TACCOC Summer Classic

In typically summer mode, the racing took place on November 9 in dry and hot conditions at Hampton Downs. It was a short day, with racing finishing just before 2pm. The skid pan was opened up for those wanting to stay around after this.

The classes running were the classic sports, GTS and saloons, historic Formula Junior, Formula 3, sports racing and Formula Ford. To round off a packed schedule there were races in the MG Race Series and the popular PPG classic trials championship. The whole day remained free of incident, with just the odd spin or small ‘off’ here and there.

There were some good tussles in most of the races, including that between Tony Roberts in the Corvette Stingray and Derek Atkinson in the Morgan Plus 8, with Roberts winning the first race ahead of Atkinson. This order was reversed in the second race, with Atkinson taking the honours. In the Formula Racing the main tussle was between Tony Graham in the Reynard 85F and Phil Foulkes in the Trident Palliser. However, Graham proved too fast in both races, meaning Phil had to settle for second place.

With this being round three of the PPG Classic Trials for the 2014–’15 season, last year’s champion, Paul Couper, showed brilliant consistency to finish in first place. Second place went to Ken Smith in his Escort RS2000, while Scott Mitchell driving a green Porsche 964 was third. Current championship leader, Ian Christie, finished this round in 13th place. However, not too much should be read into this as only your best four rounds count towards the final championship placing. Round four of the championship will be back at Hampton Downs as part of the IT Outsource Christmas at the Downs.

The MG Race Series, now in its third year, was formed to allow owners of race-prepared MGS to compete in them in an informal environment on the track, according to club captain Darryl Bretherton. The cars in the series range from slightly modified road cars to fully prepared race cars. The series winner has the privilege of bragging rights for the coming year, while winners of each handicap race (on which the Series results are based) receive a chocolate fish. In this round, there was one standard scratch race and two handicap races. The chocolate fish went to Todd Forsyth, winning the Scratch and Handicap 2 in his MGB GT V8, and Russell Sykes, who won Handicap 1 in his MGB GT.

For all involved it was a thoroughly enjoyable day. The next TACCOC event will be the IT Outsource Christmas at the Downs on December 14.