Beverley & District Motor Club

St. Valentine’s Day Massacre!

(Well, almost!)

13 February - NHMC Autotest - Reader’s Yard.

This was the second event this year Robert Newlove had set up. It was also to be the last ‘shake down’ for Heepy before the ANCC Championship started.

Saturday 12th 4.00 p m saw me running around like the proverbial ‘blue arsed fly’! Having decided to replace all the ignition parts on Heepy (first time since 1986!) I was back at Waterloo Engineering for the third time ‘cos they’d given me the wrong points. Chappie told me it was the right box, but wrong points inside. Whoopee! Nearest ones were in Brid! Money back, round to Welpton’s/T C Harrison/Parrish’s or whatever they call it now. Shut! Why the Hell are they closed when every decent amateur mechanic is fettling a motor somewhere? Finally got one further down Anlaby Road.

Got it fitted, set the dwell angle and timing in between rebuilding the kid next door’s motorbike engine. Heepy didn’t sound well when I drove onto the trailer though. Any way, it was getting dark by this time so it would have to wait ‘til the morning when Roy could give me a hand. Last job before packing in, check the trailer lights. Only the brake lights and the right indicator worked! An hour and a half later at 6.45 I realised that the wiring in the plug had been disturbed when the rear bumper had been removed for spraying in the paint shop (the same people who left my front fog lights on (see ‘Wheels’ February issue). Thought I’d chance it for Sunday.

Arrived at Reader’s Yard early next morning to sort out the ignition problem. It took some buggering about before Roy and I discovered the new condenser was duff (mmm Duff beer). The motor ran perfectly all day with the old condenser in.

Usual story, came to signing on after messing about with the car. Everyone left the number 1 slot for me to sign!

continued

Robert set 21 tests for the day with the first three left over from the last event. John Taylor was out for revenge after the last event. He certainly got a good start on me, but only ‘cos they were slalom’s which suit his style of driving.

Both John and Dave ‘Shorty’ Short pulled 8/10’s of a second out on me on the three tests.

After some more ‘technical’ tests, which had Robert apologising ‘cos he thought he’d gone "overboard" with them, the tables were turned. At the end of test 12 the times looked like this;

Howie 365.4 seconds

John Taylor 377.5

Shorty 389.2

Roy Heath 396

Rob White 450.5

The next 3 tests had competitor’s scratching their heads over which way was best to handbrake turn in a box. Another 4 seconds were added to my lead on John by the end of these only to have 2 of them snatched back on the next two tests. However, a problem on the third run saw John lose out by 9 seconds.

The last three were very close, but made no difference to the final times of;

Howie 687.7 seconds

John Taylor 710.2

Shorty 740.7

Roy Heath 759.8

Rob White 812.8

It was a good day, the weather was kind to us and everyone went home happy.

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