This year's Inaugural Tuscan Challenge/TVRCC Challenge Cup Meeting, the grouping where you can see TVRs hammering round on and beyond the limit, was at Snetterton for a special one-off race. Challenge veteran Graham Walden was there and competing. Here's his story about what went right -- and wrong!
Last 2005 race at Snetterton
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At the end of the day Mallory had been a bit of a disaster, the Tasmin quite comprehensively stuffed during testing and the Tuscan packing up whilst leading the class, losing me the class win over the year by two points after leading all season.
With the full TVRCC Challenge season now over we had managed to arrange a special double header race where we could combine the Tuscan Challenge cars and the TVRCC racers for one big TVR race. This was a bit of an experiment to see how we would all get along and mix on the track, and hopefully give all the TVR fans something interesting to cheer for. Even at short notice and with some of the TVRCC drivers committed to holidays or work we still managed to put a total of 16 cars together. And there to cheer us on was a good crowd of flag-waving TVR fans.
Back home things looked quite grim, the Tasmin was missing half the front end, a wheel and a few broken chassis parts were dangling on the trailer. After cutting a few more bits off and getting the tape measure out, the main chassis looked fine, although the front corner was more of a corner than it should have been. With a week's holiday looming, Moore Racing offered to repair it while we were away. As this was our only chance at getting the Tasmin ready for George to drive at Snetterton, it was duly dispatched to Milton Keynes.
A week later we picked it up. Now back on four wheels, things were looking much better but it still only left two weeks of evenings to build and attach everything forward of the wheels, so by the Friday night we were very tired and cold working outside on my drive, but the Tasmin was 99 per cent back together. After a few frantic last minute fixes, both cars were loaded and following a brief interlude to fix the Tuscan's flat battery, I headed to Snetterton to test the Tasmin with George on the Saturday, together with a friend who we had invited to join us with an ex British GT Elise.
I arrived later than I’d hoped -- about 00:30 -- so we quickly unloaded the Tasmin and converted the trailer into our home for the weekend with the addition of a couple of camp beds, a quick beer and we settled down for the night.
As always happens when you aren’t quite ready, we were first session out at 9am. So I trundled the Tasmin out for a few laps minus a front bumper and a light pod cover. Moore Racing had done an excellent job on the chassis fix and the handling was fine, but she seemed a little down on power and we had a slight coolant leak.
George then took to the track to learn it and get some more laps under his belt. With the car handling quite well we decided not to play with it and concentrate on getting some laps in and, in between, trying to fix the cooling system that wasn’t playing ball.
One of the special connectors kept leaking at the pipe join, losing a little water, although the temperature was staying within reasonable levels. With a permanent fix proving elusive, we ran a couple of race distance tests ( 10 laps) and it only lost a small amount of water so with regular topping up and bleeding, so we’d just have to hope it would hold. In between the sessions, we managed to bolt on the bumper and the remaining headlight pod too so, with a little bit of touch-up paint, Old Topless wasn’t looking too bad after her ordeal.
Just as I was about to jump into the Elise, it started to sound a little rough. So rough that the Lotus guys in the next garage came over. A quick conversation and a few prods and the diagnosis was terminal. Another conversation saw Eliot leaving the car with the Lotus guys to take back to their workshop in the back of their artic, and he returned home with just the trailer….
With the qualifying over, we chatted to some of the other teams who had started to arrive before the three of us -- George, Pistol Pete and myself -- headed into Thetford in search of a curry. By the time we returned, Pops had arrived with the Tuscan and Iain -- Chassis 33 the now infamous Tasmin pilot from Mallory -- with Lexie to complete our little team. So it was a few more beers before we once again retired to the trailer/caravan.
After my fourth 2am finish in a row, we were the first race of the day which meant a frantic morning of signing on scrutineering, and generally running around like a headless chicken before strapping in for the first qualifying session. Now with all the time spent on the Tasmin, the Tuscan had only received a few moments of fault finding. We had diagnosed a problem with the valve on the fuel breather and changed that -- and when we fired her up she sounded fantastic with that wonderful Rover V8 growl. So I headed off for qualifying, hoping for a good lap time.
Pulling out of the pit lane everything was fine, until I got to the first corner and then the Tuscan started misfiring and hesitating. Fantastic. I limped around back to the pits and pulled in. much hair was pulled and I decided to try and get my three laps in. Now this wasn’t much fun as any touch of the throttle produced pinking and no power, trundling down Revett Straight at 40mph with a Tuscan Challenge car bearing down on you at 140mph isn’t much fun. So after carefully keeping out of the way, I finished my third lap in the pits.
The Tasmin was still circulating but not on Saturday's pace. Then just as someone dropped fuel on the circuit, the Taz brewed up in big style and dumped all its coolant on the hairpin, the mix of coolant and fuel providing an interesting moment for a few of the following cars..
Fantastic, first qualifying and we’d managed to break both cars, while Geoff Parkinson’s immaculate-looking, original Tuscan had also blown a clutch and would go no further. To cap it all, as I had done 2 laps through the pit lane, I was only credited with lap at a 14:32 -- that’s 14 minutes and 32 seconds and an average speed of 8.05 mph. A couple of the guys reckoned they could jog around faster than that.
Back in the paddock, both bonnets were quickly lifted and heads scratched. We checked compression on five of the Taz's cylinders but the gauge doesn’t fit the sixth. Another fix on the coolant system was tried and the car left to cool down.
The plugs were pulled from the Tuscan. They showed signs of detonation, and after much more head scratching we looked at the distributor, which promptly fell apart in Iain’s hand. Ahh, that could be it then. Bits were then borrowed from the V8 discoveries of George and Iain, and the Tuscan was back in action.
Now this was much more like it: plenty of power! Changing to the higher diff fitted for the Monster Track Day was also giving much more speed down Revett Straight and I managed a 1:21, just 1 second behind the last TC spec Tuscan, and another second in front of Marc Hockin's Griff 500.
For the race we made quite a few changes to the car setup and bolted on some second-hand Pirelli slicks -- unfortunately we had no pressure data for the tyres, so took a guess at it.
Being the first race out means you don't get any warning that racing has started in the afternoon, and with the programme being brought forward by half an hour, we ended up late to the holding area, and had to join the green flag lap from the pit lane. Marc Hockin was even more unfortunate and had to start the race from the pit lane.
So there I was lined up on the grid right at the back next to George in my old Tasmin, which did feel quite strange.
At Mallory, I’d finally got the hang of getting a good launch off the line, so I dialled in the same amount of revs. The red lights went out, I brought the clutch up and started moving before half of the pack. I must have moved all of two inches before the rear tyres lit up and George went flying past me, leaving me last off the grid as I struggled to get some traction.
Backing off then shifting into second got things moving again and I managed to take back four places into the first corner. Onto Revett Straight and Richard Wright used his Tuscan's superior 4.2 AJP power to storm it past me. Into the Esses however, I was a little braver and nipped through his inside under braking, and managed to pull away a little through Coram.
Into Richies for the second time I was closing on Kevan Gore in the Turbo Tasmin. He locked up the inside front on the way in and despite some frantic cadence braking ran wide onto the grass, I could see him fighting to keep the car away from the tyre wall, and I thought he was going to make it. Unfortunately as I went into Sear, I caught a glimpse of him in my rear view mirror and the car was facing the wrong way, pointing to him having bounced off the tyres.
I concentrated on a pair of Tuscan Challenge cars ahead of me and continued on the lap. As I came into Coram for the second time the red flags were out. When Kevan hit the tyre wall he was winded by his seat so took a little while to get out of the car. The marshals took the correct decision to stop the race in case he was seriously hurt. Fortunately he was kind-of OK -- he had a couple of broken ribs -- and after a moment to catch his breath got out of the car himself.
We were all lined up back on the grid in qualifying positions, which for me meant right at the back again, Marc was fortunate to be allowed to start in his proper grid position rather than the pit lane this time, putting him several rows in front of me.
As the lights went out for the restart, I tried fewer revs but still got lots of wheel spin, so George only got a nose in front before I got traction and accelerated away. Then things got a little hairy. One of the Tuscans at the front of the grid had stalled, leaving Dave Caroline and Marc Hockin going for the same gap, the resulting collision put them both in the pit wall and brought out another red flag. This time though instead of another restart the race was postponed until the end of the day and we were directed back into the paddock. Dave’s car was repairable but he had hurt his thumb so pulled out of the next race.
Back in the paddock, we all rallied around to get Marc back out. The bottom wishbone on the Griff was bent, and with no spare the option was to jury-rig a repair, straightening it as much as possible and then reinforcing it so it wouldn’t bend. Once back in place, one of the Mazda MX-5 teams lent us some tracking gear to get the wheels all pointing in the same direction.
Unfortunately Kevan’s car had suffered a broken steering rack and that would also miss the second race. But with all the running about, we never got around to thinking about tyre pressures on my car so they stayed where they were.
Now this was a little more like it, after a proper qualifying session, I was on the fifth row of the grid, lead TVRCC class car with nothing but Tuscans in front of me. I must say it was a fantastic sight. A standing start with a lot of cars really is something else.
I was lined up next to Gerard Coakley’s Tuscan, with Marc Hockin behind him in the Griff and the Tuscan of Steve Glynn in front of me. In front of Gerard was a gap that should have been filled by Dave Caroline.
For my third start of the day I tried 2,000rpm, and as the lights went out I still got a lot of wheel spin, I think I’ll try tick-over next or more likely take about five psi out of the tyres.. With the gap in front of him, Gerard got a good start and this also allowed Marc to come up my inside through Richies. As it was a little slippery on the outside I had to concede the place and let him through.
We then resumed our year long battle of cat and mouse. For seven laps, I ducked and dived, working out where my best chance of an overtake would be. As usual, we are quicker through the corner but lack grunt on the way out, so when running close to Marc its easy for him to slow me down through the corners, killing my exit speed and allowing him to maintain the lead. With this race having been extended to 14 laps and the second race cancelled, I was in no hurry to make a daring move so I ran as close to Marc as I dared, testing him into each corner and pushing him to make a mistake. It was very close. I could draft him along Revett Straight and stay right behind him.
I’m sure the highway code suggests more than a six-foot gap to the car in front at 130mph.
Then on lap seven coming into Sear, Marc ran a little wide and as I came up next to him he missed a gear allowing me in front. Crucially I managed to maintain the advantage into the Esses.
A lap later, coming around Coram I saw George struggling with a very sick Tasmin, and at the same time Andy Holden and Elliot Mason came up. Not wanting to hold Andy up but at the same time needing to maintain my advantage to Marc, I held my line and passed George. This left Andy with the option of going round the outside or tucking in behind me. With the oil and debris from previous rounds on the outside, Andy took the sensible option of tucking in and waiting for the next straight. He lost some of his advantage to Elliot, but managing traffic becomes an extra element in multi-class racing, and can be quite exciting -- all good training for Le Mans, eh...?
A lap or so later Marc spun at Sear, allowing me to make a break and head off after the ailing Tuscan of Gerard Coakley. The tyre pressures on the slicks were much too hard, I was getting less grip than my well worn road legal list 1B tyres. It was fun though, they were very progressive and I was power sliding everywhere. Not the quickest way to drive but fun all the same.
Just before the end of the extended race Topless Taz finally cried enough and George had to park it on the end of the straight after struggling around with very little power. It must have been a nightmare to drive with the lack of speed but, despite this, by keeping to his lines and driving sensibly everyone coped fine.
As the flag dropped Darren Dowling took a fantastic win in his two-seater Tuscan from Tim Hood with Andy Holden In third. I came in seventh behind Steve Glynn and can claim half a Tuscan Challenge scalp of Gerard, who was suffering problems towards the end of the race. Hugh Marshall failed to finish when his differential failed.
A very successful event, the Tuscan Challenge drivers and the TVRCC Challenge drivers mixed well both on the track and in the paddock. Snetterton was possibly the worst place to try and mix the cars due to the high speed differences on the big straights but, after analysing the times, the difference between the fastest Tuscan and the fastest Class A Tasmin (using my time from last season as George's times were unrealistic due to engine problems) was about 15 seconds. That's not bad considering the differences in the cars.
With good numbers in each class promised for next season it should prove very exciting to watch with constant action on the track. Have a good winter!
Photos courtesy Alex Wager (PHer waggy)