The View from the Back - Report 2004 N°1
Fast car, driver cracked
Silverstone National, MG XPower Clubmans Cup, Monday 12 April 2004
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After the fast times set during last weekend's Peterborough MC meeting, I was anticipating an exciting Clubmans event and nervous of how much there would be to lose. I was not to be deceived, on either account.Lap 5: Mike Evans (10) pushes me back to 5th place. Stefan looms.

Qualifying

I hung about behind Barry Webb for much of the session, which was satisfying in itself as he got pole position in 1'02.401. Like several others, the main challenge was how little to lift at the entry to Copse. As I dared myself less and less, the lap times got faster until I did my best in my last lap at 1'03.053. The newly rebuilt and stiffened chassis is so much more controllable in fast corners than last year because it does not flex any more. The only other challenge was staying awake during the interminable understeer through Luffield each time. I came awake with a jump though when I found out that my time was good enough for 5th on the grid, where I do not think I have ever been top ten in qualifying at all.

Statistics: Qualifying
Circuit
 Silverstone National
 Fastest test lap 
 no testing
Conditions
Dry 12°
Previous personal best
 1'02.362 3Apr04
Fastest qualifying lap
 1'03.053
Qualified in position
5 out of 20

Race

Laps 6 7 and 8 I'm trying to get back at Russell Munns (9) and Mike Evans (10).It was lonely on the 3rd row because Adrian Brown could not get his car started and missed the race. Very disappointing for him. The engine management system's immobiliser had failed. So here I was, up near the front, with the set up identical to last weekend here with the Peterborough MC and even with the same old tyres from last year. Beginner's luck, I got a good start and overhauled Adrian Lester in the first straight. Russell Munns had gone to the inside so I continued to drive round the outside of him and lined up Guy Woodward in his newly-EBXed Mallock 27. Guy got a bit of a shock when I popped up on the outside of Becketts and drove down the back straight in 2nd place behind Barry Webb. I think the assembled cluberati on the pit wall got a bit of a shock too.

Scrutineer checks each car for ground clearance after the raceThe problem was... me. As the laps ticked by I was stuck in the 1'03s and the guys behind had got in their strides. Adrian Lester was first to have a nibble, then Russell Munns when they both got through together on lap 5. Mike Evans snuck through too and I joined battle with the 3 of them. Their own ding-dong then put me off my stride (avoiding losing my nose on them) and my lap 5 was a 1'05.8. So Stefan Mumm started looming in the mirrors. Nothing I could do was anywhere near my 1'02.362 of last weekend, in fact I was probably getting tense and ragged. But I kept with Mike for 5 laps (lying in 5th place and wishing the race would end quickly) and closed on him by lap10. As I overtook him, Stefan came through the pair of us. The relative speeds of racing when you're not on the ideal line! Stefan seemed to be fast on the straights but slow in the corners... a foot full of brake at Copse and a defensive line round the Beckets hairpin. But he kept ahead damn it, and me under his tail. Was the circuit more slippery? Mike Evans found it so because on lap 13 he lost it at Brooklands and finished up in the gravel trap. Yellow flags. Lost ground to Stefan. Then the red mist bubbled up as I got onto his tail again on the last lap. ONe last chance for a glorious fourth place as we entered the complex for the last time. I grabbed the outside line round Luffield and might even have had him... but as he drifted a bit wide I hit the marbles and the back snapped out. 90° spin. Stalled the engine. Howard Payne, Guy Woodward and Ian Crombie come past. I get going and Alex Osborne comes past. Arf Dickens gets me on the line. I finish 10th, which is where I finished at Silverstone last year but from a more humble start.

Statistics: Race
Finishing position
10 out of 18 
Number of cars at start
 19
Average speed
90.53 mph 
Fastest race lap
1'03.088
Conditions
Dry 14°
same lap
Great start to 2nd place but spun on the last lap when challenging Steffan Mumm for 4th

Paddock chat

One compensation was knowing that the car works properly, even on old rubber. The front right tyre had no tread at all by the end of the race. Can anyone explain that? It's usually the front left that goes. A second compensation was the amount of name checks I got on the race commentary, apparently, of the sort "oh no Bicknell's not going to try that is he?". The third was the kind compliments from colleagues and competitors in the paddock. At least I had had a go and entertained one or two.

The car is terrific. Allan Elphick, its owner through the 90s, was on hand to point out the bits that were on the car back in those days and to admire the work that's been done since. The chassis rebuild was done at Mallock Sports over Christmas, Tony Pouyanne providing much fo the elbow grease and artisanal welding skills under Richard Mallocks' direction. I have had a wonderful time working with Ian Megson and Matthew Napper on the rebuild (about 180 man hours). The speeds achieved last weekend  gave new problems... the right side pod was fouling the tyre on certain corners, so I have secured the pod's shape and rigidity with a new bulkhead in the near-vertical plane behind the wheel. It worked. No scraping today. Much of the bodywork has been resprayed with two-pack, including the blue stripe which is now the bright Signal Blue of the chassis, not the darker Oxford Blue of last year. And the alloy wing is now painted in the same yellow and blue.

I lost two nose cones today. No, not what you think, no on-track accidents. Alze Fulco had a biff in qualifying and ended up buying my brand new newly-delivered nose cone on his car. And Richard Marshall had forgotten the nose cones for Steve Chaplin's car in London, so they borrowed my spare!

I will not be able to come to Croft because of a family event on the Saturday, so I have to wait till the 5th of June at Oulton. That's tough.

Many thanks to Dave Milsom for the great photos. Many mmore of each car available from him <Dave@davemilsom.fsnet.co.uk>
 
 

Official Race Report

News from the MG XPOWER Clubmans Cup
Race report: Round 1, Silverstone: 12 April 2004

Webb dominates season opener

Barry Webb got his season off to a perfect start with a commanding victory in the first round of the 2004 MG XPOWER Clubmans Cup at Silverstone on Easter Monday (12 April). While Webb romped clear of the pack in his Mallock Mk23/03, some superb battling all the way down the field entertained the Bank Holiday crowd.

Webb signalled his intentions for the day by taking pole position, a quarter of a second clear of Guy Woodward's Mallock Mk27, which was sporting all-enveloping EBX bodywork for the first time.

With less than a second covering the next 10 cars, some close racing was assured and two drivers stood out as candidates for battling recovery drives. Howard Payne (Mallock Mk20B) started 11th after a severe lack of brakes sent him into the gravel at Becketts, while Swedish commuter Stefan Mumm (Mallock Mk28/30) was down in 13th place after an interrupted session.

Webb cemented his victory with a fine getaway and an attacking first lap that put him immediately clear of the pack. His progress was aided as the rest of the field battled over second and it was Marcus Bicknell (Mallock Mk26/27SG) who charged through from fifth on the grid to take second place on the opening lap.

However, Bicknell soon had a gaggle of cars snapping at his heels, notably Adrian Lester (Mallock Mk35K), Mike Evans (Mallock Mk20) and Russell Munns (Mallock Mk28/30). This was to prove the battle of the race and even once they had edged ahead of Bicknell, Lester and Munns ran nose to tail for virtually the whole race.

Meanwhile, Webb had taken his lead out to five seconds but had to watch his mirrors in the closing stages as Lester and Munns narrowed the gap to less than two seconds. "I was quite happy sitting there doing laps in the 1m3s, but every time I looked in the mirrors they were getting closer," said Webb.

Lester was elated to hold off Munns and take second place, recording one of his best ever finishes. "It was a fantastic race; battles all the way," he reckoned. Equally, Munns had thoroughly enjoyed the battle even though he could never quite find a gap in Lester's defences. "I just kept pushing and pushing, but Adrian kept the door closed. There is no better value in motorsport than MG Clubmans, it's a fantastic series," he said on the podium.

With Bicknell dropping down the order with a last lap spin and Evans ending his race in the Brooklands gravel trap after a brake disc failed, it was Mumm and Payne who fought through the pack to take fourth and fifth from Woodward.

Results – 12 laps:

1 Barry Webb (Mallock Mk23/03) 14m54.878s (92.50mph); 2 Adrian Lester (Mallock Mk35K) 14m56.483s; 3 Russell Munns (Mallock Mk28/30); 4 Stefan Mumm (Mallock Mk28/30); 5 Howard Payne (Mallock Mk20B); 6 Guy Woodward (Mallock Mk27 EBX); 7 Ian Crombie (Mallock Mk28B); 8 Alex Osborne (Mallock Mk30); 9 Arthur Dickens (Mallock Mk29); 10 Marcus Bicknell (Mallock Mk26/27SG). Fastest lap: Munns 1m02.507s (94.39mph).

Next rounds: Croft, 15/16 May.
Issued on behalf of the Clubmans Register by Paul Lawrence (01952 510382).
13 April 2004
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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