Crosslé Owners Group (COG)

Although the day started damp, there was no dampening of the Crossle guy’s spirits as they fired up their cars for the first time in 2012. This early season shakedown has now become a traditional St Patricks day blast around the Silverstone Grand Prix circuit with a chance for all involved to catch up on developments, assess the strength of this year’s competition and make sure the car and the driver can still find their way around a race circuit at a reasonable pace!

It was great to see not only Arnie Black from the Crossle factory, but also the two Crossle chief engineers, car builders and mechanics, Adrian and Michael, who offered outstanding support and advice to many of the drivers throughout the day. From what Michael and Adrian were saying, it is likely that quite a few drivers should be going a fair bit faster this season if the alterations to settings are anything to go by.

We had many visitors to the Crossle pit garage, including well known Crossle fan and 3 times UK Formula Vee champion Jez Clark, as well as Autosport Journalist Ben Anderson, both of whom took a drive in the purple number3 Crossle 9S of Mark Hobbs and professed admiration for the great handling and enjoyable drive that it delivers.

As is usual proceedings were only temporarily halted for an excellent bowl of homemade, warming Irish stew, the only thing missing was the Guinness but that would have to wait for the evening.

If you would like to know more about racing with the Crossle Owners Group and the Spirit of the 60s with BARC then either email us at racing@crossleownersgroup.com or visit the BARC website at www.barc.net  

As the spring weather seems to have started, its time to prepare for the new racing season. If you haven’t already done so then get signed up and booked in now by visiting the BARC website, downloading the registration and entry forms and booking that all important space in the diary for our first race at The Croft Circuit on 28th/29th April.

If you would still like to know more and want to meet the other drivers, and chat about the Spirit of the 60s then come and join us for our Annual St Patricks day launch event on the Silverstone Grand Prix Circuit on Saturday 17th March 2012, there is a welcoming cup of coffee available and the C.O.G. members are a friendly bunch who like nothing more than to talk about racing.

Or if you prefer then drop us an email at racing@crossleownersgroup.com and we will gladly answer any questions you may have.

Crosslé Owners Group will exhibit a 9S at the show on the 360 Motor Club stand.   The stand will be located on Speed Street, adjacent to HSCC and Masters.

Crosslé Owners Group Committee members and drivers will be in attendance all weekend to meet friends and deal with enquiries from potential new joiners for our 2012 series. If you are planning to attend the show, do drop in to see us.  If you can please let us know your plans in advance, we will brief whoever is in attendance to expect you. Simply drop us an email at racing@crossleownersgroup.com

We are also providing assistance to the 360 MC people to promote their event at Snetterton on weekend of 5/6 May – it’s on our 2012 fixtures list.

Continuing our successful association with the BARC, the Crosslé Challenge for 2012 will include an invitation to cars in the Spirit of the ’60s, and will provide excellent value for money for owners of sports racing and GT cars of the ’60s, whether built in period or not, original specification or sympathetically modified, as long as they’re within the spirit of the period.

Organised on a not for profit basis by the Crosslé Owners Group, the series offers two 40 minutes races per meeting at six top UK tracks plus support for major European meetings.

 Races are for one or two drivers and there’s no requirement to comply with historic paperwork rules.

 Owners of exciting cars have already registered their interest. These include the Elva Mk7, Lotus 23 and 26R, Ginetta, Sturgess, Nerus, Chevron B8, GT40 and Group 7/CanAm cars.

 For further information or to obtain a copy of the provisional technical regulations  you can email us at racing@crossleownersgroup.com or register with The Crosslé Owners Group, there is a tag at the bottom right of this page, and we will email them to you.

The Crosslés went to Mallory Park on October the 9th for the final round of this inaugural season of the BARC 2011 Chevron/Crossle Challenge. Once again the Chevrons were a no show and so the 9 Crosslés left running after a tough battling season ranging from Anglesey to Spa Francorchamps were on their own.

 Qualifying

The damp greasy track which greeted the drivers as they went out for their qualifying session on Sunday morning surprised everyone and mixed the grid up a bit, although Arnie Black hadn’t seemed to notice the conditions and blew everyone away with a 55 second lap, 4 second faster than the cars of John Taylor, Roger Donnan, and Mark Hobbs. Andy Todd, who had a number of problems before even getting to the track, got a puncture and would have to complete his 3 laps in the lunch break.

Race 1

By the time of the first race the autumn sunshine had dried the track beautifully, but as the cars came round to the start line a brief shower covered the track and made the rush down to Gerrards a completely unknown quantity. Luckily everyone had got enough heat into their tyres on the pace car lap and there were no incidents. Arnie Black was in scintillating form and took an early lead whilst Taylor and Donnan battled for second with Hobbs hard on their tails. This 3 way fight allowed Black to post fastest lap after fastest lap and pull away from the group. After 12 laps of tough uncompromising racing Donnan passed Taylor and was soon joined by Hobbs, these two then easing away from Taylor. With Black so far out in front by this time the battle was for second and the pit stops for both Donnan and Hobbs would need to be perfect. Donnan went in first and Hobbs put in two of the fastest laps possible, but as he emerged from the pit exit lane into Gerrards corner Donnan entered the corner at full speed and with enough momentum to pass around the outside and so retake the 2^nd place. Hobbs continued to stick close to the tail of Donnan throughout the remainder of the race until his car died with fuel starvation problems 2 laps from the end.

 Results

1^st – Arnie Black – fastest lap 49.087

2^nd – Roger Donnan – fastest lap 49.614

3^rd – John Taylor – fastest lap 50.171

Race 2

The last race of the day took place in dry, windy and overcast conditions, and as the pace car pulled off and the cars thundered down to the first corner, many could have been forgiven for thinking it would be a foregone conclusion in favour of the pole position man Arnie Black. But Donnan got the jump at the start and was able to squeeze Black just a little as they entered the very fast Gerrards corner and so momentarily take the lead. But Hobbs had spotted an opportunity, and as Donnan and Black were squabbling over the best line through the middle part of the corner Hobbs swept around the outside of both of them to emerge onto the back straight with a decent lead, Donnan in second and Black demoted to third.

Unfortunately for Hobbs, Black made swift work of Donnan and quickly homed in on Hobbs and after 5 laps had retaken the lead. Despite Hobbs best efforts to cling on the pace of Black was relentless and the Managing Director and owner of Crossle Cars took a deserved and dominant second win of the day.

 Results

1^st – Arnie Black – fastest lap 48.775

2^nd – Mark Hobbs – fastest lap 49.134

3^rd – Roger Donnan – fastest lap 49.353

 Other news

Clive Young in his first season with the Crossle 9S and his first time at Mallory Park improved his lap time from qualifying to the race by nearly 10 seconds

Billy Gowdy, was once more a very welcome visiting driver, in the Ray Moore ‘Lilac’ Crossle and seemed to enjoy himself immensely.

The dramatic pit lane fire for The Wilson/Wilson car was swiftly put out by a combination of the on-board extinguisher and the Marshalls actions. There was no permanent damage to either car or driver, although Ian Wilson did cut his hand rather badly when the handle on the extinguisher pull broke!

John Taylor who has been an intermittent guest this year in the Crossle Challenge whilst campaigning his very rapid Porsche Carrera Cup car, will be out with the Heritage racing contingency at Oulton Park on the 22^nd of October.

Andy Todd, after an outstanding success at Snetterton last month, had one of his worst meetings of the season at Mallory, with electrical problems, drive train problems and puncture, as well as feeling lousy himself with some sort of infection – get well soon Andy

We arrived at Snetterton in reduced numbers, just 5 runners, Eamonn Ledwidge having withdrawn at short notice with engine problems. Two of our regulars are away on holidays, two cars out with engine/gearbox problems and Arnie Black was in action at Goodwood.

 An uneventful qualifying session saw hard charger Mark Hobbs take pole with 2.060.825, Andy Todd 2.09.672, Roger Donnan 2.11.548 with Clive Young at 2.16.783 and Dom. Spicer/Paul Summerville 2.18.621.

As the cars headed towards the lights on their rolling start, none of the drivers were aware of the rain falling at Riches and all around the rest of the circuit up to the newly renamed Brundle corner. As the lights went out, Hobbs was just a little too cautious which allowed both Todd and Donnan to pass around the outside and as all the cars twitched and slithered their way around the first lap it was Andy Todd leading from Roger Donnan with Mark Hobbs trying to stay with them. The two lead cars started to swop places and this allowed Hobbs to catch and eventually pass both with some audacious overtaking moves on the outside of Coram and into the new Murray chicane. But this did not settle it, for Andy Todd, inspired by his recent success at Brands Hatch retook the lead and after a mistake from Hobbs, Roger Donnan also passed putting Hobbs back to 3^rd. Considering the small numbers this was probably the race of the day as the 3 cars battled swapping places constantly. 

As the 2 min pit-stop window opened, Todd and Donnan were the first to make their move, and Hobbs realising this put in the fastest lap of the race and emerged at the end of the pit-stop window back in the lead. However, the drama wasn’t over yet, as Todd reeled in Hobbs and re-passed him to once again take the lead. This seemed to unsettle Hobbs and as he entered the difficult left hand Hamilton corner he had an almighty spin across the grass and dirt and back onto the track right in the path of Roger Donnan who did a good job of avoiding a huge shunt. Luckily for Hobbs his car was facing the right way and restarted quickly and he set of in pursuit of the leaders. With just 5 laps left to run Hobbs had caught Donnan, who perhaps under pressure spun onto the infield at Murrays and stayed there for the rest of the race. This left Hobbs free to chase down Todd, which he did, getting right onto his tail until the last lap when perhaps as a result of his earlier excursion across the grass Hobbs had an oil line let go as he exited the Bomb Hole and had to pull of the circuit, leaving Todd to take the win, his first in 6 years of Crossle 9S racing.  Both Young and Summerville spun on the oil, re-joined with Paul S finishing just ahead of Clive Young.

An tremendously exciting race, despite a small grid, and some excellent good clean driving from all.

Classifications:

1) Andy Todd – best lap 2.06.687

2) Mark Hobbs – best lap 2.06.210 – fastest lap

3) Spicer/Summerville – best lap 2.17.738

4) Clive Young – best lap 2.17.724

Our next and final meeting will be at Mallory Park on 9 October.  We will be joined by Arnie Black and Billy Gowdie from Ireland, both of whom will be trophy hunting.

http://www.southportvisiter.co.uk/southport-sport/other-sports/2011/06/23/gary-and-ian-wilson-celebrate-top-10-finish-in-spa-101022-28923971/