Well it came and went.... our first race meeting of the year, and what a
'scorcher' it was. Far too hot to be thrashing our LBCs around the
track (the non-LBCs seemed OK, except for the one that burst into flames
after leaving the track - with someone blaming those damn oil-filled
socks over his ram tubes).
Over 95F and blazing sun is not the weather you want to be sitting
around in a triple-layer race suit and full-face helmet (especially like
mine - both black) in a car with no roof. At one stage we got held on
the grid for five minutes, engines idling, while one car left the track
seriously overheating before any action had occurred. My temperature
guage was heading for the big H and if they delayed much longer I, too,
would have bailed out before the start (and I probably would not have
been alone).
The poor old turbo powered cars really felt the hot air.
This was a 'super sprint' event with each 'sprint' just four laps of the
1.6 mile twisty circuit, but I found myself bailing out after just three
laps and not risking the hot old girl. So having just a couple of laps
(after the 'stading start' one) in a very warm car to put in your best
'hot lap' meant that I was putting in times almost a full two seconds
slower than my previous best. I decided to give it an extra push in the
last race of the day and managed to pull off a respectable time less
than a second slower than my previous best. Kinder weather and a little
more 'match practice' should see me improve my times considerably.
We had quite a few new entries, which is always good to see, but most of
the 'old names' were there. Out of a field of 85 entries in total there
were 14 MGs of various models. The weather meant that the field was
smaller than the usual 105+ cars. The magnificent Roger Waters "Rebel
Yellow" TC Special V8 pulled out early, especially troubled by the heat.
The fastest cars in order were:
AH Sprite MkII (yeah, with the mazda rotary engine); Clubman Farrell;
Toyota Corolla; Porsche 944; Gordon Clubman; Kestrel Clubman (in fact
there were six 'clubman' cars of various models in the top 15). The top
MG was a V8 3.5 litre 'B in a very respectable 12th and a 2 litre, 4
cylinder MGB race car in 14th (which was better than the Porsche Boxster
and Ricciardi Sports :-)
On my fastest time I was surrounded by some good company in: Jaguar XJ6
SI; Alfa Sprint; Mazda MX-5; Westfield SEIW; Ford Cortina MkI
I think I would almost prefer a wet track to that heat torture - but it
was a perfect evening for the after-race barbecue :-)
Eric
'68MGB MkII
Adelaide
South Australia
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