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Ranson Times - Jersey and Guernsey July 2006
The Channel Islands. Outside the European Union but part of the Duchy of
Normandy. That means their Duke is also the Queen of England and you can buy
duty-free gin with pounds when you travel between. A win-win situation for the
oppressed EU citizen. And of course they aren't a party to the daft 'mainland'
law regarding racing on the street. So we get to drive 600 BHP single seaters up
closed roads in front of a hopefully appreciative audience. It's well worth the
trip.
It really wouldn't do to split the two islands where we compete, both have their
charms, both offer severe challenges on the hillclimb front. Jersey does free
beer on the Wednesday evening and money for BTDs. Guernsey has better beaches,
Tango and the Indian restaurant on the Bridge.
The roads are very different. Jersey is many slow corners joined by complicated
straights. Guernsey is many complicated corners joined by a short straight with
some complication. The latter is the fastest, 110-115mph with at least two
wheels on the pavement. The former requires much more use of full throttle.
Jersey has a tiny paddock with gradients and a car park at the top of the hill
with views of France. Everything must be brought down in the tow car, the race
car is rolled down well before the road is closed mixing with all the civilian
traffic and remembering not to take the racing line. Guernsey has a large
seafront carpark as paddock, space is not an issue.
Uniquely the two Channel Island events run double drives in the reverse order,
as nominally 'second' driver I usually have to run first. In Jersey and Guernsey
this is reversed. The upside is that if I qualify second we don't have to change
the seat around so much, the downside is that it seems like a very long time out
of the car between runs during the competition.
In the past I've basically been rubbish in Jersey and pathetic in Guernsey. My
hope was to confront this and somehow do better. In Jersey the track improves
very significantly during the day, there's no consistency to build on. My best
run was first qualifying, a low 40s run, but reasonably clean and tidy. The
consequent runoff was really scrappy. Over aggressive and too sideways. The time
improved but it wasn't representative. I was really looking forward to the
second go. There was a minor parallel of clean qualifying and scrappy runoff in
the other half of our pit but Simon Durling's win was clearly well earned.
Martin qualified modestly for the second runoff, I thought it would be fun to
outdo him. Reality bit at the first corner. I'd never had a problem there before
so it was bound to happen sooner or later. The data shows that if you want to
break the outright record then 75mph before Café is adequate. If you want to
spin to a halt then 80mph does the trick. I expertly ensured that the closest
any part of the car approached the wall was 6 inches, and with the help of the
marshalls rolled it back for the runoff, I really couldn't get upset; I'd tried
too hard and got away with it. Anyway this time Martin went fast rather than
furious and at last took Andy Priaulx's long standing record. There were text
messages being exchanged with the man himself as the runoff took place.
Communications at least have moved along a-pace. I doubt this record will last
11 years.
We expertly coordinated our packing up to allow both presence at the prize
giving and early enough arrival at the ferry terminal to get on the boat to
Guernsey in the evening. There's probably a time and motion PhD in optimising
this process, I think we were at MSc level this year.
On arrival in Guernsey we traded Bristows for Dunns and departed to Deano's
garage to deposit the trailer. The usual Transit van was parked at the end of
his one way road. The wing mirror was folded in generously leaving us 3 inches
each side. This wasn't quite as challenging as the skip installed further down
the road. As usual, as soon as trailers arrived chaos ensued and the one way
street past the garage becomes the busiest thoroughfare on Guernsey for the
crucial 20 minutes while trailers are parked and cars moved.
We spent some time on Friday afternoon cleaning tyres and changing gear ratios.
Mike Dean and Tom New had done their work in the morning and gone for a long
(very long...) lunch so we had Guernsey Garages (1996) Ltd pretty much to
ourselves. The plan was to lengthen third but we ended up changing second and
fourth as well since they were plain knackered. Apart from when we
unintentionally dropped the car off the hoist this was a low stress afternoon.
Le Val des Terres was my bogey hill. The only place I've never qualified. Having
let Chris Merrick close right up on the championship table at the Jersey event
the pressure was now really on. Martin has a close family connection to the
island and there was a lot of local expectation and pressure there. We walked
the hill in the morning and almost everybody we met made comments about record
runs. I couldn't afford to go slowly and I couldn't afford (in any sense) a
close encounter with the granite.
Practice was pleasantly relaxing. The double drivers were running at the
beginning of the second batch, so we got to watch some of the local talent from
the top of the hill. This is just plain entertaining. Second time up Scott
remembered to bring some money and we had an ice cream, hillclimbing doesn't get
much more civilised than that.
Looking back in time via the comprehensive results available on the GMCCC web
site shows my previous best was 32.61 in practice with the GR37 in 2004. I
didn't go any faster in practice this year. Not a good sign. Fortunately I'd not
looked up the past times... Qualifying went better, mid 31s which is beginning
to get competitive. There was no chance of an ice cream this time, we were
returned direct to the pits to prepare for the runoff.
I improved to a 31.01 in the runoff. This was starting to be OK. Except that
Chris Merrick managed 30.98. Aargh!
Martin took the win with the first ever 28 second run. Scott slipped to fourth.
Deano ended up third, spinning over the finish and scuffing the rear wing. Simon
Durling suffered gear selection problems and didn't qualify. Colin le Maitre's
engine failed comprehensively in the tunnel and released some oil. Tom New had
to follow him up and wasn't able to quite match his qualifying time. It had to
be someone but this seemed unfair given how well Tom had been going in practice.
While second qualifying was unremarkable the runoff was dramatic. I'd smoked
several virtual cigarettes and kicked several real tyres. The result was an
outright competitive 30.34 that I'm still pleased about, but the really exciting
stuff was to come.
Deano had qualified modestly but was obviously up for a proper go in the runoff.
Unfortunately it all went wrong on the way into the last corner and he span into
the bank. The split was indicating a low 29, so the record and win weren't quite
on, but second or third was. Martin ran the best ever split time but made an
error on the way onto the straight and didn't improve on his new record and just
missed the extra point for breaking the old record. Scott was slower to the
split but completely committed to the finish. The result was an improvement to
the record and a win followed by an impressive spin that somehow did no damage.
After all that we abandoned all the gear and retired to the Yacht for a pint.
Overall looking at the championship it was good news for Martin, he'd out-scored
Scott at both events and was leading overall with two events in hand. Tense but
not skin of the teeth. Yet.
 There
are some fantastic creations competing in the Channel Islands. The sand racers
are visually exciting and when fitted with a big V8 aurally not too shabby. The
2CV bodied special (Crazy Frog!) where access to the driving seat was via the
rear door, Tim Torode's ex-Groves Anglia was as mad as ever. The rally cars and
'Production Cars' were no less exciting to watch.
 Guernsey is also notable for the
local experts who qualify and score points in relatively modest equipment.
Martin used to pull this trick off regularly in his Mallock. There were stellar
performances this year from Nick Saunders, Jason King, Glenn Tanquerel and Paul
le Messurier. Somewhere adjacent there should be an image from our data logger
of my best run (so not giving away any secrets...) The throttle trace shows less
than 2 seconds at full go, and a large percentage of the run at between 40-50mph
so there's not much aerodynamic assistance happening. The places where 600BHP
provide a benefit up Val des Terres are few and far between. A great opportunity
for a talented driver with local expertise to get some points. You cannot rely
on the equipment to conceal a lack of commitment.
It's Wiscombe next. I see there's a good Guernsey entry, including the 6200cc
'Chevrolet Special' which was running mid 33s up Val des Terres and sounding
like it was breaking records. Coupled with the intensity at the sharp end of the
championship I think this weekend should prove entertaining.
Paul.
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