Theacorn the Magazine of the Sevenoaks & District Motor Club
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TheAcorn The magazine of the Sevenoaks & district motor club Brighton Speed Trials special issue! Sevenoaks and District Motor Club Ltd PRESIDENT: John Symes VICE PRESIDENTs: Vic EIford, Grahame White ACORN MAGAZINE October 2014 The Editor, Committee and Club do not necessarily agree with items and opinions expressed within ACORN magazine OFFICERS AND COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN, MEMBERSHIP SEC: Andy Elcomb, The Cottage, Deans Hill, Bredgar, Sittingbourne, Kent ME9 8BB (Home) 01622 884856 [email protected] SECRETARY: Tracey Niel, 35 Augustine Road, Orpington, Kent BR3 3JY (Home) 01689 602456 [email protected] TREASURER: Clive Cooke, 1 Willow Bank, Robertsbridge, East Sussex TN32 5NH (Home) 01580 880568 [email protected] DEP. CHAIRMAN & REGIONAL REP.: Chin, 36, Churchside, Vigo, Kent, DA13 0SJ (Home) 01732 823132, (Work) 020 8691 6221 [email protected] COMPETITION SEC.: Ian Crocker, (Home) 01892 546006 [email protected] SPEED LEAGUE: David Balderson, 17 Glentrammon Close, Green Street Green, Kent BR6 6DL (Home) 01689 601661 [email protected] SPEED LEAGUE SCORER: Russell Giddings, 45 Castle Drive, Kemsing, Sevenoaks, Kent, TN15 6RW (Home) 01959 524837 [email protected] TROPHY RECORDS KEEPER: Joy Waiton, 7 Baring Road, Croydon CR0 7DD 07568 169585 [email protected] RALLY SECRETARY: Iain Gibson, 8 Knights Croft, New Ash Green, Kent DA3 8HT (Home) 01474 873573, [email protected] CHIEF MARSHAL: Chris Scudder, 4 Northdown Road, Longfield, Kent, DA3 7QW (Home) 07711 078552 [email protected] SOCIAL SECRETARY: Rosemary & Nigel Mead, 3 Heather Bank, Paddock Wood, Kent TN12 6BW (Home) 01892 832420 [email protected] PRESS & PR: Darren Tyre, 35 Augustine Road, Orpington, Kent BR3 3JY (Home) 01689 602456 [email protected] CPO: Dawn Travers, 91 Carlton Road, Redhill, Surrey, RH1 2DE (Home) 01737 210377 [email protected] WEBMASTER: Nigel Mead, 3 Heather Bank, Paddock Wood, Kent TN12 6BW (Home) 01892 832420 [email protected] ACORN EDITOR: Alex Peters [email protected] Website - www.sevenoaksmotorclub.com EDITORIAL Welcome to the new look Acorn magazine, I hope you all like it! I have been invited to be guest editor for an issue or two while I have some time on my hands. The first thing I have learned is that it does take quite a bit of work to put it together and chase people for / write your own material. I have the greatest respect for the work put in by Chin and all his predecessors on this. Rob Hume had volunteered to have a go, but unfortunately circumstances prevented him being able to do this. However, he has contributed with his ideas on the new look of Acorn, for which I am grateful. We have some great articles this month including the adventures of a large number of SDMC members who went to the Brighton Speed trials, Andy Webber tells us how he is getting on diversifying from his normal sprinting (and building a monster racing car for this next year), David Balderson very kindly provided a historical article about the Valence hill climb and Jason Andrews passed on an article from his friend Julian Townsend about his Anglia that appeared at Crystal Palace. We have a number of new (hopefully) regular sections in this issue, please let me know whether you like them: Race car of the month – a chance to tell the readers about a special car that you have built or raced now or in the past. It’s your club! – Discussions on aspects of the club or its activities – send in your ideas to make motorsport more enjoyable. What motorsport have you done this month? – Members’ motorsport activities. I hope this will encourage more people to join in the wide variety of motorsport activities available I am really enjoying putting something back into the club, recently I have enjoyed marshalling at the Autotests (still working on wifely approval for the purchase of a suitable car) and the Brands Hatch Summer stages, now I am pleased to be editing Acorn. Remember this is your club too so get involved! Alex Peters CHAIRMANS CHAT I’m hoping that Alex Peters is enjoying putting together this Acorn and would like to apologise to him for being so tardy in offering my contribution. The amount of work that goes into producing the Acorn and putting on social and competitive events is generally only known to a few but we are making efforts to expand those few names otherwise we will run out of steam and the club will suffer. So, Joy Waiton and Alex are looking at Trophy Record Keeping and we hope that Joy will also be able to help on the organisational side of things as well in 2015. Jeff Wiltshire recently spent a day timing at our AutoSOLO at North Weald and found it quite an enjoyable eye- opener. Mind you, he has also come along to help at the finish of the London to Brighton Veteran Run so he is known for trying a bit of automotive variety and putting something back in. Thanks guys – let’s see if we can persuade some more of you to pop up now and then to help make these things happen. As we aren’t running an autumn Car Trial this year the opportunities to help and to gain valuable championship / Speed League qualifying points are running out fast, but our 12-car rally on 7th November is a very good opportunity to help by offering to marshal a control (or two?). The Sunday before on 2nd November we will again be at Brighton so if you would like a day out down there then please contact Chris Scudder ASAP. On December 11th we will hold our last event of 2014 and that will be our Scatter Rally. Check the website and forum for more details of where this will be held a bit nearer the time. Scatters are ideal events to make a start in motorsport as they don’t require any special vehicle – just you and a mate / family member, a local Ordnance Survey map and a torch. We have just heard that we have acquired the four dates that we have asked for at North Weald, so it looks as though we should be back to two sprints and two AutoSOLOs there. Plans are starting to come together again for the now quite famous Motorsport at the Palace sprint at Crystal Palace, which of course requires a HUGE effort by lots of people. Please jump up and down with your hands in the air offering your help (in any way at all) for any of these events – please! As I write this I’m about to travel down to Taunton with Graham Child for the latest Endurance Road Rally event in his 1400cc Rover 200. These have been terrific events with an amazing mixture of terrain covered. There are bits of road rallies in deepest Devon, autoSOLO- like tests, smooth gravel forestry tracks, even smoother concrete roadways at Bovington but there are also some quite challenging and mucky tracks on farms such as Glastonbury’s Worthy Farm and elsewhere. Not quite full-on forest stage rallying, but it certainly seems like it at times but for a tiny fraction of the cost of the big events. Did my first sprint in quite a while at North Weald last month, double-driving Jeff Wiltshire’s monstrous supercharged Sylva Phoenix. As it wasn’t my car I thought I’d be kind and let him go a bit quicker than me at first but just as I was about to put in the class winning timed run I think Jeff must have pressed the gearbox’s self-destruct button as I didn’t get to the first corner before the ‘box said “Nope, not playing anymore”. So, instead all we came home with was a knackered gearbox and (another) nomination for the Bent Con Rod! C’est la vie… Would you trust this man to drive your racing car ? Must rush, speak again soon in the next Acorn with more about our awards dinner and the events planned for 2015. Andy Elcomb THE BRIGHTON SPEED TRIALS SDMC turn out in force! The Brighton Speed trials was well supported by SDMC members this year, with Jason Andrews, Rob Hume, Jeff Wiltshire, Russ Crampton, Russ Burton, Joy Waiton, Graham Pryme, John Rawlins, Darren Tyre and Alex Peters all entering cars. Many other members including Ian Crocker, Barney Lower, Paul Hebden, Tracey Niel and Shelley Albrow also came along to give support and encouragement. Joy Waiton’s MX5 sported a new livery. Joy’s race performance continues to improve this season as she beat two other cars in her class at Brighton. Darren Tyre with his customised Frogeye. John Rawlins refuelling his Imp-engined Davrian. Alex Peters Story – racing again Following the disintegration of my brake disk at the Woodbridge sprint, I had a lot of work to do to get the car ready. With the help of Steeda in the UK and US, Wilwood very kindly supplied new front brake discs and pads, whilst I purchased a new set of rears. I also fitted new wheel hubs just in case they had been damaged. Steeda provided new front Lower Control Arms which are much more robust than the OEM parts and give me a great deal of confidence. Toyo very kindly agreed to sponsor the Mustang just before the Brighton event and supplied a new set of Proxes R888 just in time for the race. I have only been able to get one event out of my previous (worn) set of R888s this year and that produced two class wins at Blyton (and a better time than most of the field including TVRs, Lotus 340Rs and Ferrari 430s !), so I am confident they will help provide more good results this season.