New brighton Mini Meet

**Brocks** · 30th September 2006, 16:22

Went up there today.... Met Richardg3.2 in the Service area then out for a look see on the course:

As we got there they competitors where doing a lap of honour for the clark of the course who had recently died. I spotted our adopted entrant going into the service area.....FOLLOW THAT CAR!!!!

Found Richard in the service area...nice meeting ya mate. Love the reverse gearbox! 100 mph backwards one for Richard Hammod (NOT)

Then onto the course:

One of our favourate mini....The escort was giving him the horn all through this complex!

This micra looked quite ordinary till I found out it had a lotus engine in it

This Beamer tried to show off on this hairpin every time....Did a pretty good job too.

Took sprog #1 (she loved it) and me dad (He hated it)

The timings of the starts and the two lap format meant there was often full blown track racing too:

This replica Lancia was georgous. Didn't look quick but was stunning to look at.

This one motored but looked like it on had 5 miles left before it would fall apart!

Great day out and the action was fast and furious - and almost none stop!

**kev bux** · 1st October 2006, 09:08

that looked excellent mate, love the old rally cars.

**big phil** · 1st October 2006, 09:52

looks fantastic .... is this an annual thing ?

**richardg3.2** · 1st October 2006, 10:55

Excellent pics mate, was nice to meet you and say hello. We had a great day, helped by the weather being kind. Came across an unusual problem though, due to the abrasive nature of the tarmac a lot of rubber was being left on the course and as we run such a soft tyre with the Mini being so light they were picking up large lumps of rubber that were sticking to the tyres and ruining the grip as they ended up looking more like a knobbly forest tyre than a slick tarmac tyre. Had to do lots of tyre rotation so that we could give it plenty of wheelspin off the start to clean the rubber off as much as possible.
Finally finished 21st overall out of a 90 car entry and won our class by a couple of minutes. Stratos replica was beautiful - picked up an award for the best presented car but considering he had a 3 litre V6 Alfa engine in it we beat him by nearly 3 minutes with 998cc.
Car 76 escort finally expired after stage 9, we had to help him push start the thing for stages 8 and 9.
It is an annual event Phil, maybe one for the NW crew to have a bigger meet next year??? The entry of cars is excellent, there were 4 Metro 6R4's, 3 Impreza WRC's (2 of them very recent Petter Solberg cars) Hyundai Accent WRC, Escort WRC's and numerous Darrian T90's which are awesome on tarmac (one of these won the event)
We stayed Liverpool Docks travelodge Friday night and got a taxi to a rstaurant in town. What an excellent night, we were just around the corner from the Cavern club. Going to stay over Saturday night as well next year so we can have a proper night out after the event as we didn't stay late Friday as we had an early start for the rally.

**pogo** · 1st October 2006, 15:21

most excellent pics there mate, i love a bit of retro fun!

**Jamie** · 1st October 2006, 16:47

Cracking looking day... looks like a good mix of clubman, group B and WRC machinery... the best kind of motorsport imho.

**Harry** · 1st October 2006, 17:03

great pics Steve - looks like a good day out. glad you had the weather for it aswell.

**PIMM** · 2nd October 2006, 02:08

Its really nice to see older cars still doing the rounds, back to the 80's for me. Love it

**Brocks** · 2nd October 2006, 07:38

place for Vec C!!!

Nice one Richard,

I took a few more pics than I've posted up here (well lots really). Including more of the Mini. PM me your email and I'll send em on.

How did car 40 do?..He didn't like being held up on stage 5/6!!!

It was a great day. I would have stayed longer and come back to the service area but dad was making it clear he'd had enough....

Now I know where to park and which corners to go to....Next year I'll be back!

I'm trying to drum up interest for next year but so far I've had no interest from the NW lot!

**richardg3.2** · 2nd October 2006, 13:19

Car 40 finished 19th overall, 12 seconds and 2 places in front of us at the end of the event. It was quite a car - 260bhp and a 6 speed sequential gearbox, about £40k worth of car. Stages 5 and 6 were a struggle for us to be honest as this is where our grip vanished and it was like driving on ice. Apparently this is common at the event as this is the time of day that there is a lot of rubber on the course and our tyres with being such a soft compound picked up all the rubbish. Swapped tyres around so we had some clean front's on and it was much better, immediately went around 15 seconds a stage quicker. At least we will know for next year. Still happy enough with the result, as well as winning the 1400cc class we also finished over a minute ahead of the 1600cc class winner

Hope a few of the NW guys n gals can make it next year as it is superb for spectators - will be moving back to it's usual late July slot next year so hopefully good weather again.