MG Owners Club Racing Championship 2001

Silverstone is traditionally the venue for the opening round of the BARC/MGOC championshp, usually around the second or third week of March. With spring around the corner no one could have expected the atrocious conditions which welcomed competitors (and a few hardy spectators) for the dawn had brought a heavy snowfall onto the Northamptonshire circuit. Proceedings were delayed some hours, abandonment of the meeting did look likely for a time. As the snow and slush melted there was some consultation between race officials & competitors. With still a lot of surface water on the circuit, the go-ahead to race was given at around 11.30.

There have been several close season developments, the main one being that now the MGFs, which last season ran alongside the MGBs and MG Midgets in Class A, have been given their own class, appropriately called Class F ! The new class will now run together alongside the Class B cars (front wheel drive Maestros/Montegos), this in effect that there will be two races within one. Because of the limited numbers of MGFs, drivers will only earn 50% of points available toward the championship. If there are eight or more MGFs in competition, then full points will be awarded. For this, the first of thirteen rounds there were five MGFs entered to race.

Due to the delay in starting because of the weather, the qualifying/practice session was reduced to 3 laps only. As the session went untimed, the actual grid was decided by race officials, who, armed with their records of past performances and knowledge of driver ability made some well informed decisions when producing the grid formation which is set out below.

The Grid Class A

ROW 9                  8|Swain      9|Sinclair
  
ROW 8                        16|Dixon       27|Keen

ROW 7                 37|Kimber    45|MCCormack    15|Noble

ROW 6                        26|Kemp         41|Kimber

ROW 5                 14|Amphlett  18|Waterman     23|Brown

ROW 4                        10|Mercer        7|Clarkson

ROW 3                 19|Rees      59|Naish        24|Thorn

ROW 2                        30|Smith        28|Pollard

ROW 1                  2|St Barbe   3|Baynam       12|Clark
                          POLE

The Grid Class B & F

ROW 11                33|Hunt         

ROW 10                       8|Bull          38|Stanworth

ROW 9                 25|Roberts    26|Winter    27|Whittington

ROW 8                       20|Kendrick      21|Whittington

ROW 7                 16|Lovell     15|Cook      19|Cook

ROW 6                       28|Sheppard      17|Williams

ROW 5                  6|Cole       10|Mellor    57|Walker

ROW 4                       11|Weidner        7|Tanner

ROW 3                 87|Evans       69|Arden     59|Naish

ROW 2                        12|Golhar        9|Evans

ROW 1                  2|Campbell    1|Davis      4|Perry
                          POLE

Race Results - 10 Laps
1..Jim Baynam          MGB GT    15.47.946 @ 62.43mph
2..Dave Rees           MGB        +0.246
3..Roy Clarkson        MGB        +0.583
4..Jonathan Kimber     MGB        +0.974
5..Harry Sinclair      MGB GT     +6.531
6..Lorraine Clark      MG Midget  +9.066
Fastest Lap: Harry Sinclair  1m 30.431 @ 65.24mph

D.N.F 
Peter St Barbe  (9 Laps)
Philip Waterman (1 Lap)
Dave Brown      (1 Lap)

Race Results - 10 Laps
1..David Mellor       MGF    14.27.859 @ 68.19mph
2..Nick Evans         MG Maestro  +10.238
3..Andy Campbell      MG Maestro  +12.095
4..James Perry        MG Maestro  +12.362
5..Ian Evans          MG Maestro  +19.099
6..Kevin Bull         MG Maestro  +24.028
Fastest Laps: 
Class B  Andy Campbell 1m 25.140 @ 69.30mph
Class F  David Mellor  1m 25.280 @ 69.18mph

D.N.F.
Alan Whittington (3 laps)