AMOC Speed Series – Round 8 – Hethel, 7th September 2025
At Hethel in deepest Norfolk, where lies the Lotus Test Track, adjacent to the Lotus factory, one always has to have an eye on the weather. Thankfully, we were not (this time) troubled by any Beast from the East bringing with it, unimpeded by anything resembling a hill, the howling, biting cold of the Siberian tundra. No. If fact it was rather balmy and sunny. And although there were also some fluffy clouds, this time we were not jumped by Spitfires. Too far north for them, perhaps?
Still, this (the weather, not lack of Spitfires) was Good News for the six doughty competitors from the AMOC. We had four modern Vantages of various stripes (late V8S – Guy Staudt; V8 Rally – Peter House; V8 GT4 – Tom Whittaker; V12S – Tim Price) and two old bangers – Peter Watts in his sweet DB2/4 Mk ll, and me in my DB4 series lll road car – the DB2/4 Mk ll, in which I usually compete, was unfortunately bust. Guy as usual had his pit crew with him, his wife Huguette. How is that fair, I should like to know?
Anne Reed (Control at AMOC HQ) valiantly tried to set target times for us all but was somewhat challenged in that three of the competitors and my DB4 had never competed at Hethel before, and so for the majority of us there were NO PRIOR DATA. Nightmare. Notwithstanding, she still managed to set target times based in part on our first and second practice runs in Real Time. That's dedication for you.
Hethel is fast. Very fast. A power circuit. Imagine a boomerang with one arm longer than the other, hairpins at each end, and a couple of chicanes to slow you down in the middle of the longest straight, plus some twisty bits at the start and after the first hairpin. The tarmac is in fabulous condition, smooth and grippy. The full circuit is 2.2 miles long, but we do a slightly shortened version at 1.66 miles.
We rather expected the 6.0 litre V12 of Tim Price to do well. And so it proved. After a somewhat cautious (very wise) practice time of just shy of 95 seconds, he quickly got his eye in and on his third run set the fastest time in our class of 90.08. Snapping at his heels was the racy 4.7 V8 of Tom Whittaker at 91.37 and the 4.3 V8 Rally of Peter House at 91.50, with Guy Staudt in his road-going 4.7S with 92.22. These drivers were all so quick, and so close together – and it is worth remembering that neither Tim nor Tom had been to Hethel before – so fair play to them...
Peter Watts, also a Hethel newbie, improved massively in the DB2/4, going from a practice time of 127.87 (sandbagging? Ed.) down to 120.66. I managed (eventually) to get to 107.20.
To put this into perspective, the fastest time of the day was set by Mark Chaplin in a Mygale M14-F4, in which he did a time of 75.99. It weighs 570 Kg, including the driver, and has about 180 bhp. Basically, an open wheeled racing car with a carbon-fibre monocoque and very sticky tyres. The V12 Vantage weighs 1,665 kg without the driver, although admittedly, it does have the thick end of 600 bhp, (ok, 565) and, presumably, air conditioning and a cup-holder.
But we did have a bit of drama. Well, I did. Going down that back straight, foot to the floor, 4th gear, triple weber carbs howling, there was a bang. Quite a big one. So I backed off. All seemed ok. But as soon as I got into the paddock, one of the marshals came sauntering over to say that a circular object had been observed apparently falling from my car. Long story short, when retrieved from the circuit, it turned out to be a steel shock absorber spacer about the size of a chocolate wagon wheel (“a wagon wheel has fallen off your wagon!”, gleefully observed another marshal). The marshals then fell to discussing the merits of the old versus the new type wagon wheel biscuit, whether the rumour that they have got smaller over time was true, and then further speculation as to the correct and proper composition of a wagon wheel – they are a droll lot, marshals. I nodded and smiled along with them. Best humour them, I thought, because if we have no marshals, we have no motorsport...
So on the insistence of the Clerk of the Course, we jacked up the DB4 (well, Peter Watts did), checked everything, and concluded that the steel wagon wheel had come off someone else's wagon. The marshals then decided it was all Peter House's fault, for he had preceded me on the circuit, and clearly had dropped the wagon wheel deliberately to mess with my run. “Dick Dastardly up to his old tricks!” “Where's the dog!?” “Which of you lot is in the Arkansas Chugabug?” Very droll lot, the marshals.
Interesting to note, for nerds, that five out of the six of us set our fastest times on the last run.
After which Huguette snapped her book shut (in German again), and upon that signal, we all packed up, struggled out of our race suits, and waited for the obligatory half hour to pass (after which no objections can be raised or results challenged) and attended the prize giving, to see a deeply chuffed Tim Price collect his First In Class Trophy, his first one ever. But surely not his last.
The organiser, Roger Grimes, from Borough 19 Motor Club, concluded his address by thanking us AMOC members for bringing our cars, and (his words, more or less) for “injecting a bit of glamour to the proceedings, and good to see Astons being driven like they bleep bleep should be, and not sitting in bleep bleep air-conditioned garages being beep beep polished.” So that was nice.
You can see the photo album, with photographs from Fokus Media, by clicking
HERE
Nigel Grice
Results after 8 Rounds:
