Fressingfield Oily Rag Club Newsletter December 2017 FORC: “A loose affiliation of motor sport enthusiasts”. December meeting preview: For our last meeting of 2017 we welcome Stuart Rolt to Stradbroke Community Centre on Wednesday December 13th. So where to start? Stuart promises a fascinating visual presentation of the Rolt dynasty. Many of you know that before WW II Stuart's father, Tony Rolt, was an up and coming racer before hostilities drew him from Donington to, eventually, Colditz!. Post War, racing in Connaught single seaters and Nash-Healey sports-cars, led to works Jaguars, winning at Le Mans with Duncan Hamilton in 1953 in the C- type– the 'called from the bar race' - plus Connaughts in Formula 1. Eventually his research into 4-WD led to the 'F1 Tractor' the Ferguson P99, the last 'new' front engined Formula 1 car, and the only 4 wheel drive machine to win a F1 race, the 1961 Oulton Park Gold Cup, driven by Stirling Moss. That's before, like father like son, we get onto Stuart's own racing and rallying exploits which range, for starters, from Formula V and Clubmans to International Touring Cars in the 1970's – The Silverstone TT and Spa 24 Hours for example, Historic Racing in Cooper, and rallying in Porsche 911, followed. In between all this Stuart managed to fit in Chairmanship of the BRDC for nine years up to 2016. And that’s just skimming the surface! Now the P99 is back in the hands of the Rolt family, a unique and competitive sight at major historic race and hill-climb events. Another FORC evening not to be missed! No time to lose – book it now! ©James Ellacott/Primotipo 1963 Australian Grand Prix, Warwick Farm. Graham Hill finished 6th in the Ferguson P99 with 2.5 Litre Climax power entered by Rob Walker. THE 2018 FESTIVE FUELLING FRIDAY 26TH JANUARY Booking is open for our annual get together at the Fressingfield Swan Inn. As well as a great informal social evening, plus Mat's excellent two-course carvery, you will be able to see a review of all FORC activities from 2017. After our meal we will announce the 2018 guest speaker programme! Numbers are limited so better book now: • Register on the Programme web-page, then: • To make payment by BACS (Preferred) our details are Sort Code 20-16-12, Account No:93689689. Reference: Festive Fuelling • or send your cheque payable to Fressingfield Oily Rag Club to Mrs Hazel Allchin, 3 Police House, Bramfield Road, Halesworth, IP19 8DU • Or you can book at our Stuart Rolt evening at Stradbroke on Wednesday 13th December! If you plan to come as a party of four or more and want to sit together please tell Carol Wyatt (01379 586225 or email [email protected]). All bookings will be acknowledged. The View From The Editorial Desk December 2017 The anatomy of a hopefully un-typical FORC meeting...... Monday November27th: Just two days to go to our penultimate Stradbroke meeting of 2017: Steve Nichols in conversation with our very good friend Motor Sport Magazine features editor Simon Arron. The phone bursts into life; it's Simon.... Sod's Law is a name for the axiom that 'if something can go wrong it will' or perhaps it's Murphy’s Law the axiom of which says that 'Whatever can go wrong will go wrong'.....either way Simon has a bad case of the lurgi. His Doctor has told him to keep warm and rest and he should be OK for Wednesday. I promised Steve that Simon will be there to 'interview' him so what to do? Get on the internet, surf through my library, bless Jo Ramirez for some excellent stuff in his book, I need a list of topics, I've got less than 24 hours to compile and rehearse. Call Roger Shipp: 'Sorry mate, I'm going to have to miss out on the trip to take your gearbox for rebuild' I need all the time I can get. Ah, I remember: this time last year I inveigled David Whitham into 'helping' me interview Oli Jarvis – was that really a year ago! David readily agrees so I send him my list of topics. We agree a loose strategy and set it up so that David takes Simon’s place at supper. John Holder calls in sick so we are a little short on the set up team. David, bless him, will collect Steve from The White Horse. Simon says he might still make it but sends his topics just in case. First thing Wednesday he's, if anything, worse so Plan B is triggered, at least I can take John's place setting up. Off to Stradbroke and we get stuck into chairs. 4.30: David should be picking Steve up now. 5.45 call from Sarah Reynolds: no sign of David and Steve. Ring The White Horse: they've just left....relax. Hopefully to outward appearances the evening went well. Steve is a lovely laid back man with a 30 odd year fund of stories from the days when Formula 1 also meant motor-racing. I enjoyed it, hope you did too; just want this to remain an un-typical prelude to a typical FORC meeting! All from me for now. Look forward to seeing you all at Stradbroke on Wednesday 13th December for Stuart (and Freddie) Rolt which promises to be another fascinating evening....keep calm..... Fun and safe Oily Ragging Steve - Do you know who you sitting next to at Stradbroke? No. 275 James Clarke's 2017 Racing Season by Malcolm Clarke James raced in two series, the BARC Clubmans Register in a Mallock Mk 27 (named Mad Dog from the Barry Foley Catchpole cartoons) and the HSCC 'By Box' Historic Touring Cars in the Lotus Cortina. Photo submitted. Winning in the Mallock at a soaking wet Thruxton. The Clubmans series started a bit slowly, as the new car wasn't ready for the first three rounds at Croft and Pembrey, so James had to race the slower Catchpole car in the higher power CSP1 class. By the third round at Silverstone GP, the car was ready, we had a test day beforehand but were still setting the car up at that round. Got pole in a 2m 5.6s, but came in second behind Mark Charteris in all three races. Moving on to Oulton Park, then Thruxton and Finals weekend at Silverstone International, James had pole, won every race plus new lap records, so won both the CSP1 class and the overall championship. The two main highlights were probably winning at Oulton Park, on the full circuit, and lapping everyone in the process, and then doing the same at a very wet Thruxton – somewhere he had not raced before. Picture submitted James takes the flag at the Oulton Park Gold Cup meeting. The HSCC Historic Touring Cars was rather disappointing – James had to race the older Class C Lotus Cortina all season as the new Appendix K Lotus Cortina never got completed. The Class C car suffered from numerous reliability issues so we had four DNF's – Croft Nostalgia meeting being the low spot when in the first race the prop-shaft broke, and in the second race the A frame snapped – at exactly the same spot on the track! But the highlight was the Oulton Park Gold Cup meeting, where James came in first overall in race 1 and second overall in race 2. Since James is named after Jim Clark, and I used to go to the Gold Cup meetings with my Dad to watch Jim Clark in the mid-60s, it was a very special weekend for the Clarke family. James eventually came in sixth overall in the championship, and second in class. Unfortunately we weren't able to make the HSCC Awards Dinner, but apart from the class award, James was awarded the Desmond Monson Memorial Trophy for best newcomer. Picture submitted At the HSCC Awards Dinner. left to right: Mike Evans – Clubmans Register Chairman, James -, Patrycja Zabawska, James girlfriend. James now attends the MSA Academy at Loughborough College (where he started in September) and is on a three year course there, which also allows time for testing and racing. We are currently looking at options for 2018, recently tested a Formula Ford with Cliff Dempsey Racing which he really enjoyed, but are also looking at running in Europe in the VdeV Proto Endurance series. I will keep you posted on what transpires. - Members Services – highlighting the facilities offered to FORC by our advertisers: Italicar If you open the event programme for the FORC Peter Andrews Sprint the first advertiser confronting you on Page 3 is Italicars. Managed by the brothers Luke and Kirk Miller Italicar specialise in selling Italian cars, including Fiat, Alfa Romeo and Lancia, based in Norwich. The Miller brothers clearly inherited their interest in Italian cars from their father who managed a major Fiat and Alfa Romeo dealership. As Luke says "with that background neither of us grew up wanting to be train drivers!" Established in 2007 Italicar has gone from strength to strength and established a reputation for their exhaustive on-line car descriptions backed up with excellent highly detailed photographs. Parts too: Italipart is a hive of Alfa Romeo and Fiat parts for models from the 1970's right up to date and have been involved in the development of some brand new bespoke manufactured items for classic models that you won't find elsewhere. Italicar are to be found at Renson Close, Beech Drive, Mile Cross, Norwich NR6 6RH Tel: 01603 487436.