We are now back from our trip to Angouleme with Clive Cocks (WSM), Paul Freeman (Alexander GT), Ian Hulett (WSM Sanction 2) and spouses.
Early French organisation was pretty poor but seemed to come together on race day. David Bain, who was entered in our race, and had been touring parts of Europe with his wife in his Lenham, broke down with a clutch slave cylinder failure near Le Mans on the way down to Angouleme. Pieter Bakker found a driver and loaned his car and trailer to get David, his car and wife down to the circuit where we replaced his clutch slave cylinder so that he could race. [Well done lads!] The weather gradually improved and by the Sunday it was up into the high 20's C.

Practice: Everybody got through qualifying although Ian Hulett came in after 8 laps with brake failure and Paul Freeman a few minutes from the end of the session with over-heating. I'm not too sure of the qualifying positions but I think Ian was 7th with Clive a few places back and Paul nearer the back of the field.

The Race: Ian (Hulett) made a cracking start and came into the first corner in 3rd but a few laps in he got mugged on the Rue Carnot corner and dropped back to 7th. He made up a couple of places and then, when the second place car (V8 Morgan) dropped out, was back up to 4th which he held on to until the end though his brakes were again failing with the heat. Clive Cocks had a great race. As he began to relax after the panic of the start, he started to make his way through the field to end up 7th and came back to the paddock with a big grin on his face ~ was it elation or relief ?? [Both I expect] The lowest diff we had available for the Alexander was a 4.8, so Paul was forced to go down into first to get around the hairpins which rather compromised his race and again with over-heating he elected to come in a few minutes from the end of the race rather than waste an engine. David Bain in the Lenham finished and did remarkably well considering he was running a 3.7 diff !!!

As Pieter and Ian finished in the top four of their race they were automatically entered in the last race ~ the GTS Final. This news was sprung on us so we had little or no time to bleed Ian's brakes again before going out. The assembly for the final was a bit of a farce, as rather than each competitor taking up grid positions according to their finishing place in their race, it was a free-for-all to get out on to the grid first and grab the a spot as near to the front as they could. As it was the guy that should have won did, in a Diva F10. Both Pieter and Ian finish the final, Ian again with little or no brakes by the end.

Pieter (Bakker)'s car is a fairly extensively modified Sprite with Monza bonnet, one piece clip on fibreglass Frogeye rear end, all round disc brakes on semi elliptic rear end with adjustable shocks. I believe he runs a 1310cc engine.

We met up with a few faces over the weekend including Bob Blayden and his Aussie mates, Alan Anstead and chums and David Bruzas.

The ever entertaining Dougal Cawley of Longstone tyres put on a great show of 4-wheel drifting to win his race in his Frazer Nash.

Attached are a few photos of the weekend (right).

Regards Paul Webb