The 2007 Season
SHELSLEY WALSH MEETING JULY 14th & 15th
The Midland Automobile Club staged a weekend of top flight hillclimb action
at the world famous Shelsley Walsh on July 14th and 15th and came through
a wet weekend successfully with a new class record too which satisfied the
enthusiastic spectators!
On Saturday the members event which ran after overnight rain that dried in
warm and partly sunny conditions saw Nic Mann take the now legendary Mannic
to another record for supercharged Shelsley Specials, lowering his time for
this unique class to 25.83 from the 26.46 mark he set in August 2005. The
four wheel drive Mannic has a conventional turbocharged engine but also has
a helicopter gas turbine starter motor that keeps the turbo spinning at over
100,000 revs per minute. The car has initial acceleration bordering on the
supernatural and during the record run Nic covered the first 64 feet in 1.67
seconds which well exceeds 1g or double the force of gravity which makes a
Formula 1 car seem lethargic.
On Sunday the Shelsley Classic event was dampened by heavy rain throughout
morning practice but this only returned once in the afternoon and Abberley,
Worcestershire resident Peter Cox in his Chevron single seat racing took Best
Time of Day (BTD) with a time of 33.13 seconds which is a stunning performance
given the conditions.
On Sunday the Classic and Sports Car Magazine trophy for the most deserving
car and driver of the day went to Dave Clewley with his 1953 Cooper-Alta single
seater racing car.