OUMF’s HRDC ‘Season Opener’ at Donington Historic Festival, May 5th 2024 - RaceReport

The OUMF Austin Healey Sebring Sprite had been lucky enough to spend a few months on sabbatical leave at the British Motor Museum in Gaydon – and some readers may have seen it on its own display in the entrance foyer. For us at OUMF this was an opportunity we could not miss; a chance to exhibit the 6 year practical project representing the engineering efforts of 100’s of students. At Gaydon – away from the racetrack - the public could get up close and personal with the car and admire all its beautiful details. 

Upon collecting our ‘Little BeWT’, a week before it was to be on track at Donington, Jeff Coope (the museum’s MD) kindly took Ding and I for some lunch, over which he described the huge public interest there had been in not only the Sprite, but the overall concept of OUMF and the incredible opportunities it gives us as students. Once we were full of sandwiches and cake, the Sprite was loaded onto the trailer in no time with the help of some visitors, and we set off down the M40, Oxford bound!

All was going swimmingly back at the HQ, with pre-race, routine spanner checks on every aspect of the car. However, when it got to the engine, our hopes of making it to Donington that weekend were suddenly brought to a halt. Upon the removal of the spark plugs and insertion of the DIC (Digital Inspection Camera) to check the cylinders, instead of finding nicely honed bores as we expected, we were faced with a sea of orange rust. Due to its necessary body panel
repairs after its shunt at the Goodwood Revival in September, our Riley 1.5 was already out of order and so the Sprite was our only contender... 

It's moments like these where the famous OUMF determination really kicks in and makes a difference. Knowing we were all in for a long few days, everyone gritted their teeth and cracked on. Not being disheartened, the cylinder-head was removed, bores cleaned up, engine turned over and reassembled again with a fresh head gasket – all while trying to diagnose as to why the cylinders were in such a sorry state! A healthy compression test proved it to be asymptomatic, and so everyone was left puzzled as we finished the remainder of the packing, putting it down to an inlet valve being open whilst being stored outside temporarily at the museum during the wettest spring on record.

We hit the road on the Saturday afternoon after some last minute test-drives, proving our ‘Little BeWT’ was as raring to go as we were! Arriving in the paddock in the early evening, our gazebos were erected, camping tents put up and tools laid out – all with one place in everybody’s mind: the pub. We dined that evening at the excellent Nag’s Head Inn, with everyone later heading back to the track with happy hearts and full of good food. A compulsory track walk gave us all the opportunity to admire just how beautiful a track Donington is, with its sudden changes in elevation and fast, flowing corners. It was soon time to hit the sack, however, some weren’t yet quite ready to go to bed. Headed up by Tom Reid, a small group decided the middle of the night was an appropriate time to rearrange their parked cars as well as the
industrial-sized wheelie bins... around Seb Paul’s car, whilst he was soundly asleep inside.

We woke to a sunny Sunday morning, and our early-morning entertainment was provided by Seb as he navigated himself out of his car window. The paddock continued to fill out as we gave the Sprite a comprehensive spanner check, and before we knew it, it was time to head to Scrutineering. The Sprite passed with flying colours, and all we had to do now was wait until the first qualifying session at 10:00. The hot sun was beginning to really cook us as we looked forward to OUMF’s Sprite performing in two HRDC that day, the ‘Jack Sears Trophy’ and the Dunlop ‘Allstars’. Headed up by Charlie Lemme as the ‘Big Cheese’, (team leader) we were confident in our abilities to quickly flip the car around between sessions so that Ding could go out on track and show the public what OUMF was all about, but would the Sprite be up for it?
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Ding headed off at 10:00 for the Dunlop ‘Allstars’ qualifying session. Laying down a best time of 1:32 we were to line up 3rd in class for the race later on. After a hasty spanner check, he was back out qualifying for the HRDC ‘Jack Sears Trophy’ and set a very similar time of 1:31. Our spirits were high for the afternoon of racing, with some potentially promising results, but the next spanner check under the now scorching sun raised some eyebrows: an uncanny amount of play was found in the front hubs, and especially so on the driver’s side. As we weren’t to be out until 15:30, Eddie Scheer had enough time to disassemble his left hand front hub and inspect it more thoroughly. It turned out that the bearing’s outer race had spun, causing the excessive play. With no other real option, Eddie rebuilt the hub with fresh grease, and all we could do is hope for the best.

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​After gobbling down a bit of lunch, it was time for Ding to line up in the Assembly Area for the Dunlop ‘Allstars’ race. Starting 3rd in the GT class and 21st overall, Ding charged past both the TVR Grantura and MGB Roadster that were standing between him and a Class win. He soon found himself first in Class - and held this position until the end of the race. All of us cheered as Ding finished 15th overall and were astonished by the nearly 30 second gap between him and the TVR Grantura which came 2nd in class. 

A Class win to start OUMF’s 14th season with the HRDC would be satisfactory for anyone; but another wouldn’t hurt, would it?

Unfortunately for OUMF, this didn’t happen. The post-race spanner check found the play in Eddie’s hub to have worsened and, despite Ding’s famously high level of mechanical sympathy, it was felt to be in everyone’s best interest to withdraw the Sprite from racing in the longer, 45 minute, ‘Jack Sears Trophy’.

This didn’t dampen a single person’s spirit, as everyone rejoiced in how hard they had worked in the last week to get our ‘Little BeWT’ to the track at all, let alone to bring home a Class win! Once our service area was disassembled, we collected our trophy at prize-giving, and thanked Julius Thurgood and the HRDC team for their kindness in letting us race again.

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Leaving Donington’s gates en route to Oxford, you would have found one of two looks on team members faces. Either a smile reaching each ear, or fast asleep after such an exhilarating week (guilty as charged!). With plenty on the ‘to-do list’, a fantastic start to our season was hopefully a sign of things to come, as we immediately got working on getting our crowd-favourite Riley 1.5 rally car to the Ypres Historic rally!

James Biley – Brookes Paramedic student