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Officers and Committee Members CHAIRMAN
Matt Nichols ..........................07989 601774
VICE CHAIRMAN
Pete Hart ................................0117 9372611
TREASURER
Vickie Tubb ............................
COMPETITION SECRETARY
Paul Parker .............................01275 843478
SECRETARY
Paul Hemmings .....................0117 9566045
MEMBERSHIP SECRETARY
Zoë Tooth .............................01454 329231 49 Bowling Road, Chipping Sodbury BRISTOL BS37 6EP
MAGAZINE EDITOR PRESS & PUBLICITY
Scott Boulton ........................01454 852959 Kate Boulton .........................01454 852959 159 Long croft, Yate, BRISTOL BS37 7YN
SOCIAL SECRETARY
Andy Laurence ......................07825 953858
WEBMASTER & PRESIDENT
Allen Harris ...........................07970 198718
AWARDS SECRETARY
Dave Greenslade ..................07966 540842
LEAD MARSHAL
Mike Cole...............................07980 416075
CMSG REPRESENTATIVE
Mark Benstock ......................01454 311712
ASWMC REPRESENTATIVE
Mark Chater
CHILD PROTECTION OFFICER Richard Marsh .......................(after 6pm) 07786 068830 COMMITTEE
Chris Dymock.......................(after 6pm) 0117 9394265 Chris Buckley ........................07946 482169 Ady Taylor .............................07957 545432 Mark Tooth ...........................01454 329231
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_____________In_This_Issue______________ Page 4.
Chairman’s Chat Matt’s latest thoughts and insights.
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Supercar Saturday Solo Zoë and the team made an outstanding sum of money for charity.
Page 9.
Fedden Sporting Trial Photos from this year’s Fedden Trial.
Page 13. Membership Renewal Form
Page 15. The Allen Trial Reports and photos from the 70th anniversary of the Allen Classic Trial.
Page 22. The Only Way Is Up pt2 Andrew Bisping concludes his year in the WAMC Championship.
Page 26. Drive By Chris givens us his tips to celebrate the festive season.
Front cover: Hairy moment on the Fedden Trial. Photo by Steve Kilvington www.sbkmotorsport.com
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Chairman’s Chat
“Mr Speed” by Kiss
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eason’s greetings good people of BMC, it seems strange to be saying this again so soon but we’ve made it through another year, and what a year too.
attracted an entry of over thirty. Very good by modern day AutoSOLO standards.
February saw us meet at Filton Golf Club for annual awards to celebrate the spoils of the previous season. Although it wasn’t quite as popular as we would have liked, so we’re going to try something a bit different in 2017 by going back to holding the awards night at a club night instead. It will be in either February or March, with, yes you guessed it, a buffet. Oh, we do like a buffet here at BMC.
This was followed immediately on the Sunday with record numbers of people turning up to enjoy everything on offer including the lunchtime bike rides at the Family Sports Car Day which appeared to go down very well indeed. A trip around in Ady Taylor’s Bond Bug cleared my head from a week’s cruise off the coast of Croatia, although I smiled at the wrong cameraman apparently so we’ll never know how much I really enjoyed it. Sorry Scott, didn’t see you there, lucky Hannah did.
Whilst on the subject, Chepstow next year might need us to be more flexible in how we In January, our NavScatter ran with no less than use the space available following building works. twelve crews in total which as anyone who With that in mind we’re currently looking at knows will tell you is virtually unheard of these alternative timing solutions to enable us to start days. Although much more recently in at one end and finish the other. Binoculars November only three turned up and so I think being one option of course (joking). in the spirit of ‘lies, damned lies and statistics’ Shortly after the schools broke up in July the we’ll leave it as an average score of 7.5 crews Dick Mayo Sprint topped the charts with a for 2016. completely full entry of 155, quite remarkable.
Whilst March saw two brilliant events run extremely well with both the Chepstow AutoSOLO and Great Western Sprint going off without incident. There was also something that really stood out at both Chepstow and Combe being the size of entries from our MX5 Championship. The dedicated MX5 Class A5 at the Great Western Sprint represented no less than 20% of the total entry. Here’s hoping the MX5 and new Clio championships perform just as well if not better in 2017.
In May, our joint Bristol Pegasus Llandow Sprint also enjoyed a strong entry at just shy of ninety competitors and shortly after that in June the summer AutoSOLO at Chepstow once again
For future reference Matt, this is how to do it.
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Then in August the South Glos Show once again provided us with a strong local platform to promote what we do so very well with over 1000 laps of the course being enjoyed by either paid drives in the ‘My Garage’ Clio or one of our passenger ride Stigs. Great stuff. As the schools returned early in September Wiscombe Park was once again oversubscribed both days. Incredible really, Wiscombe must be the third fastest sell out event in the UK behind Glastonbury and CarFest, long may that reign continue. Three and half weeks later and twenty intrepid owners along with a varied selection of cars plus additional drivers ventured over the bridge to take part in our second annual mid-week Llandow Track Day. What a great day out it was as well, we shall be doing more of that next year I can assure you, no competition licence required either remember. October saw Mark and Zoë Tooth, ably supported by some truly great BMC peeps, lay on our regular invitation AutoSOLO at the Stroke Association Supercar Saturday at Combe. This was a landmark year as it turned out because with additional match funding contributions from Nick Rainbow’s and James Hurford’s employers our total donation reached £1,500. Something the Stroke Association were very pleased with. We should also be very proud and so once again Muchos Gracias if you were there to help. My Wife was, made cakes for the first time in ages, they all sold, to our knowledge no-one died, certainly no-one sued and she got positive feedback on the day. Very happy Wifey.
Club Nights 3rd January Club Night 7th February Club Night 7th March Club Night As you know in November the lights went out, sorry clocks went back (Big Ed says: I guess we now know why Matt was an hour late to all his meetings at the start of November), and our trials season began in earnest with Tony Streeting and Dave Harris organising another superb Fedden Sporting Trial, well done to everyone who turned out there. All before Pete and Carly Hart plus Mark and Zoë Tooth led the way in organising the 70th running of the Allen Classic Trial. An event that finished in the daylight after running without a hiccup. Very well done if you were there to compete or help in anyway. I also hope you enjoyed resting your very well deserved cup of something hot, or glass of something else afterwards on the anniversary mats given out. Unbelievably ours are still in the lounge, quite unusual for this sort of thing, well they were before Mrs N read this anyway. Doh! Throughout the year, we’ve also enjoyed good attendance at our club and quiz nights plus summer BBQ where it’s been great both catching up with old friends and meeting you for the first time if new. For me in my tenure as Chairman, 2016 has been the best year yet, and so here’s hoping for something even more special in 2017. All that leaves me to say is have a fantastic Christmas and New Year and come back in January stronger (and faster) than ever before.
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“I Won’t Back Down” by Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers
Supercar Saturday Solo
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s long as it doesn’t rain it will be ok, I thought. So when I awoke to heavy drizzly rain on Sat 29th October it wasn’t the best start to the day but fairly typical of the Tooth curse on the weather! Our Charity Autosolo, held as part of the Stroke Association’s Supercar Saturday event at Castle Combe, relies on participation from members of the public to compete in their own car on the special Slalom course or to have a passenger ride with our experienced drivers, so more people are likely to attend the event if it’s a pleasant day.
other side of the paddock! The Stroke Association commentators visited us several times throughout the day to promote our event and some even did their broadcasts whilst being a passenger on the course, all good for publicity. Also, Nick Rainbow made his film debut (albeit only for the Stroke Association website!) discussing how the Royal Mail matching scheme has contributed to the event. Whilst our Stigs were doing a great job with their skilful driving something a bit different was required to pull in the crowds so one of the drift car drivers was invited to try the course in his car. He did a At 8am a large number of BMC volunteers great job and succeeded in bringing in some congregated in the paddock at Castle Combe extra custom, so thanks to Jeff Benstock for and set to work building the course and making this suggestion and thanks to Steve erecting the club gazebo, fortunately all for putting on an impromptu display. completed in record quick time since the paperwork and cakes were beginning to get As it transpired the weather didn’t make any damp! The mentors started to test the difference to our event! By the end of the day course layout shortly after 9am which 18 competitors had tried the Slalom attracted some of the early visitors and by Autosolo Experience, with six of them 9.30am the first two passenger rides were coming back for additional laps to improve booked, a father and his young son who had their times, 23 people were given passenger travelled all the way from Cornwall. They rides, and more importantly all the cakes had were thrilled with the experience and happily been sold! It was interesting to see some of wandered off to watch the Supercars, our ‘regulars’, both competing and having clutching their BMC goody bags. passenger rides. In fact the FTD was won by Aran Large who was the winner last year. He The day continued well regardless of the was happy to accept the trophy but decided damp weather, with a constant stream of to forego the Lucky Dip track ride which people wishing to compete in the Autosolo instead was given to runner up Charles and even more wanting passenger rides, Russell, who was thrilled by his first keeping everyone busy. The cake sale was passenger ride around the circuit. Amongst also proving popular despite opposition from the others who took part during the day was the burger and bacon butty van parked on the
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our first stroke survivor, Edward Ruskin and the first LWB Land Rover to compete, driven by Robin Jenkins. Although neither was top of the leader board they both thoroughly enjoyed the experience.
raised to help the good work of the Stroke Association. After the money we raised had been added in the total for the entire event came to £13578, although it is probably even more than that now. It is the best ever Supercar Saturday to date, so well done to everyone!
Many thanks to the Stroke Association for organising the event, to all the BMC members who helped on the day as officials, marshals, mentor and cake sellers, and to those who baked the cakes to sell, particularly those who aren’t members of the club. After the deduction of fees and expenses the event made a profit of £689 (the most so far) which will be increased to just over £1500 by matching schemes offered by employers of members Nick Rainbow and James Hurford. A great day was had by all, but more importantly a fantastic sum of money was
Our regular BMC photographer Scott was not at the event this year so thanks to Matt Nichols, and Mark and Claire Tooth for providing some photographs in between their other duties at the event.
Zoë Tooth
Photos by Matt Nichols
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Nick’s 5 mins of fame
James probably being his usual slidy slidy, drifty monkey self...
...and then comes a proper drift car
Photos by Matt Nichols, Mark and Claire Tooth
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“Bounce” by Run DMC
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t’s that time of year again to get down and dirty. That's right, it’s time for the trials. You could not have asked for a better day for our first trial, The Fedden. The sun was shining, nothing but a gentle breeze in the air and warm enough that a t-shirt and thin jacket was more than enough.
and down a couple of banks and obstacles. Even then some of the hills still didn’t present much of a challenge as quite a few of the cars still just dashed up the hills as if they were perfectly flat. The three rounds were over very quickly and by 3:15 we were all heading back to the paddock (some of us taking the longer, scenic route as there was no way in hell I was climbing up those hills). Once again the ever smiling Roland Uglow, aided by Laura Wilks, took first place.
The only downside of having such pleasant weather was the mud was quite sticky once the top layer of leaves was cleared. This meant that quite a high number of cars were clearing the hills with relative ease. Some creative thinking from the marshals was needed (along with a dash of cruelty from a couple of them) and the hills were altered so that they weaved in and out of the trees and up
Scott Boulton
Photos by Jeff Benstock
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Photos by Steve Kilvington www.sbkmotorsport.com
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Photos by Scott Boulton www.jackflashphotography.co.uk
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Photos by Scott Boulton www.jackflashphotography.co.uk
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The 70th Allen Trial The 70th Anniversary ALLEN 2016 was dry, unlike the very wet 50th in 1996..
“Stairway to Heaven” By Led Zepplin
Travers’ rocky track which was rougher than normal due to the storms earlier in the week caught out a number across the classes and caused some delay. ixty one cars including 4 from BMC, Ubley Wood, despite last week’s and 12 trailists who had entered torrential rain was the driest we have the 50th twenty years ago, (four in seen it. Ubley 2 with its higher than exactly the same car!) met at the Bull normal restart for class 8 caught out Inn in Hinton were they were very all but Dean Partington, previous four efficiently managed and sent on their times Allen Winner but not today. way by the expert team of Paul Hemmings, Mark Benstock and Mervyn The special tests caused few problems with only one failing each .The fastest Walters. time on Ubley Hump was Tris (Tubby) White (Troll) 17.9 seconds and on Tubby’s Torment, ably manned by Bristol Motor Club, the man himself was beaten by Stuart Bartlett (Cannon) 13.4 seconds. Burledge, once again opened for our use, caught out 20% including some “top" trialists. The trial then headed onto Fry’s Bottom where the land owner had made his promised improvements to the main track meaning we had a through route from the lower gate by Fry’s 1 to the Higher Gate above Fry’s 3. These wooded sections proved popular and ran much They included Dave Greenslade’s blue more efficiently than last year. The Marlin which got its MOT late on land owner is keen to see us again. So Saturday afternoon! The traditional we will develop the sections for future early hills including Tog Hill ably years manned by the younger Benstocks, The trial then came back through the provided a gentle start. Guy’s Hill however began to sort out the classes. outskirts of Bath to the infamous John Walker, a good muddy blast to end the The slippery stones of the hill, caught out most on the restart and challenged day. Here they were met by Chairman the momentum of the rest. Successful Matt and Julia, Mark and Mervyn . climbs with restart were made by Tris White (car 1) & Gary Browning (car 47).Whilst seven went clean with straight climbs Special mention should be made of young Izzie Linforth who stopped too low then drove onto the restart and pulled away perfectly.
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Sticker Martin in his trusty Escort broke down on the way and had to retire. Our Landie had struggled a fortnight ago but after the farmer kindly trimmed the hedges and cleared some ruts, it was easy enough for all but 5 to climb non-stop. Allowing the final cars and course closing to ascend the section as the light faded. The floodlights could once again stay in the van! The journey back to the Bull along the A46, particularly for the latter numbers, was very slow as Christmas Market Shoppers left Bath along with weekenders heading for the M4 & London. Next year we will look at an alternative route.
the Allen Trophy and Bill Bennett, Matt Facey and Dave Haizelden also kept a clean sheet. Dave Greenslade and Andy Laurence just missed taking the Best Bristol Award by 4.5 seconds on special test times. Many thanks to all of you who help to make the trial such a success. Especially the marshals, many of whom come out year after year.
Pete Hart
6 classes appeared in the top 10. Aaron Haizelden in his class 5 Scimitar won Allen Trophy – Aaron Haizelden - Reliant Scimitar Bob Wood Trophy – Tom Godwin Woodbury-Chillcott - Bill Bennett - MG J2
Bryan Brothers Trophy - Matt Facey - BMW Renwicks Trophy - Craig Allen - VW Beetle Highland Circle - Mel Ellis- VW Beetle Rootes Trophy - Ed Wells - Dutton Melos Poole Trophy - Dean Partington - DP Wasp Gilbert Best Trophy - (Best Bristol) Ryan Eamer - Cannon Redcliffe Cup 1st Clubman - Kevin Sharp - X90 Well done to Aaron Haizelden
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bout five years ago, Dave and I talked about doing classic trials. We even debated building a car. Then, three years ago, Pete Hart loaned Dave his Marlin for the Allen Classic Trial. Dave offered me the role of Chief Ballast, which I duly took up. We had an absolute riot and made The Dirty Weekender film from our onboard footage. A few weeks later, we were on the M5 with the trailer on the back of Dave's van with a rather tired Marlin strapped on top of it.
Tog Hill is a great way to start the event as it's an easy hill to get you in the swing of things. Bitton Lane followed and after a moment wondering if the restart had got us, we made it away. The journey to Little Uplands from the road nearly had us as there were puddles that were more like river crossings. The section was easy in comparison. Then came Guys Hill. We got stuck momentarily on the way to the section, which didn't bode well, but we got going on the restart before running out of puff for 5 points. It turns out that we'd done pretty well there and only one Class 7 made it further.
Photo by Jeff Benstock
A few weeks on, Dave had done a lot of remedial work on the car and we tackled the Cotswold Clouds. Well, some of it. The diff let go and we found ourselves stranded on an A road in Gloucestershire somewhere. Luckily, we had a mobile signal and our knight in shining armour turned out to be Paul Parker in his Suzuki. We were delivered to Dave's place in Portishead to collect his van as we'd driven the Marlin up to the event, which started in Stonehouse. The problem was that the trailer was in Downend (with a car on it) and the Marlin lived in Nailsea, so we did Gloucestershire > Portishead > Downend (unloaded the trailer) > Gloucestershire > Nailsea > Downend (loaded the trailer again) in about 8 hours. That put us off and led to some garage
time. Before that, Dave had to buy some land and build a garage before stripping the car of every nut and bolt and re-fabricating large portions of the car. He finished after dark the night before this year's Allen! Being a nice chap, he picked me up on the way at dawn and we headed straight for scrutineering. After signing on at The Bull in Hinton, we scoffed some tea and bacon butties before heading off to the first section.
Travers was home territory as I'd marshalled the restart a few times. We positioned well and the car left the restart, which caught out four of our class. Unfortunately, I mis-timed my bouncing and as the car came up, I went down, badly timed with the car moving sideways. I landed rather heavily on the transmission tunnel, which was bare aluminium angle. Needless to say, it hurt lots and I will not be bouncing in there until there's some padding fitted! Still, we made it out the top to Ubley Wood, which isn't in a wood, or Ubley. In Pete's Marlin, Ubley had been our undoing. This time, it was a relative breeze. The first hill was done rather effectively with no fuss and the second one was taken with gusto. More gusto than we needed, I think. After failing dismally last time,
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I shouted "beans" at Dave and he gave it some. The front wheels left the ground and as the car hit the ground, it dug in and accelerated like a racing car on slicks! We shot out the top with a jet of adrenaline. The special test went well, but rather ironically for two seasoned speed eventers, we were not the fastest!
on the hill and only half had made it up at that point; one with a broken prop. We bounced our way up but there was a knocking noise at the top. On investigation, it turned out to be the handbrake cable, which had been torn from the floor and wrapped around the prop. A Beetle a few minutes later came up with one wheel hanging off, so we got off lightly. We headed back to the pub to collect our finishing certificates and Dave dropped me at home on the way back. The car will get some padding on the transmission tunnel and a new handbrake cable before the next event, but was otherwise faultless. Thanks to Dave for the chauffeur service!
The lunch break at Chew Valley gave us a chance to get chips before the second test at Tubby's Torment on the way up the hill to Burledge. Again, we were a few seconds off the ultimate pace, so some practice required there.
Andy Laurence
At the restart on Burledge, we nearly didn't get going, but it eventually hooked up and we made it up the hill. We were later to find out that we'd not got going quick enough and had failed, which was disappointing, but we'd remarked at the time that the marshal had been generous.
Photo by Jeff Benstock
Fry's Bottom was new to us and a brilliant venue. Lots of time off-road both in the three sections and the drive between them. We got a little lost going up the second two sections, but made it up safely. That took us to the final section, John Walker. This is such a great way to end the event. It's a mental drag up at quite a pace and bumpy as you like with a river crossing at the bottom. We were 9th
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Photos by Jeff Benstock
Hmm, something’s missing...
...wait, never mind.
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Photos by Scott Boulton
www.jackphotography.co.uk
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The Only Way Is Up pt.2
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hen we left the story of my 2016 season I'd completed five events with reasonable success and come-up with a plan for tackling the two single day events on Epynt, with a return to Wiltshire for a concert in between. Would it work?
“It’s a long way to the top” By AC/DC
on the road for the hundred and something mile drive back to Builth Wells.
Back at the B&B I crept in for a few hours sleep and then set off to drive on Epynt all over again. The class battle on Sunday was closer and I definitely needed my 0.9 second improvement Well the first and most important thing to do was over my Saturday time to make it a pair of class to keep Roxie the Clio in one piece to get back for wins and a double-maximum score weekend. the Queen's Birthday concert on the Saturday evening. I told myself this repeatedly as I drove to Builth Wells on the Friday afternoon! The Clerk of the Course kindly confirmed he was happy for me to drive off the top of the hill and carry-on back to Keevil after completing my second timed run. After following my class rivals up the hill they kindly got out of their cars and moved the barriers for me to continue my journey along the Burma Road rally stage.
A quick stop in a lay-by on the ranges to take of my helmet, cover- up numbers and remove the timing strut and I was off. The journey back across the Severn Bridge was fine and I arrived at the Manor House just in time for the large cover over the band's outdoor playing area to collapse in a heap, fortunately without anyone beneath it. I didn't pull-up any guy rope pegs, honestly. There was a mess of poles and tarpaulin lying on the ground, but that temporary misfortune was alleviated by a text from Gary to tell me I'd won our class during the afternoon.
The event finished relatively early and Alison's advice to stay over at the B&B for another night felt unnecessary initially, but after only about a quarter hour of driving I knew she was right and was pleased to head back there. Waking-up on Monday morning for a leisurely cooked breakfast and sunny drive back was a treat indeed.
As we moved into July it was time for the second Welsh Weekend of Llandow and Llys-y-fran events. The BARC run Llandow event had seven The evening stayed dry, the Glydebourne style cars in its Standard Production class and BMC picnic was enjoyed by the guests and the band colleague Rob Thomson was back for some more played well. Happy days. Just like motorsport there keen rivalry. The track was damp and very slippery was then the packing-up to do; some things never initially with Rob nearly two and half seconds change. After loading my drum kit and Alison's ahead in his Clio 172 although I pegged this back bass equipment back into her car before she to 0.4 in second practice, as we held the top two headed home (still thinking I was mad) I got back positions in class. First timed runs were slower,
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with Rob just ahead by 0.15 seconds. Conditions improved for the second timed run and we both went nearly four seconds quicker and I just pipped Rob by 0.16 seconds to take the class win. I was delighted, he was frustrated, but we both revelled in the close competition and friendly rivalry.
Road Rally class. The trouble was I couldn't do many more events and knew my season was front-end loaded.
Next up was Curborough, on the figure of eight course on a Saturday. However I had to be at Goodwood on the Friday evening for Go It was a westward drive to Llys-y-fran for Sunday Motorsport so it was another drive into the night. and an excellent overnight B&B where every guest That said I wouldn't have wanted to miss the was there for the Hillclimb. Having arrived at experience of looking out across Goodwood Cirdifferent times we all went in separate directions cuit from the old control tower, with the circuit looking for food but found the local pubs either bathed in summer evening sunshine, with the sight fully booked, or not doing food at all. A relatively and sound of a Spitfire making periodic circuits early decision to bale-out of searching for more around us. That was at least a more romantic pubs and go for a known good fish and chip shop image than the later reality of a short night asleep in Haverfordwest was wise, based on other in Roxie in a Staffordshire gateway! experiences relayed over breakfast the next Curborough was a new venue for me and one morning. without a target time in my class. As the only It was battle resumed with Rob and Lyndon and WAMC competitor in a class of seven and with Gary joining too for an eight car class. I was at the the winner on eligible list 1b tyres a third in class top of the class after practice, but Rob was on his and 19.8 points for setting a new target time was first visit to the hill and learning quickly. Come first mission accomplished. timed runs and Shellards bend drying under the By now it felt as though the most important trees saw Rob take a 0.8 second class lead. rounds of the championship could be the Five I managed to take around 1.2 seconds off my time Clubs events at Wiscombe Park. It would be a in the final run, but Rob went faster too and won return visit for many against known and beatable the class by just over a quarter of a second. A target times in my class. But on the Saturday fantastic result on his debut there, while I had the morning I was miles away, physically, not just consolation of maximum championship points. I'd mentally, at Monza for the Grand Prix, which just had an ongoing record of winning my class (or happened to be accessible from our Lake Garda sub-class) since starting hillclimbing and that holiday. It was a strange feeling sitting in the increasingly improbable pattern had to come to an grandstand at Parabolica with part of me wanting end. Well done Rob. to be at Wiscombe. The HSA have just awarded Llys-y-fran the best As those club members who were there will round of their championship and I’d certainly remember it absolutely poured with rain with recommend it too, especially on a sunny day sat corresponding effect on the times. Sunday was dry on the grass back overlooking the track and with expected improvement in times, so overall reservoir. not so good for my class rivals, but it worked well This event also gave me a full set of nine qualifying for Wyn in Road Rally as he set the class scores and a sense there may be a chance of doing benchmark on Saturday and then beat it for a 21 something in the Championship, while aware of point maximum on Sunday. class rivals and especially Wyn Edwards in the
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The final full weekend was at Charmouth, but I was committed to working at RallyDay on the Saturday and so could only enter the Sunday event. Driving down early on Sunday morning I was greeted by Lyndon's smiling face and the words 'We made it rain for you". That could make challenging Gary’s WAMC target time from the previous day tricky. YouTube videos deceive into flattening the course considerably, but the reality was some steep climbing and lots of quite technical bends within its comparatively short distance and a very slippery track. Would it dry enough for me to drop a Llandow score where my points weren't great compared to the target set by a Ford Focus turbo?
Roxie at Charmouth Photo by Josh Herman
It was certainly slippery in practice, but lots of gazing over the hillsides and across the sea gave some hope of it drying up by the afternoon. It was time to lecture myself to be careful in the morning and not throw the car off, although I did come close. Lining up for first timed runs and I just wanted to get on with it. The clouds looked horrid and then did their thing and rained. Any hope of a decent time was dashed and my time was nearly five seconds off my best practice. Previous day WAMC class winner Gary was about 1.3 seconds quicker than me too. Second timed runs and again the track had dried
significantly. Surely the same thing couldn't happen with the weather again. But it did! Another set of dampened times (literally) and a moment where the back end of Roxie got quite loose entering the underpass. The only consolation was sneaking past Gary by 0.07 seconds for best of WAMC. For a little while now it has been apparent that Wyn Edwards in Road Rally and I would probably finish in the top two championship places overall, but the order was uncertain. When we spoke in the Charmouth paddock it turned out that I thought he had the upper hand ahead of the final event and he believed the opposite. We discussed this before the final Curborough event and the reason became clear. He had been erroneously credited with too many points from an earlier event in the season and had sportingly drawn this to the attention of the Championship Coordinator for correction. We exchanged spreadsheets during the following week, so we could both see each other's calculations and we had agreed scores between us heading into the final event. Neither of us wanted to be uncertain, nor retracing previous results after the last event. It was now all down to this final event where we both watched the weather forecast anxiously during the week leading into it. The only thing was we had different reasons. I was looking at the Peak District, Derbyshire as I was committed to a reunion bicycle ride with a group of ex work colleagues who'd cycled from the UK to Zurich, Switzerland ten years earlier. Wyn looked at Curborough, Staffordshire. He knew the time he had to achieve. It looked challenging, but achievable, given good weather. On the Friday night the forecast was bad for both locations, but on waking in Derbyshire it was dry. What was it like further south? I could only guess. As the bike ride progressed during the day I was never far from motor sport. It transpired the Edinburgh Trial was taking place and cars and bikes
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passed us all day long. Was that a hint of envy as I educated my ex insurance industry colleagues about what was going on in the world of my new day job?
Renault Clios took the top three positions overall which looks good for the BMC Clio Championship. A final points tally of 184.19 to 183.99 is an incredibly close outcome. Some of the silly journeys were made worthwhile by this result. It would be great to enter more events and have scope for more dropped scores.
The age of sportsmanship is still alive and well in club motor sport. The Welsh Sprint and Hillclimb Championship has a great range of events and a good spread of locations accessible to BMC members.
It's great to be involved in a friendly and sociable Championship where the camaraderie is as important as the competition.
A lunchtime cafe stop in Bakewell and some precious internet access showed that while we were still dry, Curborough appeared to be damp, but who knew what would happen. I was just concentrating on getting around what was inevitably a hilly route.
And finally.......we couldn’t do any of this without our volunteers and should always remember to say “Thanks Marshal”.
But we all made it around our cycle ride and a long hot shower was indulgently well received; after a pint of course. On emerging from the shower my phone pinged with a message from Wyn saying simply "Well done champ!". It made my day. The food and drink enjoyed in Buxton that night went down very well. My first overall championship win at the end of a season of adventures.
If you are interested in using your BMC membership to take part next year, the Calendar should be out soon. The new Championship Coordinator is Elen Worthington, who you may know from her membership of the club and participation at Castle Combe and elsewhere in her Lotus Elise. See www.wamc.org.uk or contact me if you have any questions.
Andrew Bisping
So what did I learn over the course of the season? More English events were weather affected than Welsh ones.
I could have tied-up the Championship at Charmouth given fair weather, but that thwarted me that day and did the same to Wyn a week later.
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Drive By “Have you thought of what you would like for Christmas, darling?”
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hat the…? Blimey, I wonder if Stephen Hawking can shed light on the phenomena of time apparently accelerating exponentially in proportion to the number of years one actually ages because, in all honesty, I can’t believe another Christmas is already upon us - if this weren’t the 21st century I would seriously consider witchcraft may be involved…
“Merry Christmas Everybody” by Slade
struggled to reconcile that sentiment with the annual ceremony of ramming a sizable lump of pine forest up an angel’s a*se and equating Christmas with warfare? It can’t just have been me… Mind you, I imagine it’s just as confusing for the current younger generation?
You know, being brought up on a diet of constantly (and quite correctly) being told not to speak to, or accepting presents from strangers, only to then be told to be really excited about the prospect of the most Unfortunately, and please accept my profound apologies for this, in recent months weirdly dressed bloke in Christendom a number of elements have conspired against secretly breaking into your house with a skill level that would make any burglar or member my being able to generate the spare time of the SAS professionally envious, all in order necessary for me to use my finely honed journalistic talent (ahem…) to create another to bring gifts to children, must be a really puzzling idea to get their young heads of my (should be award winning...) Drive By around? articles, and I thought perhaps I would instead quickly share some festive period Anyhow, Christmas is a time for family observations with you from my personal gatherings and here’s a few observations from experiences of previous Chris Dymock your author to help your own annual Christmas’ celebrations to help with your moment of ‘peace and goodwill to all men’ own family gatherings. run a little more smoothly. Speaking of which, I don’t know about yourselves, but I have to admit that I always found Christmas somewhat confusing in my early childhood?
You REALLY can’t waterboard children, regardless of what they’ve done.
ALWAYS make sure you’ve got old people (the 70 years+ variety) at your gathering: they Why? Well, those were the bygone days of just one or two television channels which, for make fantastic climbing frames for overactive under five year olds and, if you’re the type of some inexplicable reason, perennially person overly prone to the normal gastric scheduled ‘Colditz’, ‘Bridge on the River reaction of eating sprouts, ensuring you’re Kwai’ and, of course, ‘The Great Escape’ to name but a few of the films of that particular sitting next to an oldie at lunch means you genre, to be transmitted every festive period. can easily avert blame for your gaseous emissions with a nod of your head and a roll So given we’re told that Christmas is ‘the of your eyes. season of peace and goodwill to all men’, I
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NEVER worry that you’ve forgotten to buy the children any presents, there are always some reasonable excuses: ‘Santa’s stuck in a snowdrift’ ‘Santa’s helping the police with their operation ‘Yewtree’ enquiries’ ‘Santa only visits good children and you’re little s*ds’ ‘Santa never got his release from Guatanamo Bay’ ‘Santa’s been shot down over Berlin’ (obviously best delivered after the children have watched the Christmas TV war films) Or, just give them an empty box and tell them it’s an Action Man Deserter… A word of warning, with young girls DON’T fall for the request for a Divorce Barbie Divorce Barbie comes with all Ken’s clothes and the car…
On Christmas Eve, if you’ve been drinking heavily and then gone to midnight mass, the WC hasn’t run out of toilet paper – you’re sat in the confessional box. With a lot to discuss…
Finally, make sure everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, at your Christmas gathering drinks plenty of alcohol – the children and oldies will then snooze ‘till bedtime, your other half will find everything you say enormously funny and ease up on the whining about you constantly making comments about your dreadful in-laws (or parents, as she will insist on calling them) before finally drifting off and you can watch Star Wars on DVD uninterrupted, before making a pile of turkey sandwiches and being hailed as the family hero when you choose to decide to waken the masses from their drunken slumber. There we go, some great advice for the perfect festive gathering *
Right, ‘time’ gentlemen please; I really hope you have a great Christmas holiday and normal service will be resumed in the New Year (oh stop the groaning, you ungrateful lot). Happy Christmas everybody!
Chris Dymock
*All responsibility for actually trying any of the above observations will remain with the instigator. Idiot.
Date (Provisional)
Event
Saturday 11th March
Chepstow AutoSolo
Saturday 25th March
Great Western Sprint
Saturday 13th May
Llandow Sprint
Sunday 9th July
Chepstow AutoSolo
Saturday 29th July
Dick Mayo Sprint
Sunday 30th July
Family Sports Car Day
Weekend 5th-6th August
South Glos Show
Weekend 2nd-3rd September
5-Clubs Wiscombe Hillclimb
Wednesday 27th September
Llandow Track Day
Sunday 12th November
Fedden Sporting Trial
Sunday 26th November
27 Allen Classic Trial
OFFICERS & COMMITTEE MEMBERS’ EMAIL Pete Hart Paul Hemmings Chris Dymock Richard Marsh Paul Parker Mark Benstock Vickie Tubb Matt Nichols Mark Tooth ZoÍ Tooth Allen Harris Andy Laurence Dave Greenslade Kate Boulton Mark Chater Ady Taylor Mike Cole Scott Boulton Chris Buckley
peter.j.hart@btinternet.com paul@phemmings.freeserve.co.uk chris.dymock@intoheat.co.uk r_marshy22@yahoo.co.uk britishsprint@paulparker.f9.co.uk benstock.mark@yahoo.co.uk vickie.tubb@hotmail.co.uk matt@classiccarsdriven.com mark.tooth@tiscali.co.uk membership@bristolmc.org.uk allen@harris-bristol.com andy@andylaurence.co.uk davegreenslade@zoho.com kate-boulton@virginmedia.com mark@chater.demon.co.uk ady_tayloruk@yahoo.com cole.mike@btinternet.com scott_boulton@btinternet.com cbuckley@slb.com 28