2021 Club Triumph Round Britain Reliability Run

All, a rather belated February/March RBRR Bulletin. Apologies for the no show, just been busy with work and CT officialdom!

First some sad news, I heard today that Hans-Peter Ruppert who in 2008 came over from Germany and took part in the RBRR in his lovely red TR6, has lost his battle against Cancer this week. He was a top bloke and loved his Triumph cars. I am sure all that met him on the 08 RBRR and on last year’s LCC send their thoughts to his family and his co-driver and friend, Hansgerd Ludwig.

Controls:Making some real headway with this aspect of the event. The list of Controls will hopefully look like this:
1.The Plough, Crews Hill, Enfield Friday
2. Blyth Services, near Doncaster. Friday
3. Otterburn Services, A65 Saturday
4. Edinburgh Airport Saturday
5. Skaich Café, Allness Saturday
6. The Seaview Hotel, JOG( Breakfast) Saturday
7. The Conon Bridge Hotel, Conon Bridge Saturday
8. Morrisons Garage, Stirling Saturday
9. Lancaster Services, M6 Saturday
10.Gledrid Services, Oswestry Saturday
11. Sugar Loaf, Llandovery Sunday
12. Gordano Services, M5 Sunday
13. Lands End, (Passage Control) Sunday
14. The Old Quay Inn, Hayle, Cornwall Sunday
15. Bude Museum Sunday
16. Badgers Holt, Dartmoor Sunday
17. Pimperne Village Hall, Dorset Sunday
18. TR Register Offices, Didcot Sunday
19. The Plough, Crews Hill, Enfield Sunday

I am not that worried about the stops that are not arranged at present, we should be ok with them all. The only one that could be doubtful is 'Morrisons Garage' at Stirling. That garage is the only one left of the old British Leyland dealerships that we have traditionally used. It is now a SEAT dealership and as there is not much connection with the old Triumph marque apart from the use of ‘Toledo’ as a model name we may struggle to go there, I hope we can use the arrange this Control.
Many old hands looking at this list will comment on the amount of new ones I have arranged or hope to sort. Those arranged are:
Skaich Café near Allness is used by the organisers of Le Jog as a Control and seem more than happy for us to use their premises even at the dead of Saturday morning.
Sugar Loaf near Llandovery is usually a picnic stop right out in the middle of Wales. There is absolutely no light there in the middle of the night so we will have to arrange some temporary lighting for the Marshals. Hopefully it will not be raining, but as the location is Wales I am not that hopeful. As the rain here will be horizontal, pack an anorak! It’s a shame we cannot visit during daylight hours as the views here are spellbinding. All crews should note that it will not be not easy to find the entrance, so do drive with diligence in the vicinity-keep them peeled!
Bude Museum, in the middle of Bude right by the sea lock on the beach will be a fantastic control. Make time for a brief walk to the sea if your time permits. Malcolm Warren, one of the Club’s Vice Presidents and long time CT member has arranged this for us, there will be tea and coffee available at the Museum’s Café.
Already some of the old favourites are confirmed, the best news being that the stop at Pimperne is happening, the quality of cake and tea available is always so welcome, so my advice is not to go too mad on the breakfast!
Blyth Services have not answered my letter as yet, but I think it fairly certain that they will help, always a good stop as the cars are still bunched up. Also it can be seen that we hope to go Lancaster services again, I regret that I will not be able to provide any entertainment this time though!
Obviously with 19 stops it will be important for all Crews to keep up with the pace of the event. However as most will be aware, do not worry the average speed in most parts is 40mph so this should be feasible. Obviously breakdowns will put crews behind, in this instance it is important to inform our Chief Marshall, Nigel Abdullah, preferably by text that you are encountering problems. The 08 event was blighted by crews not communicating about problems, this led to Marshals hanging around at Controls waiting for entrants to arrive, some of course never arrived! Full details about this important aspect of the RBRR will be made clear in due course.

Route:
Two weeks ago I spent the Saturday down in Cornwall, Devon and Dorset with Nigel Abdullah as we recce’d the new route that will facilitate the new stops at Hayle and Bude. Some of the roads we will use are real drivers roads and offer some nice scenery including some views of the sea, always nice to have a look at the sea!
That finishes the recce’s for 2010 and I must say some of the new roads we are using to supplement the usual roads are superb, I am especially looking forward to driving through Wales in the middle of the night.
Possibly one of the best aspects of the RBRR is the way the driving of the car becomes so fluid and smooth as the miles get under one’s belt, by the end one really is in perfect harmony with their car!

Marshals:
Marshals are being sought at present, can I make my usual appeal that if any entrant knows of someone who could help please ask them to contact me. Ideally I need Club Triumph members for this. The response via the CT Forum has been very good.
Quite a few RBRR regulars are having a break from the event, however they are very keen to help out so look out for a few familiar faces at some of the stops. These include Herald man Chris Allen, I have told Chris that he will be working hard that weekend and will be at two stops, that’ll teach him for not entering!

Entrants:
No real murmurings of any withdrawals as yet. I imagine the present level of fuel costs (Approx. £1.17/Litre or £5.30/gallon) might force the hand of one or two, my advice is just get saving! In 2008 the cost of fuel seemed to be about £1.20/L, I hope fuel costs will reduce by October. Seriously though, if money is tight or you may feel that the car will not be ready and you cannot feasibly take part, how about volunteering for a spot of marshaling?
At present we have 28no. crews on the ‘Reservists’ list, all are shown on the attached entry and reserve listing.
Looking at the ‘Reservists’ list its great to see so many crews who are new to the event, welcome everyone, we hope to be able to start to contact you all soon. We are fully aware that you all need time to complete cars and of course raise money for MIND. The ‘Reservists’ include Mike Charlton, the Club’s PRO in his gorgeous Spitfire mk3 that graced the CT stand at Stoneleigh last weekend, his son Philip who now has a very purposeful 2000 mk1 fitted with a Rover V8 is also on the list, hope to welcome you chaps.
Really good to see Jean Claude Cigrang from Luxembourg and Roger Hoogmans from the Netherlands entered. Jean Claude has entered using his trusty Herald 13/60 estate, a real Triumph man is Jean Claude as he has numerous other Triumph cars, including a very pretty Spitfire 4 with a bubble hardtop. Roger would be bringing over his mk3 GT6, Roger and this car completed the 2006 RBRR, there are some good pictures of this car on the CT Website.
Its great that so many from overseas wish to come over and take part in this event.
Another Triumph man known to many is Leighton Ball, Leighton has two very nice Pi saloons, a slate grey mk1 and a white mk2 rally car rep. I have recently seen some pics of mk2 and although still being built it looks like it could be a humdinger of a car!
Another great car on the Reserve list is the glorious TR3A opwned by Andy Flexney, a car that has done many CT events, again this car was on the CT stand at Stoneleigh, a bloomin’ marvellous car
Quite a few ‘Reservists’ have done the event before, so we hope to be able to welcome back teams 102, 103, 105, 112, 113, 115,116 and 119.
Looking at the listing of 128no crews, only 62 of those did the event last time, I am amazed by this.
Looking at the entry listing of the event, all 128no cars are I am sure a credit to the Triumph (and of course Standard , messrs McNeill!) marque and will grace the event if entry places are obtained.
One of the great aspects of the RBRR has been the constant increase in standard of the cars taking part, nowt wrong with a scruffy car though!

Charity News:
I am awaiting some Collection Tins from MIND, if you want one, do let me know and I will arrange to get one to you.
We also hope to have some MIND representation at Bude, so please do wander over to them and have a brief word.

The RBRR Blog has not been updated for some time, again apologies about this, I will rectify this in due course. I still need photos and descriptions of cars, please e-mail (tim.Bancroft@club.triumph.org.uk) to me if you have not done so.

As the weather is now starting to threaten to get better (Blimey, it’s a pleasant 11 degrees C outside this morning!), I think its time for many to hit the garage and get preparing. To aid car preparation we have a nice document that was produced a couple of years ago by some of the more experienced RBRR entrants. I will include this in a future Blog posting, do have a read as some of the tips are inspired!

Should you want to get stuck into a CT event before the RBRR, do think about taking part in next month’s Historic County Run. This starts in West Wales and finishes in Lancashire and looks like it will be a gas. Please contact Dale Barker if you are interested.

That’s about is for this month. Do remember to let Jason know about any revisions to your entry. I know it’s a bit boring, but entry details have to be correct for when we start.

Tim,
With thanks to Jason, Nigel and James