Update 23 - A short moment of reflection followed by taking the opportunity

Drivers Dinner and Awards
So the season closes with Chris Bailey clinching the honours for the SpeedMog Championship Trophy. Chris has had a fantastic season which is the culmination of five years determination chipping away at the Class 6 target times to finally have a long and sustained string of lap record beating runs. Chris entered almost all of the rounds this season and is a great example of perseverence and improvement getting the result in the end. A great guy to hold the honours.

At the end of the season there is a drivers dinner where several key management activities happen followed by a season ending knees-up!!

First of all there is the technical comittee. This is a pannel of four experts who discuss the observed stand-out technical differences in the prior season both in Sprinting as well as the circuit series and fast road development. We look forward to the upcoming season/broader future and try to consider if additional ammendments will be required to the regulations to keep the championship fare the true for competitors entering next season. This season more than any other has demonstrated the increasing varied performance of the smaller engined cars with the higher developed cars effectively eclipsing most of the larger V6 and V8 models.

The championship over the last few years have been observing this shift in the context of continual class sub-division. The championship has 12 classes and several are already sub-divided into upto six or so sections. It can make things quite complex for new starters and the championship is keen to allow people to race whatever standard or home brew special they turn up with.
The net result is that for the fist time next year, the championship will be (subject to drafting) sporting power/performance windows in the mid table modified classes allowing people to slot into classes with similar performance vehicles - putting beneficial limitations on the formula specifications as they were specified last year. This has been welecomed by all as an improvement and providing a balanced and inclusive platform for racing.

A couple of other key additions were ratified and included:

  • Performance enhancing front splitters Class 10 upwards - to increase front end stability at high speed, especially on smaller engined cars.
  • Launch control and flat shifters Class 10 upwards - these are now easily accessed cheap fun performance enhahcements which should be legislated for.
  • Sequential gearboxes Class 10 upwards - controlling the presence of all semi auto or paddle shift options standard or otherwise.


Second is a review of the target times, with the power bands introduced we set about working out what impact this has on the target times. Having put in a seasons worth of blistering runs whilst the blue and white car sill conforms to the specification and performance window of Class 7, the times were only 1% away from those of Class 9. Effectively blighting class 7 (one of the most popular classes) with lap records most racers are unlikely to achieve or consider fun (the most important thing) to race against. As a result I have proposed to have my Class 7 times moved to Class 8 or 9 where appropriate to maintain the target time differential between the classes.

Other News

The Taster Day next year will be more of a family day including performance enhancement show in the paddock and events on the outfield. This is intended to make the day more inclusive for the Morgan community. It should be a hoot!

A "Go Sprinting" guide will be produced and published in Miscellany and elsewhere to simplify the steps of going sprinting. In the standard classes it's really easy to get a licence (no test requried), get a set of gloves, overalls and helmet and get going (no special car prep requried)!!

You don't have to go nuts like we do to have a great and thrilling time!!!


Getting back to the cars!
After a moment of reflection, we have to get these cars moving on. Next season will be looming faster than ever and now we don't just have to finish one car and do an engine swap, we have all that and a complete chassis up re-build to complete!!!

Woodstock work therefore has been continuing a-pace. Last time you looked in, we were working on the interior. The trimming of the rear deck area has been completed. Initiall trimming the wheel-arches in thin ali:




Missprint had her work cut out sorting out the doors, we wanted a roadster LW look so again thin ali sheet will be used to trim the inner door pannels. We also test sprayed the door latch in the proposed yellow. TBH having done this our conclusion it that it looks pants! these have since been sprayed dark grey to match the grill (which has been re-built haveing melted in the powder coating oven - ooops) and is also sprayed in the dark grey.



We sent the wheels, trans tunnel, roll-bar and tbh a bunch of other stuff off to a local powder coater we know to be soda blasted and coated in a dark grey we think will work well with the yellow and ali. On finishing the trimming including new suspension covers the roll-bar has been fitted to make measurements for the door bars.



The back pannel of the parcel shelf was replaced, as when the spare wheel was removed it became clear that the rear frame section had previously at some point snapped and no longer supported the rear of the body. Being from a town with a long history in woodwork and chair making a replacement was easily locally sourced and some excellent local skills came usefully back into the picture.



We fabricated new safty bracketry for the roll-bar as the originals were a little "light" for our liking and these certainly meet the current blue book spec as well as our saffy appetite. Once again the local forge came up trumps having the kit needed to roll the curve into the steel to get the right shape of the inner wheel-arch. You cal also see in the lower roll-bar mounts where we have made holes for the fuel and brake lines to run outside rather than inside the car!!







So an overview shot of the car right now.... it's got a coulpe of white wheels from the Blue and White temporarily fitted, Woodstocks wheels are gloss dark grey. Anthracite.



With the front suspension completely re-built with all new parts and the engine bay painted in black we have been holding off painting the bulk-head so we can get a really good finish.