Welcome to September Full Chat which again has been a busy month for our members.
Starting off with our last Classic Run of the season on 4th, a good turnout with 17 cars and 32 people having a meal at the finish. The ‘Full Circle’ route organised by Duncan & Marian Russell, started and finished at the Carpenters Arms, East Winch. The Friday Evening Classic Runs will start again in April 2027.
Before we got away the presentation of the Cheque for £1,700 was given to NARS, which was the amount the club donated from our 48th Classic Rally, which was held in July.
On 6th the club had 3 members taking part in the Dengie 100 Targa Rally, Rob Palmer driving with Kevin Groom on the maps finishing 10th O/A 8th in Class, David Smalley Driving with Gary White on the Maps finishing 7th O/A and 6th in Class, a report from David is below.
Earlier in the year Chelmsford Motor Club released that it would be organising a multi venue targa rally solely based on the peninsula east of Chelmsford around Bradwell on sea. We put it in our calendars and with my usual level of last minute preparation I was still working on the car on the Saturday only hours before leaving to stay the night before the event at Maldon Essex. A lastminute Navigator change saw Gary White sitting in beside me. Having not driven the car competitively for 18 months I was a little too cautious on the first few tests meaning we lost time to the top crews. But the car was running well until I had a brake warning lamp illuminate. Turned out a rear brake union was leaking fluid I believe it may have taken a hit from a big rock / brick as there were plenty around. I nipped it up and we carried on. At lunch time we were in 8th place overall and with everything working well we decided to have a bit more of a push in the afternoon. We managed to get ourselves up into joint 5th position with two tests to go. In the penultimate test the car decided that it didn’t want to stay in second gear anymore so I was having to hold it in with the gear leaver if I needed to use 2nd. We were working through the issue and still maintaining a good pace, Unfortunately I didn’t manage to stop in time at the final stop astride the cones resulting in our only penalty of the day. But that 10 seconds dropped us down to 7th overall. All in all a great day and I look forward to competing on it again in the future.
12 days later we were planning on competing on a Kings Lynn & District motor club 12 car navigational rally in the car. Now I had broken it we had a problem. I managed to source a gearbox which took a little longer than planned and the car was dropped off to Rob Palmer to swap the LSD from the old box to the new one and re assemble. We collected the car from Rob on Friday afternoon. It was a fantastic service from Rob and I can’t thank him enough. As I am sure that It would have probably sat on my driveway broken for some time if it was left to me.
On 13th the club had 9 cars at the Kings Lynn Heritage Classic Car Day. Club members Adrian Cunington won Pre 75 Classic with his Bristol, Jody Wilson won Post 75 Classic with his BMW M3, and I won Best Modern Classic 2000 Onwards with the Porsche Cayman. Near a clean sweep with all the awards only miss out on Best Car of the Day!!!
The 18th was our next round of the Norfolk 12 Car Series. Unfortunately, only 5 cars took part, also there was a shortage of marshals due to it being held on a Friday. Going forward the club will revert to holding our events on a Wednesday, it is hoped this will help with more venues being available and encourage marshals to come out to help. Thank you to Ian, David & June Pollard for organizing and a Big thank you to June for cooking the food at the end of the evening. A few words from winners David & Paul Smalley below.
Onto the KLDMC 12 car. We were seeded at Car 1. We left the start, making good progress with the navigation and got to the first control with time to spare. The second section was a circular herringbone with Three LWRT’s on the section. Luckly we were given a start location on the circle and again we were away with the route on the map arriving to the time control with time to wait, Section 3 was a triangles and Squares with numbers inside, this referred to Crossroads and “T” junctions and the number is which exit you took with you approaching on number 1. Section 4 was a code. The letters “ K L M C” had been used to represent North Southeast and West. This was across a map join in the village of Foulden where there are numerous little roads and junction so was quite testing in the section. There next two sections were road classification eg “ YYY YYG “, which you approach on the first letter. Then we had distances travelled on green and red roads taking us to the penultimate control. The final section was tulip diagrams and a list of the numbers to use. But with some numbers represented by a question mark. It was a challenge and the route didn’t use certain roads that we would have expected, however we arrived at the finish without dropping any time all night. We awaited the results where we were announced as the winners with 0 fails and dropping 0 minutes. Thank you goes to the Pollards for putting on a fantastic event and providing us with restaurant quality food at the finish also to all the Marshalls who gave up their evening to man posts and carry out other official duties relating to the event. Dad didn’t do a bad job of Driving my car either. 2nd O/A was Mark Banham & Jonathan Stimpson 3rd O/A Ben Cutting & Rob Palmer.
20th saw the club helping at the Hunstanton Soap Box Derby, with various rolls ranging from 4 teams scrutineering soap boxes first thing, start and finish marshals, also members cars on the club stand on the lower green. Stand out members Paul Smalley and Andy Congreve for attending pre-event meetings and setting out the course. Mick & Gill Beauchamp who carried out a bucket collection on behalf of NARS just before the afternoon runs got under way, collecting £360.36 a magnificent effort. This is a great event to be involved to get the KINGS LYNN & DISTRICT MOTOR CLUB name out there for all to see.
FUTURE EVENTS
- 7th October: Karting evening – at Anglia Karting Centre, North Pickenham. Teams of two for an 1hr race arrive at 6.30 for 7.00pm start. Places are still available contact Dave Ottoway:- dave_ottoway@hotmail.co.uk or 07836603272.
- 4th Norfolk 12 Car Series, starting from Great Massingham Village Hall. Organized by Paul & David Smalley to book entries and marshals’ contact: – Paul Smalley paul.smalley@keir.co.uk
- 20th Norfolk 12 Car Series, starting from Wendling Village Hall. Organized by Peter Riddle for entries and marshals’ contact: – Peter Riddle at treasurer@sccon.co.uk
- 28th Brum/Brum Stages Rally at Santa Pod for details https://brumbrumstages.co.uk
That’s all for now. Hope to see you at some of the coming events.
