MG Owners Club Racing Championship 2001

Lydden Hill, is probably the shortest circuit in the country at just 1 mile. The weather was fantastic with sunshine for the entire race day. Local restrictions mean that no cars are on the circuit until 12.30, but after that it is non-stop action right thru until six o'clock. In total there were some 120 drivers, and 9 action packed races. The MGs were races number 4 & 8.

The fastest time in Class A was set by Lorraine Clark, already a winner at Mallory Park she set a fastest time of 67.74 mph. Gary Smith who had claimed pole last time out at Brands Hatch had to settle for second place with a the narrowest of margins (0.145) seperating the two MG Midgets. In third place another MG Midget, Peter St. Barbe. Peter often gets a good start , and will be looking to repeat his lightning start of Brands Hatch, where he went on to win. The entire field of 18 cars was seperated from first to last by just over 9 seconds. The top five all within 1 second of each other.

Like Class A the Class B and Class F cars had a dry sunny practice session.
Two of the three MGFs entered for todays race qualified for the front row, with Dave Mellor taking the position of pole! Michael Weidner has made considerable improvement after develpment of his cars suspension geometry which gave him the number 2 spot on the grid. Leading the Class B cars Andy Campbell recorded the best time, closely followed by Nick Golhar, Nick Evans and Paul Roberts. The first seven cars on the grid qualified all within 1 second of each other. Some close racing was guranteed!

It is just a short dash to the first corner, a slight left into a dip before sweeping right through 'Pilgrims' and onto 'Chessons Drift'. The 18 MGs are still pretty well bunched up, with the three Midgets of St. Barbe, Clark, and Smith fight for over first place. Lorraine Clark takes the lead in the early laps, pulling away slightly from Peter St Barbe and Gary Smith, who both use all their racecraft to outdrive each other! There is plenty of ducking and diving also from the rest of the field. Braking late into the 'Devils Elbow' and stealing a place on the inside, but everyone knows this trick, so the mixture of attacking and defensive driving makes for a lot of place swapping in the middle order! Briefly Peter St. Barbe took the lead but after completing just six laps he pulled off the circuit and into the pit lane with some kind of a problem. I spoke to him after the race annd he told me the car was running hot and the engine had started to pink, mindful that he could do expensive damage, he decided to retire from the race. Jim Bayman had no great expectations on a circuit suited to the Midgets, but Jim was up there and in with a shout. Paul Naish span out in a cloud of dust at 'Devils Elbow'. Paul had overcooked the brakes. A marshal stood closeby with a fire extinguiser as Paul Scrambled to saftey leaving the beached Midget with the brakes smouldering!! After being on pole and losing it on the first corner at Brand Hatch last time out, Gary Smith was hungry for his first ever win! Both he and Lorraine Clark had a real hard race, which before his retirement had invlolved Peter St. Barbe also, with all three closely matched but it was Gary that took the chequred flag to secure that long awaited first win. Dave Amphlett equaled his best position coming home in fifth just behind Dave Rees in fourth and Jim Baynam in third.

POS Driver            Car             Time       Gap     MPH    Best Lap
1  Gary Smith        MG Midget      13:34.881           66.26    53.561
2  Lorraine Clark    MG Midget                  +0.370  66.23    53.568
3  Jim Baynam        MGB                        +7.181  65.68    53.810
4  Dave Rees         MGB GT                     +9.074  65.53    53.985
5  David Amphlett    MGB                        +9.862  65.47    53.865
6  Kelly Mercer      MG Midget                 +11.629  65.33    54.212
7  Chris Pollard     MG Midget                 +17.253  64.89    54.096
8  Ian McCormack     AHS                       +19.265  64.73    54.412
9  Darren Young      MGB GT                    +33.837  63.62    54.996
10 Philip Waterman   MG Midget                 +34.058  63.60    54.451
11 Roy Clarkson      MGB                       +34.892  63.54    55.202
12 John Kimber       MGB GT                    +43.281  63.92    55.648
13 Trevor Dixon      MGB GT                    +46.261  62.70    55.938
14 Phil Trott        MG Midget                 +46.801  62.66    54.496
15 Paul Keen         MGB GT                    + 1 Lap  58.35    59.287
16 Jules Swain       MG Midget                 + 2 Laps 55.12    59.860

Not Classified:
Paul Naish     10 Laps DNF
Peter St. Barbe 6 Laps DNF

Fastest Lap:
Peter St Barbe  53.412 @ 67.40mph

The two men on the front row were both driving MGFs (Class F) and both lauched off the line a lot better than some of the cars in the Austrian F1 Grand Prix. A slightly smaller crowd than the Austrian A1 Ring, but no less enthusiastic!, saw the the MGFs pull away from the MG Maestros like a couple of hares being chased by a pack of greyhounds. The MGFs out in front had their own two way battle, with the eventual victor being David Mellor. Throughout the whole 15 lap race there was a tremendous dog fight between the leading Class B cars. Nick Evans made his way to the front of the Maestros, with Andy Campbell having to fight it out with Nick Golhar. Paul Roberts in the No 25 car was on a flyer too, first he battled side by side with James Perry. Then for several laps it looked as if he might just get past Campbell and Golhar. Philip Cook in the third MGF struggled towards the back of the field with had some handling problems, he certainly spun his car at least once at 'Pilgrims'. James Perry and Ian Evans also had quite a good race finishing in 7th and 8th place respectively. As mentioned Dave Mellor took the race win

POS Driver            Car             Time       Gap     MPH    Best Lap
1  David Mellor       MGF           13:10.008           68.35    51.619
2  Michael Weidner    MGF                       +0.746  68.28    51.874
3  Nick Evans         MG Maestro                +13.103 67.23    52.769
4  Nick Golhar        MG Maestro                +14.497 67.12    52.837
5  Andy Campbell      MG Maestro                +14.835 67.09    52.641
6  Paul Roberts       MG Maestro                +15.271 67.05    52.863
7  James Perry        MG Maestro                +17.726 66.85    52.992
8  Ian Evans          MG Maestro                +17.912 66.83    52.994
9  Robin Walker       MG Maestro                +19.527 66.70    53.011
10 Doug Cole          MG Maestro                +20.066 66.66    53.032
11 John Devine        MG Maestro                +21.413 66.55    53.189
12 Scott Tanner       MG Maestro                +28.431 65.97    53.513
13 Daniel Whittington MG Maestro                +32.277 65.67    53.650
14 Jonathon Perry     MG Maestro                +33.027 65.61    53.504
15 Kevin Bull         MG Maestro                +42.425 64.87    53.044
16 Philip Cook        MGF                       +1 lap  63.18    54.206

Fastest laps:  
Mellor     51.619 @ 69.74mph                
Campbell   52.641 @ 68.39mph