2021 Race dates, reports & results

Class ? - All 6 cylinder cars up to 3000cc (Triumph GT6)

Class E - Cars over 3000cc

Class F - All Swinging Sixties Group Two cars running on Dunlop Historic Tyres

Class V - Cars with original V8 engines (TVR Tuscan)

Class H - All Lotus cars (Seven, Elite, Elan, etc.). Lotus Sevens only, have a mandatory pit stop of 30 seconds. Any race winner penalty will be added to this.

Class M - All Marcos Volvo-engined cars

Class J - Invitation class for Swinging Sixties Group Two Cars

 

30th May 2021 - Donington - CSCC Swinging Sixties & CSCC Classic K  TVR Tuscan and TVR Grantura

Yet another mixed results meeting which was a real pain especially after the huge amount of work done on the Tuscan over the 2020/2021winter recess.  The weather was super-lovely and nearly the whole team turned out for the day and with the RV in good fettle after a lot of work, it was a really nice weekend despite the mixed outcomes. Even the RV generator is working now complete with a £8 Ford Mondeo crank speed sensor to replace the original Kohler type because they wanted £150 for one!

Swinging Sixties Group 2 was a bit of a mess for us. Warm-up Dave managed about 3 or 4 laps (and got up to 3rd  place on the grid) when the engine began smoking and making a nasty ticking noise so we pulled out of the session; later investigation in the paddock found nothing serious but the noise was not great and despite my wanting to race I took everyone's advice and decided against racing which was just as well as it turned out. So our first DNS for quite a while but it did make the day less packed and we could concentrate on the Classic K race.

2021 Donington Swinging Sixties TVR Tuscan - Dave in one of his few laps of practice before the engine failed             Photo: Howard Wolfe

 

2021 Donington paddock; Tuscan V8 engine investigations. Lewis, Frank and Stack.

Classic K was a much better affair and we both had really great 30 minute stints with plenty of close racing for both of us. We finished 13th overall but, most significantly, won the class quite comfortably and collected some more CSCC silverware. The car was excellent although it's now getting closer to its engine life limit so we'll probably only use it a few more times this year.

2021 Donington Classic K, Dave hustling the TVR Grantura out of the old hairpin (which isn't actually a hairpin)       Photo: Howard Wolfe

Back at team HQ the V8 engine was stripped out of the Tuscan on the Monday morning after the meeting and by noon was in bits and the issue was obvious - one of the pistons had picked up on the bore and left some nasty marks on the piston skirt and scored the bore - a set of 8 slightly new oversized pistons on the way but that will be 6 to 8 weeks out of action. We are hoping to have it reassembled for Snetterton in August but in the meantime I have swapped my June 12th Cadwell entry to Classic K in the Elan.

2021 Donington Classic K trophies and some of the team (Howard, Noreen, me, Dave, Lewis and tasha)                   Photo: Howard Wolfe

A huge amount of work has been completed on the Elan since Dijon 20 months ago, including new front hubs (previous ones has spun their bearing tracks), a repaired Chapman strut, new rear discs and caliper seals (following a brake issue at a track day at Goodwood in October 2020), the passenger door has been realigned and refitted, a long range petrol tank fitted so we can run for 3 hours without a fuel stop, new brake master cylinders, replacement steering rack and a few other bits.

 

12th June 2021 - Cadwell Park - CSCC Classic K  Lotus Elan

Following the Tuscan spoiling our day somewhat at Donington and with no chance of getting the V8 engine back together for a couple of months (hopefully by Snetterton) I switcherood my race entry from Swinging 60s to Classic K in the Elan as an ideal run-up to the Knockhill extravaganza early in July. It was a 40 minutes race (Classic K is normally 60 minutes) and I had decided to do this one solo to get to know the car better. It was a pretty modest race entry which is a real shame because it's such a great circuit despite being in quite a rural setting, many winding roads away.  With the RV playing up slightly on the A1 on the way up (lost power at Buckden) we made a team decision to avoid the massive hill just before the circuit and instead make a big detour through Boston (the real one not the silly made-up one in Massachusetts that the Bee Gees were so keen on) to approach from the north. It adds about 30 miles and an hour's travel but seemed prudent.  Later investigation in the circuit paddock confirmed that that diesel lift pump had failed so one is on order; the RV runs OK without one but makes it harder to start and can cause full-load fuel-starvation issues.

With just one car to run and a late morning start, Stack came up on his new BMW 1200 GS on Saturday morning (brilliant bike) but Jared decided he wanted to do other things that strangely he wouldn't tell us about. Anyhow, practice was about 11:00am and went really well for what was only the car's third race; so well in fact that we were gained an outright pole position but by just a small margin. The car was great and with no sign of the horrendous braking issues we had experienced at a Goodwood track day back in October 2020 where the rear brake pads caught fire...and a wheel fell off...and the passenger door fell off.

2021 CSCC Cadwell Park;   Jon, Stack and Dave just prior to practice

The race was awesome with close chasing off the line after my good getaway got me into a clear lead by turn 1. I spent 10 minutes creating a 4 second lead over the mighty-quick MGB of Beresford and Morrison and came in for the mandatory pit stop at 11 minutes (the earliest it's allowed in a 40 minute race) and rejoined after the enforced 2 minute gap at pretty-much the back of the race. Back in the lead 4 laps later and managed to maintain about a 4 second lead for the duration of the race resulting in my first outright win for many years. I am sure that to anyone watching it looked pretty straightforward but from where I was sitting it was anything but that!  I had to work hard to maintain a 4 second safety gap and the pit team were excellent in that regard, continually feeding me accurate information I needed through the board; I am so privileged to work with such a great support team without whom these successes wouldn't happen.

2021 CSCC Cadwell Park; On the way to pole position in the tiny Lotus Elan

 

2021 CSCC Cadwell Park; Classic K overall winner's cap and trophy; most excellent

 

3rd and 4th July 2021 - Knockhill - CSCC Classic K  Lotus Elan