Competition season about to start in IoM

Roy, Paul, Dave, Frank, Martin, Andrew, Roy, Ray and Roger all went to the Isle of Man today to take part in the Isle of Man, Three Hills Challenge. Or at least that is the idea as last I heard from Paul, the guys were stuck in Heysham with a broken ferry on their hands.

Scurtineering will take place on Wednesday when 5 GTD40s, a GTD R 42 and the most powerful mini in the world (probably) will be inspected for legability to compete. Mini? Yup, just take a GTD40, chuck the body out and drop on a mini pick up shell. Evil but awesome.

On thursday the lads go to Creg Ny Baa. This hill climb starts by going down hill to a mean left hander of 90 degrees that as you hit the apex it turns viciously upwards. Roger had a "video" moment here last year and with rock strewn banks the whole way up you don't want mistakes. A quick series of sweeping corners that you most likely end up taking in third are in my opinion where you make or break a good time on this hill. Get quick out of this sequence and you are faster up the not so straight straight. It is bumpy so be careful. On a run I did three years back a bump knocked the wheels hard so I lost grip of the steering wheel completely. I wasn't hanging on tight enough and it made a 1/3 turn before I could grab it. Scary moment. Now you are on the straight, those with big power will rocket up the road. A spread out double left hander will take you to the finish line and then the parc ferme. Now repeat.

That takes care of the day. In the evening there is the all new Manx Speed Trials. I do not know what the full format is here except that it is a 1/4 mile sprint through town on the TT course past the main grandstand. A few years back we saw the first evening of practice for the TT and saw bikes coming through this section at up to 180 mph and getting airbourne off manhole covers. Rather them than me. Anyway I am sure the lads will report more fully in due course and let us all know how they got on.

With The Sloc on Friday and Lerghy Frissel on Saturday I will try and give an insight into those venues later on this week.

Paul has told me that he will post the results on a day by day basis from the Isle of Man on the GTD club web site. The full write up will appear in our club magazine which will be coming out hopefully not long after the return from the IoM.

Malcolm

PS I expect most of the cars will have on board video so if we are all lucky there could be video clips like last year.

Hi All,
Just a quick note as I am not connecting easily here -

The web site results will be posted on return due to amount of data to be transferred.

However - due to problems with LSD - I'm second driving Dave Parker's R42 - hmmm and Roy Smart is second driving Ray Christopher's GTD Mini V8.

Will post asap.

As Paul mentions above things are not necessarily going to plan. Some start of season mechanical problems in Roys car and now the weather is not being kind. The sprint I referred to above was cancelled due to problems with road closure orders. I hope that can be sorted for future years.

Now today it has been persisting down and the event eventually washed out. So no need to tell you about the Sloc, unfortunatley. Dare I tell you about tomorrow at Lerghy Frissel?

The weather forecast looks like rain again, starting late morning? Not good.

This will make any runs more tricky as the TT course used for this hill climb, the longest in the UK, is part sheltered by trees on the bottom half and then bursts out onto the hill tops which are very exposed.

Off the start line and floor it in the first three gears round a gentle right hand corner. Absolutely cane it. Hard on the brakes for a 170 degree hairpin. I hit a hay bale (big one) here on my first ever visit losing a wing mirror but still managed to post a time. On the return run a marshal had picked it up and gave it back to me with the comment "I think this belongs to you mate!" Screwed it back on and off we go again. Take the hairpin in second gear and try and keep some engine momentum going as it is back on the gas hard through a gentle double right and approach water works 1 and 2. Water works 1 I remember as reasonably straightforward (with a massive high rock wall on the inside) but 2 is on you quickly and is sharper so you have to lose some more speed. Use third gear. Power out. Ray once took this corner at 100.0001%. He touched the stone wall on the left as he exited but so lightly that he only took a flake of paint off with zero damage to the body shell. How close can you get? Of course he said he delibrately did it to maximise road useage.....

Effectively a straight follows but in fact it is a series of bends that you straight line as much as possible. The car gives enough grip to virtually keep your foot in all the way until you line up the car for braking by pointing it at the tree by the marshals post (its to the left but knowing this years run of luck, someone cut it down!). Again a large rock wall to the right as you go up this section determines the size of gonads you carry. They get closer the nearer to the magic ton you get.

Turn left at the marshals post and get to the left side of the road and brake hard for Gooseneck hairpin. A popular viewing point as you stand over and above the corner and often the cars get a little out of shape here. But only the 40's burn rubber in style! Followed by a tank slapper if you are not careful. Take the corner in second gear and then as fast as you can to the finish line. Third and fourth gears. Roy holds the top speed over the finish line record, I think for all cars not just the 40's. 111 mph springs to mind but it could b faster. A credit to his engine building.

But if it is raining tomorrow the times will tumble. Even when dry the start is critical to a good time. Wet and you sit spinning tyres. Last year the Cuban taxi driver had a good sideways launch in the dry! Get the club video! The first hairpin will be treacherous depending on whether the track is consistantly wet or mixed wet and dry. The approach to both Water works corners is also partly covered by trees and if you go wrong here big time you go into a dry stone wall but then if someone cleared that for you by crashing first you will go 300 yards down a steep hill and disappear over a drop into I do not know what. Possibly the sea? It doesn't always pay to walk the course and look over walls and things! You scare yourself. A caterham and morgan did this trick years ago but fortunatelty the Morgan was second on the scene and being wider got wedged tettering on the edge!

If wet wet, the next section I think will give wheelspin problems to the guys with powerful engines. Roy's car can spin wheels at ridiculous speeds in the dry so maybe they are glad that Roy and Paul are not in that car. Although I wouldn't think the mini is going to be a safer place for Roy to be with its shorter wheelbase. Its reputation for swapping ends is entertaining, which is why Ray loves it so much.

The approach to Gooseneck is completely exposed to any rain so will be slower as will the traction to the finish line.

Lets pray it is dry for the guys. They could do with a break and of course we all want them and the cars back in one peice for the next event.

I wonder what the videos have captured so far?

Malcolm

Sounds like a 4WD would have been more appropriate!

The rain has done wonders for my lawn though!

Regards,

J.P