Ranson Times - Shelsley August

Space travel's in my blood, And there ain't nothing I can do about it.

So we have to go to Shelsley Walsh. Another planet with no cellphone service.

This time the MAC weather magician let them down and no request was received by the cabal to invoke the swan, so we had to put up with rain on Saturday afternoon and a shower on Sunday.

My only interest was in going very fast. So when it rained I didn’t bother with a second practice. Martin went up on wets and reported it as being very slippery indeed. My main championship rival, Chris Merrick, had made his two practice runs in the dry, so we were both in the same boat if it rained on race day. I decided running wasn’t worth the risk.

The event itself seemed to go on forever. From a start at 10.00 to a finish at 18.30. We eventually were ready to leave at 20.40. Too long. And with two young children, who had generally had a good day, counting down towards global thermo-nuclear war we only just got away with it.

After what seemed like an eternity on Sunday morning it was time to strap the car on and take a second run up the hill. In the event the qualification cut-off was relatively ‘easy’, twelfth was Jos Goodyear on a long 26. I had a scrappy run that hooked up in the Esses. The result was 24.98. There’s still something about going under 25, doing it regularly is very satisfying. More significantly I followed Sue Young up the hill. She set the first truly competitive time of the event, and chopped a chunk off her lady’s record putting it deep into the 25s. If she’d been registered she’d have qualified tenth, just behind Simon Durling and Basil Pitt. She seemed really quite pleased in the top paddock.

The first runoff was disappointing until I saw the time, 24.58 was within a sniff on my personal best, I thought it would be good for a decent result. Looking back on it I got a fantastic run from the entry to the Esses to the exit. 0.2 or more seconds faster than the  outright record run... The disappointment returned when first Mike Dean and then Chris Merrick went quicker, followed by the usual suspects leaving me 5th. Chris had never run below 25 before, but, now he’s retired, when he does something he clearly revels in taking short cuts. “‘Ello, ‘ello, ‘ello, what’s all this then? Going direct to twenty four and a half without passing through twenty four and three quarters? Well don’t let it happen again sonny.”

We had a Spitfire during the runoff, a proper one with a Merlin and elliptical wings. I’m not quite sure what the connection is but they’re always good to see. Perhaps next time the timing will work out and the air display will open the afternoon’s competition. I wonder what the chances are of getting the RAF over with a Tornado or Typhoon to properly show that racing cars aren’t really that noisy?

Anyway, Scott ran in the 23s again, faster than last time, equally impressive, but how does he do it while going through the bottom speed trap so slowly? The engine died as Martin went to the line; the commentators were saying that a record run was going to be required, it was duly delivered. But not by so much that it couldn’t be done again. Ideal in the circumstances, exactly what was required. Doing the job despite the external pressure.

Then it was back to waiting and watching the sky.

We wondered off up the hill to find an ice cream van. Sitting on the mound near Kennel munching away I noticed a couple with two small boys in his and hers pushchairs just across the path. The ages sort of matched, but while ours were sliding down the bank carrying their cones and using the sheep shit as lubricant theirs were not even getting their foreheads messy. Obviously there are multiple choices when deciding how to manage children; when Matthew (nineteen months) spent the walk back to the paddock trying to stand on his head I began to swing back towards the strapped tightly into a pushchair strategy.

There were a couple of interruptions during the second runs, George Emmerson, one of our friends from the North, hit the bank at Crossing and Phil Nuthall understeered off at Kennel. The latter was a serious enough accident to trigger a call to the air ambulance, although in the end it wasn’t necessary. I understand both drivers are essentially OK. The air ambulance was a bit of a treat.

Eventually it was time to go again. I ended my sequence of 24 second timed runs, which was a bit annoying, but qualification wasn’t affected. I still had to go up with Roger before the main event.

Having not yet put together a really good run I was quite highly motivated to get a result this time. By now the low sun was becoming a problem. It was necessary to drive a little by memory. This helped on the approach to Bottom Ess, which was somewhat faster than usual, when I can see where I’m going… The result was 24.45, which survived as fastest until Scott and Martin ran. I was third again, but this time much closer to the sharp end with Scott on 24.26 and Martin finishing in 24.09.

Personally a pretty good event, joint fastest at the finish, second fastest at Ess Approach, quickest Ess sector, third to the split, joint third BTD.

This was a pivotal weekend at the championship sharp end. Scott needed to clock up some wins to keep his championship challenge alive. The way the British Championship allows the six worst scores to be discarded can obscure the position somewhat as the season rolls on if simple totals are all that are considered. A third place that can be discarded is better than a zero. But when that third place is replaced by a second or win the increase in total points seems disappointing. But that’s the way the championship is structured.

There were four records set, Martin chipped a bit of the outright record, Sue Young demolished the women’s, Ash Mason had a go at the roadgoing mod-prod sports cars and Matt Harrison broke the outright sports car record during the second runoff. The MAC picked Martin for ‘Man of the Meeting’. But I know he could have run 23.56, Sue already held the record and Ash’s class is too complicated, so my pick would have been Matt Harrison.

More pertinently the MAC invoked an arbitrary aggregate tie break procedure
to resolve third BTD between Mike Dean and me. The regulations do not cover this, perhaps they should, but I think they should have given us each a cheque. So I’m splitting it with him.

There were some visiting French people mostly in Bugattis and high heels. They brought champagne which was most welcome. It would be nice to see a couple of serious French or other European hillclimbers, I’m sure they’d be welcome.

There were lots of other visitors, Stratstones had pushed the hospitality boat right out and the MSA was on its annual works outing. And there were quite a lot of the general public who had probably paid to get in. I hope we gave them all a show.

Paul

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