Article by Steve Dennis

As the 13 tvrs arrived at Harewood there was some concern about that number, given that some areas of Yorkshire had seen considerable floods on Friday. However the only victim was a pigeon that Dave Sharp collected on the drive up.

Geoff Stallard decided that the best way to fend off any chance of rain was to erect the gazebo as soon as possible, a cunning plan which actually worked! Indeed by the afternoon we were basking in sunshine.
This event is run by Trackrod MC and their organisation was terrific. The first runs started within 5 minutes of the allotted time, and exactly 1 hour later we were starting the second runs. This progress was maintained throughout the day, with us having 4 competitive runs and the awards presented by 5pm! The only delays were caused by the Lotus Elises which seemed to be intent on throwing themselves off at every opportunity, One of them spun at Country and stopped with one rear wheel off the track, (she) then proceeded to reverse completely off the track. Enough said.

Practice was fairly uneventful, with the newcomers feeling their way up the hill with some caution, and the regulars taking pretty much their usual positions. Peter Watson shaved, if that's the right word, over 10 seconds off his first run, whilst the leaders were Stewart Lobley from Steve Dennis in the Elite Band otherwise known as Class A, and Simon Cole led the Big Boys in Class B, and overall, ahead of Matthew Oakley.

The prospect of 4 timed runs can take the pressure off, but it's always good to bank a good 'un on the first run. With this in mind Steve Dennis put a 69.41 on the board, over 1.5 seconds ahead of Geoff Stallard, who achieved a personal best of 71.05. Matthew Oakley posted a 64.83, which was just ahead of Simon Cole's 65.74. This was to be significant as Simon's car developed a misfire which resulted in one more slow run and then retirement, despite summoning his 'man with a laptop' to diagnose the problem.

Over the course of the remaining 3 runs there were quite a few dogfights going on both in the classes and for overall points. Stewart's newly rebuilt diff didn't stop him spinning at Quarry, in fact he had several goes, before and after the finish line. Dave Wilkins finished one run passing the wrong side of the timing lights. John Cucci is now looking for a sequential gearbox to stop him going 1-2-5. Matthew had a banzai run to try and catch the white vixen, and only just avoided the armco coming out of Farmhouse. (Only just as in both nearside wheels on the grass an JUST missing it!) Steve Broscombe put in two 68 second runs and then volunteered to miss his last run to take photos, also avoiding as he put it 'pushing his luck'. Mike Rowe who was on new tyres steadily brought his times down until a fuel problem on his last run.

So at the end of the day how did the algorithms pan out? Steve Dennis beat Matthew by 0.2 seconds, and Simon spoilt his run of max points, but still took third and 24.15 points, so he only dropped 0.85 of a point!

All in all another very good day at Harewood

Full and detailed results can be seen on our website
http://www.tvrspeedchampionship.co.uk/