Javelin Trackdays Charity Stages 2003

Cadwell Park, Lincolnshire – 30^th November 2003

Report by Andrew Cadle, Photographs by Simon Clarke (www.sc-photography.co.uk)

Thame Motorsport Club had 2 entries on this rally: -

	Car 33 Kevin Pead / Andrew Cadle – Ford Escort Mk2
	Car 83 Dick Mauger / Steve McNutty – Ford Escort WRC-K

The 2 TMC crews were among 82 cars to start this tarmac rally at the Cadwell Park race circuit. The heavy rain in the days running up to the event leaving the circuit very slippery for the opening stages, particularly the woodland area at the northern end, which did not dry out all day. The Hairpin caught out crews with it's downhill approach and a tyre wall right at the edge of the tarmac, on the exit. No F1-style run off area here!

The northern loop (Woodland Circuit) is run through a narrow valley with little sun to dry the track. The circuit then climbs a hill through the fast left at Coppice. The section along Park Straight to the Gooseneck being the fastest part of the circuit. The track then drops steeply after the Gooseneck to the tight Mansfield corner before heading back up the valley to the Mountain section.

The format of the rally was the usual single-venue two-laps-per-stage layout with a merge at the start on the Mountain straight and a split for the finish. With the organisers keen to put on a fast moving event with minimal delays the penalty for hitting the split/merge chicanes was exclusion! 

Car 33 Kevin and Andrew.
This was Kevin's first run out in his newly acquired Escort Mk2, powered by a normally aspirated Cosworth engine. We opted to complete scrutineering & documentation on the Saturday, making for a more relaxed start to the event.

Kevin Pead / Andrew Cadle

Stage 1 arrival opened at an early 7:55am and running at number 33 we had completed the first stage and were back in the paddock before most rallies have even started. SS1 was a cautious start as we learnt the circuit and found out where the slippery bits were, which was almost all of it for the opening laps! We improved on each stage with just a couple of half-spins and a trip across the grass at the Gooseneck on SS3, as we missed the blind approach to the down-hill left turn, to interrupt our progress.

Stage 4 caused a momentary scare as the car in front suffered a blown engine and filled the narrow pit lane, through which the stage ran, with smoke, causing us to come to an almost complete halt as visibility was reduced to a few yards. Despite this we still improved our stage time by a few seconds.

The only problem we had all day with the car was some vibration from the steering on SS3, just before we left the track! This was sorted back in service and the car ran faultlessly for the rest of the day. The last two stages were completed with our best stage times as the southern section dried out. With an improvement on stage time with each run we climbed up the time sheets to finish 41st overall and 3rd in class from 8 starters.

Dick Mauger / Steve McNutty

Car 83 Dick Mauger / Steve McNutty.
The car developed an oil leak in the front diff before Dick left to travel up to Cadwell on the Saturday afternoon. This was fixed but as he would miss Saturday scrutineering an early 3:30am start on Sunday was called for. He arrived at the Circuit in time to scruitineer and meet up with his co-driver for the event, Steve McNutty, of organisers Binbrook Motor Club.

Dick had managed to get a late entry, so despite being seeded at 83 was slotted in among the faster runners. On the opening stages the track was so slippery that even with 4 wheel drive he said it was difficult to put the power down.

A steady opening couple of stages placed them in 15th but they dropped out of the top 20 on the middle 2 stages. On the drying final stages the times picked up again as they moved back up the leader board and at the finish Dick & Steve were 16th Overall and 13th in class from 25 starters.

Summary
Paul Newbold & John Morgan won the event by setting fastest time on all 6 stages in an ex-works Celica GT4, which was still carrying works colours and German plates. They were followed by an Impreza WRC and several 6R4s and Cosworths on an event which included 25 4WD/Turbo cars.

The 6 stage format and early start worked well with the organisers easily meeting their aim of finishing in daylight. The only thing that could have been improved was the length of the stages, which at only around 3 to 4 miles each were a bit short, but this is a limitation of the venue as even the full circuit at Cadwell Park is only just over 2 miles long. Both TMC crews completed the event in under 25 minutes of stage times but at only £100 entry fee the event was still pretty good value.

Overall this was an extremely well organised and run event with no delays and the provisional result posted within minutes of the last cars finishing. The awards were presented just 50 minutes after the last car crossed the finish line! Well done to Binbrook Motor Club for an excellent event.

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