| |
News: Dinner & Awards 2008 Season Review Speech
The following text is taken from Andy Cotterill's end of season dinner and awards speech.
For photos from the end of season dinner please click here.
Castle Combe
The eagerly awaited curtain raiser for the PBMW Cup came at a decidedly wintry Castle Combe in March. Close season tinkering and essential accessories were revealed for the first time and it was a driver with one of these new paint jobs that took pole, Tony Smith 2/10ths quicker than Robin Welsh, with newcomer Kevin ‘P Diddy’ Welsh qualifying an impressive 8th. However, it was to go all wrong for Kevin first time around at Quarry, with a pile up that saw 3 cars retire hurt. You know, I’ve often wondered why spectators make a b-line for quarry when we’re racing there.
Tony Smith held his nerve and after one of the drives of the season, took his maiden win with the podium matching the qualifying order.
Drives of note were…
Newcomers Rob Smith and Tim Wilson 15th to 7th and 14th to 8th respectively.
Brian Jones an impressive 32nd to 18th and finally Lenny Oliver from 33rd to 21st.
Our fun had begun…
Brands Hatch
April saw our annual pilgrimage to Brands Hatch and the yearly rear twitch caused to many by Paddock Hill Bend.
Due to the sheer volume of cars, we had to break the meeting down into 3 groups, each of us getting 2 races each.
Local expert Deano Spurr had the fastest time in qualifying from Robin, Wayne Howlett and Len Colley.
In race 1 Dean confirmed he could drive Brands with a blindfold on, by beating Robin and Len into second and third.
Again drives of note…
Flat Cap Racing’s very own Jimmy Whitwell from 19th to 11th
New boy Graham Collison 24th to 15th.
Julian Newman from 18th to 12th. This was even more poignant in that his decision to have a windage plate fitted was not his greatest and blew his engine in testing the previous day. After an amazing effort from many in the paddock, his engine was changed at 10pm the Friday evening, so that he could race on the Saturday. To my knowledge this was the first of 3 transplants during the season and I know each owner was immensely grateful to those that contributed.
Race 2 saw ex-champ Liam Crilly take the win from Mike Dugdale and Nick Barke who went from 14th on the grid to 3rd.
To drives of note and this brings me to the first of our PBMW off the wall awards. For those of you who are not familiar with these, they are for an array of ‘achievements’ extra to our regular racing awards.
This driver went from 15th on the grid to break into the top 10, which I’m sure on his own admittance, is a special result for him. He has raced in the series since it’s conception in 2004 and as far as I can remember, has rarely missed a meeting since then. For this I am pleased to announce the most committed driver award for 2008 goes to Richard Cormode.
Brands also brings me to the next award, ‘most entertaining cock-up’, as the reason for it occurred during the second race. This person was standing on the spectator bank at Paddock Hill drinking what he thought was a well deserved beer, when the commentator announced that he was on pole position for the race. They obviously teach the alphabet late in Norfolk, as he got his A’s mixed up with his B’s. He took the news with a sporting laugh and finished his pint. The award for 2008 goes to Wayne ‘Vidal’ Howlett.
Onto Race 3
Deano did it again from Robin and Tim Wilson, showing his Dad how it’s done, taking a maiden PBMW podium in 3rd. Nick Barke again drove around everyone else to take 6th.
Oh and one last mention goes to someone who had his first race at Brands and although this may not seem unusual, a lot of you will know just what trials and tribulations Jimmy C has had in eventually getting on track. It was a pleasure to get to race with you Jimmy ‘5 engines’ and thanks also for the amusing stunt driving in the second race and even more amusing was the video that Jenny took of him doing an impression of a spinning top at Druids, with shrieks of ‘OH NO Jimmy NO’.
Cadwell Park
Our first trip to this belter of a circuit and again due to numbers we adopted the group system. Deano, Rob Smith and newbie Adrian Eddy were the 3 fastest qualifiers and it was to be a superb drive by Adrian to take the first race beating his friend and mentor Stephen Markey. At this point I am very pleased to announce that Adrian has been voted best Novice for 2008. Unfortunately for Adrian, his elation was to end in tears with a nasty collision in the third race, which sadly saw the demise of the 2007 championship winning ‘rust bucket’, but as Partridge would agree, it had been a long time in coming.
Dean Spurr won again in the second race from Rob Smith and Liam.
Stephen Markey went one better in the third race from Tony Smith and Rob Welsh. Another drive of note was Tim Wilson holding off his Dad Paul for 5th place.
One last thing to mention was the incredible effort that Alex Benn and others made to get him to Cadwell after he almost had his car written off by a lorry on a dual carriageway only 4 days previously. And for this reason I am pleased to announce that Alex has won the award for Engineering Excellence/Best Budget Bodger 2008.
Rockingham
This was most definitely Robin Welsh’s day. He qualified 1.5 seconds ahead of his next rival Liam. He confirmed his superiority in a damp race beating Martin Dower into second who had qualified in 7th. Rob Smith took the last podium spot and there was a rare return to form for our 2007 Champion, Andrew Partridge who finished in fourth. Another incredible drive from Nick Barke up to 5th from 22nd on the grid was almost overshadowed by Julian Newman, confirming that if he could just qualify better, then he could definitely be up there with the best, rising from a lowly 29th to finish 11th. Newcomer Lawrie Dunster also had a tremendous race from 33rd up to 14th.
It’s also a day that Roger Kneebone won’t forget, ending up with a broken bone in his wrist from a first lap collision with the luckless Nigel Olive-Jones. I have lost count of the amount of times I’ve seen Nigel and his car at the side of the track, the car looking sad but Nigel even more so. Each time he’s got back out there for the next race meeting, with the smile restored. For this reason it is my pleasure to announce the next award. It is the ‘Chumbawumba’ award, for getting knocked down and getting back up again and it goes to…OJ.
Before we finish with Rockingham, I would like to announce another award for the result of the best drive of the year award. Don’t think it was much in doubt. For his outstanding drive at Rockingham, the award goes to Robin Welsh
Lydden
A trip down memory lane for some of us, as PBMW left TTRS at home and made the trip to our series’ original home, Lydden Hill. An interesting weekend of racing with thrills and spills. Due to the small grid available, we split into 4 groups this time, and also added an A and B final.
The day started with a moment of comedy from a new face Mark Braden. All drivers were called to a meeting with the clerk of the course, who as part of his instructions informed us that crossing the white lines into Paddock Bend would be frowned upon and that if a driver transgressed too many times then he would risk being black flagged. Mark, who was pretty much unknown to all of us, piped up with a question…’how many times can we do it before being pulled’. The clerk was initially quite shocked at having been interrupted, answered with a strained smile, ‘I will decide that’. He went to carry on, as clerks don’t expect to be interrupted once, let alone twice. Mark again shouts over the top of him…’excuse me, but do you know who you’re talking to?’ The clerk who wasn’t sure what to make of it all replied…’err…no!’ Mark cheekily continues with…’Good, carry on!’ It’s very rare that anyone has the nerve to play up a clerk of the course, but Mark executed it beautifully.
Onto qualifying and Vidal got his alphabet mixed up again, sitting in the paddock drinking coffee when he should have been out qualifying. By the time he had jumped in his car he barely managed 3 laps but remarkably set the fastest qually time. I think I’m also right in saying he had never driven at Lydden before. Well done Wayne.
Race 1 saw Wayne confirm qualifying wasn’t a fluke taking the chequered flag ahead of Liam and Tim Wilson taking 3rd.
Where Race 1 was uneventful, the same could not be said for Race 2. Mickey Daley almost lost a wheel at turn 1 and a sudden strange affliction of colour blindness to red for some drivers, created chaos. The race eventually restarted without Mickey, who retired to the paddock to play with his new puppy and Alan Stuart who had sustained weekend curtailing damage.
After the restart, Nick Barke and Rob Smith tested the strength of their friendship, but Robin Welsh eventually took the chequered flag ahead of Len Colley and a first podium of the year for Cider boy Clasby.
Race 3 was quieter and saw Wayne take it from Tony Smith and Cider boy again. Special mention here to our sole female representative, Robyne Oliver, who’s driving improved hand over fist during the weekend and had her best ever finish.
Race 4 was won by Robin Welsh again with Liam second. Lenny Oliver definitely kept driving improvement in the family by pipping his father-in-law to fourth place. Again I’d like to take this opportunity to present another award. For his progressive performances throughout this season, it gives me great pleasure to announce the most improved driver award for 2008, goes to Lenny Oliver.
So to the B final, which came with the added incentive of the first 4 across the line would earn a place in the A final. Those that achieved this were Rob Smith, Graham Collison, Nick Barke and Andy Strong.
Just like Race 2 the A final was to be eventful, with 6 non finishers. Graham Collision…sorry Collison and OJ having a tiff at the first corner and Strong, Barke and Benn misdemeanouring on lap 13 to bring out the red flag. Robin Welsh took the highest honours of the day with Vidal and Liam behind.
Snetterton
And to what was to be the final independent PBMW race of the season at Snetterton. Saturday was SELOCFEST and as part of the marquee display, Jimmy and Partridge were asked to show their cars under the canvas, I think as an example of before and after. The next morning we awoke to find their cars gone and replaced with 2 wheelie bins complete with their appropriate race numbers. I think they may well have been trying to tell you something Andrew!
The following day, Liam Crilly took pole from Len Colley, who then in the race had contact and went backwards. In fact that brings me to the penultimate off the wall award. The Walshy award is given to the driver who has the best excuse or excuses for poor performance. I must admit that I was surprised that I wasn’t in the running, but for a catalogue of pathetic excuses throughout 2008, the award goes to Len Colley.
In the race Liam drove superbly, when he was actually on the circuit that is and added yet another trophy to his mile long mantelpiece. Deano took 2nd and Robin 3rd. That brings me to the final award I’ve been asked to present this evening. This driver has only once failed to take a podium place in PBMW rounds this year and I’m pleased to announce the most consistent driver of 2008 goes to Robin Welsh.
One last thing to mention at Snetterton was the fact that 17 of us (I obviously don’t include myself in the ‘us’ bit naturally) managed to beat a rising GP2 star Marco Bonanomi, who borrowed Andy Bloomer’s car. Marco complained that the engine was slow, which was not surprising really, seeing as Andy had lunched his previous engine in Saturday testing, after mistaking steam emanating from his bonnet for tyre smoke and carrying on until his engine predictably went…BANG. More miracle work from the engine elves and Marco and Andy were fit to race.
And that concluded our season, apart from the combined trips to Silverstone and Spa
|
|
|
