It seems like there's
been a huge gulf of time between round six at York and rounds eight
and nine at York. And that's because there has been. Eight weeks. Two
thirteenths of a year. Most of the summer.
It's hardly been slack
time, though – the weekend immediately following round six was a
busy one, opening with a new event on the calendar for the Saturday.
There was a big Steampunk get-together at no less a venue than the
Doncaster hangar that is home to the last flying Vulcan bomber. In
fact, they'd laid out all the trade stands and whatnot underneath the
Vulcan's tremendous wingspan, and there was a stage with various odd
things going on throughout the day. They'd suggested there could be a
bit of a car show outside, and asking a gang of hot rodders whether
they'd like to visit a huge, powerful piece of classic machinery is
akin to asking a wasp if it might like some jam. It was a cool idea,
and turned out to be a popular event despite the fact that it pished
all morning.
The following day,
round seven took place up at Kirkbride. Some made a bit of a 'Power
Tour' of it, leaving Doncaster, taking in the Leeds cruise (getting
there fashionably early; in fact, they were there some fashionable
hours before everyone else) before making the long cross-country trek
to Kirkbride. There was some camping, then some racing. I wasn't
there, so that's all I know...
The following weekend
was Dragstalgia. I've never been to Dragstalgia before. This is a
terrible oversight, as it turns out, because it was a bloody
tremendous event. There was sunshine, there were Fuel Altereds, there
was beer... Imagine if the NSRA Nostalgia Nationals had been
organised by a paid staff with a large budget and a stab at Teutonic
efficiency. Brilliant. I'll definitely be going again, although
atmosphere-wise I still prefer the Shakey events. It was a bit of a
downer for Keith Freeman, mind you, who decided to take a really
close look at the advert hoardings on the retaining wall.
Fortunately, Keith was fine; the same can't be said of his '32.
The following weekend
was the Total Retro show up in Cumbria, then the weekend after was
the Mopar Euronationals, still my favourite event on the calendar,
and a mighty muscle car party. I thought this sign made an excellent gathering area for the NSCC cruise...
After a swift half at
the pub, a few of us headed to the shop in Wellingborough. In the car
park was another vessel that shared an almost identical paint code to
Ian's Cortina. Ian did manage to pick the correct vehicle upon his
return, having remembered that his had a parachute attached to the
back.
After that, I treated
myself to a couple of weekends off to work on the Mustang, while
others went along to the NSRA Supernats and Blackpool classic and
custom show, then it was August bank holiday weekend. There were two
events on the calendar – the Retro Rides Gathering and NSCC rounds
eight and nine at York, a real shame as the RRG is always an event
worth attending.
Heading to York was a
trial, with some heavy rain most of the way on the Saturday evening,
but the pits was crammed. Sunday was a little brighter but the cool
track with a strong crosswind that was failing to dry it out meant
that some of the heavier hitters were leaving 'em on the trailer.
Still, 13 NSCCers managed to make it out for qualifying. Russ Pursley
led the way, a 10.9 second charge at 124mph belying the crap
conditions, with Derek Beck next on a still-no-gas 12.4 followed by
James Murray at 12.9. A closely-grouped clump of Ford-powered Fords
followed, Pete Smith struggling to put the Shelby's power down on
14.1, Steve Gilmour wringing 14.2 from the Pinto Cortina, then Andrew
Errington with an ever-improving 14.3. Dave Mears put the red
Firebird in the middle of the ladder with a 15.2, then another bundle
of old Brit Fords, Shaun Cockroft's Escort and Nigel Henderson's
Anglia, both ran 15.3. Dave Smith put the big Lexus in tenth spot
with a 16.2, Rick Swaine was close behind on 16.3, Scott Presland in
the V8 Pop managed 16.5 and Mark Presland held the ladder with a
19.3.
Round one opened with
Dave Smith running a solo, his opponent, Gilly, having done in his
head gasket in qualifying and electing to stick the Cortina back on
the trailer. As the track dried, Pete recovered form to a 12.9
showing against Rick's 16.3, before James ran a no-gas 13.8 to end
Scott's day. There was an upset in the middle of the ladder when Dave
Mears ran a 15.2 to Shaun's 15.4, a 0.194 second margin, but Shaun's
reaction was 0.216 quicker than Dave's, giving Shaun the win by a
difference that could be measured in fractions of a gnat's knacker.
Rather more convincing was Derek's seven second margin over Mark,
before Andrew took a big gamble, allowing Nigel a half-second head
start before beating him with a 0.6 second quicker run. That's the
gnat's other knacker. He likes to live dangerously, does Andrew, as
does Russ who ran his bye to the tune of 10.9 seconds.
Come the quarter
finals, after another mercifully brief shower of rain had added an
extra level of frustration to the event, and there were seven men on
a mission. James used his Rover power to finish Andrew's charge 12.8
to 14.5, then Dave tried a little too hard on the lights, redlighting
away the Rizla-paper-thin chances he had against a charging Pete.
Russ was giving no quarter, his 10.7 handily covering Shaun's 15.3,
while Derek took it easy on a 14.2-second bye into the semis.
The semis went to form,
and although James had been slowly improving since discovering a
mystery nitrous fault the week preceding the race, his 12.6 couldn't
quite match Derek's 12.1. Another improver, Pete had been picking up
a tenth every round, and did so once again, but his 12.8 couldn't
touch Russ's 10.01 at 133mph...
Once again, the final
came down to the two plastic-fantastics, Russ's Dutton and Derek's
TVR. It should have been a race, but Derek still hadn't turned the
gas on – his power of self-restraint is almost monastic – and
Russ had chucked out all the sandbags, the not-so-mellow yellow
Dutton firing off a 9.9 to handily cover Derek's 12.7.
That evening saw the
usual on-track Cackle For KC, followed by a swift exit Barneswards
for the sort of nosebag that TV adverts claim would feed a village of
Biafrans for just £2 a month. Despite the financial disparity, I
still didn't mind coughing up the extra to eat it in a pub with good
beer and fewer flies. After that it was back to the track where the
bar was playing host to a pretty damn decent rock band followed by a
burlesque turn that seemed to be popular. There was also video
evidence of the Cookie Monster having it large to some banging tunes,
though I'm not sure if that was part of the burlesque turn or not.
Bank holiday Monday was
a better day all round, weather wise, perfect racing weather. Late
the previous night, Ian and Adam turned up after another mammoth
thrash to get the Cortina back together. Other new arrivals for the
day included Andy Turner in his smart V8 TVR Taimar, and the improved
weather meant that Simon dragged the Bootlegger Camaro out of the
truck to stretch its considerable legs. Three new arrivals, plus one
drop-out from the previous day made... hold on, let me get my shoes
and socks off … 15 qualifiers.
Ian made it worth the
trip straight away, grabbing pole with a 10.3 at 136mph, with Russ
right behind on a 10.4. Simon replied with an 11.0 at a rapid 133mph,
then a one second gap to Derek on 12.0, with James hot on his heels
at 12.1, getting closer to previous form. Pete was back down to 12.9,
then there was a whopping gap to a close clump beginning with Andrew
Errington on 14.9, then Red Nose Dave on 15.0, Nigel Henderson on
15.11 and Shaun a whisker behind on 15.15. Rick carded a 15.9, Dave
managed a 16.0, Scott next with a 16.5. Andy Turner was suffering
with engine gremlins that turned his V8 into a V6 and struggled to a
17.5, with Mark filling out the table with a 18.9.
Round one opened with
Derek rattling off a 12.7 against Scott, Derek presumably being in a
hurry to get back to winning the Hot Rod class. The mid-table
match-up of Dave Mears and Nigel Henderson went the way of the red
Firebird by a short margin augmented by a pretty big reaction time
bonus. Andy Turner managed to squeeze a 15.5 out of the TVR, but
Simon in the opposite lane ripped off a 10.9 to seal that deal,
followed by Pete's 12.9 covering Rick's 16.5 with time to spare.
Andrew Errington was way off his new pace, his 15.4 gifting Shaun a
trip to the quarters with a sharp 14.8, before James's 13.6 sent Dave
off to play in the other classes. Russ and Mark's match-up was only
likely to go one way and did just that, Russ ripping off a 9.7 to
Mark's 19.1, then Ian took advantage of his bye to batter the track
with a 10.2 at 134mph.
The quarter finals gave
plenty of cause for celebration, starting with the Derek v James
pairing, both leaving on similar reactions, Derek to an 11.7 and
James to an 11.9. The win-light went to Derek, but James was
delighted to be back in the 11s after such a long absence, and his
first 11 at York to boot. Pete Smith likewise stepped up his game,
leaving on a 0.502 reaction and tearing off a 12.2, though again the
win went to the opposite lane and Simon's terrific 10.6. Dave Mears
and Ian Walley both dithered on the line for over a second, but Ian's
11.6 more than covered Dave's 15.0, then Russ showed Shaun who was
boss, another 9.7 seeing his through easily.
The ladder was back to
form, with the top four qualifiers meeting in the semi finals, but
there was about to be an upset or two – number one and number two
both ran quicker times than their opponents, but both lost on
reaction times! Ian ran 11.2 to Derek's 11.6 but lost on the
startline 0.9 to 0.6, while Russ and Simon played the same game, Russ
running 10.0 to Simon's 10.3 but losing it by another 0.9 to 0.6
reaction! That's a brace of bloody close races, but proves that even
the nine-second-capable guys can't afford not to be sharp on the
tree.
So Derek and the TVR
made it to another final, to face the blown Pro Street might of
Simon's Bootlegger Camaro. This time they were both away with 0.5
reactions, and both loaded for bear. Derek seemed to have turned the
wick up yet again with a scorching 11.1, but Simon got there first, a
10.4 giving him plenty more than a car-length cushion at the
finishing stripe.
That wrapped up another
weekend of tremendous racing. It had been more fun than a barrel
containing several monkeys and a leaky nitrous bottle, plus Derek
taking a finals win in Hot Rod, James taking the win over runner-up
Dave Mears in Sportsman ET, and Dave Smith taking one win and one
runner-up place in JDM. That's quite a haul of trophies for the NSCC
brigade.
Since then, Derek has
opened up an uncatchable lead in NSCC, so as we head towards this Sunday's
final round, Derek Beck and his ol' reliable (?) TVR have already got
the title of NSCC 2016 Champion in the bag. For many years it's been
the case that if piss was lucky, Derek would have kidney stones;
this year, though, he's fought the good fight and finally gets the
title that's been so long in coming to him. It seems the charm is
wearing off, though, as since his lead became unconquerable, he's
gone arse over tit and sprained his ankle. Ah, back to the normal
order of things then, it seems. Still, there's plenty to fight for in
the top 10, with third, fourth and fifth hotly contested... It's not
quite down to the wire, but it's certainly chafing at the PVC
sheathing. Join us on Sunday to see how it goes...
Eugene
