Article by Howard Bryan

On a gloriously hot day at Three Sisters circuit in Wigan, just five tvrs battled it out for the points in what turned out to be a fabulous day’s sprinting in Round 3 of the TVRCC Speed Championship.

The two early practice runs were dominated by John Cucchi in his Griff 500 who returned impressive times in both sessions, with Howard Bryan unable to go out in his Tuscan Challenge Car for the second run due to gearbox mounting problems. Much to everyone’s amusement John Kenyon assumed his usual position underneath the race car and all became well again…

The Griff maintained its dominance in the first timed run before lunch, just edging out Stewart Lobley in his Vixen S4 and Alan Bankhurst in the equally impressive Vixen S2. The surface warming up nicely was making for good grip on the tight, twisty and narrow Three Sisters circuit; it was promising to be a good day for the Vixens.

Lunchtime and after much bacon and egg sandwich eating, the Clerk of the Course announced that he would attempt to give us all another three timed runs during the afternoon; red flags and tow trucks allowing. So with much anticipation and lunch break over, the afternoon began. It has to be said at this point that the organisation of the meeting by Longton and District Motor Club was excellent. The marshals had the competing cars double-queued in the brilliant sunshine on the final section of Lunar and were despatching competitors off with great gusto. A good show by anyone’s standard.

The first run after lunch saw everyone trying to digest their sandwiches and working to improve their times. We also saw the Griff and Vixen pilots taking to the calculators to work out that the algorithm had put the cars pretty much neck and neck at this point – a tribute indeed to the accuracy of the handicapping system.

The third timed run, which seemed to come round in no time at all saw Dave Wilkins knock a couple of seconds off his time in his well prepared Chimaera 500. We also witnessed the highlight of the day which was Alan Bankhurst expertly circumnavigating a marshal in the assembly area and power-sliding his Vixen back to the paddock. Just showing off if you ask me, but impressive to watch all the same.

Our final timed run saw an unfortunate John Cucchi being pushed back to the paddock as his Griff 500 ran out of electricity. Spirited final runs were returned from the four other drivers as Alan Bankhurst bagged a superlative Three Sisters win and 25 well earned points, with Stewart Lobley taking second place and John Cucchi third.

A great day’s sprinting, a well organised meeting, fabulous company, six runs, brilliant sunshine and we even had time to watch the Grand National. What more can you ask?  Roll on Loton Park!

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