The Brighton and Hove Motor Club (BHMC) organized on Saturday, May 4 its traditionnal Bailey sprint, at the well known Goodwood motor circuit near Chichester, event being round 2 out of 10 in the 2024 speed series championship.
After the sprints in 2022 and 2023 were both stopped around 1pm by very hot weather (August 2022) or heavy rain (May 2023) all competitors were hoping for a 2024 event to take place under more favorable weather conditions allowing everyone to complete 4 runs, 1 practice run and 3 timed runs. Everyone was relieved as on Saturday morning the weather was excellent, blue sky with some white clouds and a perfect dry track. The forecast for the day: no change!
Four AMOC drivers were present: Mark Chandler (DB7), Nigel Grice (DB2/4), Peter House (GT4 Rally) and Guy Staudt ( Vantage S). John Pawsey, regular speed series competitor for many years, came to support the 4 drivers and gave valuable feedback from different parts of the circuit. Also present was Ian Kendall, club photographer, who took many great photos that can be seen above.
The practice run started as scheduled at 9am; unfortunately at 9.20am a red flag was out due to a car off the track into the tyre wall just before the last chicane leading to the finish line. The car overturned and was so heavily damaged that it had to be lifted onto the recovery truck. The driver was unhurt, a little miracle in a car close to a total loss. Rebuilding the tyre barrier took a good 25 minutes.
The remaining practice run went smoothly and around 10.45am the 1st timed run started only to be stopped at 11.15am due to a technical problem with the time keeping system. Luckily the problem was solved after 20 minutes but by that time the morning program was way behind schedule. However, the decision was taken to try to have every driver a 1st timed run before lunch as initially planned. The cars were sent out in batches of 5 (20s between each start from the pit lane) as swiftly as possible and by 12.30pm all drivers had completed a 1st timed run.
After the 1 hour lunch break the 2nd and 3rd timed runs went on without a major incident apart from a few minutes lost to tow a car off the track after a slight contact with the barriers.
The AMOC drivers enjoyed the day and improved considerably their morning practice times. After the last run Mark was missing in the paddocks, no red flag. After 15 minutes of wondering where he was and hoping for the best Mark drove his DB7 in perfect condition into the paddock. What had happened? His 3rd run was stopped by the car in front of him spinning and Mark wisely got onto his brakes. The car made its way back onto the track and although no yellow or red flag was shown Mark was logically offered another run.
Peter’s successful effort on the 3rd run for the best AMOC time of the day led to a much improved time of 99.08s, a good 2s faster than his 1st timed run and making him the only AMOC competitor under the 100s mark.
The final results for the AMOC drivers were:
Peter House ( Vantage GT4 Rally) 99.08s
Guy Staudt ( Vantage V8 S) 101.22s
Mark Chandler ( DB7i6) 103.98s
Nigel Grice (DB2/4) 118.47s
Report by Guy Staudt. Photos by Ian Kendall