The MIRA Sprint - 6th August 2011

Roger McEwen

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The Midland Automobile Club (Est 1901) Ltd organised the Sprint at the Motor Industries Research Association (MIRA) facilities near Nuneaton and it was a shame that not more competitors entered. At MIRA you are not allowed to take in cameras, and spectators are a definite no-go, but the track is absolutely awesome. The grip is just totally unbelievable and I suspect the car would roll over before it breaks away; this is one of the fundamental attributes to understand to achieve a fast time.

And so it was that three TRs - Simon Allaby and David Hardcastle in their very nice looking TR7 V8 in Gulf livery, Neil Revington in his very famous TR4 6VC (his TR5 still being in Bermuda!), and Roger McEwen in the much travelled TR6 - lined up for their first two practice runs, followed by the third and then the fourth, due to the very limited entry that saw 22 Ferraris out of 64 entries. It was interesting to watch how the TR times reduced on every run as the drivers got more and more used to the grip.

It was then midday and so time for lunch, worth mentioning due to the delectable brie and bacon baguettes served up at the burger van, worth going for on its own. After lunch it was time for the real event and the TR Class was running last. Every one set out to continue the morning’s improvements and so it was except for Simon who was probably already on the limit.

The Ferraris, the third class, were on their second run when disaster took hold. Regrettably one of them put a wheel off the tarmac braking for the left at the end of the main straight, where I was reaching 95, and lost it in a big way entering the tyre wall and Armco backwards. The driver got out from between the deflated air-bags without injury, but the red one looked more like two straight sixes than a V12 and the repair bill looked enormous. MAC had no alternative other than to abandon the rest of the meeting as it was going to be totally impossible to get the safety barriers back to any form of normality without craneage and cutting and welding. And so we all packed up at about 3 o’clock and set off for home, having had five runs when normally the maximum is four. The results for the TRs were:

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