le mans classic

[peter rafter]

good exposure to the morgans on the live stream
however heavy rain this morning
well done all drivers

[Phill Thomas]

Looks like Roger Whiteside and Richard Thorne may finish second on handicap in Grid 2, unconfirmed. A truly magnificent feat!

[Leigh Sebba]

Once again an amazing and exhausting event – more so having rather ambitiously entered two cars – the pre war Mog and the 1953 flat rad +4. I left the pre war car to be driven by Tamsin and Richard Plant – and being in the immediately following grid I couldn’t watch much of their efforts which were mostly consistent and reliable lapping apart from minor ‘offs’ at Arnage – Richard’s being the more delaying as he had to get out of the car in darkness in search of marshal and tractor to tow the car out of gravel.

I concentrated on the +4 in Plateau 2 – a dramatic uplift in speed from the Plateau 1 but spectacular with C and D type Jags, Mercedes gull wings, etc flashing by. Tamsin also drove in this grid and was totally unfazed – ‘ they go by just like Class A Morgans’ she said. The night race in this grid (I had never done night at LM before) was even more spectacular (ie terrifying) with the Mercs spitting flames as they zipped past while I tootled along at ‘back of the grid’

Unfortunately by the time I relaxed in time for Race 3 on Sunday morning the heavens opened so I crawled round for one very long lap behind the S.C and retired in one piece leaving the race to the braver Morgans – Shears, Gurney, Thorne, Whiteside

As far as I know (have still not fully absorbed all the results) all the Mogs went reasonably or very well – certainly without accidents. Simon King entertained us with an engine fire in practice but that was sorted in time for the race. Choc ices had an elec gremlin for a time. The Emberson RU had engine expiry in Race 2

And we were honoured to have a late arrival of support from the famous author John Clarke. Also some other ex Mog Challenge folk – Martin Kurrein, Martin Watson

And – you are never too old…..

In my Plateau 2 Race 1 back of the grid I was next to a guy in an Aston DB2/4. I asked him if he had done LMC before and he said ‘I raced at Le Mans 60 years ago’. He said he was 89.

From Wikipedia….

Hermano João "Nano" da Silva Ramos (born 7 December 1925 in Paris, France) is a former racing driver of dual French-Brazilian nationality. During 1953 he began racing an Aston Martin DB2/4 in sports car races in France. In 1954 he participated in the Le Mans 24 hour race
Da Silva Ramos participated in seven Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, debuting on 19 June 1955 and scoring a total of two championship points.

And – we beat him in that Race 1. Tamsin and I beat an ex F1 driver

[jack bellinger]

Leigh ..............

and the wine was good !!!!!!!!!!!!!


jack