Belchford Downhill
Sunday
16th September
Racing 9.30a.m. - 4.00 p.m.
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Thank you to all members who came along and supported MG Car Club Lincolnshire Centre's entry which ran as number 19 on the day. |
| A full report on the event and our entry appears in the November 2007 Issue of MG Enthusiast Magazine which is on sale from Thursday 11th October. | |
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Team
Leader Peter Ellis (right) supervises Doug Samuel (left) as he applies
the Power Pack to EX121 with Dave Noble onboard. Photo
supplied by Simon Goldsworthy Editor of MG Enthusiast Magazine. |
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EX121
looks resplendent posing in front of Doug Samuel's Replica BMC Transporter
with the |
The Belchford Downhill Challenge
The
Event
The Belchford Downhill Challenge is an event for gravity racers and takes place
in the beautiful Wolds village of Belchford near Horncastle. This year it fell
on Sunday 16th September 2007. Teams take part in the competition in various
classes covering the downhill course of approximately 800 metres. The course
record stood at just under 54 seconds before the 2007 event.
The
Background
The Lincolnshire Centre Committee decided in early 2007 to enter a team for
the Belchford Downhill Challenge and the design and build took place over the
first half of the year. The Build Team was made up of five members of the MG
Car Club Lincolnshire Centre: Peter Hermite, Doug Samuel, Dave Noble, Jon Davison
and Peter Ellis and they built the racer, named EX121, from scratch aided by
generous sponsorship from several local and not so local businesses. The design
was loosely based on the early MG Record Breakers in the hope that the performance
would also emulate the efforts of those early MGs! The three drivers were Peter
Hermite, Doug Samuel and Dave Noble. Two trial runs were held in South Lincolnshire,
one as a bare chassis and one with the bodywork fitted and both were successful
leaving the team really looking forward to the event. Scrutineering on 1st September
also went well.
The
Result
The team arrived in style at Belchford at 07.15 in Doug Samuel's Replica BMC
Transporter. It was a bright and warm, but windy, day and Peter Hermite took
the first run, followed by Dave then Doug. As a result of their first run experiences,
some minor adjustments were made which led to a significant improvement in the
times of Peter’s and Dave’s second runs. Peter’s second run
was the fastest of the day for our team with Dave close behind, but unfortunately
Doug missed out on his second run as time did not permit and the event was shortened.
Although very tiring, everyone really enjoyed the day and the result was a bonus.
The Centre’s team had achieved a very creditable top ten finish, managing
seventh overall out of 28, in their first attempt and they also received the
2nd place award for the Best Turned Out Team.
A full report on the event and our entry appears in the
November 2007 Issue of MG Enthusiast Magazine which is on sale on Thursday 11th
October.
The
Future
At the moment the Belchford Team and the Lincolnshire Centre are considering
their options for the future. Questions like whether to build a new design of
‘soap box’, the possibility of entering a ladies team, refining
the design of the present ‘soap box’, whether to enter other events,
etc all need to be answered before progressing.
Peter Ellis 8.10.07
| Simon
Goldsworthy , Editor of MG Enthusiast magazine, captures the EX121 Team
with their transport vehicle - Douglas Samuel's BMC Transporter - with the
beautiful Belchford countryside in the background. A full report on the event will appear in MG Enthusiast Magazine November 2007 Issue, on sale on Thursday 11th October. Don't Miss It! |
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The
scenes below were captured by Sheila Laurence, Nigel Pack and Richard
Sivill at the 2007 Belchford Downhill Challenge. |
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 Second Fastest Team Overall No 8 Flying Fox This Father & Son Team from Belchford were very competitive. |
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 Best Novelty Class Sheila's Wheels resplendent in pink! |
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 No 9 the Devil's Rejects Their video of building this cart is on YouTube and it was certainly a scary looking beast. |
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 No 19 EX121 with Dave Noble Second Best Turned Out |
 No 21 Crockles Third Best Turned Out |
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 Scoreboard showing Peter - Dave - Doug - Peter -Dave - Scores. |
Three
Days Before the Event . . . |
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All
Dressed Up with Somewhere Special to Go! |
Final
Fettling! |
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 Doug and Dave S (standing behind EX121) look on as Dave N, Peter E & Peter H put the final touches to our racer. |
| EX121
with Sponsor Boards |
The
Proud MG Team |
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 Left to Right: Dave Noble, Peter Ellis (Team Leader), Doug Samuel and Peter Hermite. |
Photos
taken by Sheila Laurence |
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Here are Some Interesting Facts about our Downhill racer "EX121" . . .
THE LINCOLNSHIRE CENTRE OF THE MG CAR CLUB AND THE BUILD TEAM WOULD LIKE TO
THANK THE FOLLOWING COMPANIES FOR THEIR ASSISTANCE ON THIS PROJECT:-
To find out more about the Lincolnshire Centre's involvement in the event, click on the Newssheets (below) ; please return to this page for information on the 2008 event . . .
Please
click to see the April
- May
-
June - early July
- late July -
August
- late August
- September
- Final
September - EX121' Sponsors Newssheet or for the Factsheet;
they will download in pdf format
Please visit www.belchford.org.uk
for more information about the 2007 event.
Please click to return to the Calendar
Page or Welcome Page
