CLAXBY LINCS ANCC ROUND3

Round three of the ANCC Comp Safari Championship was hosted
by the Lines Land Rover Club as part of their annual 3-day event,
held at Claxby. We arrived on the Sunday afternoon, unloaded, set
up the tent and went straight to scrutineering. Got through, subject
to tightening up a couple of bolts but Greg unfortunately failed on a
dodgy handbrake which he eventually fixed after repairing a broken
linkage and freeing off the seized plunger thingy.

My usual navigator Mutt, was unable to make this weekend so Mark
from work said he fancied a go. Only trouble was he'd never even
been off road before... oh well in for a penny...

Sunday evening we had the obligatory BBQ, typically over catered
for and got stuck in to the beers. After much struggling to open our
bottles on the edge of the trailer, a very helpful Line's bloke pointed
out that the door striker plate on the Ninety makes a very handy
bottle opener, if you've got one try it. Mark was so impressed with
this he said he was going to buy one...the words sledge hammer
and nut come to mind !

When we got to the beer tent there was a tyre inner tube pull set
up. If you've never seen one before, it's a chain of inner tubes tied
together and staked to the ground at one end. The idea is to then
put the last inner tube around your waist, take a run, then crawl on
all fours and try to place a beer can on the ground , the furthest
distance wins. It was 20p a go and a gallon of beer to the winner...
yummy. I had a go but Mark and Ady took it in turns with Mark
eventually setting the record. Ady is a tenacious individual but being
quite small in stature he just didn't have the weight to challenge for
the record so we thought we'd give him a helping hand. Four of us

got hold of the inner tube chain, pulled it as far as we could and
then... let him go... He shot past the beer tent heading for the burger
van. Undeterred he fancied another go, this time facing forwards.
Mark roped in everyone left in the beer tent, so with a dozen of us
stretching the giant rubber band well beyond the record marker we
released Ady and let him fly... he almost reached the burger van on
his arse. With the worlds most grass stained jeans I couldn't
imagine his girlfriend doing the old "it's all right darling new Daz will
soon get that out." Mark was presented with his gallon of beer at
about 11.30, only trouble was he ended up giving most of it away
because he couldn't physically drink anymore.

Monday morning 7am complete with hangover and time to walk the
three mile course. Counting the walk from the camping area it took
about an hour and a half. Back for breakfast and a drivers briefing,
ready for a 09.30 start. We watched the fast motors off the line first,
including 6 or 7 Bowler Wildcats one of which was Brent Taylor's
new diesel Wildcat. The standard 'ish' Land Rover's and hybrids
looked slow in comparison.

We lined up with slower motors for our first run. The first half of the
course was hilly and quite rough but the second half opened up into
flat stubble fields and was very fast so we opted to use high box,
After the start the course became a sea of arrows with the gates set
wide apart, we were all over the place. It transpired that we'd
missed out a great chunk of the course when we'd walked it so we
didn't have a clue where we going.

Once on more familiar territory we did a lot better. In high box we
struggled with some of the steep climbs and ended up doing the
first part of the course in low box and taking the opportunity of a
hazard to change up into high for the rest of the lap. I was relieved
I'd fitted the new Pro-Comp shocks on the back end. We finished
the first run with some relief although my new navigator said he'd
enjoyed himself.

Vlichael Chaloner caught us up on one run which I put down to fact
:hat he must have been cheating somehow! Kev Baldwin was also
going much faster than me which I put down to the fact that his is
nuch bigger than mine ( 00 ER missus) in the engine department.
in fact it's not that I'm rubbish driver you understand ...just very
soor and in need of some go-faster goodies for my tired 3.5 V8.

One embarrassing incident occurred when the transfer lever jumped
out into neutral leaving me stuck in the middle of a bend. Try as I
might it refused to go back into gear, then I heard the sound of air
horns from a fast approaching motor. I didn't see him but he'd
decided to go round the outside of me .. .just as the lever dropped
into gear. My motor lurched forward and then... OOPS loud bang,
but fortunately not on my side! I didn't see who it was but Mark said
it looked like "something expensive with fibreglass wings".

We steadily chipped away at our times until the eighth and final run
when the fuel pump packed in. With my helmet on I couldn't hear it
ticking so 1 gave it a sharp tap anyway. No luck, so this time I belted
it with the fire extinguisher, that did the trick. We waited for the
following motor to pass us then carried on to finish our run,
unfortunately we were just three seconds over the course
maximum.

The weather was red hot all day (that must be a first for a Land
Rover weekend) and we had an excellent time. Thanks to the Lines
LRC who managed a very well organised event, especially
considering the substantial number of entries.
Lets hope the next round hosted by Pennine at Tong on the 27^th
June is as successful.

Dave Cookson 408

1999 ANCC OFF ROAD CHAMPIONSHIP
"The story so far..."

With round four of the Championship to be hosted by Pennine at
Tong here's an account of my first attempt at the series.

Round 1

Held at Crofton near Wakefieid on a very cold, windy and wet

Sunday back in March.

A very big turn out meant by the time I'd arrived the car park/pits

area was already chock-a-block with competitors and spectators

vehicles everywhere. Quickly select reverse and find a parking spot

just inside the site entrance.

The site was laid out in a compact bowl shaped quarry which meant

the spectators enjoyed a good view of all the action, that was if they

could stand up in the bitter cold gale force winds.

A fairly short course was made up of short fast straights on mainly

good hard tracks, helped no doubt by the freezing cold weather. A

trial type section and a lake of DEEP water were thrown in for good

measure. The course was later re-routed around the outside of the

water on account of the number of motors going in, but not coming

out the other side.

My day went pretty well with only a broken exhaust Y section after
bellying out on a sharp crest, oh yes and then the foot rest for my
left foot (automatic ya-see) coming adrift, getting stuck first under
the brake pedal ("Woaaaa no brakes!!!") Then working its way
across and under the throttle("why won't it go???")all adds to the
fun doesn't it ?

I even managed to get through the deep water. Coming out onto dry

and first on two, then three, then four...

With a couple of runs to go the washers packed up. Had a go at
lifting the bonnet to have a poke around , but my fingers were so
numb with the cold that I had great difficulty releasing the bonnet
pins. When I did get the bonnet up, the wind was doing its best to

lift me and the hood up and away over the Pennines. I thought to

hell with this, anyway by this time the rain was driving that hard that

mother nature was doing a pretty good job of keeping the screen

clean.

I got the results through the post later that week to find I'd come 8^th

overall so off to the next round full of confidence.

Round 2

Second round at Foxhills near Scunthorpe meant an early start, and

a chance to drive on the countries most boring motorway the

M180.The only interesting thing to look at was the huge field full of

new Land Rovers quietly rusting away before going to their new

owners

Another big entry and a nice big parking area, which meant the pits

were a lot less congested this time.

If you like fast comp courses then put Foxhills in your diary for next

year. Lots of long straights on good hard tracks with plenty of high

speed lumps to remind you what last nights curry tasted like. Lots

of foot to the floor, red line stuff with the added bonus of no large,

solid and immovable objects to hit.

Everyone warned us to take plenty of spare tyres as "Foxhills eats

them" maybe we were lucky cos we had no such problems.

Run one and going really well with no dramas or near misses, when
I detect the sweet smell of hot anti-freeze. A glance at the temp'
needle which is by now on to its second lap of the gauge confirms
that things are a little hot under the bonnet. Kill the engine and
coast to the side of the track. Problem ?... easy both fans not
working. Cause of problem ?... err, yes not quite so easy. After
frantically checking, poking, wiggling and cleaning every wire, fuse
and terminal, decide to nurse it back to the pits and have a proper
look.

Back in the pits and still no joy... then I notice that one of the side
lamps is on, then notice on the other wing that an indicator is
glowing, Ah-ha, Bingo! All the lights, fans etc. at the front of the

motor all return to earth via the same wire located under the front

wing somewhere.

Sure enough the insulation on a bullet connector had been chafing,

worn through and shorted out.

These things really know how to pick their moments.

With not quite a Max for our first run it meant the rest of the day
was spent going hell for leather in a vane attempt to daw back
some of the lost time. Finished the day 15^th overall and slipped from
8^th back to 13^th in the overall Championship standings. It goes to
show how one bad run can affect your chances of success and how
a bit of luck can help.

Round 3

May Day Bank Holiday weekend and off to Claxby, where the Lines

LRC were hosting round 3 as part of their Annual May 3 day event.

Tracy and I headed out into the flatlands of Lincolnshire on the

Sunday afternoon arriving to find plenty of Pennine faces already

sat out enjoying the beautiful weather.

Returned from Market Rasen after a curry and headed for the beer

tent where we found Dave Cookson and friends taking the giant

bungee pull very seriously indeed. After all, there was free beer at

stake! Those boys could really fly.

Bank Holiday Monday and woke up to a strange weather

phenomenon... it was bright sunshine... again.

Another fast course was laid out of about 2.5 miles in distance.
Made up of hard tracks across a series of undulating stubble fields
with a short, gloppy bit along a field bottom just to make sure we
didn't go home too clean.

The only drama of the day occurred on our first run when we got
lost. Because the land was so flat once you got going all you could
see before you was a vast forest of arrows.

I came charging up this field heading for a gate hole on the horizon,

! suddenly got the feeling I was going wrong, I slowed right down

and asked mi Fatha

"shouldn't we have gone right down that banking back there ?"

"should we ?" says the navigator.

After stopping and then reversing up some distance we could see

the arrow pointing right. A quick 180 degree pirouette and we're

back on our way.

On getting back to the finish it became apparent nearly everyone

had got lost at various places on their first lap. On our 2^nd lap the

offending right turn which had caught us out had now been marked

with extra arrows and bunting all over it.

With all 8 runs complete and no damage done, we were packed up
and on our way back home by mid afternoon.
A very organised and well run event by a nice friendly crowd, we
even came home with a sun tan. When was last time you got a sun
tan at Hameldon ?

The result from Claxby meant that I'd managed to move back up to
8^ position again and 4^th in my class so fingers crossed for a good
result at Tong. So long as I keep out of the trees.

See you there.

KEV

Back to List