{"id":549,"date":"2018-06-01T09:54:04","date_gmt":"2018-06-01T09:54:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nfahc.co.uk\/?p=549"},"modified":"2024-05-03T13:24:10","modified_gmt":"2024-05-03T13:24:10","slug":"off-to-a-winning-start","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nfahc.co.uk\/?p=549","title":{"rendered":"Off to a Winning Start"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a> It has been a long winter\u2026 My last race\u00a0of 2017 was at the Silverstone 3 hour relay\u00a0on 30th September 2017. We had a 2 car\u00a0team, 3000 MkII A (FSL 246) driven by\u00a0my brother Charlie, Dad Bill and I were sharing with Mark Dunn who had very\u00a0kindly handed me the keys to his 3000 Mk\u00a0III (JNP 620C). We had a great race, the\u00a0format was a 3 hour endurance relay, one\u00a0car is always ready to go waiting in the pit\u00a0lane and as one car comes in to change, the\u00a0other follows it down the pit lane. The first\u00a0car moves over to the right and the second\u00a0car continues to join the track. We qualified\u00a04th overall from a grid of 27 teams. By\u00a0the end of 3 hours of hard racing, we were\u00a03rd overall and 1st in class.\u00a0Since the last race it has been a long winter,\u00a0there\u2019s only so much fettling and cleaning\u00a0that can be done, and aside from a couple of pre-season test days to shake the\u00a0car down, there wasn\u2019t much high speed action for me. The car didn\u2019t require much\u00a0maintenance over the winter as it was running\u00a0so well \u2018if it ain\u2019t broke, don\u2019t fix it\u2019.\u00a0All that was needed pre 2018 season was\u00a0to get all of the brakes stripped down, give\u00a0the car a full service and a rolling\u00a0road session to check the\u00a0fuelling.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>My first race of 2018 was\u00a0at Silverstone on 7th April\u00a02018, supporting the brand\u00a0new Equipe Pre 63\u2019 series, a\u00a0race designed for pre 1963\u00a0sports and GT cars. We have\u00a0to run on 5.50 Dunlop L\u00a0sections, not as wide as the\u00a06.00 L\u2019s that we can use\u00a0in international racing, so\u00a0a little bit less grip, but the\u00a0steering is lighter, the car\u00a0spins it\u2019s wheels easier and\u00a0moves around a little more.\u00a0The 5.50L won\u2019t last as long as the 6.00L so we have to bear that\u00a0in mind. It brings us closer to the well\u00a0driven MGB\u2019s and TVR Grantura\u2019s. The\u00a0race is a 40-minute mandatory pitstop\u00a0sprint, shared between myself and dad,\u00a0Bill Rawles.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>It was a competitive grid of 26 cars. We\u00a0had stiff competition in the form of a\u00a0Aston Martin Project 214 recreation and\u00a0believe it or not, Elva Courier\u2026 as well\u00a0as 12 other Healeys, a mix of 3000\u2019s and\u00a0100\u2019s!\u00a0I qualified our Healey 3rd overall just\u00a00.239 seconds behind pole.\u00a0Bill started the race\u2026 I could say he was\u00a0a little enthusiastic with applying the\u00a0throttle at the start, as our Healey sat there\u00a0in its own tyre smoke, but I may just be\u00a0being critical\u2026 my 3rd place qualification\u00a0soon became 13th!! But he fought back well over the next 15 minutes to get\u00a0into 6th before the pit stop and change\u00a0over. I jumped in with just over 20 minutes\u00a0to go. We were in a battle with Mike\u00a0Thorne\/Sarah Bennett-Baggs Healey 3000 but after chasing down for many laps the\u00a0inevitable pitstop handed us 5th, we soon\u00a0cleared 4th and I was onto the back of the\u00a0podium, a final push to the flag saw us\u00a0finish the first race of the year 3rd overall\u00a0and 1st in class!<\/p>\n

The next race was at Brands Hatch over\u00a0two days, 28th-29th April 2018. In horrible\u00a0greasy conditions, I couldn\u2019t get the\u00a0power down in what can only be described\u00a0as a scary qualifying session, the track was
\ncovered in oil from the MGB V8 session\u00a0just 10 minutes before. We qualified 7th\u00a0overall, (have a look on my youtube page\u00a0for the onboard footage, it makes for an\u00a0interesting watch! Search \u2018Jack Rawles
\nRacing\u2019 in youtube).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

By the time the race came along in the\u00a0afternoon, it had dried up. The Healey had\u00a0the power and was no match for the\u00a0MGB\u2019s, Healey 100\u2019s and Turner, I\u00a0won the race by 21.999 seconds over\u00a0a 30-minute race.\u00a0The second race of the weekend\u00a0was held on Sunday, in effect, a 24\u00a0hour pitstop and the cars would\u00a0start the race where they finished.\u00a0MSA rulings state that if a second\u00a0driver is racing in a double header,\u00a0they cannot start where the first\u00a0driver finished. Bill had to start\u00a0dead last but this time, a greasy\u00a0track to deal with and apparently \u2026\u00a0 someone had ruined the tyres the\u00a0day before, but I am not sure if I\u00a0agree with that, \u201cthey were fine on\u00a0the last lap I drove!\u201d I said looking at the treaded tyres which could be\u00a0mistaken for slicks.<\/p>\n

From last on the grid, Bill finished\u00a05th overall. Bill was slightly disappointed\u00a0with this result but we
\nthink he did ok for an old boy!\u00a0We went home with a pole position\u00a0from race 1 and a 1st in class
\ntrophy.\u00a0I have a busy year ahead with\u00a0races planned in our own car as\u00a0well as David Grace\u2019s Healey.
\nNext stop, Brands Hatch GP for\u00a0the Historic Masters event, a 90\u00a0minute pitstop endurance race\u00a0shared with David Grace. This\u00a0race is on 26\/27th May 2018.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It has been a long winter\u2026 My last race\u00a0of 2017 was at the Silverstone 3 hour relay\u00a0on 30th September 2017. We had a 2 car\u00a0team, 3000 MkII A (FSL 246) driven by\u00a0my brother Charlie, Dad Bill and I were sharing with Mark Dunn who had very\u00a0kindly handed me the keys to his 3000 Mk\u00a0III (JNP […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":555,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nfahc.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nfahc.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nfahc.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nfahc.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nfahc.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=549"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nfahc.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":556,"href":"https:\/\/www.nfahc.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549\/revisions\/556"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nfahc.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nfahc.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nfahc.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nfahc.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}