Article by Steve Cox

I have to say that Louth is a long way from Surbiton but the misery of driving silly miles on Britain's rubbish road network is immediately forgotten the moment I set tyres on the wonderous two and a half miles better known as Cadwell Park.  Sometimes called the mini Nurbergring (or Nuremburgring as Mrs Cox insists on calling it) and it is easy to see why.  This track has everything, fast straights, blind bends, hills, hairpins, and chicanes but for every challenge it offers, it more than compensates with the reward of getting it right (I've been told). 

Cadwell Park on the 15th April hosted the fourth round of the 2007 TVRCC Speed Championship and it was good to see the two classes beginning to shake themselves out after a frantic start to the season.  The tvr-A class consists of the older 4 and 6 cylinder cars such as the Vixens, 3000M, 3000S, Tasmins etc whilst everything else runs in tvr-B.  In terms of overall positions, the handicap allows us to combine the classes to produce one overall winner at the end of the season.  Just because sprinting is entry level motorsport, it does not mean that the competition isn't serious - it really is and becoming increasingly so as our members get better and better.  Especially heartening for me, there are lots of new people this year and I shall encourage the new contenders to put pen to paper to tell you how much they are enjoying it.  I digress - let's get back to Cadwell.

This particular event was jointly run by Borough 19MC, Sevenoaks and District MC and Motorsport Vision (Jonathan Palmer) and despite the 120 entries was superbly organised.  Our championship was represented by 19 tvrs of all ages and specifications and they looked great in the warm spring sunshine.  First practice saw John Simpson's Sagaris quickest in absolute time with Simon "White Lightning" Cole hot on his tail.  How the hell does Mr Cole do that - he'd never been to Cadwell before!  Arch rivals Cox and Duggleby were trying to keep up with the rest of the pack spread over about 10 seconds or so.  None of this is important - it's first practice and it doesn't count but it may give a hint as to the movers and shakers for later.  Most interesting was Steve Dennis' 101 seconds first lap.  That kind of time in a Vixen is likely to bring on nosebleeds and delusions of grandeur - and he certainly had at least one of those.

Second practice saw everyone begin to get to grips with this wicked circuit - in the middle orders, Alan Davies' long drive from Southampton was rewarded with a 2 second improvement, Simon Smith's new Griff took 4 seconds off, Waspy Bankhurst sheared a whole 5 seconds, the skiboot Cerby of Tim Scrivens was 3 seconds quicker despite incomplete combustion which was not surprising seeing has the poor car had been up since 3am.  The Chimps pen was beginning to get its act together as Richard Blackee (dark blue), Dave Jenkins (red), and Mike Horn (silver) sorted themselves out.  Best of all were the new guys; Mark Harris was better by 6 seconds and Mike Roe's stunning Vixen mk 4 was 5 secs to the good.  Voted most disappointed tvr driver of the day was Paul Crossman who lived up to his name by being extremely fed up about having no brakes and flashing oil pressure after just one lap.  A sad trundle back to Essex for him sadly.  He’ll be back – I can see it in his eyes.

The timed runs in the afternoon saw things quite differently.  On handicap, Simon Cole was up to his old tricks and back to the top of the leaderboard, but John Simpson's Sagaris which should have been up there with him had been quite recalcitrant and suffered a four wheels off.  John and I had a chuckle during the break - top tip in sprinting, always bank a time on your first timed run - then try harder later.  Instead, Steve Dennis was now up to 2nd on handicap with Bankhurst, Davies, Lobley Carter, Stallard, Blacklee, Smith, Scrivens and Horn all within 3 handicap seconds.  It was all shaping up for an explosive final run. 

Despite a valiant attempt (and major spin), Steve Dennis could not rip the 25 points from Mr Cole's grasp.  Alan Davies and Adrian Duggleby finished handicap tenths apart and John Simpson had to go home in 7th place with a 96.31 - remember his best practice was 93.46.  By the smallest of margins, Alan Bankhurst led home the other Vixens of Stewart Lobley and Geoff Stallard - new boy Mike Roe's Vixen also acquitted itself well.  In the middle ground, John Carter's beautiful 5 litre V8S rumbled its way home slightly ahead of Richard Blacklee, Tim Scrivens, Simon Smith and Dave Jenkins.  Balderson, Roe, and Harris had a lovely day and want to come and do it for a second time.

It was an excellent day's motorsport and it was my pleasure to be invited to present the trophies on handicap by the organisers.

The boys and girls are off to the Wiscombe hillclimb next, but I shall be in the States working instead.  How annoying.

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