CMC Motorsport takes on The Birkett…and loses!

Report and Images by Dickon Siddall

11 November 2022

Dan Surridge’s CMC Motorsport outfit is well known in MG racing circles. A regular at MG Car Club race meetings, Dan and his team prepare and support a number of cars that compete in the Club’s championships. For the second consecutive year, Dan was able to cajole several of his customers and friends to compete in The Birkett, the UK’s largest annual motor race.

About The Birkett

The race, which dates back to 1951, runs on the Silverstone Grand Prix circuit and can accommodate up to 70 teams of between three and six drivers and between three and six cars. It is a 6 hour relay race and each team has the challenge of lapping the circuit as many times as it can within the six hours with only one of their team cars running at any one time. As one car comes into the pits the next can be dispatched out onto the circuit.

As the race is open to any closed wheel cars (exc. some historics) there can be an eclectic mix of vehicles on track at any one time, anything from Citroen C1s and Ford KAs to Caterham derivatives and modern sports racing cars such as Radicals and Spires.

You may wonder how, with such a wide variety of cars having vastly differing performance, the winner is decided. The race is really two events in one. In addition to trying to win the outright 'Scratch Victory' by recording the highest number of laps teams also fight for the 'Handicap Victory’. In theory, any of the teams could win on Handicap as the event uses a system designed to equalise the different performance levels.

Team CMC Motorsport #64

In 2021 Dan’s team finished a very creditable 3rd in Class D, 26th on Handicap and 45th on Scratch having completed a total of 130 laps.

This year Team 64 was made up of Karl Green - MG ZS 180, Mark Bellamy - MG ZR 170, Tylor Ballard - MG ZR 170, and Jason Burgess - MG ZR 190. Julia Penfold and Ray Collier were also due to take part but sadly both had to withdraw leaving Karl, Mark, Tylor and Jason aiming to complete two 45 minute stints each, a pretty tall order considering that they usually compete in 20 minute sprint races.

After uneventful qualifying sessions the team members were in good spirits and were optimistic that they could better last year’s result. Jason was elected to run the first stint and took his place 40th on the grid for the 11.45am rolling start.

The moist track conditions suited the ZR 190 and Jason was flying. After 30 minute’s racing Team 64 was running in 20th on Scratch, 6th on Handicap, and things were looking good. By the time he pitted after 18 laps team CMC Motorsport was punching well above its weight in 13th place on Scratch.

Mark was due to run the second stint but Dan, in his Team Manager role, felt that Tylor’s car would be better suited to the tricky track conditions and he was right. Tylor put in some competitive lap times, some very similar to Jason’s despite having 20bhp less at his disposal. In order to minimise the time loss his stint was cut short and he pitted during a safety car period and handed over to Mark.

By this time a dry line was forming around the circuit but was still quite wet offline. Mark, with his car on a dry setup, found the conditions very challenging when he had to move offline to allow the faster cars through. Twelve laps later Team CMC Motorsport had completed a total of 39 laps and it was Karl’s turn to take to the track. Sadly his race came to an abrupt end on his 3rd lap when an over-ambitious move by a fellow competitor punted Karl into a spin and he was collected by a following car that was unable to take avoiding action.

The ZS 180 was extensively damaged and Karl, who was complaining of back pain, made the obligatory visit to the Medical Centre. Thankfully he wasn’t seriously injured and is well on the road to recovery.

With the team down to three cars an uneventful run to the flag would be needed if the they were to achieve a reasonable result. However, the mechanical gremlins had other ideas!

The first to suffer was Jason who, half way through his second stint, had the exhaust manifold disintegrate leaving the front pipe dragging on the track. Such was the resulting noise, I could hear him exiting The Loop while I was down at Luffield and a trip to the pits was inevitable.

With Tylor replacing Jason on track, the team set about repairing the manifold and Tylor completed 15 very consistent laps before handing over to Mark who chalked up a further 13 times on the lap charts.

When he returned to the pits Mark was feeling unwell and decided he was unable to take any further part in thew proceedings so it fell to Jason and Tylor to complete the race with just short of 2 hours left to run.

Ten laps later Jason presented the mechanics with more repairs when he pitted early with gear-change problems and Tylor took to the track again for another 18 laps.

Jason was then due to tick off the remaining miles to the chequered flag but those gremlins struck again after seven laps when a power-steering pipe ruptured depositing fluid around the circuit. So Jason’s race was over and Tylor picked up the baton in ever darkening gloom for the seemingly straight-forward run to the finish line.

But, as we all know, nothing in racing is simple and on his second lap an issue with the wiring for the throttle position sensor brought him back to the pits prematurely which meant that the team was unable to take the chequered flag when if fell to end the 70th running of The Birkett.

A very disappointing end to the race saw the team classified 65th overall and 13th in class on Handicap, 58th on Scratch. However, despite the setbacks, the team did complete 118 laps of the 3.667 mile Silverstone GP circuit, that’s more than 430 miles and, ironically, was the same number of laps as Routec Racing’s BMW Compacts, the team which took the Handicap victory.

Now it’s time for the team to reset, repair the damage and start planning for 2023. Wishing Team CMC Motorsport better luck next time.

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