Curborough - Did they plan it for the only wet 24 hours in August?

The whole week prior to Curborough had been dry, until I drove down to the Midlands Friday evening in a roofless Caterham...  Not only did I get wet, but the car was fishtailing out of every roundabout.  A sign of things to come. 

The prelude to the sprint was a kart race the night before organised by John Barry.   This gave another insight into the following days proceedings, having to drive on a soaking track with zero grip tyres. The driver to watch was John's son, Brian, who won all four of his heats.  Peter Mumford managed to break Brian's winning streak in the final to take first place and fastest lap - claims he's never been in a kart in his life ;-).  Brian took second, with Paul Clugston third.  A very enjoyable evening at one of the best run kart tracks I've been to.  Thanks John!

Early Saturday morning was a panic after Colin the scruntineer found a third of cars without the statutory number of bolts holding on their rollcages.  After much frantic activity, everyone begged, borrowed or stole bolts and was allowed to start practice.   (Except Iain Bowler, who slept in and completely missed the event!).

Tom Battye was one of the first out to practice, and showed that he hadn't been up studying the course map the night before, by missing out the second part of Paddock Bend and disappearing up the Finish Straight the wrong way, much to the amusement of those of us spectating.  The normally serene David Hyde showed how wet the conditions were/how little grip our tyres have by spinning and having a large grassy moment on his first run.   He wasn't the last, the ultraslow Flagpole Hairpin claiming the most victims (including myself). 

The second practice was much drier, but the heavens opened over the lunchbreak and the track was awash again.  Scholars had to be dragged from support cars and from under gazebos to face the deluge on their first run proper.  The rain did stop but the track was a skating rink for the whole of the first timed run.  However the lack of any more serious precipitation and the rest of the entry list drying out the track meant first run times were academic and that we were to witness that TOCA favourite - the one shot showdown. 

Derek Moore's scales finally made their long awaited appearance after the first timed run, and claimed a number of anorexic victims.  Cue more frantic activity, as drivers tried to get their cars up to the minimum weight limit by piling tools, pumps, small children, etc. into the boot.  Once again everyone was allowed to start - lucky this wasn't touring cars...

On their second run drivers had to choose a balance between getting a quick time, and staying on-track to record a time at all.  I erred toward the latter, ending up eleventh, but a number went too far toward the former; spinning and earning a slow or even no time.  One driver who was particularly unfortunate was Autocar's Alister Weaver who had a suspected mechanical failure on his first run, followed by a 720 degree spin on his second, not being awarded a time for either.    Paul Butcher was another championship contender who lost it on his second run, but seemed remarkably pragmatic about it afterward.  The later drivers had an easier time of it as the track dried out; many of the top five coming from the last few.  It only costs forty quid to change your surname to 'Zulu' or something and end up running dead last!  The winner was Jason Sutherland (again) with Colin Hayes only two hundredths behind (the actual class winner was Simon Thornley in a powerful Westfield - the Caterham Scholarship was only a 'subclass' despite being 29 out of the 30 entries!).  Alan Williamson came an excellent third. 

After the timed runs were complete, it was time for the Mooncrete Trophy runs.   Ten drivers had been randomly chosen by the organisers (including half a dozen Scholars) to try to beat their best timed run.  An almost bone dry track helped most, if not all, better their times but the winner was our very own John Bennett, who knocked a massive10 seconds off his time.  Blatant sandbagging in his championship runs, I reckon :-).  John passed up the chance to stand on the victory podium (well, actually a pallet strapped to the back of the recovery van). 

And as we left the track the sun began to shine...

Graeme Smith