Beverley & District Motor Club

6.00 a.m. Sunday 30 April. Yes, it is a lovely sunny day (did you miss it?), but what the hell am I doing up at this time? Ah yes, Larkspeed League Championship Autotest and Heepy’s last event before his re-shell. It’d better be a good ‘un.

Yorkshire Sports Car Club had found a new venue at Snaygill Industrial Estate near Skipton, our much loved usual one at Bingley having been dug up. It looked to be heaving with competitors when I arrived at 9 o’ clock, but that was only because it was rather small. The entry of 31 competitors did not contain the BTRDA autotesters who were attending a clash event at Newcastle-under-Lyme. This prompted a moan from the others when I arrived as it was assumed I would automatically take FTD. Oh how wrong they were!

Due to the restricted space, YSCC could only set up two test sites, and these were tight. I think they’d been restricted to the only area of black tarmac on the estate. Everywhere else was very white pristine concrete. That would’ve looked a bloody mess after we’d been handbraking on it all day!

After Bolton’s long tests, these were a doddle. Short, simple and still providing a winner. Bumped into Shorty whilst walking them (no penalty thank goodness!). He told me my old adversary John Taylor was ‘hors de combat’ with a nasty stomach problem putting him in hospital for a while. Get well soon John. Rob White and Richard Wood made up the rest of the NHMC team.

Test one seemed okay, but the rot set in as early as test two! A poor change of direction in a very short distance saw Heepy backing into a cone. None of your 5 second half penalties as at Bolton. These were the full and expensive 10 second variety! Just to add insult to injury, Shorty drove by as I left the test and asked me if I’d had a problem on test one. "No, why?" I enquired. "Oh, I pulled 3 seconds on you and thought you had a problem" he said. Doh! If I’d bothered to go and check the time sheet I would’ve seen that he was only 0.9 of a second ahead on that test, but instead I went back to the paddock area and gave myself a good talking to. Fastest Time of Day wasn’t going to come by hitting cones and buggering about!

By test 4 I’d got my head together and was starting to pull time back off Shorty. But in the 1275 cc Mini saloon class there was a good battle going on between Ilkley’s Richard Wood (very confusing having two competitors with same name) and Graham Hepworth who was sharing his car. Graham, you might remember, wrote off his rally Nova at the infamous King Brother’s Autotest last year (would you share your car with him?).

As the morning progressed on I pulled more time from Shorty and crept back up from the 8th overall I’d suffered due to my indiscretion with the early cone. Shorty helped by incurring a 10 second penalty of his own on test 8. I was poised to make a comeback as Graham Hepworth suffered a stall on the same test and apparently had to have a push-start to get going again and complete the test. This was to cause some grumbling later on, but no-one could remember any rule which said a push-start was illegal.

Lunch was eaten, folks were turning red in the sun and I was looking forward to having a go at FTD. Heepy, however, had other ideas. Hammered off the line on test 11, handbrake turn in a box and out the other side. I’d already done this one twice, putting in a time no-one could beat on my second run so was looking to capitalise. Then the engine started mis-firing, all the way through the remainder of the test. It cost me two tenths of a second more than my last run and I should have been improving. I thought it was probably fuel evaporation with the weather being so hot, but checked over the engine just to be sure. All looked well. The next test proved otherwise however as the problem persisted. Still quicker than Shorty though. I think he was still ruing his test 8 penalty.

Back at the paddock I started pulling the car to bits. The timing and points were checked. Float chamber was okay. I decided it must be the mechanical fuel pump on it’s way out. Didn’t have a spare, but I did have the old electric pumps we used to use. The old wiring was still in too. All I had to do was rig up an earth and connect. I decided to test the pump dry first rather than go to the trouble of plumbing it in only to find they didn’t work (anyone who’s ever used Mini pumps will remember they didn’t work well at the best of times!). All wired up I switched on. Silence. I walked round to the front intending to give the pump a sharp tap (remember doing that?). As I bent towards it I saw the smoke curling up from under the scuttle (coal?). A picture flashed through my mind. I was going home early! After knocking off the battery switch I surveyed the damage. Thankfully it was confined to the pump wire that had burned its covering off. Everything else was okay. That idea was binned. I’d just have to put up with a fluffing engine and hopefully hang on to first in class.

Some new tests had been set up so I walked these, had a cup of coffee and a Mars bar to see me through the rest of the day (helps you work, rest and play). Time to go. Gloves on, battery switch on, ignition and push starter. Absolutely sod-all happened! Panic! Must’ve burned some wiring out somewhere. Checked it all again in the engine bay. Okay. Started to unscrew the dash panels. All looked well in there. Baffled, I moved something and the heater motor suddenly started whirring. Eventually it dawned on me that the ignition switch, which is just an on/off switch was faulty. It had been turning itself on and off whilst I was driving the tests, causing the mis-fire. Some wag later accused me of using traction control!

After hot-wiring the ignition switch (don’t those old skills come in handy) I tried putting in some good times. Okay in my class, but Graham Hepworth was smelling success. He was making that 1275 fly and there didn’t seem to be anything I could do about it. It was going down to the wire. One mistake from either of us would give the other the win.

Last two tests, I was ready. Hammered off the line, engine started fluffing again! Problem is you have to keep the engine singing to stop it bogging under these circumstances. But if you rev it too much, it induces wheelspin which is not conducive to quick times. The problem persisted through both tests, the culmination of which, Graham took FTD by 12 seconds after 20 tests. Considering the problems I had and being up against a fairly well driven 1275 I reckon I was fortunate to come away with 2nd overall and the class win. FTD wouldn’t have got us any more Larkspeed points, so it was down to personal pride. Shorty nailed 2nd in class some 32 seconds adrift and 8th overall. There were some grumbles from the ranks over Graham Hepworth’s push-start in the morning, but no-one was prepared to put money down and contest it.

On reaching the paddock area after the last test, I lifted the fibreglass front out of curiosity and discovered the carburettor float chamber overflowing - the result of which is that the engine mis-fires Doh!

One good thing about the whole event - it wasn’t run in a huge cow field as in previous years. Carl Davis has my thanks.

Come the next event - new Heepy. Let’s go kick bottom!