closer you live to a circuit, the quicker you can go round it, as his 350i lead the way by a considerable margin at this early stage.

Timed runs began as the organisers made it clear that they wanted an early finish, everyone had had at least one run before lunch. The leader board remained fairly steady, other than the omission of John's Cerbera.  Marcus Clay and Steve Heath traded tenths in two of the days three Griffith's. Steve had been threatening to bring the Purple Shed with its blown engine; sadly it remains in the work in progress folder, which meant that the shopping trolley Griff was to be commandeered for its second appearance of the year. New kid on the block James
made good progress through the afternoon sessions as he took 15 seconds off his practice time, while Tim "ski boot" Scrivens continued to impress as the pace increased, a frighteningly fast circuit that Tim and his `Slightly paler than Deep Black Cherry,  Enhanced with a touch of metallic topaz Viennese violet, Spectraflair Purple` Cerb clearly enjoyed to the point of feeling the need to return very soon. Sibling rivalry was clearly evident as Richard and
Andrew Blacklee swapped times in the shared Blue Chimaera all day, Richard eventually emerging victorious in the struggle for family honour on their first visit to a venue this far South. Adrian Duggleby emerged on top of the Griff trio, although it appears that his private battle with Steve Cox was top of his agenda as algorithm corrected times had the pair separated by a silver Rizla, the thinnest of all thin fag papers on a thin day, experience winning on this occasion as Steve edged it by just 1/100th of a second. Further proof that local knowledge is invaluable was established as Tony and Alan took a well-deserved first and second respectively, although Paul represented the travellers well being less than a second down on corrected time and adding another third place award to an already
heaving collection.

With just a handful of events remaining, the Championship remains undecided; the front-runners have completed their eight scoring rounds and now attempt to improve on previous lower scoring rounds, only the strong survive now, when the going gets tough the rest of us
go to the pub.