viva auto repairs: collingrove cup round 1
TRANSCRIPT
Viva Auto Repairs: Multiclub Collingrove
Cup Round 1
Round 1 of the 2016 Collingrove Cup was run on Sunday the 5th June, and
as we gathered for the pre-event paperwork the common talk in the pits was about how cold it was and the hope that the rain would stay
away.
Well it didn’t get much warmer and during the drivers briefing those
predicted showers made their presence felt. Competition got under
way on a damp track with a cold wind blowing and times were very
slow.
It was well into the second run of the day before anyone set a time under
40 seconds and by lunch time, only 3 cars had broken this barrier. All of
these were all wheel drive turbocharged cars, with Mark Wisbey leading the way in his
ULX110 Oils sponsored Nissan Pulsar GTIR.
This event was the first time Mark has run the Pulsar this year, as it has
been in pieces waiting for a new racing gearbox. It was only during
the week that Mark decided to put a standard gearbox back into the car,
which had to be assembled from parts of several boxes. With this
fitted the car was given a drive into the hills.
This was a good idea as 4th gear syncro shattered and jammed the shifter. A rush repair saw the car ready to race by Sunday morning
albeit with no 4th gear.
The surprise packet of the morning was Robin Bostock, in his
standard Mazda MX5 running in the road registered under 2 litre class. Not only was he leading his class in the wet conditions, after 3 runs, but
he was the fastest 2wd car in the field.
The hero driver of the day though would have to be Matthew Woodland in the Richard open wheel hillclimb special, after he decided to run the 2 wettest runs of the day on slick tyres, setting a best time of 47.06 seconds.
It was a true testament to the professionalism of all the drivers,
that in extremely difficult and slippery conditions less than a
handful of recoveries were required and the only damage done was to
egos.
During the lunch break the rain finally eased and as the track started to dry, times began to tumble, with the AWD cars getting down to 34 &
35 second runs regularly. We finished with 6 runs for the day and by the last
run the field of about 90 cars had
whittled down to just under 70. I am sure that those drivers that left at
lunch time because of the conditions, are rueing their decision as they saw
the skies clear throughout the afternoon.
Nathan Green was the first to go under 35 seconds with a 34.87 on the 5th run. This fired the top runners up with Gavin Farley coming out to equal
that in the last run in his Mitsubishi Evo7.
Nathan then bettered his time by .50 of a second, and John Davies
followed that with a 34.70. Mark Wisbey went for it on his last run but over cooked the first turn, went wide
and was relegated to 4th outright with a best of 35.36 just ahead of the
35.40 set by the consistent wet weather runner, Alex Wilson in his
Audi A4 Quattro.
Roger Patterson came home in his Porsche 911RS with a 35.75 to end up as the quickest 2WD car in 6th
outright. With the inclement weather, many people suffered what
must have been an uncomfortable day and although I felt sorry for all
the
drivers in open top cars, the real appreciation has to go to the
wonderful officials that endured a cold wet morning in particular, just to
give the competitors a chance to enjoy another great day of
motorsport.Next event is round 2 to be held on
the 3rd of July, and I think we are all hoping for better conditions.
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