Curborough Championship

CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND 4

Results Round 4

The first SDCC event of the Championship was, as common place this year, oversubscribed. The weather forecast earlier in the week turned out to be wrong, with the rain staying away until after 4.0 pm and nearly throughout the second timed runs.
The event kicked off with a big entry in Sa of MGZR’s and a win for Steve Barrow from Jack Twomey, both under the Class record, with Graham Harvey 3^rd equalling the old Class record and Craig Tock 4^th , all 4 split by less than 4 tenths. Also great to see 3 Lady drivers in the class.
Another great entry in Class Sc produced a really good contest with Clio’s 1,2,3. Paul Glendenning taking the win, from co driver Wayne Parke, with Paul Gough third. The class also showed the great comradery of Sprinting when they all joined in to fix Dominic Grubb’s Clio’s clutch allowing him to get a run in in the afternoon timed runs after problems in practice.
Sd went to the BMWM140i of Patrick Johnston, from the 350z of SDCC Chairman John Williams.
In Class 1a, the win again went to Stuart Ballinger’s Mini, with Dean Ratcliffe second on his MGZR debut event, and Howard Cottrell third in his MG Midget .
1B, the 1.4L to 2.0L road going class, was led home by the MR2 of Peter Darlington from the MGZR of Lee Willars in the MGZR in second.
Simon Price’s  Westfield claimed the win in 2B from the similar car of Paul Evans in second.
2L saw a win for John Caldicott, from David Lee , both in the Elises.
The large capacity Mod Prod class, 3b, went to the new Clio of Mark Williams, from the 106 of Liam Ulyatt.
The Williams family megabusa’s first outing of the year saw a win for son Mark.
The Radical Libre Championship scrap continued with a second win for David Large, from John Bradburn in second, with John’s co driver, Colin Quigley third, and David Bickley fourth.
Andrew Bisping won the 1100cc racing car class in his OMS.
A good Formula Ford dice, went to the Royale of Graham Cherry, from Laurence Marks and Christopher Horton, both in Van Diemens.

With the Championship entries seemingly levelled out off at 76, after 4 rounds the top 5 looks like this:

1. Stuart Ballinger    80.5
2. Paul Glendenning 79
3. Jack Twomey                         78
4. John Bradburn      77.5
5. David Large                           77

NOTE: The points for the Libre Class 6a, at the BMMC event were corrected after a scoring error on the number of entries in the class on the day as only one competitor had cancelled before the event.

The next round, the second S&HMC, was nearly full as this bulletin went to print, again showing the importance of early entries. All of the regulations are now on the website, to enter.  Hope to see you at the S&HMC event on June 6^th, hopefully with some sun perhaps?

Steve Wood

CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND 3

Results Round 3

The BMMC May event was the third round of the Championship and attracted 37 Championship entrants in it’s full entry. Even with persistent rain throughout the day, there were only a few “offs”, and the weather shook up some of the class results.A Class of 10 MGZR’s in Sa got the meeting started with a win for Jack Twomey, with Graham Harvey second and Craig Tock third.  4^th and 5^th were Mike Smith and David Owen respectively, with Les Wilson in 6^th on his first outing in the class.
Jamie Moffat continued his great start in Sb class in the Saxo, with another win.
As usual, a good entry of Clio Sports filled Class Sc and produced a great contest with the win going to Paul Glendenning from Paul Gough in second, with Terry Roberts third.
A really varied car entry in 1a, saw the win go to Stuart Ballinger in the Mini from Alan Henley’s Fiesta Ecoboost, with the MG Midget of Howard Cottrell 3^rd ,who also was a contender for the Bob Marley award for spending the most time on grass!
The upto 2.0L road class went to Derek Wallbank in his 106Rallye, with Melvyn Cox’s MX5 second and the MGZR of Lee Willars claiming third. Rosemary Collins in 5^th picked up the Ladies Award, beating two of the Caterham seated Lady drivers in doing so, in her MGZR!
John Caldicott swapped back into his Caterham from his Elise and took second place in 2B behind class winner Simon Price’s Westfield.
A few of single car class entries followed unfortunately, with the Mini of Karl Dickinson taking the amalgamated Mod Prod class on the day, but good to see the first outing in his Clio for 2019 Champion Mark Williams, and the return of the big Scimitar of Bev Fawkes.
The Libre Class saw John Bradburn taking the win, with David Large second, both in the Radicals.
A closely run thing in the two car FF1600 Class went to Christopher Horton’s Van Diemen 88, from the Lotus 81 of Dave Reed.

With the SDCC round on May 23^rd already a full entry, and now having 76 Championship entrants registered, as previously stated, everyone needs to get their entries in early for the events they wish to contest. Entries for the June S&HMC event are filling up, and the regulations for the August MCMRC Figure of Eight round should appear on the website soon.

The Championship top 6 now looks like this after the first 3 rounds:

1. Stuart Ballinger           60
2. Paul Glendenning        59
3. Jack Twomey              58.5
4. John Bradburn             57.5
5. Lee Willars                  57.5
6. Simon Price                 57.5

Hopefully it will be a bit drier for the SDCC event on May 23^rd , and we look forward to seeing many of you there as it is a full entry again.

Steve Wood

CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND 2

Results after Round 2

The S&HMC April Figure of Eight event was, for a change, the second round of the Championship, and attracted 47 Championship entrants out of the total of 57 following a few late cancellations. Dry weather, although cold, thankfully accompanied the day. Timekeeper technical issues combined with the current MSUK rules not allowing an office PC display spoilt the results availability on the day, for competitors, and for the frustrated S&HMC organising club’s officials.
The ever-increasing fleet of MGZR’s in Class Sa got the meeting started with another close scrap! A win for Jack Twomey, (and a new class record), from Craig Tock, with Graham Harvey third and your scribe fourth, all 4 within 0.8 sec. Steve Barrow, Simon Parkin and Mike Smith, were 5^th, 6^th and 7^th respectively.
The shared Saxo in Sb saw Jamie Moffat break the class record for the second meeting running!
As usual these days, a great entry in Class Sc produced a really good contest with the Clio’s of Paul Glendenning and Rob Thompson first and second split by 0.29 sec. Third and fourth placed Paul Gough and Wayne Parke in their Clio’s were split by 0.03 sec!
Another close finish in Class 1a, saw the win go to Stuart Ballinger’s Mini, by 0.24sec from Keith Waters’ Metro.
The larger engined road car class, 1b, by comparison, went fairly comfortably to the MGZR of Lee Willars, from the MX5 of Melvyn Cox.
The road going Lotus class, 2La, went to Martin Roberts, from John Caldicot, both in Elise’s.
Simon Price had the closest win of the day, by 0.02 sec from Matt Bramall in the 2B kit car class.
3a saw a big accident, with Stuart Gadd, barrel rolling his Mini and causing everyone watching to hold the their breathe until he thankfully emerged ok from the car!
The large capacity Mod Prod class, 3b, went to the 106 of Liam Ulyatt.
The “Radical” battle continued in Class 6a with John Bradburn “just” taking the win from David Large by 0.07 sec, with Colin Quigley 3^rd.
The 3 car Formula Ford scrap went to the Merlyn of David Owen, with Graham Cherry 2^nd and Laurence Marks 3^rd.
Matt Walk, unfortunately had no competition in the Rally Car class, but still threw the Fiesta around as if he had stolen it!
FTD went to the Force of Glyn Sketchley, with a time of 55.11 sec.

With two rounds down, and with 53 entrants having competed in one, or both events, and most of the events filling up fast, it looks like being a really competitive season!

With the Championship entries now up to 75, after 2 rounds the top 2 are:

1. 40 points                     Stuart Ballinger            Mini                1a
2. 39.5 points                  Lee Willars                  MGZR              1b

Hope to see many of you at Round 3, the BMMC event, on May 8^th, which has a full entry.

2021  SEASON  CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND 1 

Results After Round 1

It’s Great to be back – even with the snow!

After the enforced year off, the 23^rd year of the Championship kicked off, for the first time ever, with the MGCC event, and attracted 47 Championship entries, but 2 had to cancel before the day. With a full entry of 80 competitors the event started in snowy conditions, but after the first practice runs everyone was treated to a dry, if cold, day.
With MGZR’s seemingly as far as the eye could see, Class Sa got the meeting under way with a win for “your Scribe” from Graham Harvey 2^nd, and Jack Twomey 3rd, all split by 0.3sec. Fourth was Mike Smith on his Championship debut run, followed closely by Jack Snape and David Owen, making up the top 6. Many of the positions were split by a few hundredths!
In Sb, even in the really cold conditions, Jamie Moffatt broke the class record in his Saxo, with a 39.43!
Another large class Sc, had Rob Thomson’s Clio 172 taking the honours, from the Clio 200’s of Paul Glendenning and Paul Gough. Terry Roberts and James Partridge completed the top 5 in their Clio 182 and 172 respectively. Again, many of the class places were only split by hundredths of a second.
Class 1a had a win for Stuart Ballinger’s Mini, from 2^nd placed Keith Waters’ Metro, with Martin Domleo celebrating his recent 80^th birthday with a close 3^rd place in his Fiesta Ecoboost.
Class 1b win went to novice Lee Willars in his 1.8MGZR, with fellow novice Melvyn Cox’s MX5 second, in front of the other MGZR of Rosemary Collins.
The 3 Elises in 2La were led home by David Whiteley, from ex Caterham regular, John Caldicott in his new acquisition!
In class 3A, the Mini battle went to Stuart Gad.
A really healthy looking Libre Class had all 4 Championship entered Radicals in attendance, with David Large leading them home from John Bradburn in 2^nd  and David Bickley 3^rd.
FTD went to the Van Diemen FR96 of Steve Miles with a 29.72.
Many thanks to MGCC for putting on a great event, and managing to get 3 timed runs in after the wet start to the day.
The Championship organisers would also like to say, a BIG thank you to P.J.S Sports Cars and Paul Green Jewellers for continued support in 2021 following the cancelation of the 2020 season.

With entries still coming in we now have a total of 70.

For any Championship novices, please remember that the Championship points are calculated from the first 2 timed runs only, regardless of any club offering 3 timed runs on the day.

IMPORTANT NOTE to all Championship Entrants; All of the rounds regs and entry forms appear on the Curborough website Championship Page as soon as they are released.  With many events seemingly getting oversubscribed quicker than usual this year, please get our entries in as early as you can.

Hope to see as many of you as possible at the next round, the S&HMC event on Sunday April 25th,

Steve Wood