Motors TV Live Race Days: Introducing the 2CV Championship

This weekend’s first ever Motors TV Live Race Days features the 2CVParts.com 2CV Championship.

Here, competitor Mick Storey introduces one of motorsport’s most action-packed racing series!

---

It started with a drunken conversation in a pub. Six months later I was perched in a thoroughbred race car, secure in the knowledge that the expensive flame retardant underwear in which I was fashionably clad would increase my life expectancy by about twelve seconds should my chariot expire in a ball of flame.

The circuit was Mondello Park, the event was the ‘Vingt Quatre Heures du Mondello. A bang on the roof signalled re-fuelling was complete. The engine burst out of a crescendo of sound, wheels scrabbled for grip and the car scorched out of the pits, flesh being pulled back on the cheeks as power surged onward. It wasn’t quite like that. It is true that in those days the engine was ear bleedingly noisy, but the reality of coming to terms with French rural transport is that the vehicle will not so much thrust as flatulate forward from a standing start.

This was my first exposure to racing and provided a most memorable weekend. Anyone who enjoys racing must try this event, it is truly infectious.

The 24 hour race is a way several drivers get involved in 2CV racing, but it’s only part of the story.

The Citroen 2CV looks about as suitable for racing as a cardboard boat on an alligator hunt. However, it has been involved in motor sport for many years. In the sixties, Citroen organised Rally ‘Raids’ endurance races over thousands of miles and across continents, which were keenly contested by sometimes hundreds of 2CV’s and derivatives. Then in the seventies came 2CV Cross – off road racing for 2CV’s – once again organised by Citroen, and attended by thousands of enthusiastic spectators throughout Europe.

2CV circuit racing began in this country in 1989. The first meeting was held at Mallory Park with a very respectable grid of 22 cars. It won instant recognition as close, exciting, affordable racing and these are still the main attractions of 2CV racing.

In 1990, the first 24 hour 2CV race was held at Mondello Park. The success of this venture exceeded all expectations and the annual trek to Ireland is now a standard item on the Championship Agenda. In fact most people seem to know Mondello Park as ‘that circuit where they hold the 24 hour 2CV race!’

Twelve years on the racing is still as popular as ever with both competitors and spectators.
A boring 2CV race is as rare as a double glazing salesman who finds someone pleased to see him.

THE RACING

After Ian Flux, of Touring Car fame, raced a 2CV in the Pembrey One Hour Race he is reported by Autosport to have said: ‘The Touring Car Championship would kill for racing like this….’

It really is that good!! In some ways the relatively slow speed of the 2CV is a bonus in that it makes the racing closer. Drivers regularly take corners 2, 3 or even 4 abreast, and then slipstream the car in front before trying to overtake before the next bend! Of course the car behind is trying to do the same so the next corner will probably be taken 3 or 4 abreast as well.

2CV racing regularly receives excellent reviews in the motoring press and is very popular with spectators and marshals alike. Management of ‘race incidents’ is generally successful, so that whilst the racing is fiercely competitive it is also relatively clean and good natured.

Drivers all through the field are dicing throughout the race, and very often the best action is in the middle of the field – so nobody is left out! On many occasions the qualifying results have been so close that as many as seven or eight cars are separated on the grid by as little as one second.

THE CARS

It’s quite easy to convert a donor car into a racer. There is an abundance of spares available, all quite cheap. The cars are mechanically straightforward and the work allowed on the component parts is limited.

Engine compression may be raised by fitting 9:1 pistons from a Citroen Dyane and some basic (very cheap) machining of the heads and cylinder barrels to specified dimensions. You are allowed to port the heads, use whatever exhaust you like, lighten the flywheel, fit electronic ignition and for this year an alternative carburettor is allowed. The rest of the engine must remain standard.

The gearbox and brakes must remain standard. The cars are lowered (by about five inches!), stiffened and lightened. The minimum weight has fluctuated over the years. It seems to be linked to a national trend for pie consumption and has increased this year to 655 kg including the driver). The minimum weight can be achieved by many means from reducing component weight to diet, although the latter isn’t popular. Having the driver included in the overall weight means that all compete on the same level, whether you are anorexic or your nipples span multiple timezones. The control tyres for 2010 are Toyo 135 x 15.

Top speed is limited by sonic boom which comes a little early in a 2CV at somewhere in excess of 95 mph.

But this is only part of the story. The cars are eminently repairable. My car was bounced off a Pembrey tyrewall at some ridiculous speed resulting in a bent chassis, broken steering rack, damaged engine and gearbox. All these parts were changed, the chassis straightened, car re-scrutineered and back on the track within two hours. Everyone rallies round to help – the camaraderie is excellent.

COSTS

The object is to keep costs down. The cost of many series is quite high, most 2CV racers have never seen the amount of money it costs to run in more conventional series (at least not while they have been awake). Cars capable of winning races change hands for £2000. Cars with championship winning history tend to cost a bit more £2700.

There is plenty of advice to be found in the club, occasionally it is of the mother-in-law variety, (pointing out all the creases you have left in the ironing) but advice and help is normally available by the bucket full.

SOCIAL SIDE

The spectrum of membership goes from students to pensioners (or leisure consultants). Many competitors and their families stay at the track during the weekend. Whether you are single, married or have kids there is a splendid social scene.

At the end of the season the club puts on a dinner dance which is always well attended. This is used to present the prizes for the season and if you stay up late enough, to discover the foibles of several of the competitors.

24 HOUR RACE

This event started at Mondello Park in 1990 before moving to its current home at Snetterton in 2003. Up to 40 teams of 3 or 4 drivers with pit crew converge on this excellent track in the wilds of Norfolk. Preparation standards vary wildly. Teams with their eyes on the big prize bring van loads of spares while others turn up with a semi serviceable car and bucketfuls of hope. The atmosphere is incredible and the results often do not go the way one might expect. For example, prior to last years race, the best thing that was said about the car that came second was “the engine seems to keep its oil in”. The race starts at 4.00 pm on Saturday 22nd August finishes the following day with a small sherry and a hobnob or similar! Team progress varies from slick and cool to the bizarre bedlam one may associate with a brothel on Watership Down. Unlucky teams have been known to change six engines (and more), although reliability increases mean engines are no longer the consumable items they were. Organised teams change engines in under 10 minutes or 20 minutes for a gearbox. Then there is the romance of driving at night, re-defining the meaning of the graveyard shift.

The availability of the bar makes for excellent pre and post race social gatherings of people to compliment each other on their team’s performance or to contemplate whether gudgeon pins should be pink and associated similar intellectual speculations.

Snetterton is an excellent event. Many new drivers enter out of curiosity exuding prejudices of disbelief and deny they can take it seriously – most return for more.

Motors TV Live Race Days will also include action from the Kumho BMW Championship, Book-a-Track.com Caterham Graduates Championship, BARC Dunlop Motorsport News Saloon Car Championship, Chris Knott BARC Intermarque League, SRCC Sports 2000 Championship and BARC Tin Tops Championship.

Tune in to the first ever Motors TV Live Race Day from Mallory Park on Sunday 16 May from 1pm (BST).


Follow Motors TV on twitter – www.twitter.com/motorstv - and Facebook