Toet 11 & 12

We arrived with the specific aim of trying to score some points but it wasn’t to be. The engine will now come out and be set up dynamically on a dynamometer. It’s just too dangerous to try to do this in the car as the power delivery was not sufficiently controllable. I’ve now cancelled a couple of events and I won’t drive the car again until I am convinced that enough progress has been made to make the car drivable. My target is to be back for Harewood.

Rob Turnbull in the other Paul Edwards car had a promising start with a strong qualifying and reasonable 7^th in the first runoff but starter motor problems sidelined the car for the second qualifying. Ouch. Sorry Paul. There is great car looking for a new owner. By the way you F1 fans should keep an eye on his web for Paul’s notes from the GP’s. www.edwards-hospitality.com I’ll be catching up with him at Silverstone but I’m now in the wrong team for Paul and may not be all that welcome in the old team’s hospitality area (from the perspective of both teams!).

Overall it was another great Shelsley meeting. The sun shone most of the time and the weather almost behaved (and didn’t influence the runoffs). The usual suspects were up there with a few surprises too.

It was quite a day for the ladies as well. Sandra Tomlin qualified for the first runoff in a time that was under the pre-meeting ladies record. Clearly that was a personal best time, but unfortunately for Sandra, Susan Young had smashed the record in the previous batch. Had Susan been entered in the championship there would have been the possibility of 2 ladies in the runoff, which has to be a rare thing. Congratulations to both – at Shelsley you have to be brave to do the sort of times these girls are doing – hell I’d have been pleased to have been able to go that quickly myself!

Phil Cooke made a welcome return to the fray with the Force 1600 beating all of the 2 litre cars, (and many of us big boys, myself included). Total commitment was evident especially on the approach to the essess. Clearly the power to weight ratio of the Force isn’t that bad either!! Beating people like Tom New who is a very rapid peddler himself is some achievement – no sighs of rust here – Phil may not be doing all the rounds of the championship but he’s certainly not lost any of his determination!

Mathew Harrison also managed to qualify the Judd sports car but just missed out on his personal target of a 26 second run. The package is looking better all the time so there is little doubt he’ll manage even stronger performances in the future.

The championship is very much alive. Martin groves remains the hot favourite but Scott and Roger Moran, Simon Durling and Mike Dean are keeping him honest and Paul Ranson, Rob Turnbull and Chris Merrick (and Deryk Young when he competes) are also there ready to pick up any opportunities that present themselves. Deryk had a good morning with a 4^th place but I’ll bet the ladies record for Sue was an even prouder moment. Paul Ranson was stonking this weekend. Having not qualified I was able to go up and watch and was mightily impressed – 3^rd best time of day is not a bad effort in this company!

On the second runoff Scott Moran got into the 23’s (only Adam Fleetwood and Martin Groves had done that before) and this put the pressure onto Martin, but, as usual he handled it with aplomb and on a track that was by all accounts not quite in optimum condition did a run that was just a few hundredths from his outright record. Good effort. Me personally I’m looking forward to the first Simon Durling, Mike Dean and Paul Ranson wins – on present form Martin probably deserves the championship but these guys are overdue a win!

Time to get back to work. The plane journey allows a bit of work to be done but between these notes and job lists for the boys the time available is actually quite short. We have public holiday in Switzerland (of course that does not mean a day off) and I have taken a bit of time to have a “nice” high heart rate bike ride up and down the local “hill” – burn off some of that pent up frustration!