Andy reports on the Griffiths at Cadwell The first race of the season is always a worry. Is the car OK? Am I prepared? What have the other guys done over the winter? There’s lots to think about in any case, but when the first rounds are at Cadwell Park…the anxiety is huge. Cadwell, as some of you maybe aware, is a motorcycle track just north of Lincoln, which spreads over a valley and the surrounding hills. Very narrow, it’s not the best place for TVRs to be racing, but those factors generate some interesting tussles amongst the wide spread of TVR’s taking part.

So who’s who in a Griff?

Well, firstly there’s Owen O’Neill. He’s out in Marc Hockin’s black Griff, which has been around for a year or two now. Marc Built the car with his Dad Tony and it has gained power over the years, culminating in a Super-Charged 5L Rover V8 in the 2007 season. This engine has now gone back to TVR Power and a Taraka 500 has been installed in its place, but as the car is very light (having been stripped completely and all excess weight – including inner wings, door panels, rear tub quarters – removed) so it still runs at the top end of the 300bhp/tonne limit of Group B.

Then there’s Tom Stewart’s new Griffith. We don’t know too much about Tom yet, but I have met him a couple of times…at Cadwell as it happens. He was there for the weekend, but without his racecar sadly. Pressures of work have meant that the car wasn’t quite ready for Cadwell, but I am assured that it WILL be out at Snetterton! What I do know is that car has been completely rebuilt for the Championship, using many donor parts from Tom’s successful CTS Racing MGBGT. Using the same 4L race engine, the car should be very competitive, as it has been on a strict diet similar to Marc’s. We’ll have our work cut out on both counts.

That just leaves my road legal Race “SaGariff”. We decided to keep my car road legal as it’s used on so many track days and the like, so this has compromised our race performance. All those head lights, dashboard, electric motors etc are heavy…so we always have a slight disadvantage against the pure racers. But hey, that’s our choice.

So how did the weekend go?

Mixed really. Firstly we were very lucky with the weather. The sun shone on all our outings (others had hail!) though it remained bloomin’ cold. Tom’s weekend was a non-starter as I have said, but both Owen and I were hoping for a safe and successful weekend. Owen’s problems started almost straight away in the first race. High crankcase pressure popped a valley gasket seal, so his car was smoking heavily, lacking power and keeping him off the pace. Discretion was exercised for race 2. Dropping oil is very bad for your own pace, but can be disastrous for the other racers so it was put back on the trailer.
My own weekend also had its problems. I knew I was in trouble when on the second lap of Qualy, I was sideways climbing the hill at “Charley’s 1” not once but twice! The extensive testing at Snett had finished off my rear tyres..so lack of grip would plague me all weekend. Unable to get on the throttle when exiting the corners take loads of time from you, so I knew I would be in real trouble. Race 1 went fairly well on the last of the grip, but race 2 was worse. More “Top Gear” than “F1” and to add insult to injury I had to be bump started in the holding area. A new starter motor required! Still, it came home in one piece and we collected some points for the season finishing in 5th & 4th respectively! Group B is really tough this year with the RV8 Tuscan Challenge cars, T350 and a Cerb to deal with. It’s going to be fierce out there.

On to Snetterton! Snett is fantastic circuit for TVR’s. Long straights and fast corners mean we can really stretch our legs, so this one should be fun. It’s also a Bank Holiday Race weekend (4th & 5th May), so there’s several packed races. Ferrari’s to Ford’s, Alfa’s to Mini’s and Ginetta’s to TVR’s, its going to be busy all weekend, so come along and see the action. We’ll be there all weekend, with both our races on Monday. The action starts at 9am with our first race starting at 10:30 on the Bank Holiday Monday.

Bye for now

Andy89
www.tvrmonster.com