What a dank drizzly day. Just how I remember Tim Covill a year ago at the same event when I saw a Mallock for the first time and fell in love with the idea of clubmans racing. Tim had been hit by a car on the first lap, collected a polystyrene marker board and then was hit by a second car and shoved into the bank before Druids. He had wiped out the Mallock's bodywork and therefrom was born the idea of making a new body, the EBX all-enveloping bodywork, which has now propelled K Sports 1600 into the 21st Century. I have to say I missed you guys, Tim and Martin. In fact I was the only Mallock for 100 miles judging by the unfettered roar of the 3 litre Jades again, as at Snetterton. Oh, before I forget, a nice picture of my new car at Snetterton is now on the report for last week.

Dave Riddle was pit crew, along with colleague friend Gary (picture). Dave runs Orchard Motors, a tidy little maintenance and bodywork garage which graces my front drive at the gate. Dave had supervised my changing the diff on Friday. Out came the 3.7 which Barry Foley had so kindly lent me last Sunday (and he got it back on Saturday). In went the 3.9 diff which we needed for the Brands Hatch Indy circuit, short and tight. A year after starting I now feel like a REAL CLUBMAN, having done some REAL WORK on my OWN CAR. But at the Clubmans dinner-dance on Saturday the pros did not believe me... no grease under the finger nails. Now I have to live down the reputation of using latex gloves to keep my hands clean.

Qualifying

There was some pretty clumsy driving all day, but a lot in our Winter GT , Sports and Special Saloons Championship qualifying and race. I may have had a few spins during the season but when there is water and grease on the track I do back off a little bit. There is some quaint pleasure in concentrating on trying to keep it on the road. Anyway, after 3 laps of qualifying a Caterham spun at the exit of Graham Hill at the beginning of the bottom straight. I saw the car behind it, one of the motorbike-engined Radicals I think, continue to accelerate through what appeared to be a gap. The last twist of the Caterham's spin put it back in the path of the Radical and the impact was a big one, luckily without injury. I had grabbed a load of brake and had dropped back off the Radical, thank goodness. I came to a near-standstill before picking my way through the debris to continue. Surely better to play it safe than to risk the shunt?

Red flag. 10 minutes waiting in the pit lane (see picture with Dave Riddle and the surviving Caterham). After another 4 laps the same thing happened at the drop aftert Paddock.. Red flag. Clear the cars away. Start qualifying again. All this meant that the tyres hardly came up to speed and there was no rhythm-building in the laps. I was running on the old Dunlop wets that came with the car, their last race probably, and there was not a ton of grip. So I was happy to finish in one piece with the 18th fastest time (1'01.120),  9 seconds behind the Tony Sinclair 2 litre prototype Jade.

Race

We thought the dry patch would grow to cover the whole track, but the air was so moisture-laden that it never dried off all day. So we stuck to the wet tyres and the wet set-up (including roll-bar disconnected at the front and the high downforce nose). We all got round Paddock safely on the opening lap of the race, despite the antics of my 9th row neighbour Thomas Carey in his 2 litre Vauxhall Chevette who thought you could go round three abreast with him making it four, his right foot to the floor. It was unsurprising that 2nd time round an innocent spinner at Paddock got a nice T-bone steak from the same Chevette. I saw Carey's wheel detach on impact so that as he slide up the centre of the track towards Druids sparks and flames and pieces of car exploded from within. I and the other back markers tippy-toed through the debris when another  red-blooded right-footed man, this time in a big Jade, thundered through us all at full throttle. He certainly got clear signals and body language from me and another car on the run up to Druids. Unacceptable driving. How could you go on racing at full speed when two cars, with fragile humans in them, are stranded immobile in the middle of the track? Admittedly, there were no yellow flags as it was all happening in one of those split seconds that takes five minutes to relate, but driving at full speed, intentionally, through a crash is lunacy.

We got the pace car flag, i.e. the yellow and black squared flag (or the Battenburg flag as I have heard it called, after the cake of the same name and cross section presumably) and lined up behind the leader. A couple of laps after we got the green again, the same Jade performed a balletic pirouette in Cooper Straight in front of me, without undue pressure from me I hasten to add, and crumped into the armco. I have to say I was not surprised. My holier-than-thou attitude may be surprising given my acknowledgement of the reputation of the Winter Series as a prang parade, but these guys have got to mend the cars each time. Even if it's the sponsor, or even if the car is insured, someone has to pay. There is no free lunch.

With all this going on, my driving could have gone to pot, but I had plenty of movement of the car underneath me and enough speed in correcting slides to have a helmet-full of confidence. The diff was working and the 3.9 ratio was indeed correct for the circuit as I was just coming up to maximum engin revs at the end of the pits straight before braking for Paddock Hill. I had a lonely race but could at least concentrate on braking points and the racing line in tricky conditions. I started accelerating from lap 7 or so and looked set to catch John Powis in another 2 litre Jade (but one he told me he had never driven in the wet before) when the chequered flag came out after 13 laps. I had improved my time to 0'58.921.  4 cars had crashed out. 4 cars finished behind me. I was happy with all that, especially because I got the car going for the first time. The diff had held together, I had no other mechanical problems, and I am starting to feel at home in the car. This seems like a good way to prepare next season because at least I now know what has to be done to the car over the winter.

Statistics
 

Circuit	Brands Hatch Indy	Fastest test lap	No testing
Fastest qualifying lap	1'01.12	Qualified in position	18th
Conditions	Drizzle all day	Number of cars participating	24
Fastest race lap	0'58.921	Number of cars at start	24
Finishing position	15th	Number of cars finished	19
Number of laps behind	1	Average speed	65.55 mph

Paddock chat

The Clubmans annual Dinner-Dance in Coventry was the night before this race (but I did go light on the drink). I was very pleased to get the Clubmans Newcomer of the Year Award (which Tim "coach and hosses" Covill had won the year before).

At the same event I used a giant cheque to get some publicity for Macmillan cancer relief for whom friends and colleagues have donated over £4800 over the 2001 season. If you're interested here is the text of the press release that went out tonight and the photo

The Macmillan Cancer Relief charity is the lucky beneficiary of £4800 of donations from sponsors of Marcus Bicknell's motor racing during 2001.

Marcus's colleagues, friends and family pledged typically £1 per championship point scored by Marcus in the BARC/BRDC K Sports 1600 championship which will be the MG XPOWER K Sports Cup in 2002.  He finished the season in 15th place in the championship and scored 67 points to be able to collect on the pledges. As with all club racing, the competitors participate just for the fun of it, although Marcus added "I was keen to see if I could make my hobby into something productive, and the support from benefactors for Macmillan Cancer Relief has been superb".

The presentation of the donations was one of the highlights of the Clubmans Register dinner dance in Coventry on 17th November. The photo shows, from left to right:

•  Rob Oldaker, managing director, MG Sport & Racing (sponsors of the championship next year)
•  Marcus Bicknell, who drove the car and secured the pledges for Macmillan Cancer Relief.
•  Jamie Champkin, Chairman of the Clubmans register
•  Colin Hilton, Chief Executive of the Motor Sports Association, the UK's governing body for motor sport

Marcus, who lives in Chalfont St.Giles in Buckinghamshire, raised the donations on behalf of Mrs Pat Chapman of the Gerrards Cross branch of Macmillan Cancer Relief and was further supported and encouraged by Linda Wells of the Buckinghamshire office of Macmillan Cancer Relief in Wendover.
 

Notes to editors:

The Clubmans Register and the BARC/BRDC are the organisers of the the K Sports 1600 championship for front-engined sports-racing cars which will be the MG XPOWER K Sports Cup in 2002. The 2001 championship was run between April and October at Britain's major motor racing circuits.

Tbc: Issued by the Clubmans Register and Paul Lawrence on behalf of the Clubmans Register (tel 01952 583104)

Originated by Marcus Bicknell, Clubmans Register Promotion Office tel 07748 111444, email marcus@bicknell.com, web site http://www.ksports1600.org.uk .  More photos available for media coverage on request at 30kb or 300kb.
 
 

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