Nice wether and a nice turnout of Exiges members, good to meet a few I never had previously, and Russ definatly has the easiest to spot car.
The Westfield is so much faster than anything else, seems a shame it’s allowed really.
I’ve put a few pictures for today up HERE!
Nice one Mark !!
Yeah the rules are somewhat strange - Audi turbo’d Exiges, Westfields, Nobles & Shellseys are allowed, but supercharged Hondas aren’t
I think it comes down as how the engine is in “manufacturers’ production form” ie if it leaves the factory with a turbocharger, then that’s okay.
However, I must agree with Mark, the Westfield shouldn’t allowed fullstop
Twas good to see a decent turnout of Exigers too - thanks for making the effort guys
Good to see such a good Lotus turn out in the car park and then the Motorsport Elises on track.
My sunburn is almost as bright as the Autotorque car 
Some of my piccys here:
Wow - a long running saga !!!
Nice action photos !!!
If you cant be bothered with sitting through them all you can click stop slide show and pick and choose as you wish
A big thanks to everyone who came over and chatted yesterday, though I am not sure what was the biggest attraction…
As usual, the Edwardz did a stunning job to even get us on the grid, the amount of work that went into preparing the car after Croft cannot be overstated. Most of friday and all of Saturday was spent by them just repairing exhaust, driveshaft, wheel bearing, drive flange, brakes and a million other bits and pieces. But we still got out for a curry, which was obviously the main thing.
Sunday was a great day, with the qualy grid position of 12th being attributed to excuses 23, 57, 130, 254 and 390. At the start of the race we howled past one car, which had broken down, and spent the rest of the time dicing with an Atom whilst the pack disappeared (well they were 2 secs a lap quicker in practice!). It was great to see the Exige pull up to the back of the Atom through Gerrards with the aero, what a buzz! Unfortunately he then pulled away(same engine, 200 kilo less!) Anyhoo, after some demon errors and near death experiences, we ended up going over the line with him in front and big grins all round. Superb! Any one thinking of racing the Exige needs to try this series, it is great. In order to get up the grid for Snetterton, could anybody please supply any of the following:-
Another 100 bhp
100 kilos less
Some “Racing Driver” tuition
A huge race car truck
A Bigger set of Lucilles.
On the subject of people who supply things, and hopefully not getting in trouble with Mr Admin., can I just thank the guys on here who have generously given from their own pockets, and their valuable time, in order to help VVR finish 12th…
John O from Autotorque
Edwardz Boys (LotusPower)
Jim Mather from uktracking.co.uk
Pesky
Tony Stansfield
Lotus Ribble Valley
Mrs Edwardz - B&B
Pesky junior - inflatables
Cheers Chaps!
Sounds like it was a fun day . I’m expecting a top ten finish next time though…
Mark
how did the yellow 340R with high wing and boost tube do? Is this the ugliest 340r out there?
Was a good day out as always. Great racing, great people. Good to catch up with Pesky, Russ etc.
Only bad point is, it’s a little upsetting when you’re slaving away fixing a car, then something else falls off etc. Meanwhile the Plans guys have nothing else to do but wash them…
Nice pics Mark and good to see you again, must have been 2 years or so.
John
Nice slideshow Beefcake, especially the one of Russ nearly atomising the Atom!!!
John
Some damn fine photography there chaps!
For what it’s worth I don’t think that they should ban the Westfield. If a manufacturer out there can build a car like that, that gets past all the politics and rubbish that’s slowly making cars heavier, slower and with emissions strangled engines, good luck to them.
At least we can say we were there helping develop it…by acting as mobile chicanes! So what if it’s faster than an Elise or an Exige, there’s plenty of other cars out there that are too. It’s good to have something like that around to push you (and in particular Lotus) forwards and onto greater things.
Btw Well done to Russ, who of course would have been much further up the field had he been able to sneak up on people and pass them instead of them seeing the new dynorod fast response vehicle from a mile off!
For what it’s worth I don’t think that they should ban the Westfield.
Steve
Didn’t realise you’d ordered one
PS You & team were badly missed last Sunday - especially around lunchtime Hope your absence was only for Mallory, & good luck for the rest of the season
Seconded! Hope you are there next race Steve, I need someone to play with!
Would that be on or off the track Russ?
For what it’s worth I don’t think that they should ban the Westfield.
I agree they shouldn’t ban it, I just think it is a shame the rules are open enough to allow it to take part. What will be next, Radicals?
The Mid-engined championship, was just that a championship for mid-engined sports cars, the Westfield is closer to a sports prototype.
Watching the race I think they may need to investigate the class structure further for next year, especially if more Westies or Radicals start to appear, the split between motorsport and roadgoing, while admirable and it has worked so far, may be an issue in the future. It’s already noticeable how big a gap there was between the Exiges and the MGF, never mind the MGF and the Westfield, unfortunatly I think it would put off any other MGF’s from taking part as they aren’t anywhere near competitive, and there are a lot of ex-MGF cup cars around.
There are plenty of places where the westy could race elsewhere so I honestly think he should be moved. It has to be a detterant to people with Loti and the like who know they will never be able to compete .
I agree with Randy - if they don’t do something about it, & also tweak the rules, the series, as a competition, is in danger of fizzling out like a damp squib.
Although technically the Westfield XTR4 is “capable of being road registered” (another of the Mid Engined Rules), it is really a sports prototype with accompanying effective downforce devices. All credit to Westfield for developing it, & their 2 fingers to political correctness, but I really do feel that it should be in its own series - which would be great to watch. However, it seems that practically everyone who buys that type of car to race, choses the quicker Radical, so perhaps the XTR4 has a limited life anyway?
I was talking to James Bickley (driver but not owner) of the Westfield at Mallory, & he told me that the Westfield was not competitive against Radicals. It looked like he really backed off for the last 4 or 5 laps, because he had such an unassailable lead. It’s not as if the others (without buying different cars)can play “catch up” either!
It would go some way to redress the present “unbalance” in the series, if supercharged Honda powered cars could enter.
Mark “bike engined” cars are not allowed fullstop.
Please don’t read my views as being totally negative - I love watching the series as there are many interesting battles taking place below numero uno, but I somehow doubt that the present number of entrants will continue to spend circa �1K per race (all in), if the present anomolies persist.
What is classed as Bike engine and what isn’t? latest V8 Radical has an engine derived from a bike engine but you couldn’t call it a bike engine anymore. Also there will be an Exige racing with a similar engine soon so where does that stand?
The regs are currently too wide in what they allow. However to ban the Westie would look like a case of “Your too fast so your banned” (shame they can’t do that with Ferrari).
The full Round 1 results are available on line now.
Mallory Park PDF results