Three Sisters Sprint: National B

Date: 16th-17th August 2007

Location: Three Sisters Race Circuit nr Wigan

Price: £TBA

This event is part of a championship series and it is free to enter the championship.  An entry fee is payable for each event you enter.

Please use the link to the Championship Regulations for full details.

Click here for 2008 Championship Regulations

For Lap records for this circuit on this event please select the link on the right.

Images courtesy of Sean Smith

Runner up 2005 Motorsport News photo competition

2007 - 3 Sisters Sprint

This has to have been one of the wettest summers on record and 3 Sisters on a rainy day can be miserable. Indeed when devising the ‘two lap’ layout a section of track known as the Esses was deliberately avoided.

The weather forecast at the beginning of the week had been gloomy. Most of the week had been mildly moist to say the least so the omens were not good for the record entry on the Sunday. Our joint Clerks of Course had wisely limited the entry to 130. Not as many as a single lapper can take but given the extra track time involved in two laps a wise decision.

Now we run the 3 Sisters event in conjunction with Chester Motor Club and share responsibilities and duties. Our own Ronn Middleton (note the two ‘n’s) acts as Joint Clerk of Course with Chester Motor Clubs Bob Chesters and Jan Lee works with Jeanette Chesters in the Secretaries office. This gives us ‘strength in depth’ which frankly neither club could muster on its own.  The advantages of this arrangement became apparent when the results compiler, from Chester MC, fell and broke his leg in the week before the event. Our own Peter Stanfield and Alwyn Davis were able to step in and run the results. Not without difficulties but never the less successfully. It is always difficult to take on someone else’s programme; inputting was easy but when it came to individual cars moving classes or class amalgamations things can get fraught!

This cooperation went right through the organization with the LAC lead by Martin Wylie running the start line and marshals posts being fully manned by both Chester and LAC marshals. Both Clubs provided Stewards with Mike Wood flying the LAC banner.

As already mentioned we had a capacity entry and the paddock was ably run in his inimitable style by Nigel Whitaker. The fact that all cars ran to class and in numerical order is a testimony not only to the paddock team but also the competitors themselves.

By careful spacing of the cars we can get up to four competitors on the track at once. As no overtaking is allowed in sprints this spacing is crucial to both the running of the event and the safety of the competitors.  If a competitor is sat on the start line the green light is given with a previous competitor (on their second lap) just entering Rogersons straight and a second competitor (on their first lap) entering the Esses. A third competitor may be crossing the finish line at this point giving us the four cars on the track. Normally we are at about 3 by the time the new car leaves the start line.

The observant amongst you will have spotted that there is a limited amount of time a competitor can sit on the line before the other competitor has made their way round the hairpin by the Joey Dunlop corner and are thundering up the School Start Finish Straight. The thought of a coming together at this point is unthinkable and for this reason the lights are turned back to red as the car leaves the Esses. This gives the start line crew an unenviable task of lining up the cars at the right moment and getting them out into the right slot. Couple this with the often significant performance differences between cars and competitors and in reality they are playing a form of 3 dimensional chess – for eight hours!

What about the competitor who was entering Rogersons Straight when the green light was given I hear you ask. Well as they were on their second lap they disappear off  up the Pentith Climb to the Finish well clear of the others. That is unless they decide to do a third lap! Boy does that mess things up.

Anyway back to the event. The organizing team was there from about 07.00 and the forecast rain was notable by its absence. Indeed the supply of sun tan lotion would be in demand for the entire event. The circuit was set up and over 1km of wire laid out for the results team. Signing on was going apace with the Secretaries team encamped in the circuit offices, a much better arrangement than the huts by the start line.

Rob Liversage turned up with the timing gear and the timing crew were soon working hard to get the equipment set up for a 10.00 start. Bang on 10.00 the first familiarization convoy was lead off by Ronn and tailed by Bob Chesters. By 10.20 we were ready for the first practice runs; things were going well – perhaps too well!

The weather was glorious with the sun literally beating down. First car on the line, set up for an amber light, what no amber. Move the car. Forwards, backwards still no light. The gear was adjusted, amber on, first car away. Second car on the line, amber on, green light second car away. Third car on line, what no amber light! Adjust gear, amber on green light third car away. This was to be the pattern for the early part of practice. The bright sunlight was playing havoc with the timing lights. Rob and his team were doing a sterling job but the conditions were making life difficult for both the timing and start line crews.

As was explained previously unlike a single lap event with a two lapper there is a limited safe slot to get the cars onto the track. The problems with the lights would have a minimal effect on a single lap event as there are no issues if a car starts ‘late’ but on a two lapper a car cannot start ‘late’ so the slot has to be missed for the safety of the competitor. No major incidents occurred and Ronn wasn’t kept over employed dealing with trackside incidents although Paul Norris in the Talbot Sunbeam looked to be having a big one as he closed on the finish line at full speed. The damage to the trackside barriers appeared greater than the damage to the car and time was lost rebuilding the barriers. As a result practice did not flow as smoothly as we would have liked. Rob worked hard to correct the issues and over the lunch break got the whole system working well.

Thanks to the efforts of all involved we managed to get two timed runs in after lunch.

In Class 1A, Roadgoing Production saloon and sports cars up to 1400cc, less than two seconds covered the first three cars with Martin Rowe in his Peugeot 106 emerging as a clear victor in a time of 85.10sec from David West and Paul English in their Mini Coopers.

Class 1B, Roadgoing Production saloon and sports cars over 1400cc and up to 2000cc, had a large entry which was dominated by a group of Lotus Elise with Bobby Fryers taking the honors in a time of 82.37 from Mark Teale. Only Paul Walters in his Fiesta XR2 in third place stopped an Elise whitewash in the top places.

Class 1C, Roadgoing Production saloon and sports cars over 2000cc, had only 3 entries and Mark Walwork in his Ford Sierra was a clear winner with a time of 83.23sec from Keith Calder in a rather splendid Porsche 911 Carrera 2.

Class 1D was for Cars Entered in the Morgan Sports Car Club Parc Ferme Speed Championship on Handicap and had a good entry with Simon Baines  in a Morgan Plus 8 leading home a field of 10 cars with a time of 82.80.

Class 2A took us into the kit cars and was for Road modified kit, replica and spaceframed cars with car derived engines up to 1700cc. For WESTFIELD CHAMPIONSHIP ONLY - engines up to 1800cc. As usual there was a good entry with Henry Moohouse in a Wesfield SE being consistently fast throughout the day and eventually clocking 79.33 to lead home Jim Spencer in his Raw Striker.

Class 2B, Road modified kit, replica and spaceframed cars with car derived engines over 1700cc, was won by Ash Mason Westfield SEi with a time of 78.84.

Class 3A, Modified production cars excluding kit, replica and spaceframed cars up to 1400cc proved a breeze for Alan Cox in the Rover Mini who won by over 6 seconds from Paul Webb Rover Metro with a time of 80.74.

Class 3B, Modified production cars excluding kit, replica and spaceframed cars over 1400cc up to 2000cc, proved to be a Peugeot V Lotus battle with honours split evenly between the two marques. Paul Perkins, Peugeot 205 GTI, eventually taking the honours with a time of 78.72 from the Lotus Elise of Gary Thomas.

Class 3C provided a close fought battle with Simon Allaby Triumph in a thundering TR7 V8 just piping Stephen Hemingways Vauxhall Chevette HS with a time of 85.36. Just 0.39 sec dividing the two in the class for Modified production cars excluding kit, replica and spaceframed cars over 2000cc.

Colin Birkbeck, Caterham 7, was on his own in Class 3D, Modified production kit, replica and spaceframed cars with car derived engines up to 1800cc, but his time of 76.31 would have been good enough to have taken second in Class 3E. An outstanding performance.

In Class 3E itself  James Cummings also in a Caterham 7 came home first with 75.11 from Jim O’Neill, Westfield SEW, who had a time of 77.13.

Class 3F, Modified production kit, replica and spaceframed cars with motor cycle derived engines, was taken by Paul Bowness, MK Indy ZX12, who piped Chris Boyd, Westfield Busa, by under 0.3 sec with a time of 78.61.

Moving to the combined classes 4A/B, Sports Libre Cars and Hillclimb Supersports Cars, Stuart Nelson, Rover Haggispeed, beat his brother, Pete, to first place with a time of  73.94.

Classes 5A and B were also amalgamated into a class for Racing cars up to 1100cc. Here the times really began to tumble with Mark Hemingway in the Force HC taking a fairly comfortable win from Henryk Kozlowski, Jedi MK1/6, in a time of 66.53. Mark took Best Time of Day with his time and so Henryk took home the class winners Trophy.

There was a disappointing entry in Class 5C, Formula Ford 1600 Racing Cars manufactured before 1st January 1994, with Derek Martlew  in the Van Dieman RF87 being the sole contender with a time of 77.95.

Four cars contested Class 5E, Racing cars 1600cc up to 2000cc, and Richard and Simon Keen had a see saw battle for class honours in their Reynard 923. In the end Richard was to prove the victor with a time of 69.38.

My personal favourite car of the event was on its own in Class 6A1, Pre-1941 Vintage & PVT Cars as defined by the VSCC, being an Austin Monoposto, single seater, which had recently been back to its spiritual home of Brooklands as part of the Brooklands Centenary Celebrations. No fast but glorious to watch never the less. A time of 114.04 clearly demonstrates the development of cars in terms of speed and handling over the years.

Class 6A2 was for Historic cars manufactured before 31/12/68 over 1600cc and represents an interesting area for sprinting. Cars included Triumph TRs and, to Bernard Jones’s delight, big Healeys. The Triumph TR4A of Ronnie Clayton took the class with a time of  89.42 from Martin Russel Bury in a impressive Austin Healey MKIII.

The final class was Class 6B for Historic cars manufactured before 31/12/74 up to 1600cc and here Paul Ellis in his MG Midget emerged the victor after a close tussle with Graham Thomas, Faithorpe Electron Minor MK1. Paul eventually squeezing home in a time of 91.19.

The timed runs were completed before 17.30 and the awards were presented by our own Ted Heath as President of the LAC. Me well I had to leave at 4.30 to get to a meeting in Glasgow that evening. The weather in the borders was wet, very wet but 3 Sisters had surprised us all and stayed glorious and above all dry to the end. All that had to be done was roll in 1km of wire and collect all the equipment.

Many thanks to all involved a fine effort by all. Anyone I didn’t mention knows they played their part and can blame their absence from this report on my advancing years.

2006 - 3 Sisters Sprint

Sunday 6^th August

This years 3 Sisters two lap sprint was a combined effort with Chester Motor club. Now traditionally Chester Motor Club has run a single lap sprint on the Saturday followed by our own, unique, two lap event on the Sunday. This year it was all different with the events being combined and moved a week earlier.

Why, I hear you cry?

Well the circuit was under some pressure at the end of 2005 to satisfy noise issues associated with a, somewhat vociferous, minority. They needed to reduce the number of ‘noisy’ events at the circuit. Believe it or not Speed Events are classified as ‘noisy’ so the number of events was to be reduced. Longton & District Motor Club lost one of their events and either Chester or LAC was asked to give up their event.

We had a simple choice; pistols at dawn or cooperation. Now as Ronn Middleton isn’t that good a shot and anyway Elaine likes him the way he is, i.e. without holes, we decided cooperation was the best choice. In any case we have worked together before and get on well. So that was it a combined event was on the cards.

The next little issue was the calendar. With all the changes we were offered early April. Yipe! Little time to organize and a quick ring round came up with not Championships interested in the date. We either clashed with traditional events or were considered simply too early in the season for some. So some quick negotiation with the circuit got us an August date; but a week earlier. This affected some Championships but not all so we were on.

Next thing was the officials. Ronn is very experienced in the role of Clerk of Course and was happy to share with Bob Chesters so that was easy. Secretary was even easier Jan Chesters volunteered and Jan Lee happily agreed to deputise. We had a team. All the other posts fell into place and as we tend to use the same scrutineers, timekeepers etc that prove easy as well.

A lot of work ensued, as usual mainly by the event secretary, to write and send out combined regulations. Jan Chesters took on the role of Entries Secretary which was much appreciated.

All this got us to an event which was fully staffed, a welcome relief, with a depth of competence and experience which was to prove beneficial throughout the day.

Despite our initial worries the entry had climbed to over 80 cars and we had good coverage of most classes.

We got there early but not as early as Nigel Whitaker who was already weaving his magic in the paddock. The circuit needed setting out for the two lap layout and all the marshals were soon hard at work moving tyres and bails to produced the required layout in time for the 10.00am start.

All eyes were on the weather as the forecast had been for rain, lots of it, arriving mid afternoon. We needed to get the convoy runs under way as quickly as possible if we were to get practice in the dry.

Practice went largely without incident. The manning levels meant we could easily deal with most incidents quickly and efficiently producing minimal delays. Number of re runs 4; magnificent. A tribute to the timekeepers and the ‘handicapping team’ on the race control roof.

A special word needs saying about the competitors themselves and the paddock team (all one of him). There was never a lack of cars on the startline and basically even in practice class order was maintained this allows the event to progress smoothly. So smoothly in fact that the practice as completed by midday.

Given the weather forecast, and the gathering gray clouds the Clerks of Course agreed to move straight to timed runs. Yes a dry run was possible.

The first run went well with only a couple of minor delays due to incident. Again the run seemed to flash by with normally four cars on the circuit at once; well we don’t want the timekeepers to get bored do we. On completion of this run a lunch break was taken and the marshals were given a well earned rest. This was fortuitous as the Gran Prix was being shown in the Club House and the timing was near perfect.

After the break all hands returned to the circuit. The sky was getting darker and a few spits of rain could be felt as Class 1A took to the track for its second timed run.

Martin Rowe, from Rochdale, in his Peugeot 106 had set a fast first timed run of 85.89 almost 1.5 seconds clear of Steve English in the Mini Cooper. Martins second time was slower and Steve rally went for it; improving on his first run time of 87.36 but not by enough to catch Martin who took the class honors.

With 16 cars in Class 1B a battle was always on the cards. In the end a mere 0.06 seconds separated the class winner, Russell Thorpe, from St Annes on Sea, in his Renault 5 GT Turbo with a time of 84.08, from Bobby Fryers in the Lotus Elise. That gave the first two Classes to LDMC.

Class 1C was for the big bangers and Simon Bridge, all the way from Leamington on Spa, lead the class with his glorious sounding TVR Griffith 400 in a time of 82.10.

Moving from the Roadgoing machinery to the Road modified in Class 2 we saw the Kit Car boys out in force. Always entertaining at 3 Sisters the two lap layout suites them well.

Class 2A was won by Henry Moorhouse, from somewhere over the Pennines (Leeds) in his Westfield SE just piping Jim Spencer in his Raw Striker with a time of 81.67.

Class 2B had only three entries but could not have been closer with Roger Fish and Geoff Ward setting the same time of 81.85 seconds. Roger took the class on countback.

Next came the Modified Production Cars, excluding Kit Cars in classes 3A-C.

Class 3A was an all Mini affair with Phil Short, another LDMC competitor, taking the class from Alex Thompson (who had been moved from Class 1A) with a time of  80.69.

Graham Oates occupied his traditional place in Class 3B piloting his Europa to a time of 80.40 to outpace Martin Stott in his Elise. Graham’s performance laid the foundations for his Lancashire Automobile Club Sprint Championship Challenge.

Class 3C was won by John Bailey, the first of the Chester MC class winners, in his Porsche 944 leading home the magnificent sounding Triumph TR7 V8 of Simon Allerby and David Hardcastle. Whilst John took a fairly easy win with 85.49 the two Triumph driver were split by a mere 0.06 seconds.

Again the Kit Cars in Classes 3D-F provided some fine entertainment.

The smallest competitive class of the day was Class 3D with only two entrants. The result became a foregone conclusion when Terry Coleman in the Sylva Stryker held up proceedings on his first run! This left Mark Dempster, from Ulverston, with a clear field in his Raw Stryker to take the class. Interestingly his time of 81.66 would have been good enough to secure second in the class above; a fine effort.

Colin Birkbeck, in his Caterham 7, improved his first run time by some 11 seconds to 79.50 leapfrogging Chris Ellis’s immaculate Hawk HF3000 into first in Class 3E.

There was a close battle between the three leading cars in Class 3F. In the end they were covered by less than 1.50 seconds. Chris Boyd in his Westfield Megabusa came home in 77.16 to pip Malcolm MacKay, Locost Locahama, and Paul Bowness, MK Indy ZX12. That gave wins in Classes 3D,E & F to Wigton MC.

Moving to the Sports Libre Cars in Class 4A Stuart Nelsons first timed run of 74.89 proved sufficient to take the class from Philip Major in the ADR MK 1/2. Both Stuart and his shared driver Pete Nelson failed to record a second timed run as problems beset the MG Haggispeed.

74 Mark Hemingway

1^st. Overall

As always the Fastest Time of Day was expected from Class 5B and Mark Hemingway, from Workington, in the Force HC duly delivered with a time of 70.11. This left last years FTD Henryk Kozlowski to take the class honors in his Jedi MK 1/6 with a time of 70.67. Henryk had led a contingent from South Wales and found the journey all the way from Cardiff worthwhile. There was a large entry in this class which included our Ladies Award Winner Eve Whithead, representing the LAC, in the RBS6. Despite some, ahem, interesting handling characteristics Eve recorded a creditable 75.11. Just how interesting the handling was can be seen by her father (and the cars designer/builders) time of 80.11. And Barry is no slouch!

73 Henryk Koziowski

2^nd Overall

The pre ’96 Formula Fords in Class 5C then took to the track. The LAC’s current Champion Derek Martlew in his Van Dieman RF87 put up a spirited defence of his Championship position by coming second, with a time of 77.94, to Mark Moran, also in a Van Dieman who posted 76.24.

Ian Scott raced on his own in Class 5D the organizers failing to find a suitable class for amalgamation. This didn’t dim his competitive spirit with a chance of points in the LDMC Championship at stake. Racing the Championship bogey time Ian recorded 75.83 in his Megapin 26-06.

The event then moved to a new departure for the LAC with the inclusion of classes for for Historic Cars. Three classes were run on the day (and this could be expanded in future years).

Class 6A1 was for Historic Cars Manufactured before 31^st December 1968 and attracted  a full field of 9 cars. Class honors went to David Barnett, from Montrose, who stormed round the track in 85.75. Second and third was contested by Drew and David Cameron in an Austin Healey 100 with Drew coming home second in 90.00. David took third by a mere 0.08 seconds from Ronnie Clayton in his Triumph TR4A.

Classes 6A2 and 6b were combined. Essentially this class was for Historic Cars manufactured before1975 but after 1968. Jim Evans from Leyburn led the class home in his MG Midget with a time of 86.45.

The final Class had only one entrant but provided fine entertainment. Class 7 was for pre 1941 Vintage and PVT cars and the sole entrant was Roger Turner all the way from Tenby in his Austin Racer Monoposto. He clocked 115.96. sometimes in life it’s not what you do but how you do it that counts and Roger enjoyed his day and all were pleased to see this piece of motoring history being used as it was intended.

(Now these classes proved highly successful and I know many of you have suitable cars to come and have an enjoyable day so let’s see many more entries in this class next year. Chris)

As the second run progressed the skies lightened making the decision to only have two timed runs look doubtful. The event was over by 4.00pm and another run was possible but not practicable as announcements had already been made and notices posted. Things took a different light as the marshals packed up. Within minutes the skies darkened and heavy rain was lashing the course before the awards got under way. The judgment of the joint Clerks of Course was vindicated. Still it bodes well for 2007 as three runs were definitely on the cards before the weather set in.

All in all a most enjoyable event for marshals, officials and competitors alike. Many thanks to all involved. See you August 5^th 2007.

Chris Lee

All photos used in this article courtesy of

Sean Smith at www.digitalsportsimages.co.uk

Other photos from this event also available from Sean Smith.