Liverpool Motor Club

Aintree Spring Championship Sprint

22^nd April 2006

Event Report

(Report courtesy of Steve Wilkinson)

Copyright of Steve Wilkinson & Liverpool Motor Club

Welsh Wizardry

The first of the three Liverpool Motor Club’s Aintree Sprint Series started off with a track that was dirty and dusty due to the vast amount of ground works currently underway at the home of the Grand National. There would be only one class record broken and Mark Smith in the Mod Prod Westfield would dominate the timed runs.

Practice saw Les Procter retire through a jammed gear linkage whilst Stephen and Jonathan Cawley were sidelined when Stephen slid wide at Village and badly damaged the Swift FF1600.

The timed runs started before lunch and it was the Roadgoing Production Cars leading the way. In Class 1A David West notched yet another win in his ancient Mini – it now has over 300 Class Wins under its fan belt! Craig Lawton, who usually assists Mark Wallwork, took second place in his class debut in the 205 Rallye. In Class 1B the Elise brigade were in record breaking form. Gary Thomas in the jet black version clipped over two tenths off the record on his first run whilst LMC member Dave Coveney was inside his old record but had to settle for second. James Kerr was the Leading Tin Top with his well developed 205 setting a PB on his second run. The Yorkshireman has concentrated on suspension mods and the car handled markedly better than the other saloons. John Moxham took fourth in his LAD prepared 205 with Bob Jones in the colourful Seat Ibiza was fifth. Class 1C was very poorly supported with just two cars and three drivers. Stuart Tranter, who blew up his Multi-coloured Rover last year, was sharing his Ford Probe tow-car with son Mark. Stuart just kept the front wheel drive Ford ahead of Mike Sparke in the Nissan 200SX to record his first ever Class 1C victory. Mark Tranter was closing in on Sparke but had to settle for third.

Next were the Roadgoing Kit Cars, in class 2A there was a clear cut winner in Chris Jones in the Vauxhall/Cougar powered Westfield. He managed to get below the 50 second mark on his third run and finished over a second clear of the VERY red Westie of Kevin Bamber. Another Westfield in the hands of Tim Pennington took third ahead of the first of the Striker’s driven by David Spencer. In Class 2B the two Westfields managed to grab a 1-2 finish. Ash Mason was half a second shy of his class record whilst Stuart Graham kept well clear of the rest. Dominic Allen was a steady third in his Dax Rush with Cossie turbo power whilst co-driver Stephen Taylor-Edwards managed fourth. David Drucker in the huge TVR Cerbera slithered his way to fifth.

There were just three classes of Mod Prods but with a very healthy entry thanks to the Westfield Speed runners and the competition was about to hot up! In Class 3A Tara Collinson dominated in his ex-Mini Miglia car. He took just two runs and finished over THREE seconds clear; Paul Webb in the Metro was second just pipping Neil Davies in the rally prepared Mini. Class 3B, for the two litre cars, was a walk-over for Lee Griffiths as he blasted his 205 into a two second lead which he maintained throughout. Simon Lawrence, who was running his standard roadgoing Elise on List 1B tyres, took an impressive second whilst Jeremy Coughlan in the Saxo was third. The final Mod Prod class, 3D, saw all the Kit Cars lumped together from the Hayabusa engined Westies to the Rover V8 powered cars there was an impressive array. However it was Mark Smith in the SBD tuned Vauxhall engined Westfield that dominated. His stunning second run not only annexed the class win but also propelled him to Fastest Time of the Day. Derek Hodder recovered from a first run error to take second in class and Third FTD whilst Big John Tomlinson in the ex-Tom Green SEight rumbled his way to third in class. Terry Everall in the Hayabusa powered Westfield was a fine fourth whilst LMC member Derek Speight in the Cologne V6 powered Darrian was fifth.

The first of the Sports Libre classes for cars up to 2000cc saw Phil Major in his ADR, now called a Mk 1.5 thanks to all the mods he has carried out, take the class win ahead of LMC member Dennis Doyle who was still using the 1300cc engine in his Mk 14 Mallock. In the Over 2000 class the initial leader was Paul Norris in the Ford Cosworth turbo powered Talbot Sunbeam. However on the third run LMC Member David Marshall powered the superb Gardner-Douglas GDT70 Spyder to a ground shaking class win - the brutal small block Chevvie powered car was running in road trim and on List 1B tyres!

There were just two racing car classes and in the first for 1100 Racing Cars Jonathan Toulmin in the recently acquired Marengo 2 led from run 1. He was quicker on each successive run taking the win by over half a second. Second place went to LMC’s Andrew Dobson who over the winter replaced the ageing chassis on his OMS with a brand new 2000M version from Steve Owen. Dobson’s challenge for the class win was thwarted on his third run when the chain broke. Third place went to Eve Whitehead in her father’s home-built RBS6. Eve’s superb lines through Country and Village contributed to her fine finishing position despite numerous problems throughout the day. The Reverend Barry took fourth whilst Phil Burton in the now red OMS was fifth. After the practice demise of the Cawley’s Swift we were left with just four Formula Fords. Mind you the battle for the lead was intense despite LMC’s Graham Curwen holding the top spot throughout. Derek Martlew was second initially and was closing in until an error on his third run saw him tumble to third. Martin Pickles, who was having his first competitive outing of the year had been in third but a last run surge saw him close to within two tenths of the class leader. Mark Smith in the Elden remained in fourth place throughout despite carving tenths of his time on each successive run.

The pace then eased down a tad as the Classic Cars came to the line. Alan Wilson, another LMC member, in the drop-dead-gorgeous Austin Healey 3000 Mk2 won convincingly on scratch; the car actually came second in the Austin Healey Owner’s Club Concours last year. Tim Good in the sweeping Marcos was second on scratch with Graham Thomas in the Fairthorpe Electron Minor Mk1 over two seconds in arrears in third. However once the Handicappers had worked their magic the positions were miraculously reversed. There was a very poorly supported Luffield Cars MGCC Speed Championship class next with just five runners. Paul Drake led throughout posting the fastest time on each run; Terry Pigott was second in the rapid Midget whilst Helen Waddington took a superb third in the ZR 160.

The final two classes were for the two groups of evo Caterham Academy cars. In Group One Stephen Oates was the first to slip below the 55 second barrier however on the second run he was relegated to second by Lewis Hopkins. The third and final run saw neither of these drivers improve and Morgan Parry, who had been slowly getting quicker, slipped through to snatch the class win with the only sub 54 second run. In Group Two Barry Smith had the benefit of a rerun during the first timed runs; he was also aided by being the last car in the class so came straight to the line with warm tyres and engine. His time of 54.75 was never bettered and he ran out the winner. Andrew Bell was second throughout but was three quarters of a second adrift. Third place went to Paul Latimer whose first run time was good enough to hold the rest at bay.

As the prize presentation ended several drivers were at pains to complement the Liverpool Motor Club organisational team who deserved a huge pat on the back for running such an efficient meeting.

Results:

FTD – Mark Smith (2.0 Westfield-Vauxhall/SBD) 44.66s

Class Winners: David West (1.4 Austin Cooper S) 54.92s; Gary Thomas (1.8 Lotus Elise) 51.84s Record; Stuart Tranter (2.5 Ford Probe 24v) 58.82s; Chris Jones (1.6 Westfield-Vauxhall) 49.87s; Ash Mason (2.0 Westfield-Vauxhall) 48.33s; Tara Collinson (1.3 Austin Mini) 54.67s; Lee Griffiths (1.9 Peugeot 205 GTi) 53.19s; Smith 44.66s; Phil Major (1.2 ADR Mk1.5) 48.24s; David Marshall (6.3 Gardner-Douglas GDT70 Spyder) 47.68s; Jonathan Toulmin (1.1 Marengo-Suzuki 2) 45.12s; Graham Curwen (1.6 Van Diemen RF91) 50.53s; Graham Thomas (1.3 Fairthorpe Electron Minor Mk1) 62.90s Handicap; Paul Drake (1.9 MG BGT) 57.97s; Morgan Parry (1.6 Caterham 7 Academy) 53.93s; Barry Smith (1.6 Caterham 7 Academy) 54.75s.