Curborough Championship

Report Round 7

Results Round 7

The SDCC July two lap Sprint attracted a full entry, and was a scorching day! Timekeeping issues unfortunately meant no first practice times, but thankfully it got sorted for second practice.

The event kicked off with an 8 car Class Sa and produced the usual close dice with Les Wilson taking the win from David Owen second and Jack Twomey third, all in MGZR’s.

Another good entry in Class Sc produced a really good Clio Sport contest with Neal Bateman taking the win from John Adam and Paul Gough respectively.

In Class 1a, Graham Harvey claimed another first in his Mini, from Keith Waters’ Metro. Dean Ratcliffe was 3^rd in his MGZR and Howard Cottrell 4^th in his MG Midget.

The larger capacity Road car class went to the Clio of Richard Yapp, from the similar machines of Steve Barrow and Richard Raybould, second and third respectively. Fourth was the 160 MGZR of Lee Willars with the similar car of Rosemary Collins fifth.

The 2 car 2L Class, of Elise’s, went to David Whiteley.

The 3 car Class of Caterham’s in the upto 1700 Kit Car Class saw win for David Spooner from Steve Robinson.

The larger capacity Kit Car Class went the way of Simon Price in the Westfield.

A larger than usual 3A, ( boosted by 2 MG Midget’s moved from 1a), had a Mini 1,2,3 with Alan Henley taking first, from Karl Dickinson and Stuart Gadd respectively.

In the Mod Prod upto 2.0L class Mark William’s Clio won a close dice with Liam Ulyatt in the Peugeot 106, with the Scirocco GTI of ex Metro Challenge and Touring car driver Dave Carvell taking 3^rd.

The Libre Class saw another win for David Large from David Bickley, both in Radicals.

Mark Williams won the usual family scrap in the Megabusa and also claimed FTD at the same time with a 54.88 final run.

Probably the highlight of the day was witnessing the very rapid Audi S4 of Roger Banks smash the 21 year old record of Bev Fawkes in 3C with a spectacular  57.48 run!

Nice to see a couple of historic Rally Cars in R2, with the Triumph Dolly Sprint engined Toledo of Kevin Robinson seeing off the newly acquired Mk2 Cortina GT of Derrick Wallbank.

Also nice to see a couple of Period Defined Road cars with the lovely Spitfire of Paul Cheshire taking the win from Liz Dickinson’s Mini.

With the Championship now nearing it’s end game, and a few having to start dropping worst scores at the next round, after 7 rounds, the top 6 now looks like this:

1. Graham Harvey           141
2. Simon Price                 136.5
3. Alan Henley                 135
4. John Adam                  135
5. Jack Twomey               133
6. David Whiteley            128

The next round, is the MGCC Figure of 8 on August 7^th, which had just a few entries remaining as this goes to press! Hope to see most of you again then.

Steve Wood

CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND 6

Results Round 6

The annual Owen MC “Graham Hill” Sprint attracted a good entry, and the early week forecast for showery weather kept everyone guessing, but it turned out to be a nice day!
The event kicked off with the SA “MGZR” class and produced the usual close battle with Jack Twomey taking the win, from Les Wilson in second and Mike Smith third, all split by 0.6 sec!  David Owen took 4th place, with Julian Fishwick taking 5^th on his first outing of the year.
In Sc, Neil Bateman was once again the man to beat, taking the win from John Adams, with Paul Gough 3rd, all 3 Clio mounted.
In 1A Graham Harvey, in his Mini, took another win to go into the overall Championship lead, with Dean Ratcliffe second in his MGZR, and Howard Cottrell claiming third place in his MG Midget.
In Class 1b, Lee Willars took 2^nd place in his new MGZR, sandwiched between the Clio of Championship interlopers Jamie and Richard Yapp. Fourth was Richard Raybould in his Clio and fifth Rosemary Collins in her MGZR 160.
David Spooner won the two car 2A , upto 1700cc kit car class in his Caterham.
Simon Price’s Westfield won Class 2B from Paul Evans in second in the shared Westfield.
The road going Lotus class saw this season’s usual Elise scrap, with David Whiteley taking the win from John Caldicott.
Class 3A, Mod Prods upto 1.4L, went to Alan Henley in his Mini, from Owen Cule and Ashley Caton respectively in their shared Metro.
The large capacity Mod Prod class, 3b, saw a fairly comfortable win for the Clio of Mark Williams, with Tom and Andy Harding 2^nd and 3^rd respectively in the “family” Golf GTI. Fourth was novice Nathan Clarke in his Honda Accord
The Williams family Megabusa produced a win for son Mark in Class 4b.
The Libre Class saw a win, and FTD, for John Bradburn, with David Large in 2^nd both in Radicals.
The Formula Ford class had a win for the Van Diemen of Christopher Horton, followed home by the Merlyn of David Owen in second, and Ioan Evans third in the shared Van Diemen.

With the Championship now just past the half way point, after 6 rounds, the top 8 now looks like this:

1. Graham Harvey           120.5
2. Simon Price                 117
3. John Adams                 116
4. Jack Twomey               115

= Alan Henley  115

1. Christopher Horton     110.5
2. David Whiteley            110

= David Owen              110

The next round, is the second SDCC event of the season, on July 10^th . Hope to see a good turn out for that one again as the Championship starts to get to the point some competitors reach 7 scoring events.

Steve Wood

Results Round 5

The second S&HMC event of this years’ Championship was, WET, WET, WET – but without Marti Pellow! With the altered Bank holiday and some late cancellations, and no shows, it was unfortunately the lowest entry of the year, but at least that meant everyone there had the opportunity for 3 timed runs.

The 2 lap event kicked off with the usual good entry in Sa of MGZR’s and a win for Jack Twomey from Mike Smith in second. David Owen was third with Ian Poole in fourth.

In a two car entry Sb, Chris Wallett took a comfortable win in his Alfa.

Another good entry in Class Sc produced a slightly different Clio 1,2,3 from the previous round. John Adams took the win with a time that was second fastest time of the day ( missing FTD by only 0.26 sec!), Neal Bateman was second, with Paul Gough third.

In Class 1a, the win went to a very sideways Graham Harvey in his Mini, with Fiesta EcoBoost of Martin Domleo in close attendance for second, and Keith Waters third in the Metro.

1b, the 1.4L to 2.0L road going class, saw the 5^th win on the bounce for the Clio of Steve Barrow, from the similar machine of Richard Raybould in second.

Steve Robinson took the win in the shared family Caterham in 2a from co-driver Ben.

The Roadgoing Lotus class produced the closest scrap, with David Whiteley “just” beating John Caldicott for the win in the Elise’s by 0.03sec for the Championship points!

The Williams family megabusa again saw a win for son Mark from Dad Phil.

The Libre Class went to Stuart Bickley from Dad, David, and he also claimed the FTD.

The two car Formula Ford class went to the Van Diemen of Chris Horton from Ioan Evans.

With the Championship nearing the mid point, after 5 rounds, the top 6 now looks like this:

1. Steve Barrow              102.5
2. Graham Harvey           100
3. Simon Price                 96.5
4. John Adams                 97
5. Alan Henley                 95.5
6. Jack Twomey               95

PLEASE NOTE: The next round, the annual Owen MC “Graham Hill” Sprint, still has entries available as this goes to print, so get your entries in!

The event dates back to the first years of Curborough and used to be a regular round of the British Sprint Championship up until about 2002.

The final two sets of entry regulations for the remaining rounds became available to enter on the Curborough website championship page as of June 1^st.  Hope to see most of you at the Owen event, and in sunglasses, not anoraks!

Steve Wood

Results to Round 4

The first SDCC event of this years’ Championship was, as usual these days, a full entry although a few late cancellations reduced the final numbers on the day. The weather was again very good.
The Figure of 8 event kicked off with the usual good entry in Sa of MGZR’s and a win for Les Wilson from David Owen, with Jack Twomey 3rd by 0.06s from Mike Smith after seemingly deciding to take out as many cones as possible on his best run! A big “off” at the crossover on her second run didn’t prevent Julie Coffey taking the Ladies award on the day, although did leave the MGZR in a poorly state.
Another good entry in Class Sc produced a good contest with Clio’s 1,2,3. Neal Bateman taking his third win of the year, from John Adams in second, with Paul Gough third.
In Class 1a, the win again went to Graham Harvey in his Mini, with the MG Midget of Howard Cottrell claiming second from Keith Waters’ Metro and Martin Domleo’s Fiesta. 2nd, 3rd and 4th all being split by 0.4 sec.
1b, the 1.4L to 2.0L road going class, saw a Clio 1,2 with Steve Barrow taking the win and Richard Raybould second. Melvyn Cox was 3rd in his MX5.
Simon Price’s Westfield again claimed the win in 2B from his co driver, Paul Evans in second.
The large capacity Mod Prod class had a really good, and varied, entry with the Clio of Mark Williams taking the Class, from the Peugeot 106 of Liam Ulyatt. Third was the Golf GTI of Tom Harding and fourth the Opel Manta of Dave Purdy.
The Williams family megabusa again saw a win for son Mark from Dad Phil, with Mark also claiming FTD with a time of 57.25.
The Libre Class unfortunately witnessed a retirement for the double driven Radical after practice leaving the door open for David Bickley to claim the Class win in his Radical from Stephen King’s Rotor.
A good Formula Ford dice, went to the Van Diemen of Chris Horton from the lovely Merlyn of David Owen in second.

With the Championship entries seemingly tapering off at 72, after 4 rounds the top 6 looks like this:

1. Steve Barrow 82
2. Graham Harvey 81
3. Mark Williams (3B) 80
4. Simon Price 78.5
5. Alan Henley 77.5
6. John Adams 77

The next round, the second S&HMC, was getting quite full as this bulletin went to print, again showing the importance of early entries. MGCC entries open through the website, on June 1st which are the final missing regulations for the year. Hope to see you at the S&HMC event on June 5th, hopefully with some more sun perhaps?

CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND 3

Results to Round 3

The regular BMMC May event was the third round of the Championship and attracted 50 Championship entrants in it’s full entry, although there were a few late cancellations. Great weather accompanied the day, with out of date, pre-covid purchased sun screen required!

A Class of 8 MGZR’s in Sa got the meeting started with a close win for Les Wilson from Jack Twomey in second, David Owen third,  and Mike Smith fourth.

A slightly smaller entry for Sc than of late saw the win go to Neal Bateman, with John Adams 2^nd and Terry Roberts 3^rd, all three Clio Sport mounted.

A really varied entry in Class 1a spread the decades, with the win going to the “60’s” Mini of Graham Harvey, from “noughties” Fiesta Eco Boost of Martin Domleo, and the “80’s Metro of Keith Waters’ in third. Good to see long time competitor, Martin, back, now in his 80’s, still showing how it’s done!

The upto 2.0L road class, 1b, went to Steve Barrow in the Clio Sport, with the Fiesta ST of Jamie Moffatt in 2^nd, ( managing to stay on the track for just one of his 4 runs)!The MX5 of Melvyn Cox took 3rd, with the MGZR’s of Lee Willars and Rosemary Collins 4^th and 5th respectively.

The over 1700cc kit car class went to Simon Price from co driver Paul Evans in the shared Westfield.

David Whiteley came out on top in a close Elise battle with John Caldicott in Class 2La.

The upto1400cc Mod prods saw a win for the Mini of Alan Henley, from Stuart Gadd.

The over 1400cc Mod prod witnessed the now regular dice between the Clio of Mark Williams and the Peugeot 106 of Lyam Ulyatt, with Mark taking the honours. The usual “Curborough” spirit was in evidence with great help from other competitors to replace Mark’s Clio’s broken engine mount rapidly and get him back out again.

In the Libre Class David Large came out on top from the other Radical of David Bickley.

The other 2 car single seater class, of Formula Fords, went to Christopher Horton from Ioan Evans.

FTD  went to the OMS of Andrew Bisping.

We now have 69 Championship entrants registered at the time this bulletin goes out.

The Championship top 4 now looks like this after the first 3 rounds:

1. Steve Barrow              61.5
2. Graham Harvey           60.5
3. Mark Williams             59.5
4. Simon Price                 59

Just a note that the August MCMRC figure of 8 round is already over half full, and the regulations for the August MGCC round will be on the website from June 1st. Championship registration does not guarantee entry to events as some are also rounds of other Championships. So get your entries in early! The SDCC event on May 22^nd, is already full, so look forward to seeing many of you there and another full entry.                                                                                                                    Steve Wood

CHAMPIONSHIP REPORT ROUND 2

Results up to Round 2

The S&HMC April Figure of Eight event attracted 51 Championship entrants out of the total of 60 following a few late cancellations. Dry weather, although cool, thankfully accompanied the day. Timekeeper technical issues for the second year running affected the running of the day for competitors, and for the frustrated S&HMC organising club’s officials.
The usual throng of MGZR’s in Class Sa got the meeting started with the win going to Les Wilson, who had rapidly fitted a new engine following the blow up on round 1. Second went to Jack Twomey, with first round winner David Owen in third. Mike Smith claimed fourth from Lee Bradford.
As usual these days, a good entry in Class Sc produced a really good contest with the Clio of Neal Bateman taking first, from the similar cars of John Adams and Paul Gough in 2^nd and 3^rd respectively.
Graham Harvey drifted his Mini to a win in 1a, from the Metro of Keith Waters in second place.
The larger engined road car class, 1b, went fairly comfortably to the Clio of Steve Barrow, with Championship newcomer, Richard Raybould taking second place.
The road going Lotus class, 2La, went to David Whiteley, from John Caldicot, both in Elise’s.
David Spooner won the 5 car upto 1.7 kit car class, and the larger capacity kit car class went to Matt Bramall, from Simon Price in second.
In 3a, the old school Mini of Alan Henley saw off the more modern Rover 100 of Ashley Caton.
The large capacity Mod Prod class, 3b, went to the Clio of Mark Williams, with the Peugeot 106 of Liam Ulyatt second. Third and fourth went to the double driven Golf of Tom and Andy Harding, respectively.
The family Westfield megabusa on it’s first outing of the year, saw Mark Williams taking the win from Dad Phil.
The 3 car Formula Ford scrap went to the Merlyn of David Owen, with Chris Horton in close attendance in his Van Diemen and Ioan Evans third, also in a Van Diemen.

FTD went to the Radical of David Large with a time of 58.86 sec.

The result sheet has some points corrections from the 1^st round due to a couple of car class change alterations. With two rounds down, and with 69 entrants most of the events filling up fast, it looks like being a really competitive season!

Just a reminder, to all competitors, that as far as the MSUK are concerned it is up to competitors to ensure their vehicle is eligible for the class they enter by reading both the Championship Regulations, and the MSUK Blue Book.

With the Championship entries now up to 69, after 2 rounds the top 3 are:

1. 41 points                     Steve Barrow    Clio Sport        1b
2. 40.5 points                  Mark Williams   Clio                  3b
3. 40 points                     Graham Harvey Mini                 1a

Hope to see many of you at Round 3, the BMMC event, on May 7^th, which has a full entry.

Steve Wood

2022  SEASON  CHAMPIONSHIP

Round 1 Results

Unfortunately, a with few competitors entering the wrong classes in the MGCC event, the result sheet originally posted has had to be updated to score everyone in the correct classes.
Thank you to the competitor who pointed out the mistake. Obviously this is easier to spot if you are a regular competitor rather than a novice.
This really highlights the importance of checking the results after each round as if there are any mistakes under MSU rules they cannot be changed after
a certain period has passed. The Scorer has also been known to make the odd calculation error as well over the 24 years of doing it!
It also highlights the importance of please checking the class description of each Club’s event, rather than just putting the same Championship Class number down on every entry form, as other Championships at the same round may have similar Class numbers for different classes.

And we’re OFF – literally!  (well a few of us)!

The 24^th year of the Championship started for the second time with the MGCC event, and attracted a full entry of 83, but had a couple of cancellations before the day.
The frosty start resulted in a few spins in practice, but it remained dry, if a bit cold, all day.
Class Sa, now officially the MGZR 1.4 Class, got the meeting under way with a win for David Owen from Jack Twomey with “your scribe” third, all split by 0.4sec. Fourth was Dave Barlow, followed closely by Roy Bennett with Paul Cammerer making up the top 6.
In Sc, John Adams took the win from Paul Gough making it a Clio Sport 1,2.
Another well supported class 1a, had a win for Graham Harvey in his Mini, from Keith Waters’ Metro in second, and the Mini of Stuart Ballinger third.
Class 1b saw a win for Steve Barrow’s new Clio Sport, with Richard Raybould’s Clio 2^nd and Lee Willar’s MGZR 3^rd .
Class 2a saw 3 Championship newcomers all in Caterham’s with the win going to Steve Robinson, from David Spooner.
Championship regular Simon Price took the Award in 2b in his Westfield with Paul Evans in second place.
The 3 Elises in Class 2La were led home by David Whiteley, with John Caldicott a close second.
In class 3A, the Mini battle went to Alan Henley.
The well supported large capacity Mod Prod Class saw a win for the Clio Sport of Mark Williams, with Liam Ulyatt’s Peugeot 106 second and Tom Harding third in the Golf GTI .
In the Sports Libre Class the Radical of David Large took the win from the interesting new Ford Puma of James Evans.
FTD went to the OMS of Paul Webb with a time of 31.08.
Many thanks to MGCC for putting on a great event to kick off the Championship, and the well-attended prize giving at the end seemed to point to many competitors agreeing with that.

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 2022.

With entries still coming in we currently have a total of 66.

The Championship rounds increasing to 11 this season for the first time ever, should give more possibilities competitors to get in enough events to score maximum points.

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 these days, 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 24th,  

                                                                    Steve Wood