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Old Stock Nut
13th January 2007, 23:16
You could have blown me down with a feather today - turned to the back page of our local rag in Biggleswade and there was a big picture of Mark Proctor's old car in glorious orange (or is it bright red - papers were never that good at doing proper colour were they?) as the 59 ASCAR stared back at me. There was a pretty decent sized piece about Rob and his plans for this year. According to the article he will be driving the 59 car for the 2007 season. The paper is pretty good at covering the efforts of local motorsport people and so hopefully we might just get a bit of coverage around the area.

There was also a decent mention of Shane's drive in aid of the Fire Service Benevolent Fund. With the Rock only being about 40 minutes from here and a pretty good motorsport history in this area, this publicity can only be a good thing for the new championship and could well bring in a few more fans. If nothing else, I might not feel quite so lonely heading up the A1 early on Sunday mornings any more - well I can dream!!

Duane
14th January 2007, 01:28
Rob has told us how hard he and his wife Suzanne have been working at promoting his and the series efforts and i am told there is more to come from them.

wish them well they are an inspiration and along with other's efforts we will soon shake of the MSA's yellow flag.

racing59
14th January 2007, 20:39
Thanks for that Duane.

There certainly is more to come from us (mostly Suzanne who's done the hard work)

And Old Stock Nut, to put it all into context, the car in the pic in the Wiggleswade Chronic is actually Tony Hurdle's "spare" that I was going to run in the latter part of last season. I'd been talking to Duane all season, and hoping to (at first) buy my own car, but finances didn't go my way at the time, so I decided to pay for a drive in the last two rounds.

Sadly, rookie training didn't happen as planned (at all!), so I didn't get out.

Lee O'Keefe took the car out, and showed it's pace in the last round.

Proc's old car is languishing in my workshop, and I have a photographer from the "Comet" coming to see me tomorrow morning - so have to dig it out quickly in at sunrise!!

I'm still waiting on Beds on Sunday (though as it's not a sex scandal implicating members of the local constabulary, judiciary, or council, or football, they are not likely to be interested!)

We've spoken to Anglia Television who say they're interested in doing a bit for their "West News" (which covers Corby too).

What we need to crack is the nationals!!!!! That's where you need the old-boys network to get this sort of thing covered. My brother went to school with one of the political editors of the Financial Times.............

One thing we have in our favour in the Biggleswade area is the Sports Editor used to work for Autosport & Motoring News in his younger days, and spent a lot of years racing Autograss. Alan is a very keen motorsport enthusiast.
We'll get good publicity from him this season, and I've invited him along.

Rob (And Suzanne - manning the engine room!)

Chigley
14th January 2007, 22:15
Having lost my MCP cap ;)

I believe the saying is "behind every good man, there is an even better woman".

Jordygirl
14th January 2007, 22:26
Having lost my MCP cap ;)

I believe the saying is "behind every good man, there is an even better woman".

Toooooo right :laugh:

Sticker Rub
14th January 2007, 22:48
Having lost my MCP cap ;)

I believe the saying is "behind every good man, there is an even better woman".

About 3 respectful paces behind? ;)

Reynard
14th January 2007, 23:05
"behind every good man, there is an even better woman".

And behind every successful woman is a successful cat! :cat: :cheese:

PapaJuliet
15th January 2007, 01:42
It's late. I changed my mind about saying anything.

racing59
15th January 2007, 21:55
And behind every successful woman is a successful cat! :cat: :cheese:

And here he is. Meet Growler.

In the Yemen, the lady would be walking at least six paces ahead of the gentleman.

I asked why.

The answer......

Landmines.

(titter titter!)

Rob.

Reynard
15th January 2007, 23:13
And here he is. Meet Growler.

Oh what a gorgeous tabby boy! :love:

JDPower
15th January 2007, 23:22
Oh what a gorgeous tabby boy! :love:
You've pulled Rob :cheese:

...oh you meant the cat :uhoh: ;)

racing59
20th January 2007, 21:44
Suzanne said "My pussycat"!!! So therefore not mine!

I'm itching to tell sooooo much about what's on the cards for this season, but until it's all firm, I have to keep schtum!

All I can say is "This year I shall mostly be turning left"

Rob.

hicksy
20th January 2007, 21:49
I'm itching to tell sooooo much about what's on the cards for this season, but until it's all firm, I have to keep schtum!



Your such a tease Rob!! LOL. Sounds like things are coming together nicely. I look forward to your next progress report/announcement.

Rob

Chigley
21st January 2007, 02:21
Rob, Tony "The Shark" had the luverly Anna O'Neill as his Pit Babe, will Suzanne be yours? ;) :)

racing59
21st January 2007, 15:23
Well, in my normal jovial vein, I was thinking about inviting Nora Batty, or trawling up Hilda Ogden......

But you can rest assured that it certainly won't be Jade Goody. I'd run her over first!

I might have to run a competition to find a pit babe for each meeting.

Entries on the back of a £50 note to.....

Rob.

racing59
21st January 2007, 15:53
Well, in my normal jovial vein, I was thinking about inviting Nora Batty, or trawling up Hilda Ogden......

But you can rest assured that it certainly won't be Jade Goody. I'd run her over first!

I might have to run a competition to find a pit babe for each meeting.

Entries on the back of a £50 note to.....

Rob.

Chigley
30th January 2007, 15:34
I might well take the ASCAR out in DTRC to try out the "road course setup" that I have with it. "Taken from another forum."

Are you for real with this Rob, or taking the proverbial extraction of urine? :confused:

Cheers
Ian
:)

racing59
31st January 2007, 23:29
When Mr Proctor bought the car back in the dim and distant past... he had the full monty with it. The axle tubes for the rear end, a full set of Winters drop gears, all of the other bits for tuning right as well as left.

So.... why not?

Gavin went well in a road course spec car in an open saloons race at the Rock ....

Chigley
1st February 2007, 10:23
Gavin went well in a road course spec car in an open saloons race at the Rock ....

He was in bit slow round the corners but the straights were a different thing, I believe he had cooling problems?

SteveA
1st February 2007, 11:41
He was in bit slow round the corners but the straights were a different thing, I believe he had cooling problems?

Also I think the brakes, clutch and tyres were being used up at an alarming rate!

inamo
1st February 2007, 12:53
To run on the road course you need better cooling for the brakes, different gear ratios - otherwise you have wheel spin in 4th gear! Plus you will need to change the weight distribution of the car, otherwise it will still be very loose going round right hand corners. It is possible, but to get the car to run respectably on both road course and oval you will spend a lot of time in the garage changing the configuration.

pickup
1st February 2007, 14:29
It is possible, but to get the car to run respectably on both road course and oval you will spend a lot of time in the garage changing the configuration.

Oh to appreciate the lengths we go to in pickuptruck racing!

Chigley
1st February 2007, 15:02
Oh to appreciate the lengths we go to in pickuptruck racing!

I thought you bought them from ASDA, wrecked them, and then got a new one. You mean you work on them as well!

:rotflmao:

racing59
1st February 2007, 15:40
To run on the road course you need better cooling for the brakes, different gear ratios - otherwise you have wheel spin in 4th gear! Plus you will need to change the weight distribution of the car, otherwise it will still be very loose going round right hand corners. It is possible, but to get the car to run respectably on both road course and oval you will spend a lot of time in the garage changing the configuration.

I'm well aware of the "extra's" required for running on the road course. I've had a close look at Howe Racing's update list to put it into road course config. The gear ratio's are not a problem - I have the full set of Winters rear end drop gears, and wheel spin in 4th - I get that with my Belmont, and that runs a 3.25:1 diff ratio, direct top, and 680mm rolling circumference Dunlop rubber, revving to 8200 happily.... do your sums.... The scenery flies past!

For the weight distribution, it's a case of playing with spring rates, and I have all of the road course springs for it.

Brakes can be sorted by using a different material - probably the one that I use on the Belmont - good for a 24hr race, but gives the same amount of bite as their regular race compound. They're grrrrrrrreat!

The great thing about the ASCAR/ASA car, is that it IS easliy worked on, and designed to be changed from short circuit to long circuit to road course with ease. That's why it's not a full offset chassis.

Bearing in mind that Mark has run this car at Croft, and Mallory, among others, in the past, on test days, and has the setup data for it. I think Adam has it too..????

Rob.

pickup
1st February 2007, 16:08
I thought you bought them from ASDA, wrecked them, and then got a new one. You mean you work on them as well!

:rotflmao:

They don't do them in the colour we need!

inamo
1st February 2007, 16:26
All cars are different, I helped with the set up on Gavin's car for the BRSCC race, so the comments were based on our experience. Good luck ;)

Dave17
1st February 2007, 20:06
Good luck to you Rob! It can only do good to see an ASCAR in full flight on a road course and will increase its profile.

Pardon my ignorance but what is DTRC?

Chigley
1st February 2007, 21:52
what is DTRC?

That's for us to know and you to use Google! ;)

Dave17
2nd February 2007, 18:38
That's for us to know and you to use Google! ;)

I did Google but the only references of a motorsport theme led me back to just the 4 letters!

...and thanks for your help Chigley, remind me to give you a slap! http://smilies.vidahost.com/otn/tongue/kwtongues.gif

JDPower
2nd February 2007, 18:52
I did Google but the only references of a motorsport theme led me back to just the 4 letters!

...and thanks for your help Chigley, remind me to give you a slap! http://smilies.vidahost.com/otn/tongue/kwtongues.gif
Google threw up "Dunlop Track and Race series", and no information about it so not very helpful to Google it.

acorn
2nd February 2007, 19:33
try going here:

http://www.rodbirley.com

racing59
2nd February 2007, 20:04
The BARC-SE Dunlop Track & Race Cars Magazine Saloon Car Championship to give it it's full title.

It's a very well supported south east based series, catering for Front Engine'd saloon cars, varying from not much more than road-going to sublime cars like my Belmont, or Rod's Escort WRC. Generally, most cars run on slicks. They don't have to be Dunlop, but the have offered support for the series, and many people run on them.

They run a two-race format, with single qualifying, with typically a 9-10minute race first, then a 15minute-ish race for the second one. Race entries are some of the cheapest, as they plough series sponsor money back into the championship, and base their entries on a full grid, rather than a grid of six or so, like some other organisers seem to....

At the first round last year, on the Brands GP circuit, we had a full complement, with reserves. Sadly there were a lot that died during qualifying, so only 39 started out of a possible 44.

It's some of the cleanest closest racing going for normal club circuit racing, with a friendly atmosphere and camaradarie amongst competitors.

There was talk of them venturing as far north as Rockingham, but I guess that the negotiations didn't get that far (yet).

I seem to recall that they were to run at the PMC meeting at Silverstone (which got cancelled due to the BTCC argument over dates).

In general, Rod Birley wins most of the races, but a few people have beaten him in the past, and it was (is) one of my goals. Rod's a pretty good benchmark for performance!!

This year also see's Rod's old Thundersaloon Honda Prelude back out with Peter "Sideways" Thurston in it. Pete is better known for his sideways antics in the 5L V8 Mk1 DJ Invicta supported Super Saloon Escort which often runs in the BARC-SE Sports & Saloons (another well supported series!!)

Lots of stuff on the Rod Birley website, and reports in Track & Race Cars Magazine. Many of the competitors appear on ten-tenths national & club racing forum with lots of banter!

Rob.

Chigley
3rd February 2007, 01:07
Aw shucks guys, that would have kept Dave busy all weekend as curiosity would have continued burning away at him until he found the gen.

Chuckle
Ian
:rotflmao:

The White Lady
3rd February 2007, 09:38
Sadly there were a lot that died during qualifying, so only 39 started out of a possible 44.


I do hope you mean the cars...

cgs
3rd February 2007, 14:43
wow, this seems to have completely under the radar!

http://www.rodbirley.com/images/DSCF0068.JPG

cgs
3rd February 2007, 14:44
a baby grand versus a camso v8?????

http://www.rodbirley.com/images/9.9.06_22.JPG

Dave17
3rd February 2007, 20:40
Aw shucks guys, that would have kept Dave busy all weekend as curiosity would have continued burning away at him until he found the gen.


I did'nt know you knew me that well Ian!

MrkyMrk
6th February 2007, 13:40
a baby grand versus a camso v8?????

That is a freakin hillarious picture!!!!!!!!!!!

Brilliant!

royale31
6th February 2007, 16:34
CGS the photo with the baby grand, thats lydenn hill is it not

cgs
6th February 2007, 17:04
no idea, just found that on some random website!

Chigley
6th February 2007, 17:09
thats lydenn hill is it not

Yes it is Lydden Hill.

ASCAR24/7/365.5
6th February 2007, 17:18
LOL thanks CGS....now i know what it will feel like drag racing my legend against some full size hot rods this year!

oh yes ps...i boutght my legend now...picking it up tomorrow...got the 37 ford coupe....should be fun!

racing59
9th February 2007, 07:49
wow, this seems to have completely under the radar!

http://www.rodbirley.com/images/DSCF0068.JPG

That's the first race of 2006 - Brands GP circuit.

If you look on the pic, on the 14th row, on the outside, is a certain Belmont. Only did 2 laps in qualifying due to problems with (a) the car, and (b) qualifying getting red flagged. By lap 3, I was up to 9th, then the gearbox stuck between 2nd & 3rd in limbo, jammed, and the engine was just about ready to make tea. Both head gaskets gone! Grrrr. Still, it was fun.

Mind you, the circuit was filthy that day. The contractors doing the work over winter didn't sweep the GP loop at all by the amount of dirt between Stirlings and Clearways. It made Clearways a bit of fun on dirty cold tyres!

There was some video kicking around somewhere, I'll have to find it and post it on here! (well, a link to it actually)

Rob.