ROUND 1 : North Weald: 13 March 2011
by Andrew Holman

The PFHC 25th anniversary year kicked off at the North Weald airfield sprint in Essex, efficiently run as ever by Borough 19 MC. The weather lived up to expectations: it started dull, showed signs of promise and then rained by coffee time. It could have been worse - the wind wasn’t bitterly cold as it often is!

The 15 hardy souls entered all turned up and enthusiastically greeted each other after what seemed like a longer than usual winter break. Club Chair Richard Allen had turned around in his 355 after one bank of cylinders failed to fire but just before he decided to go back to bed a few tweaks on the wiring in his garage magically seemed to cure the problem and he still arrived in time for drivers briefing. Interestingly, the car had been into Ian Button’s garage for some new belts and he reported odd wear on the near side rear pads, with one looking completely new. Investigating further, he found the fluid feed hole to the caliper had never been drilled out since new. This was quickly sorted out with the Black and Decker which gave Allen complete braking for the first time in 17 years!

There are few changes to the regs this year, mainly the banning of those sticky 1B tyres that Nick Taylor used to such good effect last year. We also welcomed a couple of newcomers: Tony Attwood in his 246 Dino and Steve Routledge in his manual 360. Tony had done a Curborough tuition day, so had a good idea of what would happen whilst Steve was a little more of a rookie and was looking just to not make a complete mess of it all.

So on to P1, NW is always a sea of cones, so it was no surprise they caught a couple out, though not as badly as some previous years! The three on the pace on this dusty, bumpy track were Prior with 82.24 secs, Spicer 82.17 and Mad Dog Holman 81.79, the Anglia man as ever happier on the flat.

Queuing for P2 saw the drizzle turn to rain and we knew these times wouldn’t be seen again that day. It was clearly very slippery. Delays were already occurring with excursions onto the infield, where drivers put the power down too early and spun off, usually making matters worse for those who followed by covering the track in grit and mud in the process. This caught Pauline Goodwin out in her 328. Attwood took it very cautiously, claiming to have also stopped for coffee – and a cake – with a time over 134 seconds. In reality he spun, stalled and failed to start for a while. In the low 90s were Doyle, driving brilliantly in the wet on a 93.30, not so far behind Prior on 90.63. Spicer was cautious on a 96 sec run alongside RA, whilst the only person breaking into the 80s was MD on 88.74.

Despite the offs the organisers got a crack on and managed to squeeze T1 in before lunch. The rain had nearly but not quite stopped. The track was still very wet but times were getting slightly quicker. Certainly Attwood got 'best improved' to a 106, accompanied in the 100s by Wilson, Hargreaves Senior and surprisingly PG, who was not having the best of days, maybe she was pining for her Essex RAC breakdown man with whom she usually has a tryst here.

Other big improvers were local lads: Jeff Cooper down 10 secs to 98, Julian Playford took nearly 8 secs off to 96.75 and Essex asylum seeker RA 7 seconds to 89.85. Those in the low 90s again were Doyle, being consistent with a 93.17 closely pursuing Taylor on 90.07. Prior remembered to check the pressures on his new tyres and found his fitting shop wasn’t up to Spicer standards, so confidently drove round with even pressures to stop the clock on 89.51. Holman put in a banker with 88.44 and was pipped by the Spicemobile on 88.14.

The lunch gap saw a group huddled for warmth under the championship gazebo, aided by a box of the patent Taylor tyre warmers given out by Fiona to use on hands instead.

T2 looked slightly drier, but was it going to be any grippier? The Dino was first out and promptly spun as did Wood and Jack Hargreaves. In the Hargreaves camp it was Dad’s turn to get himself sorted with a nicely balanced 93.90. But the figures from the first runners were misleading, new boy Routledge knocked 4 seconds off, but that could be put down to finding his way around a track as Wilson slowed to 104 and claimed it must be a timing fault. However, when the results came out they showed he’d been penalized for hitting a barrier. PG was awarded the quickest driver in reverse - coming through the fast left hander backwards at over 80mph.

In front of her Doyle was looking very strong on points with a quicker 92.50. Cooper quicker on 94, but RA slower on 90.04. Prior was getting to grips with things and improved massively to 86.47, Taylor knocked a little off to get just get under 90 whilst MD was finding form and managed nearly 3 seconds off to clock 85.50, over 2.5 seconds quicker this time than Spicer.

So all to play for on T3, a drying track, but each run was like a whole new adventure to those seeking grip with any overconfidence resulting in a quick spin. On this final run everyone managed to stay on track. Attwood lacked some confidence after his spin and cautiously cruised around to clock 116 in the Dino. Apart from three drivers, everyone else was closely packed in the 90 second bracket.

PG got her fastest time at 96.80, as did most of the others. Wood got the better of PG by ¾ of a second. Wilson was pleased with his 95 sec run. The 94’s included a 94.70 from Routledge, rightly pleased with himself on his first outing. Dad Hargreaves went slower and was beaten by Jack on 94.06 until you remembered his previous run of 93.90. Playford’s consistency allowed him to improve again to get a 94.02.

RA brought out his secret weapon, a new pair of gloves, but all the excitement had an effect on his time and he was slower at 93.05, well, until we take off the 5 second penalty for hitting a cone at the end of his run which explains a lot! Doyle’s times were eagerly anticipated, this car runs with a - 4.5% PEP, so taking nearly 4.5 seconds off his time was going to get him up with the front runners on points. He improved again to 91.17, a stonking time for the GT4, equalled by Cooper in his 360. Like Allen, Taylor seemed to have lost his mojo and was down behind this pair at 91.38. The results later showed that he’d also been penalized for hitting a cone.

That left the trio of Prior, Holman and Spicer. First up was Prior who was quick off the line, had a clean run round and improved slightly to 86.41. MD Holman bogged on the line, made a mess of the top corner and encountered a lot of understeer but managed to stop the clock at 84.81. Like these others Spicer had been very consistent all day, handling the difficult conditions with well judged driving. He also managed to knock a second of his time but that was not enough to catch Holman as it only brought him down to 86.23, good enough for second on scratch in front of Prior.

The points were quickly worked out and Holman had the double followed by Prior and Doyle. [Incidentally Holman also had overall 9th Best Time of the Day - Ed].

A pleasant surprise at the prize giving was us being awarded a nicely engraved trophy for the best supporting club by Borough 19’s Sarah, collected by Richard Prior.