I arrived early at Curborough to a beautiful, crisp morning - cold, fresh air and a glowing sunrise lighting up the paddock. It looked like a perfect start. But in true Curborough fashion (and just like last year), the forecast promised rain later.
Another strong AMOC team turned up. Our line-up for the day included:
Tim Stamper - DB2/4
Nigel Grice - DB4
Mark Chandler - DB7 i6
Tim Price - V12 Vantage S
Peter House - Vantage GT4 (Rally)
Guy Staudt - V8 Vantage S
Tom Whittaker - Vantage GT4
Victoria Watts - Audi RS3
Wait - someone was missing.
A message came in: Peter Watts' DB2/4 Mk II had broken down not far from the track. Mark didn’t hesitate - he removed the battery from his DB7 to power the trailer winch and headed off to collect him. Peter once back, immediately got stuck into fixing the car. Meanwhile, we got underway with the first practice session.
Peter worked flat out with some morale support from the team, managed to get the DB2 running again - squeezing in two practice runs right at the end of the second session. Just in time!
Then came the first timed runs. It was still cold and grip had been limited in practice, so our pit chat had quickly turned to tyre pressures. I dropped mine by about 6psi and knocked a decent chunk off my time - it felt much better. Peter House, on that same run, posted a slightly quicker time - just 0.06 seconds faster than me - and with a grin declared: "I hope it pisses down now."
A few saw noticeable gains across the board, with many posting their best times during the first timed run. But not all - while several drivers were actually quicker in Practice 2.
The Curborough team kindly worked through their lunch break so we could all squeeze in a third run before the weather turned.
But right on cue - the rain came and Peter got his wish.
As we were queuing up at the start line, the heavens opened and conditions went from cold to sketchy. Every time was slower. At that point, in the name of self-preservation (and bringing the cars home in one piece), we all called it a day.
Results - AMOC Class 2/4/5 (listed by driver intro order):
Peter Watts - DB2/4 – 89.54
Tim Stamper - DB2/4 - 76.09
Nigel Grice - DB4 – 71.54
Mark Chandler - DB7 i6 – 72.22
Tim Price - V12 Vantage S - 67.88
Peter House - Vantage GT4 (Rally) - 67.82
Guy Staudt - V8 Vantage S - 69.18
Tom Whittaker - Vantage GT4 – 69.17
Victoria Watts - Audi RS3 - 76.15
Since this was an AMOC-hosted event, several class awards were given.
The most notable, however, was Guy Staudt - awarded the Golden Tyre Temp Gun (handmade by Peter Watts). Not only had Guy run with 007 twice this season, but he also earns the honour of being the member who travels the furthest - all the way from Luxembourg. You could see the genuine delight on his face!
Another great event - but that’s now two years in a row Curborough has rained off our fun.
You can look at photos from the day
HERE and a video showing one lap of the course
HERE. The video shows waiting on the start line for the previous competitor to finish their run, Peter having a slight 'whoopsie', you can see the timing board showing his run time to the right of the start line on his return, returning to the paddock and a post run debrief/car check.
Report by Tim Price
Photographs by Tim Price and Geoffrey James