Pendle District Motor Club Newsletter
September '95
CHAIRMAN'S CHAT
A very busy month was August and wow what a response to Alan's plea re: the
league. First thing though the annual thrashing by the Cricket Club at rounders.
Thanks go to Peter Arnold for supplying the Bat and Balls and also playing.
What did encourage me was the number of Pendle members who turned up,
many thanks to one and all for taking part in this fun night - final score
123 - 30ish to Earby Cricket Club. Next on the agenda was the Silva Stages
which saw three PDMC crews competing, P. Smith/I.Winstanley in Paul's shared
Group "A" Nova, A. Pott/apologies to the co-driver in their Golf and Bill Chadwick/with
his friend Mr Errington in the Group "N" Astra. Mixed fortunes beset all crews
with Bill the only one claiming a finish and some valuable league points.
Saving grace was that neither L&C.C.C. nor High Moor had anyone in this event,
the deficit grows smaller. The next League rounds were the Clitheroe 800 and
our Hillclimb on the weekend 19/20 August. On the 800 I had a head start on the
competition, by taking "Ace" navigator PDMC member Paul Burns, who wanted
valuable rally points to keep his SD34 navigator championship hopes alive.
Barring accidents/breakdowns a top 5 finish was always on the cards, but of
more importance the top SD34 finisher and 20 valuable League points. An added
bonus was the late/late entry of Neil Bye/Abigail in the newcomers class, more
League points. A short report will follow later. Sunday was the 3rd running
of our hillclimb (next year we hope to run two). All went well, the only complaint,
from those who had stayed over night at the site, was that the rest of us did not
arrive early enough, the competitors were beating us to it and there was a
lot to do. Although we are grateful for all offers of help we all need to be
on site in good time. Anyway thanks to all, we ended up with 8/9 Pendle
entries and hopefully a break even on finance. Thanks go to Richard for
doing the results so allowing Alan to compete and score SD34 points. Thanks
also to Alan's wife Janet, his Mum and his Brother who stopped all day to marshal.
The weekend's events should have closed the gap considerably, but we are not
there yet and need to keep up the pressure. The next events to count are our
Autotest on 24th September and Springhill's Brockhall Charity Stages on the
30th September, so if you can please do your best to enter. Preparations are
well under way for our annual visit to Mull. The Escort I bought required some
pre-MOT welding and strengthening and as I write it is awaiting the MOT.
Also travelling to Mull is Paul Smith so fingers crossed that both crews get a finish!
For those with good memories, you may remember that in February 1995, three Pendle
members won the all England "Shell Helix" Club Challenge, the resulting prize of
items of equipment for the Club arrived in April/May. Since then we have been trying
to arrange an official presentation which was to be combined with a 21st anniversary,
forum etc etc at the welfare. To date we are still trying to arrange a date which
suits all parties. We have advised the organisers that we need to get the support
of other clubs to make a decent number for an event like this. Consequently any
date must be advised to us before the SD34 meeting (next one 20th September) in
order to give people 2/3 weeks notice. So watch this space arround October/November
time. The committee felt so incensed by all the delays that they suggested writing
to Shell direct and thanking them for the equipment adn leave it at that.
Finally the extra-ordinary General Meeting took place in August. There were several
minor amendments which were accepted by those present, a copy of the revised rules
etc will be sent to all paid up members when they have been reprinted, if you don't
like what you see then you only have yourself to blame if you did not attend the
meeting.
Until next month, happy motoring.
Rod
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What is the Internet?
by Richard Brereton
Rod has asked me to say a little about the Internet. Well here
goes, the Internet is a collection of computer networks world
wide all connected together by high speed communication links.
The original set up was for Universities, Research units and other
academic institutions plus some American government departments
and was intended to enable people to obtain up to the minute information
on all manner of subjects very quickly.
Access to the "Net" for individuals was not easy to say the least,
but now there are people who will provide access to individuals
(who have the necessary equipment) for a small monthly fee. This
is almost the only cost as the "Net" itself is free, but you do
have to pay for a telephone call to the people who are providing
you with access to the "Net". Our newsletter can be put onto
the "net" by storing it in the memory of a computer which is part
of the "Net" it is then available for anyone to read, this would
normally be accomplished by getting a copy into the memory on
your own computer and then printing it out to read at your leisure
(this involves one in the shortest telephone call). I have tried
to make this a simple explanation and hope I may have partially
succeeded. If I have made any major blunders I would be pleased
to here from Mr Errington who incidentally might have been a better
person to write this.
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A Day at the Races, well almost...
by Peter Arnold
It all started when recent new member Mark Parkinson's wife
gave her husband a voucher for the Aintree Racing Drivers School
a couple of Christmases ago. Having laid in his wallet all that
time, Mark rediscovered it when he gave his wallet its bi-annual
spring clean!! So, having whetted his appetite for a bit of motor
sport when he drove my imp at Scammonden (I'll not mention that
he beat me by 18/100ths!), we decided to arrange a day in Summer
when we might stand a chance of not having to drive a Formula
Ford whilst holding an umbrella at the same time, and we succeeded.
A 9am start at Three Sisters saw a collection of about 20 men
of all ages, meet for a short briefing and without further ado,
it was a case of three pupils at a time going out with an instructor
in a XR3i for a few laps to give us an idea of where to brake,
turn in etc., which was helped by the positioning of various boards
indicating where you should brake - but I think they were set
too far away from the bends! This certainly put us in the mood
for what was to come, but first it was back to the classroom for
a very professional lecture. The noticeable thing being that
you weren't talked down to the emphasis being on a day of enjoyment,
no pressure being put on anyone to drive quicker than they wanted,
and interestingly rather than the more usual system of imposing
a rev-limit, the only proviso was that you weren't meant to overtake
the instructor who would be leading 3 cars at a time at ever increasing
speeds. So now it was our turn to take first the XR3i's out and
then the Formula Ford's. In the former the instructor sat alongside
offering advice and "marking your card" on various points such
as braking, gearchanging, positioning, car control etc.etc.
With apologies to any XR3i owning members, all I can say is -
Ugh! To be fair they were reliable but lousy steering and squashy
suspension didn't impress. Anyway after a quick appraisal by
the instructors everybody was deemed capable of progressing to
the Formula Ford's - interestingly we were told they've actually
had 3 or 4 people book a course only to discover they've only
ever driven Karts before and didn't know how to drive a car and
expected to be taught!! Apparently they also had a young girl
of 17 (I'll rephrase that - they had a booking from the parents
of a 17 year old girl) as a present for passing her driving test,
unfortunately in the following six months she didn't drive again,
and had to be taken off the course when she didn't want to go
into any gear other than first. But the best one must be the
81 year old man who's been 3 or 4 times he'll soon be ready for
his first race! So we were strapped into the Crossles and awaited
our turn to go out, I was a bit miffed that I didn't get a "Girl
holding umbrella" to protect me from the sun, but I think that
was an extra on the all singing, all dancing course. Then out
behind the instructor, we'd been warned that the Hewland Boxes
were OK on the upshift but needed a bit of thought on the downshift,
but in practise a quick blip of the throttle sufficed. The right-hand
gear change brought back memories (not particularly fond) of a
LHD VW Camper I once owned, but there the similarity ended! The
first couple of laps were at a fairly steady pace to get used
to the very positive steering,suspension you could see working
and brakes that did - a bit different to the XR3i's! Then we
gradually picked up the pace, the instructor making ensuring nobody
was being left behind. I can understand now those that say no
matter how good a road car is, it will never compare with a
purpose designed race car on the track - and this was a humble
Formula Ford - where do they keep the F1 cars?! So another few
laps and the blue flag came out to give everybody the chance of
doing a bit of overtaking, I was then behind the other 2 cars
and the instructor, when having gone round the hairpin the car
in front decided to damage the tyre wall, so I found gravel, grass
etc. attacking my visor. After the session finished I asked Mark
if he'd seen the car go off, he said "it was me!", so with a very
straight face (sorry Mark) I enquired as to his health - which
was OK as was the cars - sturdy beasts these! Unfortunately Mark
missed the last few quickest laps, 6500 rpm in 3rd down the straight
- about 90 ish, quite quickly through the twiddly bits and that's
it - finished and I want one!! After lunch, Mark decided to do
a few more laps in the XR3i, so he's now waiting for the opportunity
to drive the Imp at the next sprint at 3 Sisters, which unfortunately
(if you're reading this Mark) will quite probably- well,certainly
actually be on a day when you have to work! To sum up, an excellent
day out, I thought good value at £89.00. If anybody is interested
they do "Corporate Days" for parties of 12+, so it might be that
Pendle and/or another local club might like to have a day out
sometime. Anyway I'd better finish off now, that nice man with
the clipboard said he'd talk to Frank and Ron when he next saw
them, he's got my phone number. Now I wonder if I should pop
into Petty's Estate Agents and ask to see their list of Monegasque
properties ,and has anybody any contacts in the Lear Jet Business
and should I transfer my overdraft to The Royal Bank of Scotland,
and, and,-----
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Matt Ritson Memorial Westmorland Rally
by Stephen Bye
22-23 July 1995
For some time I had been thinking of having a go at one of the navigational Road Rallies.
I had "dipped my toes in the water" on Bill Chadwick's excellent Navigational execises
with my son Neil - and found that I still knew which way up the map was and what a
map reference was. So when the opportunity to do the Westmorland Rally with Bill Chadwick
arose, I decided to have a go. A 150 mile event on maps 90,91 and 97 was the fare
for the night - starting and finishing at Tebay Junction 38 Services - and 26 crews
had entered. This level of entry appears to be the norm nowadays. The final instructions
had given a few examples of different types of route definition - but for most crews
this was no preparation for what was to meet them later. Black spots and give ways
were plotted and found to include a fair number of "red herrings". The event was led
away at 11.01pm by last year's winner Clive Sisson and Kevin Savage in a
Y registered Escort XR3 (the entry list is nothing if not varied), heading south
near the north end of the Sandbeds white to the start of the first section - a
5½ mile regularity defined by three alternative herringbones (only one was correct)
or an alternative route definition with a coded hatch supposedly for the novices.
If you couldn't make head nor tail of this and only seven cars did, you then made
your way to the start of the third section. You, therefore were penalised by loss
of not just the regularity section but also the following section. Most crews reached
Standard Start 2 with at least 11 fails! - an encouraging start to the evening's sport.
The section missed by most crews was east of Kendal around Killington Reservoir - but the
majority only really started just south of Grayrigg with a 6½ mile standard section to
Grayrigg which served to blow the cobwebs away before another herringbone (circular this
time) around the Bretherdale loop (with Stewart Lawrenson marshalling) and then back to
Tebay for petrol, using the new southbound Tebay services as a link onto the M6.
I must admit that I hadn't enjoyed much so far but Bill was being patient with my
shortcomings - so into the second longer half. A short run out to Hardendale quarry
road led to a 5 mile reference defined section (now that's more like it) followed
by a mind boggling pass through 6 spot heights totalling 1331 - got the calculator
out but six or seven minutes later and non the wiser it was "guess the route" time
so off we go around Maulds Maeburn to finish south of Sleagill. A standard section of
tulips with and without tops and tails showed me I had a lot to learn. I was at the
bottom of a very steep learning curve and I was scrabbling for grip. An alpha numeric
section increased the "haze" and gave us a fail, before an enjoyable gridline/spot
height/map reference consecutive list including the road through High Whitber Ford
to finish west of Appleby. Maximum lateness was approaching a little too close, so I
was pleased to find the next 14 mile section to west of Kirkby Stephen was an "avoid a
score of blackspots". After a tight neutral section through Brough Sowerby, another
circular herringbone presented itself but as time was short it was back to "guess a
route" on the yellows south of Brough. We almost got away with it but I missed a
small triangle to give us another fail. A section defined by road junction colours
in the Soulby maze was more fun before the last section of exit grid square directions
over Sunbiggin Tarn and the tricky Spar Side loop to the finish near Orton.
The results were quickly calculated by Andrew Kellitt (the RAC rally route co-ordinator)
whilst we all got stuck into breakfast. Pendle Motor Club hadn't covered itself with
glory this weekend - Bill and I were 13th overall and Neil and Abigail were about 21st.
I left the event with mixed feelings - I liked the terrain (I had used it many times
for Illuminations Rallies) but found the route definition at times very difficult,
almost obtuse - but I was, when all said and done a raw novice at this sort of event.
So I felt let's give it some time - we'd covered most of the route in a very standard
car (Bill's regular Sierra Estate with over 100,000 on the clock) so we decided to
tackle another - the Ripon St Wilfred's Rally.
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Clitheroe 800
by Rod Brereton
As mentioned earlier, Paul Burns and I decided to compete on this
daytime Road Rally. In previous years Paul has competed in the Historic
section with Ian Tunney in Ian's Ford Consul, and has always been
in the top 5. This time he was lumbered with me in my Clio. Seeded
at car 6, we turned up at Clitheroe Cattle Market for noise and Scrutineering
before setting off for the start at Clitheroe Castle. The entry list
showed one or two surprises, namely Bury stalwarts Graham Bray and
Eve Fisher competing in their first rally. The route left the Castle
grounds and headed over Edisford Bridge around to Higher Hedder Bridge
area, Mitton and leaving map 103 to go onto map 102 taking in roads
on the eastern edge of the map. As the event is all regularity, to
get a good result one must refrain from speeding, Paul asking me to
slow down, even when I'm only doing 30/35 mph. As expected both time
and route controls were collected in the correct sequence, albeit
two anomalies in the first half were to be our undoing. The first
proved to be an organisers error, i.e. a misplotted black spot, this
meant that if crews took the correct route they went through the black
spot. We decided on the former action and within 2 miles found a
confirming "Passage Check". The second incident was as follows,
we were third in a queue of cars and went in on our minute but by
the time the marshal got to us his clock had gone over - result 1
minute late, and no arguing would convince him he was wrong. The
half way lunch halt was taken at the Red Pump Inn and interim results
showed us 3rd behind Clive Starkie (2nd) and the 1993 & 1994 winner
Richard Norbury.
The second half saw us set off around the Red Pump area to join the
brown road around Waddington, off this road we went on the yellows
to Gawcar House, with a non competitive run into Slaidburn. All regularity,
a trip up Lythe Fell at 25.5mph was next, at the top of Lythe a slightly
ambiguous (guessing) instruction saw us turn up at the next T.C. on
time and in the right direction (not so the event leaders). Off and
on the yellows around Bentham Clapham to petrol at Harden Bridge,
to continue on route via Feizor and a final 28mph blast down Gisburn
Forest to the last control on Walkers Lane the event finishing at
Lake Birwains Sailing Club, where the ladies of CDMC had gone well
overboard (sorry for the pun) and produced a truly scrumptious Buffet.
Final results showed Paul and I as winners, Richard Norbury picking
up a fail for the WD on the little triangle mentioned. However our
joy was short lived when car 7 queried the first half route instruction
regarding the black spot, result: section scrubbed and with the marks
for the late minute we finished 2nd about 9/10 marks behind the winners.
However I was happy to come away with a straight car and 20 league
points. Many, many thanks to Paul, without whom I would have struggled,
especially if I had had to navigate, he certainly does know his stuff.
he Clitheronian may see us pairing up again, to try and repeat our
91 win - watch this space!
Amusing incident on the event, seeing Alan Douglas ex of PDMC marshalling.
He usually has his "Moorespeed Marauders" helping him, but he had
committed himself and friends, then realised there was a local Cricket
match on and the bars open all day - result marshal's 1 (Alan) cricket
match 8 - oops. Also that long time Blackburn Rovers Fan, Ian Grindrod
gave Dave Barrett a fail for
having his sons in the car wearing Burnley F.C. strips. Sorry says
Dave guess that makes us 11th - no worries. The fail still stood,
although Dave did recieve, Spirit of the event award. i.e. taking
the event as the fun day out it is meant to be.
Latest news is that the '95 event was to be the last. The organisers
for 10 years suffering the same as PDMC, i.e no new blood coming forward
to help, it's a pity but as we all know (we) they really do need the
help.
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BAC & CSMA Autotest (Foundry Car Park Bury)
by Neil Bye
9 June 1995
Members of Bury Automobile Club often come and give their assistance
to our PCT's and Autotests, more than a lot of our own members do.
So when I heard they were having a 'Novice Autotest' I thought I'll
have a bash at that and return some of their support. Being a Novice
Autotest you are allowed a navigator, so Abigail came along. She was
currently on her 8 weeks holiday (cushy life for these teacher types)
and was getting withdrawal symptoms from not having boss anyone
about.
It was a lovely day with temperatures well over 80 degrees. This caused
major problems for the engines, virtually everyone was boiling over,
or suffering from fuel evaporation and one lost its core plug. So
in between tests we all had to lift the bonnet, put the shades on
and listen to the Wimbledon final (It's tough this motor sport lark).
There were two classes and in the senior navigatorless class I. Bateman's
(SVMC) immaculate Westfield oversteered its way to a resounding victory
from the 1100 Mini of S. Beamish (LCCC). In the junior class (with
navigators) one Mr Neil Bye understeered his way to victory in his
peugeot 309. Unfortunately someone protested me competing in the
Novice section as a member of Pendle, so Eve Fisher kindly made me
an honorary BAC member for the day. So no SD34 league/individual
points, but still an enjoyable day out for only £4.00
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