FORC Newsletter December 2019
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Fressingfield Oily Rag Club Newsletter December 2019 FORC: “A loose affiliation of motor sport enthusiasts”. Neil Tuxworth at FORC Wednesday 11th December We are often asked how we come by our guest speakers. We won't embarrass him by naming names but we are very grateful to a member who made the introduction which gives us the opportunity to hear the Neil Tuxworth story. Neil is a racing legend: his first races in 1969 on a BSA Bantam led to racing in British National and International events scoring podiums and wins. Road racing was his ultimate love. At 'the ultimate challenge' the Isle of Man TT he racked up a Manx Grand Prix win, a runner up podium in the F2 TT, plus five third places! Then there was the Continental Circus, scoring World Championship points in the UK. Austria, and Finland before a life threatening accident at Aberdare in 1986. Neil called time on his riding career in 1989 and moved on to become Honda UK team manager, leading the team to multiple world and national championship titles. He finally retired fully in 2018. He is widely regarded as being behind the successes enjoyed by Joey Dunlop, John Kocinski, Colin Edwards, Guy Martin, and John McGuiness! Having achieved so much we are guaranteed fascinating stories from a lifetime of racing and race management. Neil the 'King Maker' will be our final 2019 FORC guest speaker. Don't miss out on our last meeting of the year! Booking is open – do it now! The (Seasonal)View From The Editorial Desk I told Johnny Mowlem to plan for an hour and a half presentation. I warned him too that, in reality, once we break-out for cakes and refreshments, the meeting usually continues on an even more informal basis. Such was the interest, Johnny had done over two hours before we halted the Q&A session. As predicted the evening then extended itself! Johnny was pleasantly surprised by the size of the turnout not to mention the warm and knowledgeable welcome you gave him; we are already thinking about a return match! In case you haven't noticed we are fast approaching the end of the year. As I write it's just ten days to our final guest of 2019. As usual we shall run some relevant film before Neil Tuxworth steps up to the Stradbroke lectern. I recommend you make the most of the evening by coming early to get the flavour of his presentation. If you haven't booked your place you had better do it now! It's going to be another good one...... It's a good job I'm known among family and friends as the 'little boy who doesn't like Christmas!' Well, something like that anyway. As usual I'm trying to finalise next years' FORC programme before everything goes into suspension for the Festive Season. If you follow Formula 1 you will know that there are twenty-two (!) Grands Prix in 2020. I'm on a knife edge trying to find a date with a well known figure or two while keeping the rest of the candidates on board. The pressure is on, of course, as you expect me to announce the names and dates at our Festive Fuelling on Friday 24th January. Don't forget that we are moving to The Park Hotel in Diss. Details are on www.forc.org.uk where you need to go to book......another do it now if you don't want to be disappointed! Meantime see you all at Stradbroke on 11th December....I'm the one with the dark rings under my eyes due to lack of sleep! Happy oily ragging! Steve Film Review AKA Ford v Ferrari The one thing to remember when taking your seat to watch this film is: This is not a documentary, the storyline is not 100% authentic, it is entertainment so just sit back and enjoy it! Shot under the direction of James Mangold the film is 2h 32min long which some critics seem to think is a bit on the lengthy side but what do they know. You would have read the reviews by now, and possibly even seen the film, in which case I am wasting my time. But if you haven't, it is the story of how, in the early 1960's the Ford Motor Company needed to appeal to a new generation of potential customers by becoming a big player on the international motor racing scene. This coincided with the fact that at the time Ferrari were on the point of bankruptcy and the purchase of the Italian sports and racing car manufacturer seemed like a short-cut to achieving that goal. Having been approached by the American giant, Enzo Ferrari was not impressed by their offer, in fact his reply to Henry Ford II was rather blunt, even hurtful but the truth often is! Lee Iacoca (Jon Bernthel) meets Enzo Ferrari (Reme Girone) at Modena. Now even more determined than ever to win the 24 Hour Le'Mans Ford enlisted the services of Carroll Shelby (who won the race with Aston Martin in 1959) to develop the GT40, which they had flown from the UK, into a race winning car. To assist him Shelby enlisted the help of his friend, racing driver and engineer Ken Miles, to carry out the development and testing. At this point I must confess that Miles who never suffered fools gladly has for many years been a hero of mine. By comparison Ken Miles' view on Henry Ford II and his smartly suited Yes Men made Enzo Ferrari's comments sound quite flattering. As a result he was not seen as a “Ford Man” and despite his exceptional talent and dedication to the car was never going to be a favourite at Fords head office in Dearborn, Michigan. For this Miles paid a high price on the final lap of the '66 race but nothing like as high as the price for testing what would be the MkIV GT40 a few months later. Maybe it would have been nice if Eric Broadley of Lola and John Wyer of Ford Advanced Vehicles had both received a name check for the initial development work on the GT40 project in the UK. That aside the film was both amusing and moving, the settings, locations and on-track action faultless as was the acting, the soundtrack was well chosen. Ken Miles (Christian Bale), Carroll Shelby(Matt Damon) and GT40 P/1015 replica. My only regret was that I did not stay for a second showing but I had to go to Slaters the gentlemens outfitters shop on ST. Stephens Street to purchase new underwear. This was prearranged and the two events are not connected! LT News from the black-stuff: how the FORC racers have been doing..... Carl Chambers writes: Pugsport had a pretty good end to the season with only a minor bump along the way. We had a great race at Brands Hatch, missing pole by under half a second. I had a great start but chickened out of going round the outside at Paddock. I tucked in behind the Mini and chased it hard right up to the pit stops. Our stop went well and, having served our 30 second penalty for our win at Snetterton, I was out pushing hard. I caught and passed several cars quickly and with eight minutes to go I caught and passed the lead Mini. Still pushing hard I built up a good lead and took a great win! I sat out Thruxton as the week after we were due at Dijon. I didn't want to break the car and miss the chance of this great circuit, plus, with two wins, I had to serve a two minute penalty. This would be hard to overcome at Thruxton. The Pugsport Peugeot 208GTi Turbo Tin Top – Ready for action at Dijon At Dijon the winner's penalties don’t count as it's an international race. Sadly the weather had come with us and was very British and not very nice. Qualifying was wet and the Uniroyal Rainsports seemed not to have any grip whatsoever. It was like being on ice. I qualified well down but was all in one piece. Race 1: After a few tweaks we put on new Yokohama A052s. I had never used these in the wet (yes it was still raining) but they get an A rating in the wet and couldn’t be worse than the Uniroyals! After a good start the tyres seemed to have plenty of grip. Others were struggling so I was making up many places! The pit stop went well, and we continued to pass the BMWs, etc., that were all over the place in the wet. I ended First Turbo Tin Top, Third non Caterham and seventh overall, a great result. (Pictures courtesy Pugsport) Before the Race 2 deluge! Race 2: I thought it couldn’t rain more than Race 1. The weather proved it could! Doing 130mph over the start line not being able to see more than a few metres in front wasn’t nice; you had to trust that in the wall of spray all the cars wear still going! I was going well. I was again running 3rd non Caterham and 1st Turbo Tin Top when, with just five minutes to go, sadly hit standing water coming onto the start straight. The back went, I almost caught it, but ran out of space and hit the barrier.