Fressingfield Oily Rag Club Newsletter November 2019 FORC: “A loose affiliation of motor sport enthusiasts”. November Meeting Preview Johnny Mowlem at FORC Wednesday 20th November Johnny, our November guest, coming fresh from the Fuji 6 Hours WEC race, is considered to be among the worlds elite sportscar drivers. His career embraces racing at Le Mans, Spa, Daytona, Sebring, Mosport, Laguna Seca, Shanghai, in Porsche, Ferrari, Lotus, Ginetta, Lola, Oreca, Aston Martin, and more. Johnny is currently racing in the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) GTE Am class in the Red River Sport/AF Corse Ferrari 488GTE Evo. In between times, in an exhaustive programme, they manage to compete in other endurance races outside the WEC too! A contemporary of Allan McNish, Gil de Ferran, and Dario Franchitti on Jackie Stewart's "staircase of talent", Johnny moved to sportscars in 1996, winning the British Porsche Cup Class 1 championship, and the following year all 17 races of the British Porsche Cup. He is a race, class, and championship winner in all the major international sportscar series. An evening not to be missed. Make sure you arrive early for the warm up film he has supplied too ..! Booking is open – do it now! The View From The Editorial Desk For our October meeting rather than featuring a guest speaker at Stradbroke we rang the changes and moved to Classic Team Lotus at Hethel. Judging by the follow up comments and dozens of pictures you have sent in this idea seems to have been voted a cracking evening by the capacity120 crowd who booked to come! It is sure to be repeated. For those of you left on the reserve list better luck next time; remember, he who hesitates, etc.... If you have read this far you will know we are due back at Stradbroke on Wednesday 20th November for an evening with Johnny Mowlem. This promises to be another really special one If you followed Johnny on his Sky Sports programmes, often featuring our very good friend Andrew Marriott, you will know not to miss out. I'm still working on a possible special guest for our reserve date of 11th December...yes I know what's happening next day, but if things work out you can put yourselves in a good frame of mind at FORC – just look out for news on the website or emails. Meantime booking is open for our new look Festive Fuelling! For 2020 we move to The Park Hotel in Diss on Friday 24 January – everything you need to know is on the website so get your bookings in! Elsewhere in this Newsletter you will find updates from our FORC racers including something different. It's about time we reported on the Rallying and Trials departments, so come on! All from me for now. See you at Stradbroke for Johnny Mowlem on 20th November. Safe and enjoyable Oily Ragging Steve Roo Hall asks: 'So what do you do on a cold autumn midweek evening?' It’s dark, wet and pretty miserable, you’ve just got in from a hard days grind and all you really want to do is settle down in your warm lounge with a cold beer. Well not for us tough Oily Raggers. In place of an October guest speaker, we (all 120 of us), assembled in the warm and welcoming glow of the Classic Team Lotus Heritage Centre, run by Clive Chapman, son of Colin. We divided into two groups, one going upstairs into the ‘garage’ while the other stayed on the ground floor ‘workshop’, to be accompanied by our guide Richard, and our very own Bob Dance, plus Master Fabricator Steve Jest, and CTL Merchandising Manager Jack. Our ‘access all areas’ tour allowed unrivalled passage into the machine shop, panel press area and workbenches from which you could eat your dinner. Most of these cars will be out racing some time soon. Actually, spotless, almost hygienic laboratory, is a better description of the area where cars are operated on! In various stages of repair or rebuild, a dozen or so cars dated anywhere from 1954 to 1990 were there to be drooled over. Formula 1, 2, Ford, Junior, Indycar and Sports Car make up the 'collection'. Photo courtesy of John Marshall Lotus 38 Indycar Driven by such iconic names as Innes Ireland, Jim Clark, Graham Hill, Jochen Rindt, Emerson Fittipaldi, Ronnie Peterson, Mario Andretti, Gunnar Nilsson, Elio de Angelis and Ayrton Senna, their cars were all present and being impeccably cared for. Photo courtesy Sean D'Arcy Lotus 18 as driven by Stirling Moss to win the 1961 Monaco GP The upstairs ‘garage’ housed a jaw dropping assemblage of Lotus’s finest accomplishments alongside wheels, body panels, suspension, drivetrain and ancillaries. Back down to a huge stockpile of technical drawings and a gift shop, we were encouraged to purchase from a range of appropriate clothing, models, memorabilia and general merchandise. If you were unlucky enough to have missed out on our exclusive tour this time, don't despair. FORC are already looking at options for further exclusive visits in the not too distant future. Meanwhile many more pictures from the evening will shortly appear on our Web Gallery. Photo courtesy Paul Roper Ayrton Senna's Lotus 99T Photo courtesy Christopher Land A 'pack' of John Player Specials? News from the black-stuff: how the FORC racers have been doing..... Richard Gilmour – Mallock 18/25M Writes: Somehow, I've won the 2019 Dutch National Racing Team (DNRT) Dutch Free Formula (Formula Libre) championship - mostly by just turning up & being reliable.... The season comprised 17 races over 6 race meetings at Zandvoort, Assen and Zolder. I made14 starts with 7 wins. At Zolder, last week, even the weather was good, 20C & a gentle breeze. Our only real competition was from a Dallara F3 / Alfa Romeo – the new owner was cautious but still backed it into a wall on first lap of Quali resulting in minor damage to a wing support. I won all 3 races. He just didn't get on the pace all day. The Mallock gave no real problems at all. We ran 120 miles. I was absolutely knackered afterwards! Richard and the Mallock at Zandvoort earlier this year Editors note: Congratulations Richard Don't be modest - another FORC Champion Tom Griffiths (BMW Compact Cup): Donington. Last round of the season. Qualifying in a damp greasy session Tom held pole for most of the session despite having to pass three cars on his quickest lap but Ian Jones got a clear final lap to end up on pole from Tom with Steven Dailly in third on the grid. Race one with the track virtually dry Tom made a good start and made a move for the lead on the outside at Redgate corner. Polesitter Jones had other ideas and forced his rival onto the dirt in questionable fashion! After losing a few places Tom charged back to second after a great battle with Matt Parkes and chased down leader Steven Dailly settling the fastest lap of the weekend but ran out of laps to challenge for the win. Picture courtesy John Elsey The battle for the podium at Donington. Tom in Car 16. Race two was ruined for Tom when rival Jones made a mistake that took himself and Tom into the gravel at Coppice corner. Both rejoined down the order with Tom finishing ahead of Jones and once again setting the fastest lap while charging back up the order. Tom ended the season with top points but three dropped scores implemented it was Dailly that took the crown, Tom closed the gap to Jones for second to just 1 point at the end of a fiercely competitive season. Tom writes: "On paper it looks like the same result as last year but I think the reality is a much different season. Finishing with the most points and being the only driver to get a podium at every meeting would usually be enough to win many championships and shows just how consistent we've been throughout, so its a bitter-sweet result but on the whole a step forward and a positive year. Its been a real family effort and couldn't have achieved any of it without their support and providing a brilliant car every weekend." Editors note: Commiserations and Congratulations in equal measure Tom. And now for something almost completely different! Jez Clark: We did the 24hr Race for Citroen C1's and 2CV's at Spa Francorchamps over the weekend of 26/27 October! OK, I accept that 'flat through Eau Rouge' has a slightly different connotation in a C1 (96mph 'in' 83mph by Radillon!!!), mind you after the suspension and body damage early Sunday morning, all left hand corners taken in the car were very scary indeed and resulted in sideways moments every time as the rear let go. And then it rained! I loved it! We had an amazing race with all of the ups and downs to be expected, starting from 28th we managed to get up to 10th after some clever strategy calls and some strong lap times (and much overtaking) in a field of 149 cars/three different classes of C1's and full race 2CV's/bike engined, and against some very 'high end' Teams. such as Tollbar, Academy Motorsport (Aston Martin supported), along with many well known drivers from GT, BTCC and F3. Sadly during Neil's early morning stint, he was hit at Eau Rouge resulting in a spin and very heavy impact with the wall which bent the rear axle and caused substantial boy damage.