Preparation for HRDC Castle Combe

The 2012 season for Historic Racing Drivers Club is about to begin. The first race at Castle Combe is Easter Monday. We have 4 cars running in this race and are busy getting them prepped now. Racing this weekend is Ian Burford in his Austin-Healey Sprite “Lumbertubs” in Grand Touring Greats, David Griffiths in his Standard Vanguard in Touring Greats, James Turner and Darren Turner in their Ford Zodiac also in Touring Greats and lastly James Turner has hired the MG1100 for a drive in the TC63. Best of luck to all drivers this weekend.

HRDC Launch MGB50 at Goodwood

2012 marks the 50th anniversary of the MGB and to honour this Julius Thurgood of the Historic Racing Drivers Club will be running the MGB50 series along side his already successful Touring Greats and Grand Touring Greats race series. Yesterday’s event at the Goodwood Motor Circuit saw no less than four Works MGB’s reunited with past members of BMC’s Special Tuning and Competitions Department. Among them were Bill Price, Basil Wales, Peter Browning, Den Green, Brian Moylan and driver Alec Poole. We also saw the likes of Barry “Sideways” Smith who came along to demonstrate the MGB’s performance around the track. As well as the four MGB’s we had the beautiful green  MGA “LBL 301” of Jon Savage. LBL 301 competed in the 1955 Le Mans 24 hour as well as the Mille Miglia in 1957 before being re-bodied by the MG development team in 1958. It was restored by Bob West who brought it down to Goodwood for Tony Dron to expertly pilot around the Sussex circuit. Dron also got out for a few laps in the works MGB’s which he remarked as being “a little quicker”.

Lenham Hire Car Build

Lenham

The Lenham Le Mans hire car is under construction. The basis for the car was our old Austin-Healey Sprite Racer which Tim Rhodes drove to win the MGOC Midget Challenge in 2005. The rear skins were cut from the car leaving just the boot floor and rear wheel arches. Ian has welded up a bar to stiffen the rear of the car between the two arches and has repaired the edges of the boot floor. Meanwhile I have been constructing a Lenham bonnet and Le Mans rear out of fibreglass. The body is now ready to meet the chassis. This car will recieve our full preparation service and be ready to hire next season for the HRDC Grand Touring Greats.

3rd overall and 2nd in class for Lenham at HRDC Grand Finale

Shaun gets past a Jaguar MkII

It was a busy weekend with a mixed bag of results. The MG1100 qualified 10th for the TC63. Shaun got off to a cracking start and was soon up to 5th place and bothering the Jaguar mk2 of Peter Burton. However it wasn’t meant to be. The 28 degree heat and transverse mounted radiator failed to keep the little MG cool. It started spluttering on the straights and after Shaun tried to clear it he retired from the race. His fastest lap was a 1:39.781 which was more than we expected from the car. Sunday didn’t start too well either after an oil cooler hose blew on the Lenham during qualify. After only 1 flying lap Shaun still managed to qualify in 6th. A quick start from the Lenham put us up to 3rd place where we finished behind the Mini Jem of Rae Davis and the very quick Lotus Elite of Brain Arculus with a fastest lap of 135.259. Ian Burford did very well in his Lenham Le Mans finishing 7th over all with a time of 139.026. The 3rd Lenham of David Stubbings did not finish. 2 out of 3 is not bad considering not one of the 3 Ashley GT’s finished the race.

Shaun gets past a Jaguar MkIIMG110 in HRDC race at SnettertonShaun's Lenham SS1800 in HRDC Grand Touring GreatsShaun's Lenham SS1800 in HRDC Grand Touring Greats