Its been a mixed bag for us so far this year. Brands for me was great, I spent round one dicing with a yellow midget before my gearknob came off in my hand(!).

Then in round two I had a MEGA race with Crippo pushing me all the way round – it seemed to go on for about 24hours, before being overtaken by Pete’s ZS, being driven by Paul Luti. Thanks Mr Cripps for not punting me off, and thanks Mr Luti for having a go

Ollie and Blaine had a lonely race at Brands, Ollie of course without 4th gear was still beating Blaine and I! (I’m hoping to resolve that problem at Silverstone) Blaine cruised around to claim 3rd in both and Ollie wasn’t able to challenge Dan in the ZR.

We all had work to do on the cars after Brands, gearboxes and bodywork and suspension issues etc. So we missed Oulton. But still turned up to watch, and we’re glad we did, it was a great couple of races.

I won’t go too far into the details (other sites are available) but particular praise goes to Jonesey for an excellent show, and Rob Spencer for a well deserved maiden victory.

In other Oulton news, it later emerged that after race 2 Dan Ludlow revealed that for the first 5 laps there was a bag of sand caught under his throttle pedal

As we look ahead to Silverstone I still have to bolt my shocks on and split-pin my front suspension back together, not to mention the gaping hole in the rear wing. But nonetheless we’re looking forward to it. That is, the usual mish-mash of one-time-only’s and super-fast (usually bent) cars that roll out for Silverstone. But the regulars will still be there for pleanty of banter and some good racing i’m sure.

Racing the new GP circuit will be pretty epic. But I, along with the rest of the PBIC am more than concerned by the price of it (again – other sites are available, and that issue has been discussed to death already).

Further more, there are a lot of issues shared by my fellow drivers at the moment. And the club isn’t doing enough to address it. There has been no proposal for a meeting to discuss our gripes, not so much as an opinion accept for the letter from Uncle Ron, in response to Simon Tinkler’s query.

Our Coordinator and Technical Scrutineer are awol. It is the most frustrating position to be in for all of us, we can vent our opinions and arguments amoungst ourselves but never is any action taken. What are we to do?

We need a meeting sooner rather than later to address things, as currently, as Jason Plato says, “its just a joke”.

I must admit, reading that back it sounds a little harsh, and I’m not sure I really want to get in to all the controversey. But, if I (we) don’t, it carries on the way it is. And that is an eventuality I want even less.

See you all at Sliverstone.

Dan

  The year has begun with mixed fortunes in the Team Neaves Camp, Ollie has so far kept a clean sheet bar a couple of points where Simon and Rob took the front grid slots at Oulton. Can anybody stop him?

Ollie is driving superbly at the moment but progress is also due to our F-Duct system, simply when Ollie or Blaine covers an air hole with their right knee a middle finger is shown to the cars behind.

Blaine has so far failed to match Ollie for pace this season, but we believe this is down to setup. Blaine is certainly keen to close the gap, not least because Ollie can no longer fit his head into the family home.

Most of you will have seen the various videos from Brands which make for exciting viewing, to quote Vic Reeves (Barry Holmes) “those boys weren’t giving each other much room!” But rest assured, the drivers involved have kissed and made up…

On a personal note the banter this season has been great so far, as well as the pre-race beering sessions with Jonesey, Pete, Alan F and the V8 boys, long may it continue.

Looking ahead Ollie will be the only on-track representative for TNR at Silverstone. We’re down for testing on the Friday so we’ll hopefully see a few of you then.

The usual drivers seem to be attending with the exception of Rob Spencer, who has taken some time out to concentrate on Pimping Ho’s in his Well-Gangster Range Rover. Simon Cripps switches to group B in his mighty 4pot, which should be challenging Ollie for a win if it holds together. Barry “Vic Reeves” Holmes stays true to his beloved ‘mowta’ and remains in group C, Barry is particularly pleased with the absence of king-of-the-road-hogs-Blaine as this means he’ll be able to indulge in the usual gentlemanly racing; where the faster cars are let through by default

Alan Brooke has been on many-a wanted list lately after robbing local stables of their horses. Rumour has it he has managed to house up to 30 in the metro, which is astonishing given that it already housed 160.

John Moon makes his customary Silverstone appearance, beware MGB drivers, some say he likes to take little chunks out of your rear valences… bring plenty of Gaffer Tape…

Yet again the scene is set for an exciting second half of the season and we’ll attempt to keep the site up to date from this point forward! Videos are available from the right side of the page and photos will follow shortly…

See you soon

Team Neaves

It promised to be an interesting spectacle with a few old faces back on the track, such as Andy Young (MGC) and Paul Rayment (MGF Cup). With the weather bright and breezy and Blaine with his new slicks on the three cars headed out for Qualifying on a dry track.

On the first lap Blaine got a puncture, which turned out to be one of the new tyre valves for the in car pressure monitor, which had come undone. Which left the Blaine’s Boys (even the commentators call us that now!) to find their own way round. The lap times were tumbling from an initial lap of 1.51 – only 10 seconds off the pace!! By lap 4 both were in the 1.48’s when lightning struck the number 3 car of Dan, when the car died changing into fifth. It turned out to be a electrical plug for the ignition which had popped of somehow – very odd considering it’s got a metal retaining clip! Ollie shaved more time off to qualify 13th on a low 1.47, with Dan in 21st on a 1.48 and Blaine 43rd after completing the mandatory 3 laps on his flat rubber.

It was no surprise to see Andy Young in the yellow rocket on pole - de-tuned my eye…  Simon Cripps and Dan Ludlow looked set for another monumental battle in 2nd and 3rd respectively.    The three were over two seconds quicker than anyone else – with Andy on a 1.41.

Apparently Andy was allowed to race with us as his car had been de-tuned due to reliebility issues.  We’re thinking of inviting him round to de-tune ours…

Blaine’s tyre was fixed and Dans car was plugged back in ready for the race, which was sunny and dry.   Two thirds on Team Neaves fluffed the start completely   Dan - by now gaining a reputation for reliability issues(!) had the same problem as in Quali as he tried to control his off-the-line-wheelspin, the sensor plug came off the ignition coil, and he couldn’t get it going again.   Ollie stalled – he clearly hadn’t had his Weatabix as the new clutch spring is a lot stiffer!  When Ollie got going again he had dropped to about 25th place, with the fast starting Blaine bearing down on him within a lap!  Blaine and Ollie then swapped places, Ollie swears he let his dad through… The pair fought through the field, battling with various cars and trading places all the way.  Ollie traded places twice with Paul Rayment in the MGF Cup (21), he and Blaine then managed to get the better of Ben Rodziewicz (87) and Paul Rigg (76).  When the fast charging MGC of Andy Young appeared in the mirrors the pair thought they were being lapped, they clearly didn’t notice the absence of blue flags – Andy, who was recovering after a first lap incident was apparently allowed to slip passed all to easily!  By the last corner of the last lap the pair were 14th and 15th, just behind Lew Bergonzi, as they headed for the line Ollie held a tighter line around Woodcote and went for the pass, missing out by only 0.02 secs!!  Another kick in the shins for Blaine was that Ollie got a better lap of 1.46.3 vs his 1.46.4!

Andy Young suffered an early problem that dropped him down the field, only to fight back passed Blaine and Ollie for 12th.  The real excitement was between Simon Cripps and Dan Ludlow, who again put on a great show, Dan passed Simon mid race but then Simon got back through on the last lap.  Simon got a great lap of 1.40.9!

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All told it could have been a better weekend for Team Neaves, at least Ollie got some good experience and Blaine nearly got a shock!  Mallory Park is the next race so we’ll see what happens there…

ps. Dave – if you read this, the tyre man was talking rubbish!

Team Neaves

To follow on from the Brands Race report we have made a discovery… We realised the slick tyres on Blaine’s (7) car were pretty worn, mind you he had been running them for about a year!! So some nice new rubber has been wrapped around the wheels in readiness for Silverstone. Perhaps that could explain why he was slower than last year?

The clutch issues at Brands were due to faulty friction plates, we’ve now ordered some AP replacements which are out of stock, but we are told they will be going into production soon. Will it be soon enough? Who knows! So if we make it to Silverstone we’ll stand a better chance of making it to the race, although current weather report suggest heavy rain – which we don’t like much.

It’s looking busy at Silverstone again this year with a grid of 42 cars, with any luck three of them will be Team Neavesers! Yes we’re still trying to get our transport issues sorted, as well as getting the clutches replaced, at the moment it’s looking tight. But that seems to be our style…

Group C is looking especially interesting – as well as a certain Group B contender that I shall get to in a minute. As well as the usual suspects the Paul Rigg Metro will presumably make its first appearance, as this time he’s remained on the entry list rather than being taken off after first draft. I wonder if the Rigg entry will employ sand-bagging tactics like another Metro I know Paul Rayment will be out in an MGF Cup car, which, should be very fast if Paul (another!) Luti’s Trophy car is anything to go by.

The notorious MGC of Andy Young, which I have heard has been ‘de-tuned’ (?) will be making a comeback. Lets hope its better matched to the other cars in Group B this time!

One important point for the drivers reading this is to remember the drivers AGM is usually held at Silverstone, so remember to turn up and vote, apparently it does count

Time for some fun now then, pre race predictions…

-Blaine will miss the race as he will have got lost in his jumbo size overalls.
-Jonesey’s rain dance will pay off.
-Dan and Ollie will beat Blaine.
-Alan will forget to take the shopping out of his Montego and there will be an incident involving a multi-buy pack of toilet rolls at turn one.
-Andy Young will romp to Victory in his C.
-Barry Holmes will get a bad start due to tuning his radio to the sound of Fleetwood Mac.
-Simon Hutchinson, during a moment of boredom, will invent penguin racing.

If you want tickets for Silverstone they can be purchased from www.mglive.co.uk.

That’s all for now folks, hopefully see you there!

Team Neaves

Silverstone | Round 4

Blaine qualified 5th, not helped by a characteristically wild driver! Unfortunately the car was damaged after practice, finished the race in 5th.

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