MALLORY PARK LEICESTERSHIRE RACE MEETING SUNDAY
4TH JULY 1999
Oh dear, this event went pear shaped right from the
beginning. As you will know we arranged with Mallory Park reduced entry prices
from £8 to £6 and a Club pitch to be near Granville Williams and his MR2 racing
car. Stuart Kynoch my son Thomas and I arrived at 8.15 to be told by the gate
marshall that he had never heard of the MR2 MK1 Register and knew nothing about
ticket concessions or a club pitch. Eventually he agreed to let us in for £8 as
everybody else was paying £10, and directed us to a nice grassy bank overlooking
the start finish line. The next priority was to find Granville – Stuart went off
to look for him while Thomas and I waited to meet other members when they
arrived. Soon a marshall arrived and asked us to move to a special club site
located a short distance away, this afforded even better views of the whole of
the starting grid and a panorama of most of the circuit. The problem was that
the surface was rough sharp stones and as we found out later a very dusty
location due to the dirt road directly in front of us. Stuart returned having
found the MR2 but not Granville so we coned off the rest of the pitch and went
to look for him. Wandering around the paddock was fascinating, over 200 racing
cars were present from pre war Le Mans Aston Martins, post war single seaters to
E-Type Jaguars and the paddock is so arranged so that you can walk around any
car ,the drivers and mechanics are very approachable and it is very easy to
start up a conversation even with the owner of a Jaguar XJ220 as Alan and Darren
found out later in the day. We decided to sample Mallory’s famous greasy
breakfast and then met up with Granville who is 55 and racing mechanic son Colin
30 and had a good look at his MR2 ( see separate article ) before returning to
the club site to meet Darren and Hazel who met up with Terry. Chris and her
husband arrived closely followed by events organiser Alan Russell and David
Williamson of BHP in Bradford. A full days racing was on the cards with 10
qualifying races and 10 full races throughout the day. After watching the early
practice sessions from our vantage point above the circuit we moved to the
hairpin, cameras at the ready, to wait for Granvilles session immediately before
the lunch interval. In between races this part of the circuit is also used as
the access road to and from the paddock in the middle of the track and we were
horrified to see Granville and Colin with the MR2 on its trailer leaving the
track. We met up with a very dejected man in the car park nearby, the car had
failed scrutineering and he would not be allowed to race, although the car had
been passed for the previous three seasons, some twenty four races, the
officials at Mallory had refused to pass the car on what seemed to be a minor
technicality. By being prevented from racing Granville had lost his entry fee
and any chance of winning points towards the championship. The mood was somewhat
sombre as we trudged back to the club site for a consoling pint of beer, after
such bad news all we could do was watch the races without the car we had come to
see. The first race was a field of 22 MGBs which lasted for 10 laps followed by
an even larger grid of Triumphs mainly TR4s Spitfires and the V8 powered TR7s.
Race 3 was all Aston Martins with cars from the early 50s onwards and was very
exciting. What turned out to be the last race consisted of Morgan sports cars
and was closely fought until one car came out of the Devils Elbow, put a wheel
on the grass and finished with a nasty crash into the tyre wall, thankfully the
driver got out unhurt but his car was badly damaged. We then sat for almost an
hour with racing stopped and no explanation from the P.A. until, following a
drivers meeting in the scrutineering bay it was finally announced that because
of damage to the armco barrier behind the tyre wall racing could not continue
and the meeting was therefore abandoned. At least it didn’t rain and we did meet
Granville for the first time and saw his wonderful MR2. After a phone call the
following day it appears that as a result of a serious safety incident the
previous week when a car landed on a group of marshals causing some broken
limbs, five other drivers cars failed their scrutineering and the cancellation
of racing was probably due to a clampdown on safety measures.
RICHARD MORGAN
