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Brands Hatch Jaguar XK Challenge with the Classic Sports Car Club - 5th and 6th May 2007

Event Report by John Roberts

Getting back into the swing of it and two races to improve my performance – or would I?

On Friday, Saturday and Sunday last, we all performed (or tried to) on the Indy Circuit at Brands Hatch. We were blessed with good, warm weather to really get the season kick-started again and no rain luckily!

This was the first opportunity to get the Marquee out this year and I bagged the corner of the Outer Paddock overlooking Paddock Hill Bend. This year the Marquee was adorned with our joint MWS and Jaguar XK 150 Banner recognizing that….

MWS has been in business for 80 years and, that it is the
50th Anniversary of the Jaguar XK 150

For the first time this year we had a mixed Jaguar Marques race with XK’s, XJ Saloons, XJS’s, D-Type’s and a very valuable Tojeiro Jaguar.

Qualifying went well, with an 11th overall position out of 23 cars, which meant 3rd in Class.

JR only just in front of Darren McWhirter at Druids		I can`t get any more committed to Druids

When the first race started on Saturday, I was on the clean part of the track. The faster cars and XK’s were on the side where cement dust had been poured to cover the previous race’s oil spills. I had a blistering start and managed to get back across the circuit to block the fast approaching XK150 of Grahame Bull. I was up to 2nd place (in Class) as Trevor Groom in his very quick XK 140 just disappeared into the distance.

I held Graham off for about 4 laps, but he does have a lot of power under that bonnet of his and certainly has the legs on me when coming out of the corners.

I was then chasing Tom McWhirter in his immaculate Tojeiro Jaguar, who had never raced at Brands before. I wish I’d known that before the race, I would have tried to capitalise on my local knowledge. Tom spun off twice at Clearways corner, but was able to recover and again, with a very light and powerful car managed to get past. However, I managed to hold my own and finished the race 3rd in Class ‘C’.

On Sunday, we started in our finishing positions on Saturday and again, not a bad start. But I had to contend with a much more serious Richard Hackett in his Lightweight XK120 Roadster (A Class ‘D’ car and a heavily modified 3.8 Litre running Triple Webber Carbs. ANY EXCUSE!). So my in-car Camcorder spent most of its time looking at Richard’s rear-end. He has threatened to purchase the ‘Tape’ from me, but as I stressed, ‘At a very exorbitant price, as I couldn’t get past this mobile bottle-neck’. But it was a great race and we all finished in one piece.

Obviously I’m getting a little more serious now as hot tyre pressures were checked after each race, including tyre temperatures, to ensure temperature linearity across each tyre section. But, what I was finding, (For the more technically minded amongst you readers) is that on the straights especially, the engine was running out of steam above 5000 RPM and I couldn’t get out of the corners as fast as say, Grahame Bull. He thought it was me being slow, but the excuse I fear is in the Ignition Timing set-up. So it’s time for a Rolling Road me thinks to check things out.

NOTE: If any of you readers have any ideas as to the cause of my lack of power above 5K please let me know on john@sacor.freeserve.co.uk.

I will be racing at Silverstone on the Grand Prix circuit as a guest of the Masters and Top Hat Series on the 19th May. I am really looking forward to it and I need to spend time on my Play-Station getting to know it, as this will be a first for me. “The Hangar Straight” looms large on my horizon and I can’t wait! Try and join us if you can.

John

Action shots courtesy of Roger Gage, official Jaguar Enthusiasts` Club photographer
For more XK Jaguar Racing photos visit his web site at www.xkjaguar.co.uk

Our thanks to MotorSport Vision for permission to film at Brands Hatch

JR chasing down Tom`s Tojeiro	JR just in front of Hackett, but not for long	Out of Druids and heading to Graham Hill Bend

Click on a picture to see a larger image.