At 9pm Thursday 21 March the Turner was ready for its Goodwood track debut. Many long hours went into getting this car ready but we are all very pleased with the result. There are a few final jobs to be completed before its first race. It is a drastic change from what came in the work shop and it really looks the part now. A proper little historic racer. Keep posted to see how it does and watch the cars development over the coming season.
Now the Mk1 Turner has been painted and put back together it is receiving a full race preparation including a custom built full roll cage, built in house by CCK, extinguisher system, tow straps, new racing harness and Dunlop racing tyres. An oil catch tank will be fitted as well as a dry cell racing battery, racing brake fluid. A new set of leather bucket seats are on there way as is the A35 sourced wiper mechanism. Although this car is only powered by a 1000cc engine it is very light. I am looking forward to seeing how it performs.
The last race of the HRDC 2012 season was held last Sunday at Mallory Park. We were there with Dave Griffiths in the Standard Vanguard, James Turner in the Ford Zodiac, Ian Burford in the Sebring Sprite “Lumbertubs” and sharing the drive in “Bumble” the MG Magnette was Julius Thurgood and Rupert Keegan. Dry conditions and some sunshine made for a very pleasant close to the season. Racing was top class as usual with some strong results from all of our drivers. In the Touring Greats race Dave Griffiths moved further up, qualifying 11th, finishing 8th overall and 2nd in class B. First in class B and 4th overall was James Turner in the Zodiac. Julius Thurgood managed to weave his way from 19th up to 14th in the MG Magnette. In Grand Touring Greats Ian Burford made a big jump up the grid qualifying 7th and finishing 6th. Rupert Keegan drove “Bumble” in the Allcomers race finishing 7th. We have had a great year and have thoroughly enjoyed the atmosphere and the competition that Julius Thurgood and the HRDC has provided. We are looking forward to 2013 and another great HRDC season.
photos courtesy of Kelvin Fagan
Got the camera out today for a few quick snaps of the Turner Zodiac. Looks pretty good at f1.8.
Racing driver Darren Turner and his good friend James Turner have brought their 1959 Ford Zodiac to CCK. This classic Ford is believed to have been a race car since the 1970’s and although it has been well prepared their are few things we will address in order to provide Darren and James with a competitive and reliable car for the up coming HRDC “Touring Greats” race series. Darren is most well known for his two class wins for Aston Martin at Le Mans, he says he enjoys historic saloon car racing as a relaxing weekend. We will be looking after the Zodiac and supporting James and Darren for the 2012 season.
James Turner said,
“Darren and I have known each other since we worked together at Aston Martin Racing in 2005 – he was one of the team drivers and I was commercial director. Since then we have had a lot of fun together and I guess that Darren’s first appearance at the Goodwood Revival Meeting (in the Mini and Cobra in 2009) sparked his interest in historic racing. We talked about getting a car together and the Zodey is the result. Julius Thurgood at HRDC could not have been more helpful in advising us and so we are keen to support his excellent HRDC series as much as possible. We only did a few things last year in what was my first season of racing but I did manage to luck into a class win on my solo debut at Brands – so it must be a good car! We had admired the CCK approach each time we saw them during the year and we were delighted when the chance to put the Zodey with them arose at the end of the season. We can’t wait to get the old girl back out again and doing some more races…”
