This year’s Pendragon Stages had six classic Mini’s entered, five of which were registered for the HRCR Mini Cup, writes Clive King.  Sadly, Harvey Stevens had to withdraw his entry after suffering mechanical problems on the Tour of Epynt the previous weekend. Clive King and Craig King were back in action after a holiday, Clive with his regular co driver Anton Bird, and Craig (possibly being involved in some sort of co-driver exchange program) was teamed up with another new navigator – Lewis Wood. Shane Gamble with Julia Perry and Eric Davies with Russell Joseph were in attendance too after successful outings on the previous round.

The stages on the Pendragon are a mix of tarmac and concrete. They are fast, technical and very demanding. The hot weather also would add another level of difficulty for both car and crew. It would also be the first time that any of the crews had used ‘virtual chicanes. These are used to slow the cars in areas which are awkward to get bales and Marshalls to. You have to slow down in the ‘chicane zone’ to 20mph until a screen gives you a visual prompt to go. They were not very popular with the crews but they are probably going to become more popular in the coming years, so it was seen as useful practice.

Clive and Anton took an 11 second lead on the first stage over Craig and Lewis who were 11 seconds in front of Shane and Julia. Eric and Russell were 4th Mini, but reporting a slipping clutch.
Stage two saw Shane and Julia retire on the start line with their clutch giving up. Clive and Anton increased their lead over Craig and Lewis but sadly, Eric and Russell’s slipping clutch was getting worse and the pair made the decision to retire.

More drama would follow on Stage three: just over half way in, Clive and Anton lost a front wheel. A broken hub and driveshaft were to blame and they were unable to be recovered before the next stage started, which meant unfortunately they had to also retire.
With Craig being the only remaining championship contender still running, the decision was made to back off to preserve the car for the remaining five stages.

Clive Kings Day of Woe!

Still, it wasn’t all plain sailing. Stage five was delayed for quite some time due to a car fire. The organisers did well to get the stage running again, but it meant that they had to reduce the next service time to just twenty minutes – so only enough time to check the oil and fill up with fuel. On the way to stage six Craig and Lewis could hear a loud knocking when applying the brakes. There was no time to do anything about it so the crew backed off even more and kept their fingers crossed.
They made it back to service with an intermittently long brake pedal. This time, having thirty minutes in service the crew could investigate, and a very loose wheel bearing was found. This was hastily repaired and the brake pedal was now more consistent, but the knocking was still there (and is still undiagnosed at the time of writing).

Because of the previously mentioned delays, the organisers were forced to cancel the last stage. So, Craig and Lewis entered (the now final) stage seven with an understanding that there were to be no heroics and they just had to get to the finish. They managed it and finished a commendable 48th overall, 4th in class and of course 1st Mini.
Clive King won the Andrew O’Hanlon Snap-On draw, and Craig won the Exol Oil draw. Next up for the Mini crews is the much-anticipated Hills Ford Stages in September.

Craig King and new Co-Driver Lewis Wood Enjoy Success at Warcop