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5th annual Motorsport at The Palace gathering took place on Sunday 25 May and Bank Holiday Monday 26 May


Alpine-Renault A110

Alpine-Renault A110

 

Crystal Palace, 25 - 26 May, 2014

The 5th annual Motorsport at The Palace gathering took place on Sunday 25 May and Bank Holiday Monday 26 May, at the historic Crystal Palace venue in South-East London. The event is a very family orientated affair with plenty of diverse attractions for all ages, with the main attractions being classic car displays, and of course the hot track action on the demanding sprint course on part of the original racing circuit that remains intact. The fact that motor racing, albeit in a truncated form, has returned to the historic site, is due to the valiant efforts of the Sevenoaks and District Motor Club and its memners, the good offices of the London Borough of Bromley, the Mayor of which was in attendance on the Sunday, who own the park, and the ongoing major sponsorship from the local Ancaster Garage group, who are main dealers for Alfa Romeo, Fiat, Hyundai, Jeep & Nissan. Their involvement gave many people the opportunity to see the Alfa Romeo 4C for the first time, not only on static display, but also in action in demonstration runs on the sprint course.

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Due to the weather the event turned into “a game of two halves”, as after almost perfect sunny warm conditions on Sunday, Monday dawned wet and chilly, such that plan B had to be put into action. The attractive tree and rhododendron bush lined grass paddocks were sodden, and thus the course was shortened, so that part of the tarmac roadway became the makeshift paddock area. This also meant that no useful comparison could be made between the two days times, not only because of the shortened course, but also because of Monday’s predominantly wet conditions.

The event always attracts a diverse array of machinery, not only competing, but also in the various one make or model car club displays. In the latter group wou do not only get to see exotica like Ferraris, courtesy of the Kent Area Group of the Ferrari Owner’s Club, but also classics like a Lotus Elite, MG TC & TD models, an impressive row of Daimler SP250s, and a pair of rare Rover 3500 Estate Cars flanked by standard saloon variants, along with a variety of other marques, and even a selection of custom cars, plus a classic motorcycle paddock featuring display runs. One car that attracted a great deal of attention, aside from the obvious lurid metallic orange McLaren 650S, was a creation called the Tiger Z100. This bright metallic purple, what might best be described as Lotus 7 look-alike, features twin front mounted Kawasaki ZX9 motorcycle engines, with drive taken from their individual gearboxes to a transfer box and then to the rear wheels. A novelty of the design is that if one engine falls sick, then you can still drive it on the remaining engine, and if you are really brave you can use all gears in reverse mode!

The selection of competing cars was even more eclectic, as some cars competed on both days, and others only on one day or the other. On the Sunday the earliest example was a 1931MG M-Type (Le Mans), whilst on Monday it was a 1926 Salmson GSS, which as befits the occasion was driven to and from the event, despite the pouring rain. The selection then ranged through predominantly post war cars of almost every type, from single seaters, both front and rear engine, like a 1953 Cooper Bristol T23 and 1960 Emeryson FJ, sports racing cars like a 1957 Lotus XI, a 1979 Mallock Mk30 and a 1980 Pilbeam MP43-BMW, through saloon cars like the ubiquitous Mini, Escorts, and even a couple of Renault R8 Gordinis, to sports and GT cars like a Ferrari 308 GT4 and F430, Renault Alpines, Austin Healeys, Lotus and MGs, to name but a few.

Sunny Sunday saw the quickest time posted by Gary Thomas in his 2005 Force PC single seater, with a time of 32.58secs, followed by the Sports Libre class 2004 ADR Sport 2 of Andy Laurence, and the Pilbeam MP43-BMW of David Seaton. On Muddy Monday it was a rally car that topped the times, this being the 1994 Subaru Impreza of Justin Andrews with a time of 31.99secs on the truncated course, followed by the 2010 Nissan GT-R of Tony Bunker, and the 1999 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI GSR of Paul Philips, making it an all Japanese marque podium. Despite the miserable weather and slippery conditions on Monday, there were only a couple of minor, mainly ego bending, moments, and again, despite the weather, there was a good size crowd who braved the elements to watch some exciting on course action.

Keith Bluemel          
05/2014