Ten Morgans made it to the 1st Thursday noggin. I’ve decided to start collecting statistics at our meetings for the mathematicians amongst us. It will be interesting to see how far Morgans will be willing to travel to be at one of our noggins. I shall discount Pat’s claimed 900 miles in one evening this month, since I know Alec’s +8 is fast but not that fast. It was good to see Tony Hempel arrive in a genuine RAF Irvin flying jacket, you have good taste Tony.
I had been to the Bird In Hand in A740HPJ in an attempt to burn some petrol, to reduce weight for the Abingdon Sprint that was to be held two days later. This idea proved subsequently to be unfortunate. The Abingdon event is split into two sections: one a straight line sprint down the airfield, and the second a sprint around the perimeter track. By the time I had completed the first sprint and my practice on the perimeter track my petrol was on the low side. Consequently, on my timed run I managed to run out of petrol on the last bend - most embarrassing! The straight line dash in the morning was conducted in pairs. At one point I was lined up against Jeremy Lewis (SpotMog) in his Turbo +4 (prototype Thrust SSC). For a joke Jeremy waited until I was about two thirds of the way down the runway before he let loose from the start line. All my poor car and I felt, was the shock wave as Jeremy shot past. By the way it was good news about Thrust SSC; if Jeremy had been on the team I’m sure the record would have been set much earlier!
The Castle Combe sprint was held two weeks later in surprisingly lovely conditions considering the time of year. Andrew and his Son William came along to watch the large field of Morgans in action. Andrew had just recently successfully retrieved his Series I and was having a well-earned break from his intensive rebuild. Things are coming along quite nicely. Gerry has sorted the King Pins out for Andrew, so it should all be plain sailing from now on!
Brian Taylor has just returned from the Morgan trip to Spain. Brian had had a wonderful time travelling in convoys of up to fifty one Morgans. Hopefully he will give us a full briefing at the next noggin.
Gerry and I bravely entered the club’s production car trial at Lintridge Farm. Peter Sargeant’s on site breakdown service at the trial was excellent, more prompt than the RAC. Gerry and I got stuck twice and we needed Peter’s assistance (a tow from his Land Rover Discovery) almost on both occasions. It got to the stage where every time we had a go at trial eight (the difficult one) Peter automatically came out to our rescue - thanks very much Peter. Unfortunately the RAC was called out a number of times at the trial; Paul Clarke and few others broke their back axles; also clutches were burnt out left, right, and centre. Fortunately the event was at the end of the season rather than the beginning. I hope the repairs prove not to be too expensive. It was good to see Cliff Baker, the sole survivor of my 1995 trials team, taking press photographs at the event. Gerry and I had decided at the beginning our main aim was to finish, which thankfully we did. I would like to thank Alan Foster (the Don Juan of club motor sport) at the trial for his help when we got into trouble with one of the marshals. Alan managed to get us a free trial even though we had been stuck fast. The weather had been fantastic and all things considered we all had a great day out.
James and Mary arrived at the Sunday noggin looking very pleased with themselves. My immediate reaction was that James had just put his name down for a Lotus Elise. Thankfully I was wrong, no James is now an expectant father, finally after for what seemed an eternity James’ and Mary’s name on the waiting list for a new Morgan has finally come up! They are going to get a Red +4 2 Seater with blue leather seats. Their baby is due in February (a Pisces)? We shall all look forward to her first noggin at the Queen’s Oak.
Mike Dulieu had some good ideas for some future events including a trip to a local vineyard and a trip to France. Watch this space for details. By the time this report is published Joe’s Beer and Skittles evening will have been held, I’m sure the event will have been a great success, thank you very much Joe for organising the evening.
While planning dates for future noggins I noticed that the first Thursday evening falls on New Years day, I was tempted to keep to this date. However, I’m sure this day will clash with many other events especially as it is a bank holiday. So for one month only the first Thursday will become the second Thursday, if confused please sees dates and things below.
As this is the last Centre report for 1997 I would like to end with some good news. At Castle Combe the Winner of the Ryobi National Morgan Sprint and Hill Climbing Championship was decided. After a closely battled season Paul Bury clinched the title - congratulations Paul. I watched Paul drive round Camp Corner at Combe with his car on the limit. It was wonderful to watch the Man and Machine in perfect harmony, proving how well a Morgan can go in the right hands. The other piece of good news I noticed was the fact the Peter Morgan has received a well-deserved lifetime's achievement award from Autocar. Finally may I wish everyone a very happy Christmas and an even happier 1998.
Dates and Things:
2nd Thursday: 8th January 1998, 20:00 onwards.
Bird In Hand, Knowl Hill.
Sunday Lunchtime Venue Dates:
Queen’s Oak, Finchampstead, near Finchampstead Church, 12:00 onwards.
December 21st, January 18th, February 15th.
Roger Buff