Revs December 2014

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Owen Motoring Club

Inside this issue:

Ernest Owen Pro-duction Car Trial cont.

2

NEC Classic Car show

3

Bright Sparks PCA 3, 4

Audience with Stu-art Derry

4

A Busy Three 6,7

Slithering Santa 8

Revs

December 2014 (now bi-monthly)

then nearly chucked it

away allowing Loughbor-

ough’s Dave Walker

(1600 Corsa) to catch

him. Not far back was

Owen’s Tom Bishop do-

ing really well in his 1400

Micra, at lunchtime Tom

was 3rd, a great perfor-

mance, but he slipped

back a touch late in the

day. In the same Class,

the other Owen mem-

bers Tim Beard and Dave

Allman (Saxo 1100) were

battling well finishing 3rd

Lucky with the weather,

overnight rain and a

lovely sunny Sunday for

4 rounds of 8 hills and 24

competitors.

Our Chief Marshal

Melvyn Cox had assem-

bled 7 marshals from

Owen MC and I did a bit

of phoning round the

night before to drum up

another 9 friends and

ever helpful BTRDA

chaps, so we were ready

to go!

All 3 Championship clas-

ses were well supported,

10 in Class 1 (standard

modern cars) which fea-

tured the Saxo VTR of

Dorset’s Mark Hoppe

(my old car I sold to him

earlier in the year), he

took an early lead and

Ernest Owen Production Car Trial

Sunday 31st August

By Nick Pollitt

and 5th just 8 marks apart, with Tom Bishop 6th just 1 mark

adrift of Dave. Mark Hoppe took the Class win and 2nd overall,

enough to confirm him as the 2014 MSA British Car Trial

Champion, and also of note was 4th placed driver John

Wadsworth in his KA, a result that gives him a Class win in the

MSA series...John is 80,

and in the 1950’s compet-

ed at Le Mans, and on a

number of International

rallies including the Mon-

te.

Class 2 (modified FWD

cars) was 7 strong and it

was Simon Harris and his

Golf Gti that leaped into an early lead which he retained after

a number of very impressive climbs, running him close all day

was Nottingham’s Neil Mackay in his Citroen AX, and then

Ilkley’s Rupert North in his little yellow Mini who at one point

looked like taking a win but the steepness of the afternoon

sections was a bit too much for the Mini.

Class 3 (rear engined cars and sports and kit cars) was likely to

be a battle of the Imps, but Brian and Kevin Roberts (all the

way from Bala) took their Dutton into what looked like an

unassailable lead dropping only a few marks by lunchtime,

with Warwickshire’s Steve Courts in his red Imp a little further

back. All changed in the afternoon, Steve steadily eating into

the Roberts’ lead, Brian dropping a real clanger on the 3rd

round and Kevin also making some errors, and then the

Dutton developed a fault..it was game over.

Steve Courts took the Class and outright victory after a really

fabulous drive.

A huge thank you to ALL the marshals... Will Barnes and Ra-

chel, Phil Darbyshire and Bob Cotterell, Mike and Hazel Ste-

Ernest Owen Production Car Trial Continued...

TROPHIES!!!!!

We are now at the end of

another season of

motorsport. The

championships are

competitive and scores

will soon be finalised.

Please return your

trophies to Ruth

NOTICES

Tabard Amnesty

The club have ordered

some new tabards for

marshalling duties.

We have lost many tab-

ards over the last few

years when people have

forgotten to give them

back.

Please have a hunt around

garages, sheds, cars etc to

see if you have Owen tab-

ards that can be returned.

Please return to any com-

NEC International Classic Car Show After not initially being offered a place at this year’s show we were a little disappointed

with the organisers considering we have supported them through their good and bad

times since 2000.

At short notice we did get offered space re

a cancelation which we took up. Five cars

were shown, Pete Shenton loaned his fan-

tastic Mk1 Escort Sprint Car (Tarmac spec

rally car really) Martin Parkes Hillman Imp,

Derrick Wallbank Escort Harrier and Mark

Barnes brought two Fiat 500`s one being his

rather special ex Fiat works rally car, thank

you to you all for making the effort at such

short notice. Several club members attend-

ed but we surprisingly ended up with tick-

ets left over for most days, where were you all ??.

phens, John and Julia Baden, Paul and Ruth, John and Kaye, Melvyn, Darren and Ian......the

competitors were particularly outspoken saying what a great job the marshals had done.

My thank you also to Jude Preston and Graham for secretarial stuff and the excellent com-

puterised results, available within 20 minutes of the last car finishing, and to Terry Moore

for his invaluable assistance all weekend. It all seemed to run really well and we have

booked Catton for the Ernest Owen next APRIL 26th.....make a note in your 2015 diary!

Owen Motoring Club Christmas Party

The annual Christmas Party will be held at Aldridge Social Club

in the function room on Wednesday 17th December, 9 pm

Come along for a get together with other members.

Free buffet provided.

Bright Sparks PCA Autotest—Sunday 19th October 2014

What a turnout! A full entry of 40. This was

beyond my expectations. Best ever!

I proves that the event now has a really good

reputation of providing fast, exciting and

flowing tests. There were plenty of smiling

faces all day long.

The quality line up included, “Maestro” Kevin

Hardwick who had won FTD for the previous

2 years and was on a hatrick. Also “Mr

Smooth” Nick Pollitt (Lotus Elise), the

“Master” Mike Sones (MX5), Tom Bishop

(Micra), James Nicholls (rally spec 205) and

Will Barnes in his new Fiat 500 “Fartbox”.

A warm welcome to Ben Heggs from Coalville

in a Fiesta and also five “sprinters” from

Shenstone (Rob Swadkin, Chris Gillie, Carl

Bounds, Mark Byng and Harry Whiting) I

had spent several previous Sundays “chatting

up” Production class sprint entrants to en-

courage them to have a go at autotesting to

improve their driving skills. Again all of them

enjoyed the new experience. Hopefully they

may pass on their experience and recom-

mendation to other sprint colleagues.

Thankfully the weather was good and pro-

ceedings started at 10.15am. As usual there

were 2 large tests each taking approximately

11/4 mins to complete.

Each test consisted of 3 runs with the worst

score being dropped. A second car was start-

ed when the first was about ¾ way distance

to reduce queueing time.

In an effort to avoid wrong tests I added di-

rectional arrows. However this seemed to

make little difference to some competitors

who decided on their own courses or ex-

pecting bonus points for knocking over

cones. One of the worst culprits was Tony

Bishop, navigated by Tom, who ended up

with three WT’s and 5 hit cones. A visit to

Specsavers I reckon Tony!

There was a heart-racing moment on the

main sprint course when a car went back

along the way it came resulting in a near

“head-on” with the next competitor. Luckily

he veered onto the grass to avert a catastro-

phe. I will have to add even more directional

arrows next time and go through the test

courses at the drivers briefing.

At the lunch break James Nicholls was lead-

ing on 273 with Kevin Hardwick 276, Ben

Heggs 281, Nick Pollitt 283, Tom Bishop 284

and Mike Sones 290.

After a few minor course alterations the

afternoon went without too many incidents

Good to see some new Owen members en-

joying themselves including Neil Holland in a

Corsa and Polish recruit Michal Kulpaka in a

BMW 3 series - a big car to throw around

(also the Sierra Cosworth driven by Shen-

stone member Carl Bounds).

The event finished in daylight by 4.15pm and

the whole proceedings ran very smoothly run

by very efficient marshals. A special thanks

goes to Clare Bird, Darren

Kiernan, Roger Tolley, Barri

Wilmot, Ruth Langford, Roger

Tristram, Geoff Allman and

David Allman.

Special thanks goes to Mark

Barnes who marshalled on

the Paddock test and also

Paul Langford for looking

after the VIP’s. These were

people who expressed a de-

sire to sit in the passenger

seats of various cars during

the day to experience the

thrills and excitement in the

hope that they may join the

club and have a go them-

selves.

The results were fast in the

hands of Jude Preston ably

assisted by Graham Burgess.

Many thanks to Barri for

helping me set up on the Sat-

urday. A true club member.

Clare Bird supplied home-

made cakes to raise money

for Air Ambulance. A great

effort on her behalf to obtain

monies for this essential

charity.

The final result was so close

with Kevin Hardwick beating

Nick Pollitt by just 1 second.

James Nicholls would have

won by 13 secs but we decid-

ed to disqualify him as he

was running on “knobbly”

non - List 1A tyres.

He knew about this predica-

ment earlier in the day and

generously accepted the rul-

ing so that there would be no

ill feelings at the end. He just

wanted to have a good time

following his disappointment

the previous day when there

was an electrical problem on

the Cambrian Rally and failed

even to start the first stage!

As a gesture of goodwill we

gave him the Best Owen

award. He was happy

enough! An admirable atti-

tude under the circumstanc-

es. Such is his fine character.

Bob Cotterell

An Audience with

Stuart Derry

Many thanks goes to

Stuart Derry for enter-

taining us on Wednesday

8th October.

He told us all many sto-

ries of his rallying days

and had us all laughing

at various moments.

A good evening was had

by all and an impressive

£35 was taken on the

door towards Air Am-

bulance.

Events Coming Up

Wednesday 17th December - Christmas Party

Saturday 27th December—Slithering Santa Autotest—Curborough Sprint

Course

Looking Ahead

AGBO Stages Rally—Sunday 22nd March 2015

NEWS

This newsletter will now be

issued bi-monthly.

The committee have taken

the decision to have a bi-

monthly newsletter in re-

placement of the magazine.

This is due to lack of articles

and rising printing costs.

Those that we do not have an

email address for will receive

a printed copy of the news-

letter by post.

Following the sale of my

Westfield in the early part of

2012 I’ve been renovating/

modifying my next competi-

tion car which is a 1965 Hill-

man Imp Super. There’ll be a

full write up in Revs

next year. My 49 year

old Imp was finally put

back on the road at the

end of July this year,

which is slightly later

than I had planned, and

I still need to put some

miles on it to get the new

engine run in. As I’ve only run

it locally I decided to trailer it

to the Annual Imp National

Meeting just outside Cam-

bridge on the 1st weekend in

August. There I was present-

ed with 2nd in class for “road

going competition Imps” by

Rosemary Smith which made

all the hard work so far worth

it. I then drove it back home

with Elaine following me with

the truck and trailer to add

on some more miles!

It made its OMC debut on the

club stand at a rather wet

and poorly attended Shug-

borough Classic Car Show the

following weekend. The pho-

to shows it beside a friend’s

1937 Buick 4 Door Sedan. My

final planned show appear-

ance for 2014 was at The

Shackerstone Festival in Sep-

tember. This is a very good

and well attended 2 day festi-

val, not far from MIRA, and

well worth a visit if you’ve

never been.

Although the car looked fin-

ished I still had a list of jobs

still to be done and plenty of

time....I thought. Imagine my

surprise when Bob Cotterell

suddenly paid me a visit one

October Sunday to say he

would like me to display it on

the OMC stand at this year’s

National Classic Car Show at

the NEC in November. The

long jobs list then had to be

prioritised to make sure that

it looked it’s best for 3 days

of inspection at this very pop-

ular show. The main job was

A Busy Three Weeks!!

By Martin Parkes

Renew your member-

ship

It’s coming to the end of the

membership year so now’s

the time to renew. Most

members will get an email

reminder soon and those of

you who had this issue by

mail should have had a re-

newal form included.

Renewal and payment can be

to strip the front end of lights, grill, bumper

etc. so it could all be rubbed down, rust

proofed and then rattle-canned. New remov-

able spot light brackets were manufactured

so that my ex-Dave Greenwood Cibie Oscars

(carrying on the Westfield second hand parts

scrounging tradition) could be suitably

mounted although I didn’t have time to wire

them!

After a lot of work and a final polishing my

Imp was ready, initially I was going to drive it

there, but with a lot of Club equipment to

take I volunteered the X-Trail truck as

transport with my Imp on the trailer. Equip-

ment was collected from the new club con-

tainer on Wed, with the help of Anton and

Bob and by Thurs afternoon the Club stand

looked very impressive made even better by

the blue carpet scrounged from Quinton MC!

I then helped man the stand on the Friday

with lots of interest in all our cars and just

the right amount of visitors to the exhibition

enabling good relaxed viewing and photo-

graphing of cars during the day.

Saturday then commenced with a very early

start but for another car related reason.

Weeks before volunteering for the NEC I was

asked if I would help man a car wash for the

Welsh Rally GB just the other side of Welsh-

pool and having a free weekend at the time

said yes. I was on the road at 6.30 so I could

meet up with my brother and his son at

Welshpool at 8.00am.

By 9.30 we were set up with waterproofs and

2 diesel powered jet washers, the first

course cars started arriving just before 10

and then it was nonstop until about 15.00.

The car wash was at a village garage just out-

side Meifod as the rally cars came out of a

very muddy Dyfnant and made their way

towards the Chirk Castle Special Stage. The

poor garage owner must have wished he’d

have asked for more money as he was on a

meter and we must have partially drained

Lake Vyrnwy washing 160 competition cars

plus official cars! I finally arrived home about

19.00 very tired but still managed a walk to

the local pub for a couple of beers.

Sunday was another early start to get there

in time to miss the traffic and get our stand

ready for the final influx of visitors. This was

my busiest day with so many people wanting

to talk to me about my Imp and the Imps that

they’d owned in the past including Barry

© Owen Motoring Club Ltd, 2014

Owen Motoring Club Ltd, A Company Limited by Guarantee Registration No. 1378393,

Registered office, PO Box 10, Darlaston, West Midlands WS10 8JD

Come and blow away the Christmas

cobwebs at the Slithering Santa

Autotest.

The annual Slithering Santa au-

totest , which is a PCA so you need

a passenger, will take place at

Curborough Sprint Course on Satur-

day 27th December.

Traditionally it is a bit of fun for us

all to get out of the house after all

the Christmas festivities.

REGS and Entry form are now avail-

able to download a

www.owenmotoringclub.co.uk

Please, where possible, enter

online. This will save on your entry

getting caught up in the Christmas

post.

If you can’t compete then come

along and marshal. Be there by

09.30 to sign on as a marshal. Free

snack ticket. We should be finished

by about 1.00 pm.

Slithering Santa Autotest 2014

‘Whizzo’ Williams. I find that Imps are a Mar-

mite thing, people either love them or hate

them! As I’ve never owned or worked on one

before this one I was glad of any information

people were giving me and have tried to re-

member it all. About a dozen people wanted

to buy my Imp including one person who just

wouldn’t take no for an answer, he kept say-

ing that I could now build another one quick-

er with the money from the sale of this one

to him!

Once the show was over strip down was

completed by the time I’d navigated my way

from the car park back into the hall. I hall.

Have to say all the NEC traffic people in the

Hi-Viz green jackets that I met over the 3

days were all very helpful and polite. Once

the car was loaded I followed in my Imp back

to the trailer park for final loading and got

home about 7.30ish and Elaine and I were in

the local pub for a late Sunday lunch by 8

o’clock! Anton met me back at the container

for unloading on Monday morning. All in all a

very enjoyable, if busy, few days and thanks

for asking me Bob. Hope we get a stand at

the restoration show in March now.

Revs December 2014

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