September 17th, 2009 Posted in News | No Comments »
22 years after his last official outing in a car race, Jimmy Sime was back on track at the latest round of the Equipe GTS series at Zandvoort in Holland. Jimmy and Barry Sime made the ferry crossing armed with Elstrop Racing’s Triumph Spitfire which was kindly on loan as Helen and Colin Elstrop were otherwise engaged working at Croft Circuit. Neither Sime Jr or Snr had been to the wonderful Zandvoort circuit previously, but Jimmy took in a couple of test sessions on the Friday to acclimatise himself with both the car and the circuit. Two further laps on mountain bikes in the evening gave a little more food for thought for the next day.
Saturday morning arrived and Jimmy was soon on track for the Equipe’s session, out with other machinery such as MGs, TVR Grantura, Lotus, Triumphs Elvas and a Lancia in the multi class 19 car field. The laptimes tumbled further and Jimmy would line up for race one in 13th overall and 2nd in his class. Onto the race later in the day and a clean start from the whole field didn’t present any opportunities to pass right away. Jimmy however battled on and moved forward into 11th overall, holding his 2nd in class and keeping the other similar powered cars behind. Not bad at all for his first time out in 22 years on a new track and an unfamiliar car (to drive – Jimmy being more used to helping to prepare the car over the last couple of years)! He added “It was great to get out there again and get those butterflies going again. It’s also great to go out and show that I can still put in the times, not only teach and coach drivers the theory as i have been doing more recently, but bang in the laps and race competitively again!”.
Barry watching from the pitwall and seeing his dad having all the fun (so far) managed to negotiate a last minute entry into the MG / Triumph Competitions race on the Sunday! Barry was the 38th car to enter this race which was made up of various MGs and Triumphs (unsurprisingly given the title!).
Sunday morning at 9am and Sime Jnr was on track for the first time and within a few laps turning some respectable times, getting down to a 2.22.5 laptime (just off Jimmy’s best time from the Saturday race) which lined him up 29th on the grid overall. Before his race though, Jimmy was back out with the Equipe GTS field once again and ended up being right in the thick of the closest battle on the track with 2 more powerful cars – an Elva and an MG midget. Jimmy was putting both under increasing pressure when the Elva was actually forced into an error on the final lap spinning him down the order and in the process also getting past the MGB. It’s never over untill the chequered flag falls though in motor racing and a blockage in the fuel system caused a slight misfire on the last half a lap, which allowed both cars back passed again. Jimmy still brought it home just outside the top ten once again though and with it another second in class!
Once back in the paddock Jimmy realised the slight cough from the engine had actually cost him a class win overall as the MG Midget took the honors this time, but was still pretty chuffed he could still mix it and out race the others!
Barry and Jimmy again prepared the car ready for Barry’s race in the afternoon and enjoyed the local friendly hospitality from Slotemaker Skid School instructors Jeroen and Amy Zwaanenburg who had gone out of their way to make the Sime’s feel at home.
Barry lined up on the grid and despite not making a proper standing start to a car race in nearly 5 years, revived some of his startline magic to move up to 21st. Challenging another MGB for 20th on lap 3 though and he wasn’t to complete the manouvre; “I was coming out of the tight corner out the back of the pits, changing up to 3rd gear and thought id missed the gear at first, when i tried again i realised i hadn’t missed it – it had gone! So i was left with 2nd and 4th gears – not ideal when i knew i had another 9 laps to go and many of the fast corners were 3rd gear corners!” Sime pressed on though and as the rain started to fall some cars fell by the wayside, with Sime picking up the pieces. Barry eventually coming home 24th overall and 4th in class (out of 9 entries).
All in all a great weekends racing for both Sime Snr and Jr on an Awesome track, with very friendly people racing with some fabulous cars. A huge thanks to Helen and Colin Elstrop for the loan of their lovely Spitfire and good luck to them for the next outing in the series at Snetterton in October.
). Other notable finishers was former Sime racing Hospitality Manager Graham Farr in the “Team Don Logan”entry putting in some consistent times. Also a congratulations to Stephen Lambie and fellow ARDS instructor James Watson in the “Team Rocket” entry finishing 26th in the pairs! well done indeed.
