HRDC Raceday

[Matthew Sturmer]

I was so busy waffling on I forgot the most important thing, many thanks to Zef for letting me race the "PEA".

[zefarelly]

my pleasure, and to read.

already bought the car . . .oops

[John Turner]

Great post from Matthew. Herewith a few pics from the race:-

[John Turner]

A few more:-

[John Turner]

Last lot for this Race 1:-

[GORDON STREETER]

Pics look OK in sunny Spain John, cameras still working then !

[metalmicky]

Originally Posted by retrognome

Some images, look out for the open rear door behind the Fiat Abarth of the Kennedys.

nice pic of me spinning the studie peter .guess you couldnt miss a beast that big rotating in front of you though ,

[metalmicky]

Originally Posted by Ben Shuckburgh

A very enjoyable meeting, I really like the HRDC stuff - Julius has got a good group together, the paddock is friendly and the racing well matched. I ran my Giulia Super in the TC63 1 hour race and had a lot of fun playing with other Alfas, Jags etc. Kept on trundling round and found myself second at the end! A slight shame that the later cars grid was combined with ours - the Falcons, Mustangs etc are in a different league to us but no doubt economic necessity required it........One of them in particular seemed almost unbelievably(!) quick. I found myself knackered after about 50 minutes......must try to get a bit fitter.....

have to agree with you ben ,those falcons and mustangs come past like formula ones ,guess that extra 50 grand might speed me up too ! the minis are mighty impressive too,made me feel a tad humble !

[zefarelly]

mini's are only an extra 30k Micky!

stil waiting for a pre 63 one to scream in . . .and an Anglia, or 3.

[911thillclimber]

Has anyone got details of the yellow nosed Standard please?
Killa car amongst a field of great cars.

Best event I've been to this year and I did two days at Silverstone the weekend before....

[Sodemo]

Some more of mine...

[Brian A]

Originally Posted by 911thillclimber

Best event I've been to this year and I did two days at Silverstone the weekend before....

I have to agree - a great day, particularly as the threatened rain showers held off until the AMOC guys got there on the Sunday

It didn't start very well as the journey up to Donington on Friday was a nightmare. With the A24 (and surrounding) closed for the Olympic road race, and reported near gridlock on the M25, I chose to go very westward picking up the M4 and the A34 to join the M40 near Oxford. Very congested the whole way and it took over 5 hours to get to the circuit.

But come the morning this was all forgotten. It was lovely to have a paddock with plenty of space, the benefit of having fewer, but longer races. Scrutineering was also very civilised with no congestion.

My first qualifying was in the '50s Touring Cars, the Minx felt surprisingly good 'round Donington although the new tyres may have something to do with it. Only did 10 laps as I needed to get back for the GT qualifying immediately after, but finished up 15th out of 34 and ahead of the rest of my class.

Switching from the Minx with steering more akin to an ocean liner to the WSM was interesting to say the least. I only had to look at the steering wheel to change direction - or so it seemed, so it took a few laps to acclimatise and I finished 6th on the grid. With only 0.65 seconds separating positions 3 to 6, the start was likely to be key.

In the Touring car race, had a good dice early on with the Standard Vanguard Vignale of David Griffiths and the Wolseley 1500 of the Cawthorns and chose to do my pitstop at the very start of the pit window. Unfortunately it appears that I came in 4 seconds too early and was given a drive through penalty. Luckily it did not affect my position in the race and I finished 9th and class winner. Sorry to see LAK retiring the Abarth after 10 laps, but the car did seem to be struggling.

A quick drive through the paddock to the holding area on the Melbourne loop to jump into the WSM, I was grateful that there were a number of cars needing recovery from the Touring car race as this gave a bit of breathing space before venturing out in the Wussum.

I tried to readjust my steering input during the green flag lap which must have worked as I went through Redgate on the first lap in 3rd place after pole sitter, Nigel Bancroft had a poor start and got swamped by the first 4 rows of the grid. Nigel took until lap 6 to get back to the front from where he controlled the race in the very Lotus Elite that I'd sold only a month earlier.

Third overall is not to be sneezed at, but more impressive was the fact that 5 WSMs had been entered, all finished with 2 cars on the podium. Douglas Wilson-Spratt would have been pleased.

Julius' prize giving was as enjoyable as the rest of the day, with free beer for all - something that happens at all HRDC meetings along with the free tea and coffee throughout the day, all provided by Shaun of CCK.

The final element of the day - the drive back to West Sussex in 2 hours 50 minutes was a dream compared to the the day before.

A long break to the next HRDC meeting at Mallory, so its back to playing with the Elite (yes I still have the other one) at the FISCAR race at BDC Silverstone and then Thruxton.

But thanks again to Julius for arranging such an excellent meeting and for my fellow competitors for being such a nice bunch of people to spend the weekends with. Long may it continue.

A couple of pics - the start of the Touring Greats race and the "podium" WSMs with Minnie the Minx in the background.

[retrognome]

Slightly out of focus but unusual to see a Minx in front of a 'rally bred' Rapier.

[Kelvin]

Some of my picture are now online (if you have not already seen them?)
They are linked from the HRDC website www.hrdc.eu (Gallery tab)

or go direct to the set on flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kelvinf...7630821229106/

I still have some more to upload, as I have not yet finishished editing my images.

Kelvin

[Brian A]

Originally Posted by retrognome

Slightly out of focus but unusual to see a Minx in front of a 'rally bred' Rapier.

The 'rally bred' Rapier had a 1725 engine whereas the Minx has the demon 1600 cc engine built by a certain Zeferelli of this parish.

[Sodemo]

Do people usually stick on autofocus centrepoint? Or do you guys just have focus on manual and just pick a point on the track and shoot from that?

[John Turner]

I stick to autofocus; point and shoot. Constantly messing about with manual is a pain and one I leave to the pros!

[Sodemo]

I tried a bit of both, because I was doing panning shots it meant I had to close the lens and have the shutter quite low, about 320 or maybe 400. It does give better DOF at that range, however if I wasn't doing those and just going for static shots I was on about F4 - F5.6 and on 1600 shutter or more. A lot of mine though were out of focus because I was on fully manual apart from at the start of a race.

Need more practice!

[911thillclimber]

Any one with info/links to this Standard please?

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8016/7...945af2a7_s.jpg

[retrognome]

[QUOTE=John Turner;3115154]I stick to autofocus; point and shoot. Constantly messing about with manual is a pain and one I leave to the pros

I agree, as long as auto focus locks on. The obvious problem is digital cameras thrive on predictability and racing cars are anything but. Just try getting a clear picture of a spinning car. Most pros work on a success rate of around one in five, hence the value of six/eight frames a second. Single point stops the camera 'hunting' and settling on an unwanted object away from the action. In the end I believe in luck and 'being in the right place at the right time'.

[Brian A]

Is it just me - or is this thread turning into a photographic workshop.


Any chance of getting back on subject?

[John Turner]

Brian, a slight detour that's all; never took you for a whinger!! So yes, back on topic, a few pics from the MGB50 race which included a class for non MGB MGs, as you can see. Anyone know where the results are to be found?

[Kelvin]

All the results are here:
http://www.tsl-timing.com/?loc=club&...eventid=123031

[John Turner]

Thanks, Kelvin.

[911thillclimber]

Two things on my mind:
1
No matter how hard I search I can find little about this car:
Can anyone help please?



2
Photo's (sorry)
Used digital for some time now with simple and 'expensive' cameras. I've learnt to leave the camera to auto everything and enjoy snapping like mad.
I used a recently acquired Nikkormat FTn at Donnington (35mm film SLR) from 1966, 50mm lens and manual everything.

What great fun, and i have to say quite the equal quality of my best digital.