7/10/02

CRMC Championships Cadwell Park 5/6th October.

The final round of the 2002 CRMC championships at Cadwell Park's Full Circuit got off to a damp start, although the racing looked promising with a healthy Greeves entry, arguably one of the best all season.

Stu Melling Was in action on Ron Leighton's Oulton in the 350cc Singles races. He had a weekend of mixed fortunes, which didn't get off to a good start with a DNF in race 1.

The 250cc singles had to wait until after lunch to get a taste of the action, but by this time the track had dried, although it was still a bit overcast. This class had one of the best entries all weekend and it saw seven Silverstones line up on the grid for their first race. All the Greeves got going off the grid. At the end of lap 1 Ted Edwards was holding on to 4th spot but unfortunately retired soon after due to a slipping clutch. Mervyn Stratford Was pulling his way through the field on his Water-Cooled Greeves after a bad start towards the back of the grid. But 3 laps into the race he started to drop back and pulled out with fuel starvation. This was later discovered to be due to using a previously untried fuel filter. At the end of the 4 lap race. Peter Aston was the first Greeves home in 8th place, followed by Jeff Bing in 11th, Dave Whitehouse struggled with a misfire into 14th, Chris Maggs 19th and Colin Roberts was 27th.

The final 350cc singles race of the day faired better for Stu Melling than race one. He got the Leighton Oulton home to a good 9th position amongst the mainly Italian field of Aermacchis and Ducatis.

The 250cc Singles last outing of the day saw an overall better result for the Greeves contenders. Peter Aston was again the first Greeves home in 6th, followed by Ted in 7th and Merv in 8th. Chris Maggs was 14th with Jeff Bing in 16th after loosing out few places in a manoeuvre at Park corner. Dave Whitehouse pulled out suffering with carburation problems.

Sundays action saw a much brighter start to proceedings, after some heavy showers during the night.

The first outing for one of the Greeves contingent was for Ted Edwards in the combined 250cc/350cc National championship race. At the end of the seven lap race Ted finished 6th in the 250cc class, although he was taking it steady due to the mixed track conditions, from the previous nights rain.

The next Greeves action was in the 350cc Singles race with Stu Melling. He was having a good ride and looking set for a top six finish, but two laps from the end the big end of the Leighton Oulton seized putting him out of the proceedings. They then changed the engine in preparation for race two later in the day.

With the 250cc singles now on the grid for their first action of the day, the track had dried nicely. Again there were seven Silverstones in action, but today they had been joined by Mark Sharrock. As they lined up on the grid and the flag dropped, Mervyn Stratford would be the first Greeves retirement when his clutch cable broke. But fortunately for Merv and unfortunately for those involved there was a start line pile-up which had the race red flagged and had the ambulances out on track. This allowed Merv to sprint back to the paddock to pick up his spare machine for the re-start. Dave Whitehouse also headed back to the paddock with more carburation problems, he discovered this time it was a loose float bowel and was able to sort it in time for the re-start. The race re-started with all the Greeves on the grid. Unfortunately Mark Sharrock had to pull out on lap one with a stripped primary belt. Then more disappointment for the Greeves fans as Dave Whitehouse's machine seized on lap two at the exit from Charlies. However at the end of the race first Greeves home was Merv Stratford in 5th place, with Peter Aston 7th, Ted Edwards 9th, Jeff Bing 14th and Chris Maggs 16th.

Further action had to be curtailed as sadly the meeting had to be abandoned due to a serious incident in the second sidecar race.

KS./RS.

7/10/02

Scarborough Gold Cup 21st/22nd September.

The annual Gold cup event at Oliver's Mount, Scarborough saw John Loder in action in an eventful weekend on his 350cc Greeves Oulton.

The Syd Barnett Trophy 350cc Classic race, was an eventful one for Loder. Going into the last lap the race was being led by Alan Oversby (Honda K4), with John Loder and Paul Morgan (Seeley 7R) fighting it out for second position. However towards the end of the lap Oversby slowed and dropped back to 4th place, giving Loder the lead, but as he crossed the line to take the win hotly pursued by Morgan, No chequered flag was shown. So Loder and Morgan continued to battle it out unaware the race had finished. The battle culminated in a crash on this 'extra' lap as the pair collided on the exit from the memorial. Apparently the flagman was taken by surprise of the new leader, expecting Oversby to cross the line first !
Saturday's IHRO 350cc Classic race saw Loder take 4th behind Oversby, Myers, and Morgan. A repeat performance was had for Loder in Sundays IHRO round also.

Aintree MCRC Championships 21st September

The final championship meeting at Aintree saw some good Greeves performances. In the first 250cc Classic singles race Dave Whitehouse took a win on his Greeves from Graham Rickman (NSU) with Greeves mounted Phil Carpenter in third. Whitehouse also took the fastest lap: 1m 8.8s (80.32mph). The second outing which was for championship points saw a no-score from carpenter which lost him the championship win from Graham Rickman, who took the race win, with Whitehouse coming home in a good second.

In the first of the 350cc Classic races, Stu Melling was second on Ron Leighton's Greeves Oulton, with Dave Whitehouse 8th on his 250. The second race saw Dave bring the 250cc Greeves into a solid 4th place.

RS.

18/9/02

Greeves-Racing round up.

With the Manx GP now been and gone for another year, it is now business as usual for the regular Greeves riders. However as the Manx GP competitors were lining up for the first practice session on 17th August, there was further Greeves action at Aintree in the Aintree MCRC club championships.

The first 250cc Singles race of the day at Aintree saw an incredible Greeves 1,2,3 ! Dave Whitehouse took the win with Mark Sharrock 2nd, and Phil Carpenter 3rd. Carpenter also took the fastest lap in 1m 11.1s (77.72 Mph). The second outing again saw Whitehouse take another win, but a broken chain on Phil Carpenter's Greeves shortened his lead in the single cylinder classic championship to just one point over Graham Rickman (NSU), with Rickman being second to Whitehouse in the race. Whitehouse took the fastest lap in this race with 1m 10.3s (78.61 Mph).

More Greeves action was to be had immediately after the Manx, at Lydden with the CRMC over the 30th August and 1st September. The weekend saw three Greeves riders in action, all in the 250cc singles races. Saturday saw Mervyn Stratford fresh from the Manx and Peter Aston, and on Sunday they were joined by Jeff Bing. Saturdays first race saw Mervyn as a non starter, as he had found the gearbox had tightened during practice, so he elected to miss the race while the gearbox was changed. Peter on the other hand had a good ride in race 1 and finished 4th behind the Ducatis of Hynes and Witt, and Clive Atherton on a Cotton. Race two saw both Peter and Merv line up on the grid. Peter repeated his performance of race 1 with another excellent 4th place. Meanwhile Merv struggled to get his Greeves to fire up on the line and was last away, however by the end of the race he had managed to claw his way back to 8th.

Come Sunday and 3 Greeves were on the grid now with Jeff Bing. Race one today faired better for Merv, he got the bike going with the rest of the pack and finished up third behind Hynes and Witt. Peter Aston again had another 4th Place with Jeff Bing back in 10th. Race 2 saw Merv get another 3rd place, But peter struggled with a few gear changes and ended up 7th unable to complete a set of 4th places. Jeff again got his Greeves home in 10th position.

At the penultimate round of the VMCC championships at Three Sisters (14th/15th September) Doug Low was to race George Ridgeon's Oulton, But a nasty spill in the first event had the race red flagged and put Doug out of action for the rest of the weekend. Best wishes to Doug for a speedy recovery.

Mervyn Was also at this meeting, although Rudge mounted not Greeves. He had a fairly successful weekend with a couple of wins, to take the lead in the 250cc championship, with one round to go.

RS


14/5/02

VMCC Cadwell Park 11th & 12th May 2002

A dull damp start to Saturday began the meeting in which two Greeves Riders attended, Peter Aston on his Greeves Silverstone and Doug Low on George Ridgeon's 350cc Greeves Oulton. Both riders were competing in the Dresda Autos championship for solo specials under 500cc to 1972. On Saturday the woodlands circuit was in use and on Sunday the full circuit.

The first race on Saturday resulted in Doug finishing in 10th place with an average speed of 47.15 mph and Peter unfortunately retired on the 5th lap. However the second race saw much more action, Doug was quite well up in the field until exiting the hairpin when the machine would not pick up. He pulled over onto the grass and eventually managed to get the bike going again. When he did he was a lap behind. Following Peter's retirement in the first race he rode his Ducati in the second outing. However he was soon to run out of brakes at the hairpin, as soon as he was back on the circuit he went into the side of someone, causing himself to go on the grass and crash.

Sunday saw some better results for both riders. In the first race Doug came in 7th, closely followed by Peter in 8th.


6/5/02

CRMC Mallory Park 6th May 2002

There was a good Greeves turnout for Classic Mallory, with nine Greeves entered in total. Stuart Melling in the 350cc singles class on board Ron Leighton's Greeves Oulton. In the 250cc singles class we had: Chris Maggs, David Whitehouse, Dave Wildey, Ted Edwards, Mervyn Stratford and Jeff Bing. Unfortunately Peter Aston, who was entered, did not turn up. Richard Gee rode his Greeves Silverstone in the parade.

A dull damp start to the day did not effect practice and it went well for all of the riders as no-one experienced any problems at this early stage of the meeting.

However the first 250cc race saw no appearance from Mervyn as both his Greeves had oiled up, and Dave Wildey pulled in on lap 2 due to a possible crankshaft seal that may have gone. Despite this the other Greeves did well, Ted clamed a 4th followed by Chris in 11th, Jeff in 12th, and David Whitehouse in 14th. The second 250cc race was better overall as every one but Dave Wildey finished, Ted again came first out of the Greeves, in 5th place, closely followed by the remaining four, Mervyn Stratford (7th), Chris Maggs (8th), David Whitehouse (9th) and Jeff Bing (10th). Although David Whitehouse did not do too well he won the trophy for best improved rider between races 1 & 2.

The first 350cc Singles race a success for Stuart, he came in 4th, but sadly the second race did not go very well, he retired on the second lap because it was still on race 1 gearing (when it was wet, by now it had dried out a bit) and was revving to 10,000 which caused detonation.

27/4/02

CRMC Donington 20th & 21st April 2002

Kind thanks to David Whitehouse for this report.

The Classic Club’s Donington Park meeting was attended by over 500 riders, both racing and parading.
Greeves were well represented at this meeting. Reg Everett’s “Prototype” racer was on display although not seen out in the past masters parade, and Stuart Evans was parading his very tidy RDS Silverstone in the Classic club’s ordinary parades.
In the 250 Singles class Greeves were well supported with 6 Silverstone’s being raced. Ted Edwards, Peter Aston, David Wildey, Chris Maggs and David Whitehouse had entered on both days, and were joined by Jeff Bing for Sunday’s races.

Race 1 saw poor starts from Ted & David, while Peter got away well. Ted experience gear change problems towards the end of lap 1 of the 5 lap race and retired. While David managed to pull through the field, having quite a dice with Peter on the way. Final results were David 9th with a fastest lap of 1min 36 seconds and Peter 12th (1:38). David Wildey, riding the ex-Walter Revell RDS Silverstone, finished slightly further down the field in 23rd (1:45). On checking with Ted it was found that his gearbox gremlins were terminal and he would not be racing for the rest of the weekend.

Race 2, was reduced to four laps and unusually David got a fair start and was running up to 4th on the first lap. This, however did not continue as his bike started to misfire at the top end. Peters race was the other way around and after a good fighting ride caught David at the chicane on the final lap to finish 8th (1:37) and David 9th (1:38), with David Wildly finishing 22nd (1:45). Chris Maggs unfortunately retired with a seized engine, but a fastest lap of 1:44.
Chris report at the bar in the evening, that his seizures were as a result of the previous seizure at Pembrey and that the barrel required honing.

Race 3 on Sunday was stopped after 2 laps, and re-run after the incident had been sorted out. As the bikes were sitting on the grid there was a light shower of rain. Peter got away to an excellent start and in the difficult conditions finished an excellent 5th (1:37). Jeff Bing finished a credible 10th (1:40)on what is an almost concours condition machine, and David Wildey 15th (1:45). David Whitehouse retired with engine misfires.

Race 4 was held in glorious sunny conditions. Again Peter was best finisher in 8th place (1:39), David Whitehouse 11th (1:38) still with misfires, and Jeff Bing 12th (1:39).

In the 350 singles races Stuart Melling was riding Ron Leighton’s Greeves Oulton had very creditable finishes of 6th’s and 7th’s in amongst the elite of classic club racers.

4/4/02

CRMC Pembrey Saturday 30th March (practice) to Easter Monday (1st April)

Thanks to Ted Edwards for this race report.

Easter weekend saw the first meeting of the CRMC season; held for the past two years at Pembrey in South Wales. After the superb spring weather of the previous week it just had to be inclement for the weekend, and so it was. Considering the recent interest in Greeves racing it was disappointing that only three 250s and one 350 turned up for the meeting. David Whitehouse, Ted Edwards and newcomer Chris Maggs brought along their Silverstones, and Ron Leighton’s Oulton was being ably ridden by Stu Melling, who also rode his Montesa in the 250 races.

Saturday was a free practice day, and Chris took advantage of the track time to get used to the bike, the track, the club and the Welsh weather. Ted spent the day trying to sort out an uncharacteristic handling problem, while David got a couple of laps in before seizing the piston. The weather behaved until after practice, and fingers were firmly crossed for the morning.
Sunday began cold, damp and unpleasant, with an oil slick round the entire circuit. Stu was in race 1, and after a promising start retired with mechanical problems. Race 3 found David sliding off unharmed, having apparently found some of the spilt oil, and Ted, who had not found a solution to his handling problems, finishing 8th. Chris was still getting used to the circuit and was pleased with a solid 17th.

David was forced to miss the Championship race whilst repairing the damaged Silverstone. Ted and Stu were both forced to retire. Nuff sed!

The last race of the day as far as Greeves were concerned was the second 250 singles race, fortunately held in dry conditions despite threatening skies. From fourth at the start Ted fell back to 9th with improved but still unsettling handling. David came through from the very back of the grid to finish in a strong 11th place, while Chris finished 17th again, but at a much quicker pace than before.

April fools’ day, and rain. The first race for the Greeves contingent was race 3, by which time the rain had cleared but the track was still wet. David, once again starting from the back of the long Pembrey grid, battled through to finish a fine 7th while Chris, with a fastest lap that would have been good enough for 10th, eventually finished in 13th. Meanwhile Ted was pushing back to the pits after failing to start due to a plug failure.

By lunchtime the rain had cleared and the track was substantially dry. The final 250 singles race, however, was three races further on, by which time the rain had passed through again and soaked the track. Finally having sorted out his handling troubles, Ted gained confidence during the course of the race to finish 4th; followed by David, who had been held up by a pair of rapid Bridgestone 200s, in 12th. Chris’s fine performance had unfortunately come to an end on the third lap when his Silverstone seized at the hairpin. Despite the weather and the poor turnout, the weekend was the usual action-packed and fun CRMC race meeting, with a disco on Saturday and karaoke on Sunday. Let’s hope there is a better Greeves presence at Donington Park on April 20/21, when the CRMC are holding their biggest event of the year.

2/4/02

VMCC Mallory Park - Easter Sunday

There were two Greeves riders at Mallory Park on Sunday, Jeff Bing and Peter Aston they were both riding in the Dresda Autos championship for solo specials under 500cc to 1972. In the first race (7 laps) Peter finished 6th, with a best lap time of 1.01.39 (79.53 mph). Unfortunately Jeff did not do as well, sadly he retired on the 3rd lap, with a best lap time of 1.04.50 (75.33 mph).

In the second race of the day things went a bit better as both riders finished, Peter came in 7th with a best lap time of 1.02.88 (77.19 mph). Jeff finished in 8th place with a best lap time of 1.02.57 (77.67 mph). So the Greeves Racing season has got off to a good start.