CONGRATULATIONS TO MATT SKELTON - MASTER OF THE UNIVERSE.
Ok, not the universe. Cadwell Park.
Another superb outing for the team at this bonkers track saw two guest drivers in Kutukan machinery for the day.
Lining up in the new E class car, Vanessa, is Skeletor, Jaguar World editor Matt Skelton, whilst taking Helen for her first outing of the year was the blond mane of our resident He-Man, Dean Sewell. Seriously, we couldn’t have planned this, but there’s a thin fella called Skelton and a barn door of a bloke with long blond hair, both of them riding a battle cat.
Two different men, in different cars, with different approaches, driving styles, and experience, made for a fascinating day in the park.
Testing showed that developments to Vanessa since
The weather held to allow a dry qualifying, Lyddall taking pole from Skelton by a scant 3/10th, but the class E car the more consistent, setting the stage for a fascinating duel between brutal power and lightweight handling, both cars well clear of the remaining pack.
A botched start by Eleanor dropped Lyddall to 3rd and allowed Skelton to sweep into Coppice first, a position he never relinquished. Lyddall fought back to second, but the car failed with fuel issues before the laptime duel could commence, and Skelton’s early 2 second lead was never threatened, as he settled in to cruise home a full half minute clear of the next XJS, and ten seconds ahead of the next car to take his maiden race win.
Sewell elected to double up on races instead of a test day, and suffered a failed wheel bearing in second quali. Spare front hubs are not carried by anyone in the paddock, so were hastily stolen from series organiser Terry Dye’s road car, leaving the poor man’s car on axle stands in the paddock, whilst his parts were strapped to Helen to get Dean back in action.
A dramatic improvement in form over the course of the XJS race saw him take lumps off his laptime with each circuit, closing right in on a panicking Chris Boon on the final lap, and bringing the car home at a pace only half a second adrift of class winner Philip Comer. Not at all bad for a man who had never sat in an XJS before that morning, and deservedly Driver of the Day.
A rain-lashed Powered By race saw him rather hampered by a total lack of windscreen wipers, but able to out-pace the far-faster cars in these conditions, falling out of the car as a complete convert to the XJS.
A great day for the Kutukans then, the hire car spirited her guest driver to the race win, the Kutuka-supported Comer took a perfect set of points in class F despite pressure from his rivals throughout the race and now leads the XJS championship, the other guest driver takes home shiny glassware, and only poor old Terry, left on axle stands as we all went home, would rue the day.
OK, so we did put his car back together for him. It seemed only fair. Our great thanks to Terry for this rather generous act, truly above and beyond the call of duty.
Vanessa is available for hire. We're just saying....
Look how pleased he is already. And that's BEFORE he won the race....!
Christine follows in Helen's footsteps, unbeaten since birth, and ready to slaughter her opposition at Cadwell Park.
Just look at the bearings on that!
A Kutukan goes burrowing in Terry's rather nice XJS for a spare front hub.
Before you ask, yes, that crazy, wonderful man gave his permission for us to do this!
2 race finishes from 2 starts. 2 class wins with 2 drivers. 2 fastest laps. 2 class poles. 1 race win. 1 pole position. 1 fastest lap.
1 tenth of the build cost of any other modified class car.