A Wet Day at Mallory.

It was a particularly wet day at Mallory Park yesterday with lots of spins and off-roading.  I almost didn’t get there as my sat nav never picked up a signal (I guess because of the cloud cover) and it was only because I remembered the way to MIRA from last week that I got close enough to ask for directions.

It was always going to be an interesting day for Tony Thomas and me in the HSA MX5 class since this was the biggest MX5 entry so far this year with five drivers in four cars – all MkI 1600ccs. Three of these drivers we had not seen before – Dave Field from my local MX5 club, Phoenix Fives (hence our sunstrips), and Alan Mugglestone and his son Nick.

Dave Field and Tony Thomas
Alan has a long history in motorsport – at 18 he was the youngest winner of the British Kart Grand Prix at Silverstone and since then he has been involved, either as driver (Formula Ford and F3), mechanic, engineer or team owner in everything from Formula First to Formula One.
Alan Mugglestone

Last year he was chief engineer for A1 Team Malaysia and this year, from what I remember him saying, he is involved in Historic F1 and the Le Mans series and of course the REI HSA Speed Championship where he is helping Nick learn the ropes with the MX5. The little Mazda might be considered something of an ‘apprentice piece’ for Nick – a car to prepare and compete in in order to fully understand the engineering side of the sport. We wish him well and one day I hope to say, ‘Ah yes, I remember competing against Nick Mugglestone at Mallory Park’ 🙂

Nick Mugglestone and Alan Mugglestone

Alan and Nick had a van and trailer and were in a different part of the paddock to the rest of us but Alan came over to say hello and was very friendly and unassuming.  As I said after Shelsley, you meet some interesting people in this lark.

So, how did the day go?  In the first practice I spun coming out of Stapletons and ended up on the grass on the infield.  I came to rest pointing across the track right into the lens of a cameraman standing on the outside of the circuit.  I wonder if he posted the photo on the web. I was able to get back on the track and recorded a silly time of 99.20. Fastest in that session (in our class) was Alan Mugglestone with a 78.44.  This was almost three seconds faster than Tony (81.30) which caused some head scratching. In the second session Tony span, as you can see in the video, Alan didn’t go out (I think – or else went off?) and I had my moment of glory by recording the fastest time – 80.82. Time for lunch.

Dave's MX5 at its first sprint event.

We had three competition runs in the afternoon, (though HSA rules count only the first two).  Alan got his time down to 74.37, Tony 78.92, Nick 79.65, me 80.37 and Dave was pleased to improve with every run, stay on the track and record a best of 83.80.  I think we’ll be seeing a lot more of Dave this season and it won’t be long before he’s pushing me down the leader board.      [correction: see comments to this post re Nick’s time]

Undoubtedly Alan and Nick’s car is well prepared but it was also the only one with Yokohama Advan Neova tyres, the rest of us running Toyo Proxes T1Rs, so it will be interesting in the future to see how they perform in the dry.

What else? Oh, Dave almost didn’t make it to the start line of his first sprint because he’d left the fan running in his car.  He donned his helmet. jumped in and discovered he’d got a flat battery. Lucky for him Neil Duncanson (Audi Quattro) was next door and had jump leads.

Dave almost missed the main event.

Neil was not too impressed with the tyres on his Quattro but was entertaining to watch as he understeered around the track. He said he did the stretch from the Bus Stop to the finish sideways.

Jonathan Plowe was again out in his Gilbern and between runs was doing the rounds of the paddock listening out of some juicy gossip for a piece he is writing for Speedscene magazine.  He asked me if I had anything for him but I couldn’t think of anything noteworthy. I should have said that the bacon sarnies were better filled than at Shelsley and although Shelsley’s new café is a wonder to behold, you can’t watch the GP Practice there as you can at Mallory.

Jonathan Plow and his Gilbern Genie

It was good to see the Morris Ital tow car in the paddock and then see that lovely little yellow Davrian again after its misfortunes last week at MIRA. Graham (Cashmore) said it wasn’t as serious as they had thought and after a hectic Sunday it was all back together again.

Graham Cashmore in his Davrian Mk6.

I met James and Sarah from Phoenix Fives standing in the rain the end of Stebbe Straight – they’d come along to see Dave’s first sprint and took loads of photos which I hope to see soon.

Well, I think that’s it. Of course loads more happened – there were lots of Morgans, single seaters, Westfields, motorbikes and sidecars, but those are other people’s stories. My next outing is Curborough on 13th June and I am toying with the idea of shedding some weight. I noticed that the Mudgglestones had ditched their soft top completely (which is within the rules) and since I have a hard top, maybe I’ll do the same. We’ll see. Onwards and upwards.

Jacqui, my wife, came to watch – I promised her Mallory was a beautiful place and we could have a picnic by the lake. Ho hum. We ended up sheltering from the rain in the cafe. Anyway, my youngest son also came and I thrust a video camera into his hand and asked him to record some of the action.  It’s a bit jerky but he caught Tony’s spin and also John Burton’s spin in his RALT.  Also, more photos here.  Enjoy! Bob.

0 thoughts on “A Wet Day at Mallory.

  1. Great blog Bob, and a fun day out for all it seems.
    For the record, Nick managed a 78.18 on his last run, having watched Tony set his 78.89. It was recorded on the ticker tape but they forgot to add it to the results until we pointed it out afterwards.

Go on, leave a comment!