Thoresby Park Sprint : April 1997
Drivers: Ian Jones / Phillip Stead.
Car: Skoda Estelle 130L club rally car.
Fast forward to the finish of the event, a Skoda Felicia pulls up next to us and the driver jumps out and introduces himself to Phil as a fellow haulage contractor. It turned out that he had been marshalling at one of the chicanes and he had come down to ask a question.
"Which one of you kept coming sideways out of the corners?"
"It was him!" said Phil pointing at at the writer. (Ahem)
A few years ago, CDMC had a couple of members who were also members of Nottingham Sports Car Club and they had beaten the sprint drum for a long time.
I had fancied the idea of doing a sprint for a while, as it seemed that it was a cheap form of motorsport but rallying commitments (I like doing them!) meant that I hadn't got round to it. I saw the advert for NSCC's Sprint to be held at Thoresby Hall near Ollerton, so I gave Phil Stead , my regular navigator, a ring to see if he would be interested in sharing a drive.
At this point in time, I didn't want to risk doing a stage rally where breaking something on the Skoda Estelle rally car (doubling as everyday transport) would mean that I wouldn't be able to get to work.
The Thursday before the event, Phil came round to give a hand in preparation, I thought that all I would have to do was wash the car, change the tyres and make a timing strut. Phil took the car round the block and came back to tell me that the clutch was buggered.
I was hoping he wouldn't notice that!
I had a spare clutch in the garage, and we agreed to meet up at Steads Garage in Basford first thing on Saturday morning to get the engine out and a new clutch in.
By 11.30 the car was up and running and the rest of the day was taken up with changing the tyres, trying to stop the various cooling system leaks that had sprung up since we put some fresh anti freeze in the cooling system that morning, swapping to the 40DCOE carb (and swapping back again as it wouldn't run cleanly) and constructing a timing strut from a piece of ply and a length of 2x1" timber hammered into one of the bumper mountings. All set for Sunday.
I had better explain what a sprint consists of. A sprint course is usually between 1000 and 1500 metres long. You are timed against the clock. Normally, you will have two timed practice runs in the morning and two timed competitive runs in the afternoon.
Two drivers can share one car, and you could do it in your standard road car. (Next time we're using Phil's Nissan Micra 1300 with CVT)
Sunday morning, I loaded my tools and spares into the Skoda and called round for Phil. The journey up to Thoresby Hall (just north of Ollerton) was uneventful, the car ran at the correct temperature and nothing seemed to be rattling.
Scrutineering started at 7.45am and as Phil went to walk the course, I joined the scrutineering queue. I was stood there wondering if the scrutineers would notice that all the Rose joints on the dampers were knackered again and that the carb had sprung a fuel leak when I was jolted back into this particular reality by these words.
"The fat one with the beard, he's mine"
Oh Lordy, a former CDMC member was scrutineering. He wasn't any trouble, as with all the other cars, a cursory look over was all that was done.
It was time to suss out the opposition. We had entered in the modified production saloon class (up to 1400cc), and were up against the following.
Some of you may have deduced that our Skoda, which was easily the tallest car in the paddock and wearing Maxsport 185 wide intermediate patterned remoulds, would struggle.
I joined the queue for the practice runs, and after 20 minutes I started to wonder why the queue wasn't moving. As I'd rejoined the scrutineering queue it wouldn't, would it!
I then joined the correct queue, and made my way to the start line. As all the timing is electronically controlled by light beam, several marshals push the car into the right place and chock a back wheel. When the start light goes to green, you can start in your own time.
The first run was taken very tentatively, as I had realised at Manby last year that Maxsports don't work like Michelin TB's. The road was very greasy, As it happened, by the time I had completed my run (71 point something seconds) I was grinning like an idiot, mostly as I had used the "Hairy arsed rally driving sideways technique" - it looks impressive, but it ain't quick.
Phil then went out and posted a time just into the 72's so at least we were consistent.
By way of illustration, the other cars in our class were running in the low 60's & the single seaters in the low 50's. That didn't matter much, as the idea was to improve on your own times. After my first run, the scrutineer came over and helpfully explained that the idea was to stay on the road. I had, I'd just used more tarmac than anyone else!
The next run was a little less ragged and this resulted in a time of 70 point something. We both reckoned that we could get under 70 seconds in the proper runs.
Phil went out on his second run and I went down to the start line to watch the clock.Off he went, and as he stopped the clock at the other end, I heard someone say "That's a good time."
I couldn't believe it either, I went back to the paddock to wait for him to roll up."Did you miss any chicanes out?" - "No!"; "Find a shortcut?" "No - Why?". "You just posted a 67 - that's why, I don't want to play anymore, I want my ball back!"
Beaten by my navigator - the shame of it. And he's mystified as I am to how he managed to take 5 seconds off his previous time.By the time of the afternoon runs, the course had dried out and my first run gave a 68.51s.
Phil's first run was 68.26s!
Phil took his second run next as it saved us having to sort out the harnesses, he couldn't improve on his first time and posted 68.88s.
On my final run, when I pulled off the start line I realised that I had made an appaling start, that and going slightly wide at Century Hairpin meant that I too was unable to improve on my earlier time. Posting a 69.18s.! Oh,the shame of it, Phil won.
Later that night, I worked out the difference over the runs, each quarter of a second was less than a cars length.
The entry fee worked out at £59 each, we used a tenners worth of fuel to get us to and from Thorseby Hall as well as on the event itself.
Cheap and enjoyable motorsport indeed.
Ian Jones