As usual a delightful little meeting, much reminiscent of the atmosphere of the old Winter Series in many ways.
Not heavily populated so nice and easy to get around, do stuff, talk with people get Kodak livery on Retro Rallycross cars! Plus, of course to take photographs…
Before we proceed: remember that I pretty much do this out of passion, and for free,…unless of course anyone wishes to purchase prints which can be arranged by emailing me here: Richard@NTphotoworks.com
Plus, a quick reminder about copyright: click on the picture to the left for a bit of info about how this works for now…these are the rules!
Again, I’m not going to faff about here and pretty much dump the lot in here although I have segmented a few off to make it easier to get through as there are a good couple of hundred here
It takes time and headspace to do this so bear with me please, I may well just add a few words but will heartily resist the natural urge to do a full on report like I used to have to do.
It’s not my job anymore, I do this for fun! 😀
Let’s begin, with a look some of the main movers and shakers
Jump!
Land…
Bounce!
Only shot from the two sites this time so moving on around to Chessons Drift (no apologies for saying that!)
Newbies
As Retro Rallycross goes from strength to strength, it’s competitive nature and relatively low costs attract more and more entrants, so nice to have Peter Christmas (Toyota Corolla), Steve Gaunt (Vauxhall Corsa) and Thomas Edmunds (also in a Corsa).
More welcomed for bringing something other than Escorts! Not that there’s anything wrong with Escorts far from it but…I just love variety which means resourcefulness in a build.
Even more so if it’s something unusual….like Lee Wood’s forthcoming Mazda 323 😀
Racing
As you can see, I’m pretty much dropping the whole lot it so these are going to be quite substantial galleries!
Now you know what a photographer’s take looks like!
Retro…
For me, the Retro class for up to 1660cc is probably the most cost effective route into proper motor-racing.
With so many potential options out there despite the cars having to be pre-1991 to qualify, with some candidates starting to carry a growing residual value, this can be as cheap as it gets in real terms.
Retro has an increasing entry each meeting, even with three tow former and one current champs to beat, this class is good fun and not too intimidating!
Spoiler Alert!!
Not really but it is! Or rather he is….Vince Bristow.
Really throws that Beemer into the fray, and yes of course it shows, that car has “patina” it lays down rubber all over the sideways racing line but a guy you can race with…also have fun with, he’s not in the least precious!
On track, I’m sure that when racers see that BMW in the rear view, the immediate thought is “uh-oh”, off track however, life and soul. We share good laughs.
So there’s a face from behind the visor. Should I do similar aside in future articles, introduce more of this family?
You tell me…use our social media to do so!
More Racing…
Brilliant to see Nigel Davey back with his monster TR8. A car that has had much work done to get it into reliable race trim and with such competitive carrying of speed. It also sounds great!
He and Vince entertainng with proper old fashioned Rallycross “door handling”
Wheel banging is better than head banging, just look at how well these two race together…
Tip of the day: If you can get these galleries to scroll fast enough you get a little movie clip!
The other great little race at this point in the procedings occurred between relative newcomer Ian Halfhide in the ex-Pip Davey 205, he ain’t no spring chicken so it’s great to see him getting stuck in with newbie Pete Christmas!
Before we move onto the main event I it only proper to give a couple of honourable mentions here to a couple of great competors in a couple of very very fast cars.
David Ewin, who’s Mitsubishi powered Fiesta that always looks like it’s about to leap up and bite yer arse!
Also to my good mate Lee Wood, the 2023 Champ making best with that rather tired Escort, it’s not in it’s heyday but showed good with an overall result.
Finale!
Incredibly competive all day, a heat win by Stuart Emery needing no second invitation to interrupt the ongoin title combatants Alan Crockett and Charlie French between them pretty dominant all day long.
So thus it was, these two hard ass racers, (lovely people though!) hammer and tongs all day as they have been all year. Charlie taking the chequer without the need for the extra legs the Tuesday Night Rallycross team have squeezed from the car, whilst Alan stuggled the last couple of laps with a steering problem, which is a real shame.
I think this single shot made using Kodak film sums it up.
…and finally
On a sadder note to end this one let’s all feel a little sorry for John Cross who’s parting ways with his beloved Stratos.
A unique race car that has brought a lot of joy to Retro and it’s fans over the past few years, a car that has seen more than it’s fair share of action but remained throughout, the prettiest in Rallycross.
On a sadder note to end this one let’s all feel a little sorry for John Cross who’s parting ways with his beloved Stratos.
A unique race car that has brought a lot of joy to Retro and it’s fans over the past few years, a car that has seen more than it’s fair share of action but remained throughout, the prettiest in Rallycross.
It’s not over yet before you ask or fret! He’s already started building something new to play with 😉
For now though, let’s take a look at some memories of the Stratos
And thus it ends, Thanks so much for dropping by….
