The car that my wife (Dee) and I run is a Datsun 240Z and we run in the modified production Marque sports car over 2000cc class at Gurston down. The car was the Datsun dealer team race car that ran in the European Group 4/5 Sports car championships in the 70’s and is the only 240Z that was competing then to still be competing today in this country. It has had a hard life and still bears a few scars of its racing history but is still very competitive with numerous class wins over the last 12 years in my ownership.
Engine development has been done initially by myself but is now being done by Neil Peters at Pride Race Engineering.
The engine is a straight 6 cylinder 3.1 litre Datsun unit running on slide throttle, multiple injector, fuel injected induction system with modern distributorless coil on plug ignition run by a programmable ECU. This gives the engine a very smooth delivery of its strong torque and power. It is under constant development and improvement by Neil.

The Marque Sports car class has a wonderful array of cars from the past to the present including, Datsun, Porsche, E type Jaguar, TVR, Scimitar, Lotus, MGB’s, Mazda, Triumph.

Saturday’s meeting was a round of SBD speed championship, and the HSA speed championship and also a round of the pre war Austin 7 championship with Sunday’s meeting being the first round of the Gates of Brockenhurst sponsored Gurston championship.

The weather was foul on Saturday with constant drizzle interspersed with rain and bitterly cold gusting winds.

Our class consisted of a 3.9 ltr MGB driven by 2 drivers, ourselves in the Datsun and a very quick supercharged Lotus Exige that was returning to the fray after a 2 year rebuild. As a class we are all very good friends and help each other out if problems arise at a meeting.

Dee took the car out first on a very tentative first practice as we had not been able to get in any pre season practice. One of the MGB drivers decided (along with a few of the other competitors that it was not worth going out for the practice due to the weather and track conditions, but we thought that it was important to go out and see what the conditions were like as we would have to drive in the afternoon.
We were running on normal road tyres instead of the ‘Slick’ racing tyres that we normally run in the dry due to the wet track. It was unbelievably slippery and hard to get any traction but we got through practice without mishap and it was looking like a close battle between me and the Lotus for the class honours in the afternoon.
Dee put in a sensible first timed run in the afternoon (she is still finding her confidence following a very big accident in the car) and bought the car back for me to take my run.
I attacked the hill with usual exuberance and despite the many sideways moments arrived at the top of the course with a 44 second run which I was very happy with considering the conditions.
I then learned that the Lotus had left the track and found an oak tree to argue with, needless to say the oak tree won that battle. Apart from a cut hand, seatbelt bruising and shock I am relieved to say that the driver escaped from a totally destroyed car unscathed, though it was some considerable time before we returned to the paddock to find this out.
Dee had been at the start line after helping me off on my run and saw the accident happen. It did shake her up enough to decide that due to the worsening conditions she was not going to take her second run.
It was a somewhat deflated and hollow class win for me but you have to get to the finish line to stand a chance of winning.

Sunday saw a much improved weather situation and drying track and the promise of some sunshine when the fog burned off. Around 7am I set about preparing the car for the days racing by changing the wheels to the slick racing tyres. Horror of horrors, one of the wheel nuts instead of undoing, sheared the stud off.
A dash home to find a replacement stud (2 ½ hour round trip) and then another 2 hours work to replace the broken stud meant that we missed morning practice. It also meant that as the replacement stud was shorter I had to use an old set of wheels on the back with old tyres on. This had the result of making the rear of the car try to overtake the front on just about every corner due to the lack of grip.
Once again Dee took the car out first in the afternoon and bought it back for my run. She was still shaken by the accident with the Lotus the previous day and had to try to close her mind not only to that but also to the fact that I had just had the rear suspension of the car apart to replace the broken stud and she was once again being used as ‘the crash test dummy’.

I thought as I sat on the line for my run that this had to be a conservative run to get a time in.
The class today was an E Type Jag, a TVR Griffith, both capable of producing 37 second runs. The MGB, and a Porsche 911.
Once again I arrived in the top paddock after a few sideways moments and sat for a minute collecting my thoughts and thinking about the run.
37.600 was the time. The Jag and the TVR both recorded 38 second runs so I felt confident that I was on the way to another class win. There was still not as much grip as there would have been had we not had the rain on Saturday (and if I could have used my newer, softer rear slicks which would have produced much more rear end grip)

The second run was unfortunately a fraction slower for me due again to some sideways moments in the Karousel complex but still a 37 second run and the TVR managed to do a 37.604 so I had won the class and got some points for the championship.

On a good run I would normally be running a mid 35 second run so taking into account the events of the weekend and conditions I was happy with the times that I posted and it looks to be a good season ahead of us.

The next meeting at Gurston Down is the National round on 25th May when there will be a spectacular array of big engined singleseater race cars as well as specials and Motorbikes.