The last sprint of the season was held in cold, windy and overcast conditions with rain forecast for later that morning. Two cars were to be shared the Mk II RGR by Tim Ross and Ted Sharpe, and a Cooper Mk IX by John and Andrew Turner. The helpful BARC officials had agreed to allow us to start in the paddock area and drive through the holding area to the start line to take our timed runs and drive back to the paddock area, this saved a lot of effort for the starters and pushers, and made for a much more relaxed enjoyable day.

So, after a mug of hot tea and bacon sandwich all 8 of us took our first practice runs mostly without incident. The track surface being cold it was unlikely that our class record would be broken today. Andrew Turner [the lad] setting the fastest time of 39.44, from John Turner [the dad] by just 0.23 of a second. With the forecast rain holding off everyone managed to improve on their second practice run and it was still [the lad] faster than [the dad] just!!!

However, all was not well with John’s Mk IX a broken drive shaft found to be the fault, but worst still the spare did not fit, so a shaft would have to be made up out of the two.
 

Now John's never been the biggest lad but is this some sort of ploy to gain more speed? We should be told - Ed

The first timed runs brought my best time of the day 40.03, Mark Riley’s run was spoiled by an oiled plug at the hairpin, Patrick Riley managed a splendid 42.09 very good for his first time at Curborough. After lunch and the 2nd timed runs, only Ted Sharpe managed to improve on his time and take a well deserved 3rd place. Both Tim and Ted have been improving the RGR all season and it is going quite well now. Tony Hodson’s very original MkII Cooper ran almost without fault all day. Mark’s JAP having again oiled a plug to spoil his second run this time after only a few yards.

With the sun now out and no sign of the forecast rain and with time permitting we were all given a ‘fun run’, this time Mark’s JAP didn’t oil a plug and he set a fastest time of 39.31, with John’s Mk IX now repaired, he was just 0.20 of a second slower, Andrew managed 46.59 which included a spin of a full 360 degrees!

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