DTC Report – 15 March 2020

By Jon Young, photos by Dick Reynolds.

Having endured droughts, fires and floods, it was something of a surprise to find the first DTC of the year enjoyed reasonable racing day conditions.

Although, in the lead-up to the event, we did suffer a bit of a catastrophe when we learnt that Daryl Wilson, our esteemed DTC organiser, coordinator, timing king and gatherer of volunteers, decided to pass on the baton and bow out of the position after only about ten years.

As many of you will have picked up elsewhere, Daryl is also our Club Treasurer, so I suppose that even though taking a break from multiple duties, enjoying a few events driving instead of running the show, and having more time with his family, mitigates his selfish action to “what a great idea”.

The club owes Daryl a great deal, for being instrumental in setting the DTC up in the early days, through to managing affairs to the extent that spare revenue, generated by opening up the event to other clubs, could be put aside to help others less fortunate during the drought period.

Daryl’s organisational skills have been second to none, and will be a difficult act to follow, though I suspect he is mentoring his successor in grumpiness. Writing of whom, we welcome Gideon Street as our new, younger Daryl v0.2.

Gideon, no doubt having suffered visions of disaster for a few weeks, made the day run smoothly, aided by the ‘volunteers’ that do stuff anyway, because they have been conditioned like Pavlov’s dogs. Great stuff Gideon, you are now a fixture for the next decade.

There is someone else without whom the DTC would not happen the way it does – a special thanks to Gail Hart, unstinting paperwork scrutineer and recorder of times. How Gail puts up with the mob of drivers peering over her shoulder checking their and their rival’s times is beyond belief.

Anyway, aside from all the above, we did get a bit of running in, six runs on the original track layout, and four runs on the longer and not so tight ‘new’ layout. It’s a moot point which is better, favouring either nimbleness or pure grunt, or possibly just the better drivers.

The track record on the short layout set by Paul Stokell at 44.856 was very much under threat by Evan Molloy, who was slicing time off his runs through the morning ending at a magnificent 44.898. I don’t know how long 0.042 seconds is, but it must be less than a trice. It will be great to watch Paul and Evan battle it out with same day conditions.

There were all the usual side battles going on through the day, notably with Daryl leading the Sevens/Caterham pack with an outstanding morning session run. Must have been the effect of not being in organising mode!

Unfortunately, Stephen Foss had some electrical issues, but his XTR2 was keeping the Exiges of Jason McGarry, Gideon Street and Lindsay Close honest, all sitting between 46.370 and 46.770.

A car that looks like it will go quicker as Jonathon Reynolds gets more seat time is his (replica) Lotus 23 – very pretty looker. Rumour has it that Jon hasn’t driven this much so far.

One thing that is great about the DTC is that we are now seeing father and son combos – Ken and Liam, Jason and Euan, and now Wade and Aston. (No mums and daughters yet – come on ladies!) Notable that Liam was often quicker than Ken, and Euan is starting to chase down Jason. Too soon to comment on Aston and Wade, but I believe it was Aston’s first track day, and he truly excelled after a tentative start to cut 10 seconds off his time. Good clean and smooth driving. Watch your back Wade.

What an absolutely great day once again at Lakeside – thanks to everyone who stepped up to keep it one of the best attended events in the calendar.

Have to finish with the most profound quote of the day: “The best way to get better times is to go faster.”

No clues who might have said this, but he could be described as competitive.