A bright start to Sunday morning as I headed out to Lymm Truck Stop for the Boundless (CSMA) Autosolo, this year being held as a memorial to Graham Maxwell a truly inspirational gentleman who dedicated his time to promote and organise club motorsport in our part of the world. Arriving at Lymm the team had already set up the course and all that was left to do was assist John Harden to erect the Liverpool Motor Club banners, I thought one would look good attached to the side of the pallet mountain in the corner, which proved a good spot was we then used it as the marker for when it was safe to set the next car off on its way.
The weather forecast was promising biblical flooding later in the afternoon but for most of the day sun cream and wide brimmed hats were needed. I was joined under the timing awning by Brian Wragg and Rob Holt who were timekeeping at an Autosolo for the first time, they quickly realised how fast and furious an Autosolo is, with a constant relay of cars. Rob is actually an experienced timekeeper for swimming competitions so we thought that knowledge might come in handy once the forecast rain set in. With John and a steady supply of Drivers doing their stint at marshalling acting as our runners to get timecards to the Scribe we were set for the day.
The key to timing on an Autosolo is to concentrate on “your” car and block everything else out. You take the time card from the driver, ensure they are in the correct position on the start line and wait until the previous car has passed the “safe” marker, tell your driver when it is safe to start “in your own time” then press the start button on the clock as the front wheel crosses the start line, you then keep your eye on the car around the course, acknowledging the OK, Cone or Wrong Test signals from the marshalling points, before pressing the stop button as the front wheels of the car cross the finish line, you then pass the time to the “Scribe” and give the completed time card back to the driver, then its across to the “start” side of the awning to take the card off your next car and start the process again. With 46 cars each completing 11 runs that’s a lot of action to keep you busy!
The first run of the day was a bit hit and miss until drivers had worked out the route, although they were being well behaved and avoiding any cone clipping, that is until James Swallow in his rally prepped BMW got a tad enthusiastic and tried hoovering up a line of cones rather than passing to the left, I kept the clock running but he abandoned that run and reversed to the sanctity of the paddock. Once he got the hang of being on the “wrong” side of the car (he is normally resident in the navigator’s seat) he gave us some entertaining action as he controlled the powerful German around the track.
Alec Tunbridge (Caterham 7) and Phil Clegg (Haynes kit car) gave us the usual fast but superbly controlled circuits, and Sam Self in his Nissan gave us his entertaining and loud drifts around the course. There were some very able youngsters too learning their trade, and teaching some of the not so young how it should be done too. Gary Sherriff in the Ford Fiesta was disappointed with his first run which took over 60 seconds so was keen to get under the minute, I obligingly timed his second run at 1-00-00. That was the first of 3 “one minute dead” times I recorded, must be my trigger finger’s OCD.
As the afternoon wore on Andi Glass’s Nissan started making some very strange noises which none of us could identify. Adrian Fruzynski was alternating between traction control on and traction control off to see what worked better, and of course out of the car Adrian made his usual fashion statement. Of course the mark of a good event is when even the slowest competitor finishes their run with a wide grin on their face, and whilst some drivers may not have won any prizes on the day, they certainly had heaps of fun. It was great to see Graham’s daughters in the Mazda MX5, who truly did their dad proud with some good humoured yet competitive sibling rivalry.
We even managed to finish and head for home before the rain set in. A great day in honour of a great man. Thanks Graham, you were, and will be, missed by us all.
