Anyway, this was the biggest race of 'Gilbert's' life so far- the 60 min (65 in reality!) Top Hat Masters All series. 75 cars qualified, 71 started! As the race was an amalgamation of several series it had everything from Galaxie to A35, Capri 3000 to Alfasud, Corvette to TR3- plus different tyres. Us pre-'65 types were on Dunlop crossply L or M, while more moderns were on Yokos or whatever they normally raced on. The race was started as a rolling start- my first ever- and I was well p****d when the Corvette starting behind me overtook before the start line and didn't get penalised. The one safety car period (resulting from simultaneous 'blow ups' at opposite sides of the circuit!) started at around the 18 min mark. This had some cars diving into pits for driver change (or compulsory stop) but as the 'pit window' was between 20 and 40 mins they got a deserved 30 secs penalty after the race. As a precaution I had taped my stopwatch to the dash so as not to get caught out! 'Gilbert' was handling better than ever before thanks to some demon rear suspension mods carried out just before the weekend, and was only losing out on the straights to the more powerful cars, of which there were quite a few!
Final result of our most enjoyable race ever was 33rd o/a, 4th in class behind 2 Marcos 1800s and a TR4. Our fastest race lap was 3min 19.2secs- 5 secs faster than the only MGB entered. Best moment was when we took a Mustang going up through Radillon / Eau Rouge! Only damage was caused when a Healey we were hounding spun into the gravel on the last lap and showered us with stones. Both spotlamps have now got broken glasses- any suggestions where to get replacements?
Photo show us vainly trying to keep ahead of Jamie Boot's Griffith- he finished 2nd behind a Lotus 7 S3 running Yokohama tyres.
Mike
