Swinging 60's race at Mallory Park: August BH.

[TRTOM2498]

Hi All,

The below is a message from the TR Register forum:-

Alan Price's mention of Mark Campbells TR5 in the previous posting has prompted me to give TR Register members a brief history of this incredibly rapid TR that has beaten all or certainly nearly all of the race times set by any previous TR in any UK Race Championship.
The car was originally owned and raced By Mike & Jeff Pumford back in the mid to late 1980's in the TR Register Race Championship where it was always immaculatey turned out, as befitted a car prepared and owned by one of the leading TR specialists of the time. However it was never a race or class winner but had reasonable success in that period. In fact Mike and Jeff lent me the car in 1991 when I had problems with my car and I raced it a couple of times including blowing the engine up at Castle Combe in practice and peppering Chris Carters TR5, who was behind me at the time, with bits of conrod and piston!(Sorry Mike & Jeff & Chris again). The car was sold a couple of years later to Joe Henderson who turned it into a very quick and, by now, highly modified and competitive car, winning the TR Register championship outright in 1995 and dominating his class for the next few years. The car was then sold in about 2000 to Chris Petch who had some good wins with it, including a memorable win at Oulton Park in 2002 where he beat Graham Millers, previously unbeatable TR7V8, by a whisker. It was then one of the 8 Triumphs that went over to the USA to contest the Triumph 50th Anniversary race at Mid Ohio where it had its finest hour(so far) and, despite a serious accident in practice,  won the race by a whisker from Colin Pendles TR7V8, in a field of 40+ Triumphs. Chris kept the car for another couple of years enjoying some further success but after a serious accident at Spa the car was sold to its current owner/driver Mark Campbell who rebuilt the car and turned it into the car we see racing today mainly in the CSCC Swinging 60's series. Mark is an extremely quick and capable driver, whatever he races, and it is no wonder that he has beaten as many lap records in the car as he has. If you follow the Touring Car races on ITV4 you would have seen Mark racing in a Scottish Classic race  holding off two 350hp Morgan V8s at Croft a few weeks ago before uncharacteristically spinning on the last lap and finishing 3rd.

However there is a young pretender on the scene in the shape of Josh Files in dad Keiths rapid TR6. Josh beat Mark for pole in last years Jigsaw race at Mallory Park but made a bad start in the race and could not close the gap to Mark who won the race for the 2nd year running with Josh matching Marks lap times.

If you want to see the rematch come along to see the 2012 Jigsaw race at Mallory on August Bank Holiday Monday.

[peeter paint]

Nice to see some quick and nicely prepared triumphs at Mallory today. No one lost bodywork parts which cant be said for the jags.!!! One of their bonnets was determined to defy gravity and gave time for spectators to run before coming back down to earth on the track.

[TRTOM2498]

It was a great Triumph race.

Josh Files (British Touring Car Driver, 21 year old) won the Jigsaw race in his dads Red TR6.  It was 4 seconds faster per lap than anyone else, and lapped every car. !

Great to see Joe Hendersons old TR6 out there too, with its new owner. It's a shame it broke its diff in qualifying.


Cheers.

[AndyV]

It was a great race, I just got lapped in the final hundred yards and only by 1 second!

Good driving and nice cars all round. Congratualations to William Hildyard in his first ever race in his newly built Spitfire. Despite the car spitting out its dummy and a fair amount of oil in the assembly area 10 minutes before race start, he got out there completing the race, and beat a couple too.

AndyV

(PS Josh Files is a Clio driver on the TOCA BTTC support package so look out for him)

[JohnD]

Really disappointed that I couldn't be on track this time, but a tremondous turn out and very good racing.
It was very rewarding that there are new drivers out in Triumphs as well as the usual suspects, and to see so many Triumphsare attracted to Mark and Jo's very special race.

Here's the field, with the exception of Tony Crudgington in his Dolomite Sprint, that somehow I completely missed!  Sorry, Tony!

[JohnD]

More

[JohnD]

And more.

[JohnD]

and more

[JohnD]

And a few to show just how hard they were trying.
Alan Ross-Jones was battling with oversteer and needing opposite lock:


while Steve Adams had to use all the wheel he had to get his car through the Esses.

[JohnD]

Finally some funnies.

Not many people know this, but that wing mirror on ADU 7B, ISN'T.
It's a big key, and Mark and Ian have to wind it up before each race.


And Ian was also competeing n the Swinging '60s, in his very powerful Fiesta.
So powerful that he nearly blew his hatchback off!

[sparky_spit]

Thanks for putting those pictures up on here John, It's nice to see all (or most) of the current racing Triumphs, after hearing about some of them. I'd have liked to have been there, but couldn't make it unfortunately.

Car 44 looks interesting. Is that Connero bodied?

[JohnD]

It's a TR4 SLR (Sprinzel Lawrence Racing) but I know no more.
It's not "Sportlich Leicht Rennsport" (Sporting Lighweigh Racing) as in Mercs.

I've asked the same Q on the TRRegister MsB, where I know people will know.
So have a look there: http://www.tr-register.co.uk/forums/index.php?showtopic=36854&hl=

John

[spitty71]

AndyV wrote:

It was a great race, I just got lapped in the final hundred yards and only by 1 second!

Good driving and nice cars all round. Congratualations to William Hildyard in his first ever race in his newly built Spitfire. Despite the car spitting out its dummy and a fair amount of oil in the assembly area 10 minutes before race start, he got out there completing the race, and beat a couple too.

AndyV

(PS Josh Files is a Clio driver on the TOCA BTTC support package so look out for him)

Andy,

Didn't get a chance to say hello after the race but your successful battle with the white 6 was brilliant! Highlight of the race.

[AndyV]

I did have a cracking race having to work very hard in my battle with Chris Edward's TR, we swapped leads many time but his grunt always had me when it mattered over the start/finish line. It was my good fortune (wiley driving? ;) ) on the last lap that I managed to get some traffic between us simultaneously to being lapped by Josh, so holding up Chris just long enough for me scamper across the line in front.

I now have new valve springs on their way to fix the 7500rpm valve bounce that was restricting my straight line speed. It still won't allow me to conquer 6cylinder grunt, but will help a little and sound less painful!

Bring on Jigsaw racing 2013, but until then I'm next out in the Swinging 60's at Donnington with a smattering of other Triumphs on September 16th.

Cheers
Andy

[William H]

Hi all,

The jigsaw race at Mallory this year was a fantastic day. My first outing on the track ever in the spit was certainly a lot of fun and I am trying not to get too excited on buying more bits for it! Thank you to all of the spit drivers for your help with the oil leak, and a special thanks to Andy Vowel for lending me the exhaust! One question, where can I find a roll cage? I have a roll bar without the side bars and front cage. All in all I have caught the bug of racing and I intend to have a go again v.soon! Cheers

[AndyV]

Jigsaw do a full cage.
Safety devices also used to do one.

You could try to buy a front hoop only and door and roof bars to link it to your fitted rear bar.

My cage started as the safety devices bolt-in cage, long since modified to be taller and welded in. However the front hoop is still the same.

Mertlin motorsport (at Castle Combe) will cut and bend tube to your own specified shape for you to get welded in yourself which is how I did my tall rear cage.

For UK club motorsport you do not need a FIA homogulated cage but it does have to comply with the MSA 'blue book' rules.

Cheers
Andy

[Mik]

Sorry I couldn't make the Mallory Park meeting but it's good to see so many cars (and drivers of course) out there. Thanks for the pictures John. I did spend most of that weekend getting my own car a few fractions of a percent nearer to being race-worthy again. Someday I'll join in myself again.