We took TYO the MG3 to not so sunny Seaton Carew to marshal on this super event. Despite the cold wind blasting off the North Sea we had a good day out watching some intense competition.
Oily Hand's Life with MGs |
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With Numbum needing repairs to the exhaust and new rear wheel bearings and the BGT needing work on the drivers seat there wasn't much driving being done with either of them. We took TYO the MG3 to not so sunny Seaton Carew to marshal on this super event. Despite the cold wind blasting off the North Sea we had a good day out watching some intense competition. Thanks to H&DMC for looking after us with food at the lunch break.
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We took part in this event last year and enjoyed it despite the gales & rain. We just had to do it again. As it's about two hours drive to the start and the same back we decided to make it a mini break and stay over for two nights. Travel down was an easy run in the MG3 and the satnav took us across the top of the hills on some super roads but they were nothing compared to the roads on the tour. Saturday morning saw us up bright and early for the 20 minute drive from our hotel to the start where a hot cuppa and a humongous bacon butty awaited us. Pam managed to get some photos at the start. The start was bang on time and we were off on the 68 mile run to the lunch halt at The Wensleydale Creamery in Hawes where we enjoyed a pre-ordered packed lunch. On runs like this I don't have much idea of where we are at any given point as I'm just following instructions but the roads we were on were superb and challenging at times. The scenery was outstanding and the villages were picturesque. It was soon time to head off for the 64 mile run back to the start point with a detour for some tricky driving tests which we thoroughly enjoyed. There were two serious accidents on the A65 fairly close to each other and both involved the road being closed. This meant that we had to divert and this messed up our mileages and times but Pam managed to work it out and we sere soon back on track. Pam really enjoys the time element of this run as she is more involved than she would be on an ordinary road run. Back at the finish there was time for nattering before the hearty two course meal which was most welcome. The prize presentation was next. As this event is not competitive there couldn't be a winners prize so six competitors were selected from those who had clean sheets and to our surprise, we were selected. Thanks to Pam Broom for the picture. Following this there was a lively forum with rally drivers and navigators entertaining us with tales of their exploits. Great fun! The time to leave came all too soon and we set off for the drive back to our hotel. We couldn't believe it when the road we wanted was closed because of an accident. We couldn't detour round it with the satnav as it just kept trying to take us back to the same road. Out came the trusty map and Pam delved into her handbag for our super torch and we soon found a way round the problem and arrived safely back at our hotel. A huge thanks must go to all who made this possible. You are all the greatest! The last run of the year for this club and it was a cracker. It was 0ne of the best turn outs I've seen for a while. I can recall around 20 cars, but there were probably more. I didn't count the bikes but there were lots of them. The normal signing on with coffee & biscuits was followed by lots of good crack and testosterone overload when anybody opened a bonnet. Our chariot of choice was the B GT and we got an early start so we could hopefully get some video & pictures on the road. This run of approx 70 miles took us over the North Yorks moors and along the Esk Valley to the halfway coffee & comfort stop at Victoria Farm Garden Centre and took in some lovely driving roads. From there it took us through some interesting lanes east of Whitby before taking a more coastal route North back to the clubhouse for pie & peas. The B GT never missed a beat and sailed past the place we broke down last year. Phew!! As far as I know there were only four casualties. One bike stopped about halfway through the morning section with a stripped magneto drive and was recovered home. The other three made it back to the finish, a TR6 with an exhaust supported at the rear with bungee cords, a Caterham 7 with a front cycle wing held on with parcel tape and a bike who had a puncture right at the end. Everybody we spoke to had a great day. The weather forecast wasn't good but thankfully it was also wrong. The promised rain mostly stayed away and we had a good day. Just for a change we took the MGB GT and headed for the start at Middlesbrough & District Motor Club. We had a chance to get a good look at Mark's new MG ZS which was quite impressive although a long way from the original ethos of MGs. I suppose they have to make what sells in quantity these days. Setting off we headed by a meandering route to Roots for a coffee break. Leaving Roots we were first away which gave me the chance to stop and get a bit of video of some of the cars crossing the narrow bridge near Neasham. By the time we had done this we were tail end Charlie and a fair way behind. We caught up later and followed the convoy to the gardens. A leisurely picnic lunch was followed by a wander around this lovely place before heading for home. A very enjoyable day. Old Numbun had serious trouble here last year and despite many hours of work it still misfires at higher revs. At least it's reasonable to drive although I can't drive it as I would want. Despite this we decided to take the old gal to Saltburn and try the hill. It was a cool start as we set off early to get a good parking spot and arrived about half past eight. Thankfully it got warmer as the day progressed and apart from a brief shower of rain it was a lovely day weatherwise. This is a superb day with great cars and lovely people. The Middlesbrough & District Motor Club put a lot of work in to make this day run smoothly and they deserve huge thanks for their efforts. I got signed on, we unpacked the chairs and settled down for a cuppa while we watched the other arrivals. Soon we were fully immersed in the day and time flew. So many people to talk to, some we have never met before, some we only meet here once a year, and old friends. The first run up the hill was pretty good with the car performing better than I thought it would. A lovely young lady was taking photos for the local council and asked me for a short video interview. I agreed and it was done. It will appear on the council website and I'm waiting for an email to tell me that it's on. Pam disappeared to take some photos and got a few. Lunch time was fast approaching so we checked with control to see if there was any chance of a second run before lunch. There wasn't, so we headed off for fish & chips before the queue got too long. After lunch we got two more runs at the hill and Numbum performed reasonably which I was happy about. Mark Thompson was about taking pictures and he got three good ones of us on the hill which he kindly allowed us to use. Thanks Mark. All in all it was a superb day and we set off for home weary but happy. Wow! What a wet day this was. We turned up to the start at Roots Farm Shop and were surprised to see an empty space where the gazebo normally sits. It was so wet and windy that the staff at Roots cleared some space for us in one of the barns. Thanks to Roots. We signed on and collected out route book and chatted for a while before the space filled up with other arrivals. There were quite a few no shows which was understandable as the weather was bad and the forecast wans't any better for the rest of the day. We set off in rain and it didn't let up at all. We were thankful to be warm & dry in TYO our MG3 . Many soft top owners got wet even with the tops up. The rain was driving in through every nook and cranny. It was a super route and the scenery was lovely but we couldn't see it. The lunch stop in Kettlewell was a washout. To add interest to the route there were questions to be answered and we got enough to win the trophy. There weren't many other competed entries and I'm not surprised given the weather. The trophy is ours to keep (clean) for a year. Not all the field turned up at the finish. Some went straight home to dry out. It was a strange day with non of the usual chatter round the cars and the only video is from the car. No photos either as it was too wet for me to get my camera out. The centre decided to run a grass autotest at the Bywell classic car show so I decided to enter with the BGT just for a laugh. It's been over 30 years since I last did an autotest competitively so I was looking forward to seeing if I still had it. It was a scorching hot day and rough on the marshals who were out in the heat all the time. There were two tests and the plan was to have three runs at each, all times counting. After three runs at test one it was decided to only have one run at test two to give the marshals some relief from the heat. Did I still have it? Well sort of. I finished 6th out of 10 entries, which wasn't where I was hoping to be. My only consolation is that I didn't do a wrong test or hit a cone. I just wasn't quick enough. My times were improving on each of the three runs at test one but I was way too slow on test two. Pam took some amazing video of the tests which are shown in full later. Here is a short compilation to give a flavour of the event. Here are the full runs at both the tests. Interestingly just after I put these videos on Youtube I got two notices of copyright infringement because of the music in the background. I'm not sure what I was supposed to do to avoid that. If I deleted the soundtrack from the video and put on some royalty free music, I would have lost the sound from the cars. Ah well, that's life.
To avoid an early drive across this morning we decided to make a weekend of it and booked a B&B in Penrith for Saturday night. We loaded the MG3 with all our gear and headed off mid morning, arriving in Penrith in the early afternoon having stopped for lunch on the way across. It was an easy afternoon in a town we'd often driven past but never visited. After strolling round the shops and having a coffee we headed off to the Castle. Penrith Castle isn't that big and it didn't take long to look round so we took a stroll in the park and found a game of crazy golf. It was the craziest crazy golf I've ever seen. It was built in the 1960s and it's amazing it's still there even though the vandals have had a go at it recently. Some of the holes were almost impossible. Run over it was time to find the B&B which thankfully wasn't difficult and we got checked in. The evening meal was at a local Indian restaurant. This was the first time we'd eaten in an Indian restaurant and we were amazed at the portion sizes. Incredible value for money and we got a discount through the B&B. The food was really tasty too. A hearty breakfast set us up for a day in the country. The first section we looked after was Bridge. This is a short run up a narrow twisty road, over a hump back bridge to a forward stop astride. A reverse to another stop astride at an angle to the first turned the competitors round and back down the road to the finish. With two of us there we were at opposite sides of the reverse stop astride which is where we expected the most failures. True enough that's where most of the failures were. One thing I did notice was the attitudes of the navigators. Some were watching the cone on their side and letting the driver know when they were astride the line, which is what I would have wanted from my navigator if I were competing. Others just sat there doing not much at all. I'll let you guess where the failures were. After the closing car it was a case of pick up the cones and have a quick sprint down the M6 to Quarry to set up the test there. It was very hot & dusty and we were well baked by the time we closed the test. Some great action as the cones were spaced well apart allowing the drivers to get up some speed. After closing Quarry it was back up the M6 to Penrith Truck Stop to drop off the equipment and have a chat to competitors and marshals over a welcome meal.
It was a great weekend and I won a quid on the scratchcard. It's been a while since my last update but life has an uncanny knack of getting in the way of fun. Hopefully things have settled down and we can get back to normal. Today saw the 10th anniversary of the Flying Scotsman and they were passing through the area so we just had to have a drive out to watch the action. We loaded the camera gear into TYO the MG3 and headed off to Carlton Moor where we found a pretty good vantage point. Thanks to Pam for some of these great photos. From there it was a quick run North to Bollihope Quarry near Stanhope for some more action. It was cold and windy here and the crews looked pretty uncomfortable after the treck across the moors. We know that feeling as the road is part of the Beamish Reliability Trial which we've done many times in Numbum and the weather is rarely good. With a more open road than Carlton they were moving a bit quicker. From there it was a short run down to Stanhope where we found a pub for a bite to eat before the drive home.
What a super day this was. A relaxed start to the day saw us taking the short run down the A19 to Roots Farm Shop to meet up with old & new friends. This would be the longest run old Numbum had done since I changed the head gasket so there was a little bit of doubt as to how the day would go. Fortunately it was OK. The club gazebo was set up with the tombola & raffle and we won four prizes on the tombola. Not a bad start to the day. It was quite a good entry, 43 cars, I think from all over the area. The car park was quite full. It was good weather for top down driving as we set off on this well planned route to the upper reaches of the river Tees. Some of the roads were best described as interesting, and at times it was quite a challenge, but great fun. At one point we thought we were in for a soaking as the clouds rolled across the hilltop and a heavy shower passed over us. It didn't last long thankfully. For quite a bit of the route we didn't see another car from out group, which is just how I like it. We rolled along at our own pace and stopped for refreshments when we pleased. Back at Roots, it was time for some good conversation before setting off for the long 15 minute journey home and arrived back after covering 120 fun filled miles. A big thank you to all who made it happen. |
AuthorHi, I'm Owen and I've been having fun with MGs since 1970, starting with my 1937 MGTA. Since then I've had three Y types and a couple of Z Magnettes. I now have a 1971 MGB GT along with the TA and my wife and I are still having fun Archives
September 2020
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