Mallory Park Sprint 11th March 2012

Waiting to go out on practice run.



Extra guests at lunchtime



Team Chequers pit crew hard at work!



An audience with Lawrie Brown



Darren's MGF Trophy, looks good and went very well



More MG's in paddock



Team Chequers still working hard



Helen and DC enjoying the sunshine

First of all the welding on Saturday all went to plan and I'll post pictures of how we got round the problem of fitting the race harness as soon as I can.

First bit of luck was pulling into Mallory on Sunday morning at 7.30 and arriving right next to DC and Helen. Singing on was fine but scrutineering was very slow and the bit that I had been dreading! The harnesses which I was worried about turned out to be all OK but there was a problem with the passenger door not opening from the outside that I was told to fix, thanks to DC who came back after getting his car scruteneered, to make sure I was OK.


Didn't have time to walk the course but did the convoy run and before I had time to think it was out for the first practice run. Didn't get a great time but hopefully now knew more about the track and gear changes, braking points etc


After a crafty pick of DC's brains regarding tyre pressures, I realised I was running way too low, so a quick round of the foot pump before the next practice run, which took 1.5 seconds off my time.


Lunch came and went and then the real timed runs, first run was disappointing with a slower time than the previous practice run by 0.5 seconds, this followed the final timed run being slower again by only one hundredths of a second.


As DC said when we were packing up, 'that's the worst day, when your times get slower', and yes he was right.


By the time we got home, the results had already been emailed through, and I found that I was the slowest MG in the class but had beaten the only MX5 in our class!


Looks like this is going to be harder than I had thought it would be, but can already see the addiction in trying to go quicker and beat your time.


Best of all though is that it seems like a very friendly championship and look forward to meeting more competitors as the season progresses during the year.


The next meeting at Curborough is on 1st April can't come soon enough!!

More preperation

A bit more progress today, the floor on both sides have been hammerited this week, so the seats could be refitted, along with the four point harnesses, which I didn't fully fit because I'm hoping to pick up a T bar, which is the trim behind the seat, so I don't have to cut the existing trim. Then leave holes, if or when I return the car to full road spec, so this will have to wait a bit longer. Fire extinguisher is in and looks quite neat.

Start of 2012 season

The MGF is nearly ready with just a few more details to finsih before it will ready to compete at the first MGCC Speed Championship 2012 event, which should be on 11th March at Mallory Park, this will be my first event.

This has only been possible due to the sponsorship help of Chequers Motoring School, a driving school based in Bristol, for whom I am a driving instructor.

More details about the MGF that I will be competing in to follow soon!