Pembrey, June 2013

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Another trip to Wales and with mediocre results from Steve at Snetterton we hoped for some better luck at Pembrey.  Ryan in car #21 was looking forward to his first outing at a Welsh track and we rocked up in … Read the rest of this entry

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Snetterton, May 2013

A first outing for Locost on the 300 circuit at Snetterton, and another full grid, this time 41 cars would be starting.  Snetterton is quite the power circuit and with a few issues with top end power, SEWC had been unable to get to the bottom of the issue.

Testing on Friday took place in extreme wet conditions, certainly racing would not have taken place with as much water on the track surface, and Saturday saw a change of conditions to dry racing for the qualifying and races.  Ryan Munt with the second SEWC car was present for his first races, the car looking stunning and very quick straight out of the box.

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Castle Combe, May 2013

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Once again the Locost Series were invited to race at Castle Combe and with good results from Mallory, hopes were high of some great finishes at this beautiful circuit. With one Locost on the grid for this event we concentrated … Read the rest of this entry

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Mallory Park, April 2013

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Rounds 1 and 2 were held at a very cold Mallory Park and a first visit to this venue for SEWC.  With our second car almost ready, we took just the one car to Mallory and had high hopes of … Read the rest of this entry

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2012 Season Summary

What an eventful year!  It all started in March with a disappointing rolling road session where we found the new car was down on power, and a set of poor finishes at Silverstone as a consequence.  Procomp came to the rescue and soon enough we were back on form and bagging some good champioship points.

The video below summarises all the rounds from this years championship, and should keep the motivation going this winter to ensure a successful campaign in 2013.

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2012 Birkett 6 Hour Relay

 

 

Birkett Six Hour Relay. Silverstone Arena Grand Prix Circuit. Saturday October 27th 2012.

After entering the Birkett for the first time last year, this year was a must.

We’d had a good keen response from our fellow Locosters so decided to enter two teams of four.

The first team would be Three Northern Monkeys and a Southern Softy and would consist of Sam Bradley, Steve Wells, Stuart Sellars and Mike Comber.

Owing to their success in this years championship we’d guessed the team may be given fewer credit laps than their competitors. This was to be the case.

The other team would be Three Virgins and a Big Berry Tart. Members would be Dave Berry, Shaun Brame, Tim Penstone Smith and Barry Stuart.

Only Dave had competed before so the remaining drivers would be the Birkett virgins.

The Isle of Wight posse travelled up Friday afternoon and included Steve and Hayley, Dan, Baz, Ryan, James, Fran, Thomas, Allan and myself.  We arrived at the track around six o’clock and managed to get all the cars scrutineered apart from Mike and Sam. These two would be done in the morning.  Garage 8A would be our home for the next day.

Saturday morning and a cold and windy race day.  Qualifying started at 9am and no sooner had Sam come in from the first session I was called to race control to see Viv, the clerk of the Course! Sam had overtaken another car under yellows approaching maggots. Our first and fortunately only black mark of the day. The sun was in his eyes apparently and he didn’t see the flags.

Prior to qualifying we’d received the handicaps and grid positions calculated on previous race results and lap times. There were four Locost teams competing and the credit laps allowed were Team Monkey, 25 laps. Team Virgin, 31 laps. Four Corners, 27 laps and The Growlers, 30 laps.  As suspected The Northern Monkeys had the least laps. After qualifying the handicaps were adjusted to suit the drivers pace and Team Monkey were knocked back another lap to 24!   A trip to see the handicappers enquiring as to why the lap reduction was issued revealed that Mike and Stuart had gone faster than the times we had submitted prior to the event. The team certainly had their work cut out now so flat out would be the order of the day!

Grid positions were Monkeys 55th, Virgins 65th, Four Corners 60th and The Growlers 64th. Steve was up first for The Monkeys and Dave for The Virgins.  The start was very clean with everybody making a steady getaway. Last year the race was stopped for over half an hour due to a start line pile up. No repeat this year thankfully.

Both teams worked their way through the driver orders with The Monkeys opting for two stints each of 45 minutes whilst The Virgins were doing three half hour sessions each.  The safety car only made one 13 minute appearance during the race near the end of the first hour interrupting  Steves, Stuarts and Barrys first sessions. 

After three hours racing The Monkeys were up to 40th overall and 4th on handicap with The Virgins at 60th overall and 9th on handicap. Things were looking good. Our main rivals Four Corners were 46th and  3rd on handicap.  The race was on! During the next couple of hours the handicap positions swapped about a bit but both teams stayed in and around the top ten.  At five hours Team Virgin had reeled in the Monkeys and overtaken to take third spot whilst Team Monkey dropped to fifth. Four Corners had now jumped to 2nd.

We were now into the last hour and it was going down to the wire. A brief shower evened out the field a bit as the Locosts with their road tyres could keep a reasonable pace whereas others were struggling on proper race tyres. Mike and Sam were taking the final two stints for The Monkeys and were told to push hard. They were now safely ahead of The Virgins but were on a mission to catch Four Corners. When Mike came in they were over a lap down but lapping quite a bit quicker so Sam was told to give it all he dared. With a drying track he put in some really quick times and was about 6 or 8 seconds a lap quicker. He gained enough time to get onto the same lap but as the chequered flag fell at six hours he was still about forty seconds behind. A great effort all the same.

So an absolutely fantastic result for both teams. Three Northern Monkeys and a Southern Softy were 1st in class A and 3rd overall in handicap and Three Virgins and a Big Berry Tart were just one behind at 2nd in class A and 4th overall. Four Corners were 2nd overall and were technically first in class A but the rules state only one trophy per team so everybody moved up a spot in the class.   Scratch positions were Monkeys 39th, Virgins 55th and Four Corners 45th. The Growlers came in at 17th on handicap and 59th on scratch. Very good for their first Birkett.  67 teams entered in total.

 

It was a brilliant team effort with everybody doing their bit. A massive thank you to everyone involved. Firstly the drivers as without them there wouldn’t have been a race. Richard, Chris, Andy, Fiona, Lucy, Dan, Ryan, James and Baz in the garage and on the pitwall.  The ladies for providing the food and catering facilities. Thomas and Allan for capturing the event on film. The wives, girlfriends, families and friends that came and supported us  and everybody else that I’ve probably failed to mention.

It was the perfect end to a cracking Locost season. Roll on next year. Hopefully it will be even bigger and better than this year.

 

Team SEWC (plus trophies!) left to right. Steve Wells, James Robbins, Brian Robbins, Dan Westwood, Matt Price and Ryan Munt standing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Snetterton, Rounds 13 & 14, October 2012

The weekend that was billed and built up to as the Championship decider would soon be turned fully on its head by the typical unruly Norfolk weather.  Saturday morning the mist descended and as the pea-soup settled, the paddock wondered if we would even get out for Qualification.

With one Marshalls post not able to see the next, it was not possible to send cars out in the usual free-for-all manner that has become the practice “race” for Locost.  The safety car was soon deployed at the head of the pit lane and the cars lined up from Assembly behind it, the fog so thick you could barely see half a dozen cars ahead.  Those at the back of the train were completely unaware that qualification would be behind the safety car, following strict safety car rules, and several back markers left the pitlane in the usual manner, unable to see far enough ahead to he safety car, and blissfully unaware started to overtake the slow moving cars.  Luckily, sense prevailed, yellow flags waving vigorously and drivers realised their error and fell back in line before an accident had a chance to happen – a close call due simply to a lack of communication from the assembly marshals to the drivers present.

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Donington Park, Rounds 11 & 12, September 2012

Sporting the lastest Procomp suspension upgrades we had high hopes for a good haul of championship points for the club’s second visit to Donington in early September.

We would also be busy at SEWC with Steve racing in Locosts and Matt “Bazra” Price racing in Stockhatch with his Saxo VTR.

Matt “Bazra” Price and the 2012 Stockhatch

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Anglesey Rounds 9 & 10, August 2012

After a short summer break it was back to the track at the start of August with a long haul visit to Anglesey’s Coastal Circuit.  A long drive up from our little island off the south coast of England to another little island off the north coast of Wales and we arrived Thursday evening ready for testing on Friday. Read More

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Donington Park, Rounds 7&8, June 2012

It was the first visit of the year to Donington Park, the new home of the 750 Motor Club and an action packed weekend awaited Team SEWC.

Following from a mixed result at Cadwell we needed a solid performance at Donington in order to reach our target of a top 10 finish in the championship.  Engine woes earlier in the year had meant a slow start to the season and a lack of championship points.  Time for that to start to change.

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