Smogsport is made up of a group of motorsport enthusiasts based in the North East of England who via the aid of credit cards, overdrafts and some very kind assistance from local sponsors will be competing in various Rallies across the country. The team consists of Duncan Heseltine, aka Funbobby, driver of the yellow ex Smogsport Mini and team joker, Mark Whitehouse, aka Wobs, Spanners, Sparky2i, Mubs, Twoey etc etc etc..........., co-driver of the Smogsport 205 & legend in his own garage, Michael Ord, aka Slippy, unofficial team web designer & driver of the Smogsport Nova 1600, Steven Ord aka Lord Sord and Paul Andrews aka Pants so if you see us at an event come say hello.
LATEST NEWS 4/01/10
A fantastic effort by the organising club, it's members and many many volunteers meant the weather did not stop play on the 2010 Christmas Stages at Croft
The day started with the Smogsport team struggling to even tow the car and trailer out of the compound due to the frozen ground but eventually the team made it to Croft and got set up with plenty of time to spare, a quick mooch around services did not help the 'what tyre' dilemma as people were running every combination and type of tyre produced it seemed.
Slippy and Wobs had the day before been up to Gateshead to see a man about a dog and £100 later came away with a set of Dunlop knobblies in the hope they would offer more grip than the tarmac tyres the Nova would normally run
A quick walk about after scruiteneering revealed the circuit was sheet ice in most places and when SS1 arrived it was clear from the very first corner there was zero grip and little anybody could do to change that. SS2 came and went and the pace, or lack of it, from the top boys said it all really no grip regardless what tyre or combination you ran. The team were ready to put the car on the trailer but a slight lift in tempreture and the traffic over the ice meant it started to soften and was more like slush for most parts of the stage.
SS3 and SS4 were probably the most fun Slippy and Wobs have had in a rally car well besides that time in a remote lay by up on Otterburn but they agreed to never speak of that again, The slush and the knobblies offered a lot more grip and it felt more like driving on gravel in that the car could be positioned and set up for corners, this coupled with a far more flowing stage layout saw the crew pissing themselves most of the way round whilst looking out the side windows, who needs a MK2 to go sideways
Lunch came as did half of the SDMC it seemed, the people on the gate must have been suspicious that car 75 had about 15 people servicing for them, Bob Mack, Gav Taylor, Joe the Waiter and the Club Sec all making an appearance and just in time for a very heavysnow shower which put the stages and grip levels back to square one.
The team did toy with the idea of throwing the towel in as they'd had so many offs and spins they were probably well down the field anyway but the boys in service convinced them to crack on, the team probably wished they hadn't as going in the opposite way in to sunny in Slippy lost the front end resulting in the Nova smacking a hay bail which burst the rad and pushed the front end in, apparently Slippy had time to inform Wobs of the impending impact so was the lack of grip
Hats off to the organisers for getting the event to run, great commitment to the cause and also to the marshals and time control folks you stood out in some pretty horrendous conditions whilst the team had fun sliding about the question has to be asked if the event should have ran at all, the decision was probably taken from a financial stand point but the day left Smogsport feeling a bit unfulfilled and their itch un scratched
Any photos of the car would be appreciated michael.ord2@ntlworld.com
P.S Anybody know who the marshals where manning the Railway Straight ???