Last TVRCC race of 2005: report
Mallory Park sees thrilling finish to Challenge season
Can PistonHeads' adopted driver Graham Walden and his Tuscan racecar retain their lead in the TVRCC Challenge, or will our intrepid reporter be pipped at the post? Graham reports on the last race of the 2005 season at Mallory Park.
 Graham Walden in the Tuscan  Tim Broughton's Class A-winning Tasmin  Kevan Gore's Cosworth-powered Tasmin S1  The terrifying Thorpedo  PH logo to the fore  Hockin holds off Pat Smith's Cosworth Turbo Tasmin.   Some work required... |
With A1GP taking up the last available Brands Hatch GP circuit slot, and thus cancelling our November race, Mallory Park was to become the last and class deciding round of the season. We went into the last round with a slender one-point lead, so it was basically a straight fight. Whoever finished ahead myself or Marc would win the Class B Trophy.
With this in mind, we headed off on the Wednesday before the race for a morning's testing. The car had already consumed vast numbers of hours on basic prep as well as cash on silly things like a new radiator after the old one sprang a leak.
The rad in question ended up being fitted in the dark late on Tuesday night before I loaded the car on the trailer, while Pops spent the evening in his garage preparing the Tasmin for Iain Jones to test before his first race on the Sunday.
Testing
Wednesday started far too early at 6am, and I staggered downstairs and into the Discovery for the drag over to Mallory for 8am.
Once signed on, it was into the paddock to unload and a few checks on the Tuscan and bleed the brakes on the Tasmin before heading out onto the track for the first session at 9am.
The Tuscan ran well and felt good reaching the target lap time of 52.5 secs, but after only nine laps, the tyres were well past their best and performance started to drop off towards the end of the session.
The Tasmin however had blown a little oil out and had to come in for a clean-up. Cliff Jobson (Cosworth-engined Tasmin) also had an oil pipe split so he was in the pits for repairs.
In the second session, there was a lot of traffic but we were still posting good 53 second times so I was happy enough. Iain had also got the class A car down to 59 secs, which was good for his first time in the car. Cliff was also posting 54 seconds which was right on the button for a Class B Tasmin.
I felt the track was a little slower in the last session, so came in after half of the session to conserve my tyres and watch Iain for a few laps.
Watching the Tasmin you could see how nicely it was handling, and with some more seat time and a little tidying of the lines it was shaping up for a good race on Sunday. Then towards the end of the session Iain went into Gerrards a little hot, running wide before locking everything up and heading straight for the grass. The gravel trap did little to stop the car and it was straight on from there to the scene of the accident.
The red flag came out and we could see the car stopped against the tyres, and Iain walking about. I jumped in the recovery truck to help out as they took Iain to the medical centre as a precaution.
My heart sank as I got in the car though. The nearside front wheel was pushed back into the wheel arch, the front corner of the body missing, and on closer inspection part of the chassis was damaged.
Ho-hum, we weren’t going to be racing that on Sunday.
We recovered the car back to the paddock to figure out how to get it on the trailer. We had to remove the front wheel, which required letting all the air out to release the pressure on the wheel nuts so we could undo them.
Back in the med centre they were just about to release Iain when he had a little neck twinge, so next thing you know he’s immobilised on a spine board and whisked off to Leicester Royal Infirmary for an X-ray and a check-up.
Iain checked out fine and they released him at about 4:30pm, but it's better to be on the safe side. In fact the following day he had no ill effects, although he probably deserved a few. Tough as old boots the Tasmin; there were a few times I’ve been thankful for the strength of that car.
Back in the garage
With little time between Wednesday and the race we had to withdraw the Tasmin. Although the damage was repairable, it would have taken a full time team to get her back out.
The plan for race day was for Pops to give the Tuscan a quick once-over on Saturday and for us to meet up at Mallory that evening for a couple of pints before a night in the back of the van. As usual, plans are one thing...
Backing the Tuscan off the trailer, the exhaust was a little noisy so, with the cover removed, a big stress fracture in the can revealed itself. The next few hours were spent making a patch and re-packing the exhaust, before once again loading up in the dark. We eventually arrived and parked up, after the bar had shut.
Race day
The Sunday was quite relaxed as we didn’t qualify until 11:30am -- a lie-in for once. Eventually we lined up in the pit lane for our qualifying session. I was about four cars back, so I thought I’d nip past them all on the green flag lap leaving me a nice clear track to get down to some good laps. This went straight to plan, but then going into Shaws hairpin for the first time, halfway round it popped out of gear. I pushed the lever and being a dog box it went straight back in, lit up the cold rear tyres and round I went.
So I waved at everyone as they went back past me. This put me right where I didn’t want to be but I got down to work and put in a 52.65 before coming up behind Marc. My tyres were shot by then so we played a bit of cat and mouse to worry Pops and Tony on the pit wall.
The result of qualifying was good: second on the grid next to Steve Hall's Thorpedo (AJP V8-powered Tuscan/Tasmin) with Marc tucked up behind him in third, although the outside grid slot can be a bit troublesome if you are pushed wide and have to back off.
It was then ages to our race, so after a quick check of the car and a refuel I wandered off with some friends to watch some racing.
The race
As the lights went out I got a reasonable start, a bit of wheel spin but not too bad. Steve Hall’s start wasn’t great but he was still ahead of me, and Marc was nicely tucked in behind him. This meant my only option to avoid slipping to third was to hold the outside around Gerrards -- risky on cold tyres. About halfway around the car felt reasonably composed, so I nailed it and managed to hold the outside all the way past Steve, holding him off into the Esses. Slowing the car for Shaws was a bit messy, but I held onto the lead, only to see the red flags out (the only time we’ve had a race stopped all season) as I came onto the start-finish straight.
Cliff had exited Gerrards a little wide putting two wheels on the grass, leading to a spin to the inside and a visit to the tyre wall. As he bounced off the tyres, the car had a slow elegant roll over onto the roof and then back onto the wheels. Barring a few bruises from the seat, Cliff escaped without injury, a testament to the strength of the Tasmins and a salute to Martin Short for the roll cage. Cliff now has the dubious honour of being the only person to roll a racing Tasmin.
We were driven slowly past the car as they recovered it and formed backup on the grid to wait for the restart, with the race reduced from 14 to 12 laps with another green flag lap.
I was a little gutted really, one of my best starts and thwarted by a red flag. Now the pressure was on to do it again, and the same move would be difficult as Steve and Marc would see it coming.
Five-second board, in gear, revs up, red light on. Red light off and go. This time I got the revs and the clutch just about spot on and launched her off the line with no wheel spin. Steve on the other hand had lots, and I lunged into Gerrards and gave it as much as I dared on the now cold tyres, taking a good chunk of time out of Steve and Marc. I held the lead for a couple of laps before Steve’s tyres warmed up and he first got past Marc and then aimed for me. Into Gerrards, I could see him storming up behind me like an express train. I managed to hold him the first time, but on the next lap he took about five car lengths out of me on the straight and there was nothing I could do to stop him taking the line into Gerrards, I had a bit of a sniff at him in the corner, but once past he was away.
I then concentrated on keeping Marc behind me, thinking about the Class B race and series win rather than risking fighting for the flag win. I was much faster around Gerrards and the Esses, but I was struggling with the car into Shaws, and Marc had the edge from Shaws into Gerrards, but in the absence of any mistakes it was in the bag.
With three laps to go, Marc got a little too close going into Shaw’s and used my rear splitter as an extra brake, but it didn’t upset either of the cars and we headed into Gerrards in the same order.
Then disaster stuck. The car started misfiring badly and lost power, Marc easily driving around me. The car made so much noise that Marc though I’d burst a rear tyre, and I thought the rear splitter was dragging on the ground.
Back on the straight the car picked up so I tried to keep up, only for the same thing to happen the next time around Gerrards. With the game up and not wanting to destroy the engine I cruised round for the last laps for a second in Class. Not quite the end of the season I was hoping for but it had been a very close fight between the two of us. I don’t think there was much more than a postage stamp between us all year, the pairing of a tuned Griff 500 and a Tuscan with a standard 4-litre engine proving successful.
We’ve not worked out quite what was going on with the engine yet, we’ll work on that later, but something strange was going on. When I took the fuel cap off, it was under pressure and spat half a litre of fuel over me.
Results
So the end of the season saw Steve Hall take Invitation Class, Tim Broughton (Ford V6-power Tasmin S2) win Class A and Marc Hockin win Class B in his Rover V8-powered Griff. I think Tim has also taken the overall TVRCC Challenge win as well.
As for us, we’ll have to settle for second in class and third overall this season. Full results are on the TVRCC Challenge site -- link below.
Race for the future
That’s not all for this year though, We’ve got a standalone race at Snetterton with the Tuscan Challenge Cars, where a few of the TVRCC grid will be mixing it. Expect to see the turbo cars winding the boost up a little and I can feel a set of slicks coming on. So if you fancy your last chance of seeing TVRs in action this year, Snetterton on Sunday 23 October is the place to be.
Next season will see the TVRCC cars and the Tuscan Challenge cars mixing it together with the BRSCC, which should be interesting, especially as some of the Tuscans will be sporting Sagaris bodies.
As for Topless Taz, well she’s back in the garage and work has started. The rest of the nose has been cut away and the suspension removed. The new nose is in the mould and the chassis repairs should be done in a couple of weeks. We hope she’ll be back on the grid for Snetterton with George Carter returning to the wheel.
See you next season.
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