The Raven's view of The Shaw.

Shaw Trophy

13th April 2025

‘The weekend started off with a message from the Northumberland Borders Rally team that a company were looking for an orange Mini they’d seen in one of their videos to use in a photo shoot. The Minge was that car and after a bit of texting back and forth to the messenger lady it turned out they needed the car for Tuesday morning, in Crieff in that there Scotland!🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🤣

This started off a sequence of thoughts, ideas, bonkers solutions on how to get the car 300 miles up the road and back three days later🤣 I even started looking at buying a tow vehicle but reality hit and we ended up with Claire’s cousin ready to trailer the car up👍

Next issue was the Minge wasn’t actually running as I’d removed the fuel pump and some plates on the back of the engine to try and resolve an oil leak. I had all the bits to put them back together but hadn’t had chance to do it. Saturday morning would be the only chance to get it done as we were heading up to Northumberland that afternoon to compete on the Shaw Trophy targa on Sunday. My Saturday morning lay in was cancelled and I got down and dirty with the back of an A Series engine and a whole bag of swear words!!🤣🤣🙄 What a job! Whoever invents spanner’s that fit on the end of your fingers will be a millionaire! 

To cut a long thread of swear words short, I got it fixed, the oil seems to be staying in the engine now and the car started straight up. I confirmed with the photo shoot people we were all good to go and left it with them. The client needed to approve the use of the car before they could give the green light but I’d done all I needed to do👍

A quick late lunch and we loaded up the Golf and ‘new to us’ MX5 for a trundle up the A1 to Otterburn. A very enjoyable and hassle free journey took us to the Coach House at the Otterburn Hall estate which was a mix of wood cabin lodges and a small hotel with a big derelict hotel next to it. A very weird setup and a huge potential to make something great but it all looked a bit sort of rundown for no real reason. We didn’t have much time to ponder the reasons as we had a dinner date with Peter Clegg and Sarah Clegg at the Black Bull in Bellingham. A topless whizz over the deserted moor roads got us there in good time and we enjoyed a lovely night of catching up and Guiness🤣

Glorious sunshine ☀️ greeted us Sunday morning and accompanied us over the hills to the Otterburn ranges where the targa was being run. Whickham District Motor Club had set up some excellent tests on this superb venue which is an army training range by day. Neither Claire Raven, me, the tyres or the car had fully woken up for the first seven tests as we all got to grips with our new roles. The MX5 has been resting peacefully for the last 4 years near York but was now being asked to rev its way along forest tracks bouncing from corner to corner and dragging its underside over rutted turns🤣

I introduced the car to a cone at the end of test two and Mrs Rave added some distance to test three. The car seemed to shrug off its slumber and came to life on the second run of the seven tests. We started to pull our socks up as well and we all pulled together to enjoy a cracking run through with some styling on John Kerr’s section🤣

Half an hour was allowed for lunch and the cold Otterburn wind cut through us as we huddled behind the chuck wagon trying to eat our chips before they froze together🤣 The sun was out but the air temperature was well down and the marshals had a lottery of their location as some were basking in sunshine out of the cutting wind while others were in the shade and wrapped up well enough to get to the North Pole 🤣 🥶 We also got a text to say the Minge hadn’t been selected for the shoot, the client had opted for a black Mini instead, which was disappointing but it had got me to sort out the oil leak 🤣

The afternoon tests were a run of the morning ones followed by two short tests then a cracking 7.5 mile final run made up of tests 3 and 4 joined together. This took us over 16 minutes to complete with cones and turns coming thick and fast which Mrs Rave had to call out, with eight code boards to record. It was full on for us both and with the ruts in the tracks so deep in places it lifted the wheels of the MX5 off the road we had to pick our lines carefully. After our first run in the morning we were only in contention for best green Mk1 MX5 with the top down, and with a 125 mile drive home, smashing it through deep ruts wasn’t going to benefit us in anyway😂

We got to the end with huge grins and worn out arms then headed back to the service area to swap the gravel tyres for the road tyres and to wait for the final results. Awards awarded, we were making up the crowd, we set off to Newcastle airport Shell garage to top up the MX5 along with Andy Pullan and Abby Bradley who drove to a superb 5th place and 1st Historic in Paddy the Peugeot😊👍 

A great day in the forests enjoying some excellent tests which gave many a crew opportunity to explore the grip levels and identify any weak spots in their cars🥴 I spent a lot of the day waving at marshals which led to the odd mistake and a raised tone from the navigators side of the car, I think ‘for f**k sake’ was commented as I had to make a little shunt back to get the correct side of a cone after waving to Barry Lindsay🤣🤣

A great day in the sun with our friends playing rally drivers in a wondeful setting. Thank you to the Whickham team for a superb day and a cracking event. It must take hours just working out which tracks to use to make up 45 miles of tests. And the army of marshals that stood out in warm or Baltic conditions to record our achievements and make the event run. It was great to see you all and hopefully give you a wave 🤣🤣 👋 

As well as enjoying a superb event we also used today as a shakedown for the Berwick classic. After the first round, eBay was the next stop for the plucky MX5, now known as Kermit, but after the second run all was good and we’ll be heading north in a few weeks time to enjoy some topless fun in and around Berwick Upon Tweed.

And without the following people we wouldn’t have been able to enjoy a great day in the forests, Gaz Wriggo off of NORTH Yorkshire MX5'S who sold us the car and supplied some rally bling to get us fully rally spec🤣 Mark Halls for recommissioning the sleeping MX5 which has done a 300 mile round trip and an 89 mile event without a glitch, although it’s not as shiny now as he left it🥴🤣 And Carl Horner and team at Economy Spares & Tyres LTD for stretching some 100 year old gravel tyres over the old MX5 rims I had🤣 Thank you all for getting us out there and enjoying this great little car👍‘

Neil Raven