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The final round of the Championship proved to be one of the most exciting of the year. With overall first and second in the championship decided before the round the title race was over but it was all to play for in the rest of the field.
After an extremely foggy start there were fears that the weather would be poor for qualifying. These fears were to be proved wrong when the cars left the assembly area with the sun shining. A clean qualifying session saw many quick laps and there was much speculation over the grid order before results were published. Graham Heard claimed pole position after an excellent drive, with Norman Finn completing the first row. Invited guest driver Bob Searles clinched a respectable 9th place on the grid.
The race was to be just as exciting as qualifying. The cars got away cleanly and were tightly grouped around to the final corner of the lap with Norman Finn tucking in just behind Graham Heard for the first corner. Norman, after a valiant race later retired with a mechanical problem at russell corner. Russell corner witnessed many other incidents, Paul Pattison, who now drives 2006 champion Gary Duckman’s car lost his front bumper after contact with another car, which caused no major problems to the rest of the field.
A fantastic fight for first position ensued between Martin Todd and Graham Heard, with Martin Todd taking the lead several times But Graham Heard prevailed to win the race and the Barn Ruche Trophy that traditionally is won at Snetterton. There were fantastic battles further down the grid. Jonathon Ramsay and Richard Mowbray battled for third with Richard finishing on top. But the largest battle was fought in the midfield where Cieran Brewer, Andy Whalley, Matt Davis, Paul Pattison, Steve King, Bob Searles and Alec Frasier switching positions almost every lap, proving to be the main battle of the race. Martin Hall suffered from a lack of power and was deprived of any real action but put on a spectacular display on the final corner of the race, made him appear to be practicing for the drifting championships. Newcomer Steven Brown put on a sterling performance, losing third gear he managed to keep a respectable thirteenth position followed by Pete Staplin.
Report by James Hall
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