Article by Steve Cox

Croft is a welcome addition to the Sprint Championship Fixture List.

The North Yorkshire Race Circuit is aptly described as Cadwell Park without the hills.

The 2.1mile track is ideally suited to the grunt of tvr’s.  The wide tarmac is very fast but reassuringly safe with generous run off areas.

Initially I was concerned at the decision to drive 200 miles north for 4 laps of an unknown circuit.  However it turned out to be an excellent day in great company, and well worth the visit.

It was satisfying to have a good number of spectators, including 20 or so with tvrs in the car park.  Also, we were very pleased to see Alan Meeker the Technical Manager of Toyo Tyres.  Alan had travelled all the way from Rushden, Northants to offer much appreciated assistance and advice.

The three quick B list shod northern guys, Matthew Oakley (Griffith 5200), John Simpson (Sagaris 4000) and reigning Champion Simon Cole (4.79 litre 350i) were a class apart from the start.  Their first practice times were circa 1min 33sec to 1min 34sec, with everyone else well into the 1-40’s.    It was clear from the first practice lap that this would be a very competitive closely fought event.  Newcomers to Croft were advised that 1min 40secs would be a good time to aim for.

After second practice there was consternation in the Vixen camp with newcomer Mike Roe sandwiched by a fag paper between arch rivals Steve Dennis and Stewart Lobley.  This was clearly one to watch as Stewart Lobley’s algorithm has been revised to be almost identical to Steve’s. 

Weather conditions remained perfect for practice and all drivers really enjoyed the rapid circuit.  Inevitably over the lunch break the skies darkened but luckily the threatened rain held off. 

Most drivers managed to bank a good first timed run after lunch.  Tim Scrivens (Cerbera 4200) had a ‘tank slapper’ over the finish line but nevertheless managed an excellent sub 1.40 time to put him ‘best of the rest’.  Peter Watson was really getting to grips with the ex TMS race Griffith 500, now with a standard engine.  He bravely tested the limits of adhesion of his B List tyres through the Jim Clarke esses resulting in an exciting 360° spin. 

Matthew Oakley’s tip for the day for newcomers had been to take the esses in 4th gear without touching the brakes.  Unfortunately the second part of the corner is blind.  If you get the entry wrong you are in trouble as Peter discovered.

The otherwise excellent Darlington Motor Club was extremely slow in producing result sheets.  Luckily there was plenty to do whilst waiting.  There are good viewing facilities at Croft close to the paddock.  Also there were many interesting cars to look at with Pilbeams, Goulds, Ralts, and Reynards etc in paddock garages.

As we lined up for our final run of the day a few drops of rain landed on the windscreens.  Fortunately it soon cleared and the track remained dry.

Matt Oakley, already 3sec below his personal best at Croft, (and well below the previous class lap record), wondered what on earth he could do about the super fast Simon Cole and John Simpson.  Despite knocking a further second off his final run he was still pipped into 3rd by the flying duo.  Local boy, Simon’s 1.28.77 would have earned him a podium position in the Porsche Class!

Happiest man at the circuit was undoubtedly Stewart Lobley who finally beat Steve Dennis’ first timed run time by 3/100th of a second after Steve spun at the last corner.  Mike Roe unfortunately could not match his blistering second practice time and eventually fell 3 seconds behind the maestro Vixen drivers.  Nevertheless it was an extremely promising start for a sprint newcomer (on brand new unscrubbed Dunlop tyres).  Final Vixen honours went to Steve however as he held off Stewart by half a second on handicap time. 

John Cucchi (Griffith 500) on B list tyres and Tim Scrivens (Cerbera 4200) achieved, or in Tim’s case slightly bettered, the target time of 1min 40secs.

1 minute 41 seconds was the best shared time ‘enjoyed’ by Peter Watson (Griffith 500) Richard Blacklee (Chimera 4500), Steven Broscombe (T350)  Stewart Lobley (Vixen S4) Steve Dennis (Vixen S2).  Close or what!
Full and detailed results can be seen on our website
http://www.tvrspeedchampionship.co.uk/