NSCC Rounds 3 & 4

NSCC Rounds 3 & 4, May 3^rd-4^th, 2015

Mayday! Mayday! Anybody arriving at York on the Saturday evening for the rounds three and four double-header probably got a valuable insight into why people shout that in times of dire distress. High winds and rain, plus the fact that the jolly farmer has ploughed the field on 'our' side of the pits meant that there was a definite 'back to nature' feel to the whole show. More Glastonbury than Bakersfield.

The weekend didn't begin well for a couple of competitors who got rogered before they even arrived. Russ Pursley had gone down to Santa Pod to get some practice runs in on the Dutton, and managed to bust his rear end. Rick Swaine, meanwhile, got his rear end bust for him by an inattentive BMW Mini driver, effectively writing off the lovely orange Viva. Fortunately, nobody was seriously hurt, but it would just be the beginning of another war of attrition that would leave many by the wayside.

Sunday morning dawned with rain, mud, gales, shattered tents and groaning wounded. The NSCC pits looked like the Somme, though the groaning wounded had less to do with violent conflict on a global scale and more to do with the bar now stocking bottled guest ales and Jack Daniels. Most of the morning was spent watching the rain coming down, but by lunchtime the 'invaders from the planet Cloud' had buggered off elsewhere and the track was slowly drying.

Eventually, finally, 16 competitors headed out for one-shot qualifying. The track was far from perfect, but that didn't stop Andy Fadster belting out a psychotic 9.3 at 147mph, Next up was Ian Walley, freshly repaired after the fire of four weeks previous, struggling for traction but managing a 12.0 at 123mph. Four tenths behind was another fresh rebuild, Derek Beck's TVR, and two hundredths behind him was Keith Freeman's blown '32. Sitting on a solid 13.3 was Doug Hague in the Tango orange Skyline, then Paul Hughes in the blown MR2 on 14.1, again just two hundredths ahead of James Murray in the now-all-green-again Cortina. Tom Barker's Astra cranked out a 14.8, while Phil Winstanley in the Moggy Minor was suffering electrical gremlins and managed an off-form 15.3. Andy Errington's Mustang gave 15.4, Lee Openshaw's huffed Punto a 15.5, and Shaun Wilson's A roadster a 15.6. Andy Frear's Mad Max-alike Bronco smoked to a 15.9, championship leader Nigel Henderson's Anglia ran 16.3, and Jamie Hughes had bust the blown big-block Ford after last meeting and replaced it with a six-pot Cummins turbo-diesel, running-in with a 19.8. Bum luck award and the first casualty was Paul Everitt, whose Rover-powered Pop was pushed back off the line for dripping water – it was only puddle water – and after drying it off, had clutch issues and stalled on the line. Although he completed the run, he was outside the 34-second cut-off so the timing computer put him down as an aborted run and left him off the ladder. D'oh!

With the minimum of dicking around (which was definitely a culture-shock for some), we headed into round one. Fadster set the bar high with a 9.1 at 151mph, just to show that the track was up to it. Tom profited from Phil's misfortune, the Moggy no-showing to allow the Astra an uncontested win, while Keith breezed to an 11.9 against Andy's 15.9. Doug showed Shaun the way, 13.2 to 15.6, before Ian, getting well into his wild launches, ran a 10.8 against Jamie's improving 17.9. James was lazy on the line but still managed to drive around Andy, 13.9 to 15.9, while Derek ran 11.7 to cover Nigel's 16.4. The first round was concluded by Lee Openshaw pulling a stellar 0.509 light and 15.8 run, but not enough to beat Paul's 13.6 in the opposing lane.

The biggest drama in the second round happened in the fire-up lane, when Derek's TVR suffered a stuck-open nitrous solenoid followed by a mighty bang that blew the intake pipe and plenum apart and caused rapid weight-loss in anyone standing nearby. The throttle butterfly was later found, bent into an ellipse, so Derek was out, allowing Paul to run an uncontested 13.7. In the battle of the MkII Cortinas, James cut a good light and upped his game to a 12.8, but was no contest for Ian's 10.9 at 129mph. Keith and Doug had a race that looked closer than it probably was, the win light coming on in Keith's lane, 11.8 to 12.3. Tom's luck was about to run out in spectacular style, his 1.49 being no contest for a breathtaking 8.26 at 175mph from the Twister, on a track that had puddles on it just a couple of hours previously. Wow.

With the evening wearing on and the welcome prospect of a big dinner hoving into sight over the horizon, the semi-finalists were chivvied into the pairing lanes. Proceedings began with Fadster's luck running out in style – a hard launch damaged the transmission input shaft, which then sheared on the gearshift. This meant he was coasting for at least half the track, but it was a close thing – Keith only just managed to catch him at the line, winning 11.7 at 117mph to 11.9 at 75mph. On the other side of the ladder, Ian ran another stout 10.9 to finish Paul's day and set himself up against Keith in the final.

It was 6.10pm by the time the final was actually run, and many of us could almost smell the carvery waiting for us 10 miles away. The two yellow perils headed for the line, both Fords, both Ford-powered, but otherwise very different. Their times weren't that different, though – Keith's '32 got a four-tenths holeshot off the line and went pounding off up the track, but the turbo 'Tina's mid-track boost let Ian catch up and juuust squeak past at the line, 10.9 to 11.4. A close and hard-fought race, but well-done to Ian.

Right, bugger all that racing lark, it's dinner time! In dribs and drabs, most folk headed off towards the Barnes Wallis after successfully navigating the lakes on the entrance road. The Voyager developed another of its mystery faults on the way, giving every indication of having run out of fuel despite the fact that there was at least a quarter of a tank left. Still, many thanks to Paul Everitt and family who were heading out in the towcar, and who ran down to Howden to pick up a can of diesel for us. Strangely, it did the trick.

After a damn fine nosebag, we headed back to the track where we found that Andy and Craig had shot off to John Sleath's Magical Emporium of the Arcane and Esoteric and returned with another input shaft. There then followed some real thrashing in the mud to get the gearbox refitted which, to the credit of all involved, was achieved before some well-earned drinking was taken care of. Top marks for effort.

Monday morning was a world away from the previous day (apparently – I missed most of it) and with all being dry and having a decent following breeze, it looked like a stupendous day for racing. In any decent narrative, the Twister crew should have been rewarded for their overnight work with a 7.9 straight out of the box before going on to win the meeting. Well, this isn't Disney and what actually happened was that the new input shaft snapped like a cheese-string in the burnout, leaving Andy plenty of time to pack up early.

This left the way clear for Ian Walley to snatch pole position in qualifying. With plenty of time to spool up on the line, there were some clues of what was to come with monster launches and a 10.2 at 131mph. Steve Neimantas had rolled up, minus the amazing Bentley but with a drop-dead gorgeous black '68 Charger. Gasket, having reminded Steve about the good old days in NSCC, sold him a race number and he caned the big-inch Mopar to an 11.0 to take second spot. Keith rattled off another 11.4 for third. Shaun Cockcroft was back with the smart little MkII Escort Harrier, a 15.2 putting him mid-table.

Round one opened with the closest race of the day, Lee's Punto and Tom's Astra. With reaction times less than one hundredth of a second apart, Lee managed a 14.97 to Tom's 15.03 to squeak the win. Keith was ever-improving, his 11.3 at 115mph being plenty against Nigel's 16.0, while Paul's little MR2 ended Andy Errington's day early 14.1 to 15.3. Andy then went on to try his hand at Sportsman ET – we may have a star bracket racer among us soon. James's fresh engine still wasn't delivering the promised goods, but a 13.8 was enough to beat Gasket's 15.7, then Ian went out and ran 11.2 on his bye, just for the hell of it. This was the first appearance of the mighty and widely-photographed launch technique that saw the Cortina lift its nearside front wheel three feet off the deck and twisting the shell so that the front bumper was 45 degrees clockwise to the back bumper. Andy's Bronco was not so much rollin' coal as bustin' blades, his Cummins having developed an appetite for bits of its own turbo, so he sat out leaving Doug to cruise to a 14.9 solo win. Phil's Moggy, now cured, curtailed Shaun's brief reappearance 14.0 to 15.2, before the beautiful Charger shut down the diesel Land Rover 11.0 to 16.3. It turns out that Jamie had only been using third and fifth gear on the strip thus far, so you can just bet there'll be more to come from this before the year's out.

With a full complement of RWYBers, the gaps between rounds was pretty lengthy, so it was a while before the second round (which was also the quarter-finals thanks to a 15-car ladder) kicked off. It started with an upset as Steve's Charger picked up a puncture while waiting in the fire-up lane that wasn't noticed until he reached the startline, so he backed up and let Phil's Moggy take the solo win. Paul's MR2 had it all to do against Keith's '32, but he blew it on the startline, red-lighting while Keith streaked away to another 11.3. Ian's Cortina had to be re-scrutineered after the wild round one launch, but he managed to almost repeat the trick as he ran 11.6 to Lee's 14.9, then Doug and James ran a close race, Doug getting to the line one tenth ahead on almost identical times to set up the semis.

The semis were a straightforward affair, which started with Ian and Doug. Ian was trying to tone down his wild launches, while Doug was trying to take it easy on the Skyline, but neither was giving an inch. It was Ian who came out on top, with a 12.3 against a slowing 13.5 from Doug. Keith wasn't taking it easy, however, his 11.4 being more than enough against Phil's Moggy which appeared to be playing host to the gremlins again at 16.1.

All this set up the finals and sod me bandy if it wasn't those two yellow Fords again. It was a good, clean race, Keith being slightly dozy on the line, and his 11.5 not being enough to catch and pass Ian's 11.3. It's also worth noting the turbo car's top-end charge – Keith crossed the line at 113mph, Ian at 129mph. So a full complement of points from the weekend for Ian, though he now has to go back to Darlington and address his rear suspension issues. Twice the bridesmaid for Keith, but still plenty more to come. A damn shame for the Twister team, that seven at York being so close and yet still so far. And well done to Doug, his lairy orange Skyline stretching out a hell of a lead at the top of the table even at this early stage. The perfect combination of muscle and streetability for NSCC … are we just going to let the Jap have it? Will Derek's luck ever improve or did he murder a Pope in a previous life? Is the Twister team sponsored by Jack Daniels, or is it actually the other way around? What's it all about? Is there any end in sight? All these questions and more answered at the next round of NSCC, Spring bank holiday weekend.