Pushrod kings MK1 Escort race car

[lee 1]

Re: Pushrod kings MK1 Escort race car

Shame about the weather spoiling your final meeting of the year but you have got to be happy with second in two championships

Whats the plans for next year?

[Pushrod King]

Re: Pushrod kings MK1 Escort race car

Race 2:It was VERY wet so I went out on my option (as in only option) tyres full slicks! (that's why I'd put a wanted add for toyos/yokos)

Got of to a good start but on lap 3 went into paddock hill bend way too hot aquaplaning off towards the outside of the track,threw the car sideways,clipped the gravel trap at the bottom of the hill,got on the power and spun off backwards uphill on the inside of the trackI ended up dead last of 32 cars and because I couldn't get any traction on the wet grass/mud lost nearly a minute!
I got going and despite aquaplaning through most of the corners managed to catch and pass a car or two and even passed a proton (that had lapped me) along the start/finish straight,another of the protons (ex challenge cars) lapped me around clearways but cut in too soon,clipped my front wheel and spun himself off. Anyway I managed to finish 24th of 32 cars and 2nd in class

So to add to my tally for the year I took home a 1st and 2nd place medal.

I also ended the year 2nd in class in the BARC Intermarques so that's 2nds in two different championships in 2009.

[Pushrod King]

Re: Pushrod kings MK1 Escort race car

Last race reports of 2009 .
Saturday 14th November 2009,BARC intermarque challenge.

Qualifying:Although the rain had stopped for a while with our qualifying being the 1st session of the day the track was still pretty wet but as I was out with the tin tops who have to run road tyres I gambled on going out on slicks thinking that a dryish line may appear,I had intended to take it easy for a few laps to let the track dry but the drivers in front of me either had the same idea or were being too cautious so I just went for it overtaking too many cars for me to remember, my times started at 1min 10.7 seconds on the 1st lap,went down to 1min 4.1s on the 2nd then 1min 1.889s on lap 7 finally going down to 1 min 1.247s on the last lap (13) of the session,leaving me in 10th on the grid with Alex Ribbens (running as a tin top on toyos) alongside me (9th with 1m 059s) and the yellow Renault 5 turbo of Dave Clark directly in front of me.
Pole position was held bythe DMN class B Golf turbo of Steve Dann who was running in the tin tops guest class (on toyos) with a 58.2s.
RACE1:
On the rolling start I made sure that I kept close to the R5 only to be held up by him and the slower accelerating car infront of him who both move to the outside as the lights went out and we were racing,I was aware of Alex moving accross so I couldn't do anything but follow the R5 into paddock hill bend (glad I did) as we all got there at the same time there was an over optimistic move by the Zetec powered mk2 fiesta no47 who started behind Alex who tapped him on a little as we all braked causing a 3 car shunt which resulted with Alex hitting the tyre wall in avoidance of the other two cars(R5 and MG ZR) all three ended up in the gravel trap necessitating a 3 lap safety car period and leaving me in 14th place as I had braked almost to a standstill avoiding the carnage!
Lap 4 the lights went out on the safety car and Steve Dann took up the job of controlling the speed of the restart. on lap 4 I passed the no 30 car then set about chasing the 46 car passing him around Graham Hill bend and the no 57 (Intermarque Class C) Caterham roadsport around Clearways on lap 5/6 putting me back up to 10th, on lap 6/7 I passed the 49 car along the start/finish straight and then set about the rover tomcat turbo of race instructor Pete Winstone forcing him into an error around clearways and passing him up the inside as he got all crossed up,this moved me up to 8th,I spent lap 8 on my own although gaining on the cars infront lap 9 the 47 fiesta had a big off going up the hill out of paddock hill bend which bought the red flags out and the end of the race. I finished 7th overall and 1st in Class D of the intermarques Incidentally car no 47 caused both a safety car on the 1st lap and then made the race end early with his crash on lap 9 (we only had 10 minutes of a 14minute race)
More Later.

[david_white]

Re: Pushrod kings MK1 Escort race car

Well I'll let Nick do the write up for race one as from the pitwall we had a limited view, but basically Nick qualified a good 9th out of 25 or so cars and after dropping back a bit on the start made it back up to 7th overall and 1st in class

Oh forgot to say the reason Nick dropped back a lot was because of a big first corner pile up again triggered by one of the over eager fiestas. He hit Alex Ribbens' escort and Terry Searles' MG causing those two to go off and resulting in Alex hitting the tyre wall heavily to avoid T boning the MG.
The same fiesta then crashed later in the race bringing out red flags

Back in the pits quite a bit of straightening had to be done to get Alex's escort straight again but with everyone mucking in it didn't look that bad and Alex started from the back in race 2, although on his toyo tyres he made great progress up through the grid and must have got a decent result. He was the first escort home at least

Just a pity we didn't have any toyos for Nicks car as they are a great option when you don't know which way the weathers going, they will work on a bone dry track or equally well on a damp track or even heavy rain if they aren't too worn down

[david_white]

Re: Pushrod kings MK1 Escort race car

Well I'll let Nick do the write up for race one as from the pitwall we had a limited view, but basically Nick qualified a good 9th out of 25 or so cars and after dropping back a bit on the start made it back up to 7th overall and 1st in class

Race Two was a different story though. The conditions had been changable and damp at least all day and Nick made his way to the collecting area still on slicks, partly because the weather could go either way and mainly cos his wets were pretty useless anyway. He decided it was worth the gamble and as it meant we didn't have to change his tyres in the rain we were happy too

In the collecting area the light drizzle suddenly turned into a massive down pour even with hailstones and very high winds. And Nick is on Slicks

As the cars went out they did the usual 2 green flag laps due to the bad conditions but the cars failed to come round a third time. They had all been held on the starting grid because the safety car had deemed the conditions to be too bad to start the race so they sat on the grid probably for about 10 mins before setting off.

The track still had deep puddles/rivers running across surtees, graham hill and paddock (and probably other places out of our sight) and Nick was at the sharp end of the grid with totally the wrong tyres. They all got going and we waited for Nick to come around. Either on the first or second flying lap the front runners came down the back straight minus Nick, but I could just see his roof slowly moving up towards druids so it was obvious he'd had a bit of an off after paddock. As he entered Graham Hill (oo er) the car snaked left and right and some very wild tank slappers followed but Nick held on to it and Kept going. Lap after lap Nick had te car pointing every way but forward but kept it off the grass and in the end against all odds he didn't DNF or pick up damage and ended up with a second in class

[Pushrod King]

Re: Pushrod kings MK1 Escort race car

Thanks Dave,as for heroic/mental; on hindsight probably a bit of both,I didn't realise it but I was actually 2nd in class in the 2nd one so got another award

Will write a full report later,unless DW fancies doing one from his perspective?

[david_white]

Re: Pushrod kings MK1 Escort race car

Well done in the first race today Nick, great result.

As for the second race you were either very heroic or a bit mental, but either way it was highly entertaining and to get to the end and not DNF in those conditions was quite a feat

[andypipe]

Re: Pushrod kings MK1 Escort race car

It's ok Andy you can have 2nd in class next year

Had it in 07 and 08 so another year wont mater

[Stringpants]

Re: Pushrod kings MK1 Escort race car

Well Done Nick....thanks for all the write ups..

Nice to read of your exploits,

Regards,

Russ.

[Pushrod King]

Re: Pushrod kings MK1 Escort race car

Well done Nick you must be really pleased with your year ,what you dont say in your write up is that the only help you have in the paddock is your 13 year old daughter it really is a good achievement and only losing out to Bill and his mini which gives the class above a run for there money at times
Hope to see you in the paddock next year if funds allowmight be in the same class aswell

Thanks,Due to rule changes Bills' car is now a class C car for 2010,shame it doesn't apply retrospectively As for you going 16v........NOOOOO........You're quick enough with the 1400 8v!!!!

[Pushrod King]

Re: Pushrod kings MK1 Escort race car

Not if I can help it

It's ok Andy you can have 2nd in class next year

[andypipe]

Re: Pushrod kings MK1 Escort race car

Not if I can help it

[dangerousdave]

Re: Pushrod kings MK1 Escort race car

Congrats nick on a cracking first year racing

Roll on next year for more class wins

[Toymex]

Re: Pushrod kings MK1 Escort race car

Well done Nick you must be really pleased with your year ,what you dont say in your write up is that the only help you have in the paddock is your 13 year old daughter it really is a good achievement and only losing out to Bill and his mini which gives the class above a run for there money at times
Hope to see you in the paddock next year if funds allowmight be in the same class aswell

[4drmatt]

Re: Pushrod kings MK1 Escort race car

good stuff