Article by Steve Cox

Another fiercely contested round of the Speed Championship took place at Loton Park on 20th May with 18 of Blackpool’s (soon to be China’s) finest responding to varying degrees of leaden right foot syndrome.  By the time this report hits the pages of Sprint we may all be bathed in glorious sunshine but this weekend in Shrewsbury (just over the border from Wales where they know how to do rain) it came down like the first week of Wimbledon. 

The Speed Championship is big enough now to run two separate classes and so the Vixens and V6 cars had the hill to themselves for the early runs.  I have said before in this column that we now have representation from just about every car that tvr ever made and last Saturday we saw five Vixens an S3 and a 3000S battling it out for tvr class A honours.  Stewart Lobley’s Vixen S4 was top of the heap at the end of Class A practice with Allen Bankhurst’s lightweight Vixen and John Pollard’s 3000S stuck like glue to his back bumper.  Geoff Stallard’s beautiful bright red Vixen was not able to make the best of its B list tyres on the wet tarmac and so he (along with Pete Sims and Simon Smith) was hoping for better things when (if) the weather cheered up in the afternoon.

In tvr Class B, the bigger cars had their own unbelievably close tussle throughout the downpour but at the end of pratice Steve Lyle was Stig of the Dump on handicap in his V8S with all of Matt Oakley’s 340 horses breathing down his neck.  Southern boy Alan Davies showed his commitment in the Chimp 500 less than a handicap second behind with Marcus Clay’s gorgeous Griff a few hundredths adrift.  Slight detours during second practice meant that Simon Cole and Paul Edwards were yet to show on the leaderboard, but Mike Horn, Adrian Duggleby and Jackie Rasbach were all in with a shout whilst the Blacklee brothers were having their own private event as usual.

The meeting paused for lunch and whilst we munched our way through food that Jamie Oliver would have had condemned, the wind blew in from the West and just for once took the clouds on past.  Fantastic – we would get a dry run; well, almost.

In Class A, Steve Dennis’ mythical Vixen (it’s a long story..) flew up the hill with Alan Bankhurst less than 0.4 sec behind – Stewart Lobley’s first timed run wasn’t great and there was a buzz around the paddock that his trailer was for sale for £200 and he’d throw in the car for free to the right buyer (actually, anybody!)  A little further down the order, Mr Stallard’s car was enjoying a refit of his B list tyres, John Pollard was getting his act together and Pete Sims put in a time which was his best ever time up through the deer park.  Novice Simon Smith took 9 secs off his time in the Cosworth powered S3 and was now in contention. 

Class B was all over the place – Simon Cole and Paul Edwards had remembered where the hill went but that man Lyle refused to let them have the top spot.  Alan Davies was still putting in faster times whilst Matt Oakley had drifted down the board a little but had started to recall the thrill of “making one stick”!  Even more exciting, the weather continued to improve and we were to get a second dry run. 

As the track warmed so the players raised their game – The Vixens just would not let it lie and at the end of the afternoon Class A winner Stewart Lobley’s trailer had been taken off the market and his car had turned into “probably one of the best that tvr had ever made”.  Stewart’s personal best 66.44 will be the talk of Yorkshire for some weeks whilst the second place myth that is Steve Dennis’ Vixen managed a 67.67 besting all of Steve’s previous attempts in his 3000S.  These two fine drives took home the silverware in Class A.

Even more unlikely happenings were afoot in Class B.  Steve Lyle knew that when the sun came out, the bigger cars with the B list tyres would give him a run for his money; and so it was.  Paul Edwards’ T350C was first to make the best of the warmer drying track and his 61.35 really opened it up.  Alan Davies then took 1.5 secs off, Mike Horn did 3, Steve Lyle did everything to keep it on track and took 1.6 secs off his earlier time, but Simon Cole (350/480) and Matt Oakley had other ideas.  Simon’s committed run took a full two seconds off his time and a 62.20 on handicap was going to be hard to beat but Matt’s surgical removal of a full four seconds to bring him in on 61.05 was a fantastic achievement and a new tvr record on the technical challenge that is Loton Park.

As I sat and worked out the handicaps and points, I couldn’t believe just how close it had been.  On handicap, Matt took home his 25 points and Stewart Lobley was top in Class A with 24.53.  Different cars in different classes, but the handicap brings them all back together – I still have no clue who will win this year’s Speed Championship.  This year’s tuning of the handicap has meant that of the six events run so far, we have had five different winners – it is that close and not a little competitive.

Despite the awful weather, we were very happy to see new TVRCC Chairman Jeremy Blandford with lady wife Chris supporting the Speed Championship – please come and see us again soon; and I have to say I was personally delighted to see my mentor and sprinting guiding light Pete Humphries who just dropped in to say hi.  
 
During the coming weeks, the Championship will be visiting Abingdon, Anglesey, Lydden Hill, Harewood Hillclimb and Aintree.  What a fantastic way to waste your time.