Jeff Sellick's MGF in the 2012 MGCC Speed Championship

2013 Season is here!

2013-01-15T08:19:00.003-08:00

Well the 2013 season is now only weeks away, I'm completely unsure what I'm going to be doing this year at this stage.

The car is pretty much ready as it is, however I do have some upgrades that I can do within my category, the big question is whether to go with the car as per last year and see if I can improve, or get those little bits done and see if that improves my times.

However, there is still a fairly major obstacle to overcome, a complete lack of finances!

Unfortunately this is not a great time to be a driving instructor, work is the lowest I've ever known it and I'm struggling with the morals of spending money on the MG when there is little coming in at the moment.

Hopefully things will pick up during the coming weeks/months, but until then this season is not clear, as for how many rounds I will be able to do, if any!

End of season and 2 awards

2012-12-01T03:03:00.000-08:00

So the season came to an end fairly early in the year for me, with other commitments and Castle Hill being cancelled, I didn't do as many events as I would have liked, but couldn't be helped.

Anyway the good news is that I have picked up two trophies, the Southern Novice Award and the Southern Group 2 1500 - 2400 award, so very happy about that in my first season.

Looking ahead to next year now, lots of checking the regulations to see what else I can do to the car to keep it within the regulations but maybe get a few tenths of seconds quicker for 2013.

Big thanks to everyone that has helped me this year, especially David Coultard and Stuart Gilbert, who have both been brilliant at offering their expert advice, thanks guys!

Shelsley Walsh 28th July 2012

2012-07-29T12:02:00.000-07:00

It felt like the MGF's were a bit out of place as Shelsley as it was the classic weekend but there we were tucked out of the way under the smallest roof and the tightest paddock places ever, however it did provide good shelter from the sun, which was a blessing.

Having arrived on Friday night and pitched up the tent, it was time to walk the course.
Wow that is a hill, it just doesn't stop climbing all the way, this was definitely going to be a power hill. Luckily for me on the way back down we were fortunate to bump into Stuart Gilbert, who was on his way up, even luckier it was just as the start of the bottom 'S' bend, which is probably the most trickiest part of the hill. I couldn't resist asking for his advice, and he was very willing to talk me through this tricky corner, pointing out elements to it that I hadn't even noticed when I walked it, just goes to show what experience can do.

First practice run was OK for a sighting session, second practice was much better and I got to within 400th of a second to the record time set by Marc Hanson in an MGF back in 2007.

First timed run and despite my best efforts it was slower than my practice time, after much head scratching and looking at the data of all my runs so far, I knew I just had to go for it and be braver.
Second timed run certainly felt quick and I did scare myself by nearly losing the back of the car coming out of the top 'S', but as I went over the line a quick glance of the score board showed a 39.58, much to my delight, beating the previous record of 40.09 by Marc in 2007.

So it was a good day, probably highlight of the championship this year for me so far, looking forward to Curborough next weekend.

Chequers Motoring School MGF about to tackle Shelsley Walsh Hillclimb for the first time

What goes up the hill, has to come back down!

It's a good job I don't teach my pupils to start their driving lessons like this!

Castle Hill Cancelled

2012-07-20T11:41:00.000-07:00

With Castle Hill being cancelled due to the rain, making the paddock area unsafe and no work having to be done on the car, it's been a bit of a quiet time.

Still with Shelsley Walsh hillclimb coming up on Saturday 28th July and Curborough sprint on Sunday 5th August, this is going to be a busy week and 2 scores in the championship which are desperately needed!

Gurston Down 24th June 2012

2012-07-02T13:42:00.003-07:00

Having arrived at Gurston Down late on Saturday night, having managed to dodge the worst of the rain. We managed to get the tent up before the rain came back but it continued all through the night, making sleeping a bit tricky.

The next morning started wet and being the second car to start, a cautus approach was in order. Second practice run and the track was by now virtually dry, resulting in a much better time.

By the time we lined up for the timed runs in the afternoon, the sun was shining and it was getting warmer all the time. Happy with the first run, with 44.12, but still needed to find another 2 seconds to break the previous class record.

Time for some questioning of the more seasoned MGCC drivers, the main question being, can I take 'Hollow' flat out. Hollow is a very fast approach from the start and previous runs had me lightly braking on approach. The common sense of opinion was that it could be taken 'flat out' if you have enough courage.
This lead to some assuming banter between the fellow MGF competitors, Paul and Tim. Which of of us would be brave enough to try it! It was the best MGCC event so far having Paul and Tim there because for the first time, there was real competition to try and beat each other.

Last run of the day and the truth was, none of us was brave enough! Still there is always next year!

MGF looking good in Bristol Chequers Motoring School livery

The 3 'F's had our own little paddock space to ourselves, Green MGF is mine, the blue TF is Tim Kirkham and the silver F is Paul Constance

More MGCC cars in paddock

This was the final timed run of the day

Smoothly off the line

Through the 64ft marker in 2.43 seconds, my fastest take off yet all year!

I thought this showed the speed of the car but sadly the photo is just out of focus

Dwn hill all the way to 'Hollow'

Main point to note is NO brake lights, but truth is I did left slightly before I entered the first right hand bend. Next year I must try to keep it flat out through here!!!!!

MGOT Castle Coombe

2012-07-02T11:15:00.001-07:00

The MG's On Track day at castle Coombe on Monday 11th June, was, well, VERY WET!
But great fun all the same!

Abingdon Car-Nival 9th June 2012

2012-06-10T09:04:00.000-07:00

Having arrived on the Friday and camped over in horrendous winds, it was a relief to see the weather had cleared for the Saturday.

First course to tackle was Abingdon, which is a very fast run! I was a few seconds down on the practice runs but knew I could be quicker, on the final run I managed a 56.12 beating the previous class record of 56.26. Very happy with that!

The afternoon session took us onto the Bentley course which is more of a slower course but with a number of 90 degree bends, was very challenging. despite my best efforts and managing to get a quicker time on each run, I managed a final run of 60.90, sadly still nearly 2 seconds off the class record of 58.64, if only I could have had a another couple of runs, still there is always next year.

This was my attempt at solving the youth unemployment, drop the entire contents of the socket set and see how long it took to put all the sockets back from where they came.

Waiting for the off!

Not sure what happened to this car?

Waiting in line in the afternoon session on the Bentley Course

Chequers Motoring School sponsored MGF at Abingdon Car-Nival 2012

If you look closely, yeap there is an MGF there

Wiscombe Park 19th May 2012

2012-05-20T13:50:00.000-07:00

Very pleased with how my first every hillclimb went at Wiscombe on Saturday. After walking the course it became clear that it was much trickier than I had thought from all that I had read about the course.

Practice runs were OK but I felt I could be quicker. Then the first run in the afternoon and I got a time of 52.25 which was quicker than the previous best time in an MGF class 2, which was 52.97 set back in 2006. The second run was slightly slower at 52.77, but both runs were quicker than I had hoped for.

This should now mean the car if sorted, well for now anyway!

Next event is Abingdon sprint in 3 weeks time.

This poor chap missed judged the corner!

Missing horses have been rounded up!

2012-05-13T10:06:00.001-07:00

Took the car back to the rolling road on Friday and it now has 149BHP, fantastic compared to the 115BHP at the last visit there back in March.

So the faulty cat and the work done by Mark at MJN have done the trick.

Can't wait for the next event next weekend at Wiscombe Hillclimb, no excuses this time!

Thank you mister Astra Y823HYA !

2012-04-30T14:26:00.001-07:00

Slightly off topic but as a driving instructor, this is the third time I've been hit by uninsured drivers and it drives me mad that this scum can get away with it! or so they think?

I would like to thank the driver of black Astra, registration Y823HYA, for the rear end smash into my car today on the A4174, Bristol ring-road, and the then chase after you as you proceeded not to stop after the accident.

I would like to point out to you that my pupil was in fact on their driving test, when you decided that going through a red light was somehow now an acceptable way of driving.

Have you considered the affect left in your wake, probably not, so I would like to explain.

As you are not insured, then first of all we have obvious cost of repairs to the rear of my car, then the lost lessons for me while I file the incident report with the Police, then the lost test for the next person taking their test which the examiner who had to spend time with the Police, the pain in my neck from being sat in the back, then the lost confidence of my pupil, who now may never take their test again, I could go on and on....

But at least we have the fond memories of chasing you up and down Blackhorse Road, while you try to escape from me, followed by the final picture of you proceeding through another red light in a desperate attempt to escape, and all because you were so desperate in your sad world to get to wherever you were going that you couldn't stop at a red light for 1 minute.

So mister Astra, Y823HYA, thanks for ruining everyone's day, looking forward to the court date, I can't wait for your explanation!

Entries are in for the next couple of months!

2012-04-28T11:40:00.001-07:00

Still not managed to get the car back to rolling road yet but hopefully should be some time this week.

The entries for the next couple of months are now in and confirmed.

Next up is Wiscombe hillclimb on 19th May, Abingdon Sprint on 9th June, Gurston Down hillclimb on 24th June, Castle Hill hillclimb on 7th and 8th July.

Not sure which events to enter after this, just going to wait to see how we get on first before commiting to any more entries, but at least this should get some scores in the MGCC Luffield Championship, as we are in a lowly position in all classes at the moment!

Car Back from MJN Motors

2012-04-12T09:17:00.002-07:00

Got the car back from Mark at MJN Motors in Bristol.

He carried out a compression test and all was OK, put it on his T4 test machine and it didn't come back with too many problems, so some small adjustments to the VVC, and tinkering with the general settings and it's all fine.

Just got to wait for the ECU to learn the new settings and then back to the rolling road to see what improvements have been made by Mark and the fitting of a new cat and oil change.

Driving the car home it did fell more willing to pull but the prove will be the rolling road in a week or two!

Withdrawn from Curborough

2012-03-26T11:54:00.002-07:00

After much deliberation over the weekend, I have decided to withdraw from Curborough this weekend because of the ongoing problems with power loss.

There was no point going with an underpowered car, I would only moan about it not being quick enough.

So this now gives me a 7 week window before the next event I was going to enter, which is Wiscombe hill climb on 19th May, hopefully this will be with a car that is running to it's full capacity.

MOT

2012-03-24T14:34:00.002-07:00

Arrived at My Garage in Emersons Green to find that the MOT chap that I normally see was away on holiday but no problem as another technician was doing the MOT's that day.
As the car was driven into the workshop I hung around outside waiting and watching. After about 20 mins I couldn't resist going in to see how it going.

Not good as the car was failing on the emissions test, he tried a couple of times and called a colleague over for verification, "sorry but your cats knackered".
I found this very hard to believe because the cat was less than a year old and supplied by Brown and Gammons, who are a well respected MG specialist.

The MOT continued and the car passed on everything about from the emission test. Armed with this information I called B&G to ask for their advice. They were very helpful and asked when I could bring the car back to them for them to inspect for themselves, so I wanted to get it sorted ASAP, so agreed to drive the 2.5 hours on Saturday morning.

Got to B&G this morning before they opened, I was impressed to get there that early, and duly waited for them to open. They quickly diagnosed that the cat had failed and offered to replace then and there. Interestingly the sound from the exhaust on the drive home was one that I was familiar with but hadn't heard from my car for a little while now. So I'm confident that the retest of the MOT next Friday should be a formality but there still remains the issue of lost horsepower and why the cat had failed.

After a few searches on Internet, it seems that most cats fail because of either over fuelling and petrol contaminating the cat or compression loss, this comes back to the earlier problem experienced at the rolling road session.

So the next sprint at Curborough next weekend will still be with a car that I'm not sure exactly is going on with the engine but hopefully the following week when the compression tests are done, should be sorted and we can find those missing horses!!

Rolling Road Results

2012-03-24T14:24:00.002-07:00

I decided after the Mallory Park sprint that I should get the car on a rolling road and checked out to make sure that it is running as well as it could do. So yesterday I took it to South West In Car Tech at Dodington near Bristol.

Well the results from 3 power runs can only be described as disappointing. I was expecting somewhere between 140 and 150 bhp, but the car could only manage 115 bhp. Big disappointment and then the question of WHY? The chap at SWICT seemed to think that the engine was fuelling correctly but was losing compression, so either 1 or 2 cylinders are not as they should be or the dreaded head gasket was beginning to fail.

Took a trip to see mark at MJN motors in Brislington to book it in for a compression check. Mark has seen the car a few times now and was confident it wasn't the head gasket but unfortunately couldn't get my car in for a couple of weeks to check the full compression. With the next sprint at Curborough only a week away, this wasn't good but maybe i would have better luck with the MOT which was booked for later in the afternoon!

Mallory Park Sprint, MGF

2012-03-14T14:25:00.004-07:00

Mallory Park Sprint 11th March 2012

2012-03-13T14:06:00.007-07:00

Waiting to go out on practice run.

Extra guests at lunchtime

Team Chequers pit crew hard at work!

An audience with Lawrie Brown

Darren's MGF Trophy, looks good and went very well

More MG's in paddock

Team Chequers still working hard

Helen and DC enjoying the sunshine

First of all the welding on Saturday all went to plan and I'll post pictures of how we got round the problem of fitting the race harness as soon as I can.

First bit of luck was pulling into Mallory on Sunday morning at 7.30 and arriving right next to DC and Helen. Singing on was fine but scrutineering was very slow and the bit that I had been dreading! The harnesses which I was worried about turned out to be all OK but there was a problem with the passenger door not opening from the outside that I was told to fix, thanks to DC who came back after getting his car scruteneered, to make sure I was OK.

Didn't have time to walk the course but did the convoy run and before I had time to think it was out for the first practice run. Didn't get a great time but hopefully now knew more about the track and gear changes, braking points etc

After a crafty pick of DC's brains regarding tyre pressures, I realised I was running way too low, so a quick round of the foot pump before the next practice run, which took 1.5 seconds off my time.

Lunch came and went and then the real timed runs, first run was disappointing with a slower time than the previous practice run by 0.5 seconds, this followed the final timed run being slower again by only one hundredths of a second.

As DC said when we were packing up, 'that's the worst day, when your times get slower', and yes he was right.

By the time we got home, the results had already been emailed through, and I found that I was the slowest MG in the class but had beaten the only MX5 in our class!

Looks like this is going to be harder than I had thought it would be, but can already see the addiction in trying to go quicker and beat your time.

Best of all though is that it seems like a very friendly championship and look forward to meeting more competitors as the season progresses during the year.

The next meeting at Curborough is on 1st April can't come soon enough!!

Seat Belt Harness

2012-03-01T14:08:00.002-08:00

After consultation with Dan from CMC Motorsport and thanks to DC for getting me in touch with him, the way I was going to fit or rather the way I had fitted the 4 point harness wasn't correct. So I've now gone for a full harness bar which will be fitted in place where the original seat belts would have been fitted on top of the engine bay cover, in addition to plates welded into the sides of the car behind the seats for the lap sections.
Only slight problem is that the chap I was going to use to get everything welded in place is away and not back until Saturday 10th March, which all being well should be OK because the first meeting at Mallory Park is on Sunday 11th, just hope I've got it all correct because I've left no time for errors!

On a positive note I've now sent off entry forms for both Wiscombe on 19th May and Gurston Down on 24th June, so the season is starting to come together.

Sponsorship graphics added to MGF

2012-02-19T11:08:00.004-08:00

The Chequers Driving School graphics were added this weekend, the car is looking more like a racing MGF now!
Took a good few hours to do and still needs a little tidying up here and there but I'm pleased with it.

Wheels are back!

2012-02-19T10:55:00.003-08:00

Got the wheels back from lepsons in Swindon on Friday, they look great, it's difficult to remember how bad they were, wish I'd taken and couple of before photos so you could really see the difference. Corrected the tyre pressures to the right settings, fingers crossed now that they don't lose any pressure during the week.

Wheels gone?

2012-02-12T13:19:00.000-08:00

No need to worry, they haven't been stolen!

Two of the alloys kept losing their pressure, one in particular was losing about 20psi a week, so I decided to get them refurbished at Lepsons in Swindon, as they was curbing damage on all four wheels from previous owners.

Dropped off the wheels yesterday and should be back on the car by next weekend.

So while the car is in the air I thought it would be a good chance to redo the harness belts, much better fit now!

More preperation

2012-01-29T07:28:00.001-08:00

A bit more progress today, the floor on both sides have been hammerited this week, so the seats could be refitted, along with the four point harnesses, which I didn't fully fit because I'm hoping to pick up a T bar, which is the trim behind the seat, so I don't have to cut the existing trim. Then leave holes, if or when I return the car to full road spec, so this will have to wait a bit longer. Fire extinguisher is in and looks quite neat.

More progress this weekend

2012-01-22T10:49:00.000-08:00

With a sunny dry day and only 6 weeks to go till the first meeting at Mallory Park, I thought I should get on with some more jobs on the car this weekend. First of all took the passenger seat out and the carpet and soundproofing, wasn't expecting the inside to be so wet, the soundproofing smelt and was very wet, not good as the car lives under a cover during the week, I'm guessing it's been wet for a long time. Still a couple of coats of hammerite and it's looking a lot better now, ready to take the seats with the race harnesses and fitting of the fire extinguisher.

Mallory Entry Form and Championship Targets

2012-01-10T12:47:00.000-08:00

A huge thanks to David Coultard today, who gave me the heads up that the Mallory Park entry form was available from today, after a bit on confusion as to which class I should be entering, David pointed me on the right track, just gotta wait to see if I get in now!

It all seems to be happening quickly now as the MGCC Championship target times have now been made available, looking at the target time and looking at the record for my class, I'm starting to realise what I'm letting myself in for!

Timing strut made

2012-01-08T07:52:00.000-08:00

Bit more progress over the weekend with the timing strut now made. I used a door fingerboard from B&Q, only £3. cut it down to size and painted it matt black, another job done!

Also fitted the yellow tape on the battery earth and the ignition switch sticker above the key start, all requirements to go sprinting and hillclimbing.

Finally a good clean ready for the Sponsorship graphics to be added soon.