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Arriving Friday evening after a 7 hr drive up from the deep South we were welcomed by the site of car no 8 (Paul Finn) on it's trailer after an altercation with a wall during testing. No racing for him unless he could come up with a full body shell, an unbent chassis and full body armour before race day. Not usually carried as spares. Everyone who tested, except Steve King, had technical glitches in one form or another. Our car 13 failed to make it to the race due to a bad habit of blowing it's head gasket (more than once) after a full engine rebuild. Back to the drawing board. We came to lend an extra pair of oily hands (Pete's not mine, I don't do oily) and tea and sympathy from me. After a very cold night everyone was up bright and early preparing for qualifying. Lots of last minute tweaking (and cursing from a few). We should have been called at 10.25 but when the tannoy burst in to life calling us at 9.30 it caught us all on the hop. Lots of rapid changing of clothes only for the cancellation call to come with one leg in their race suits. Qualifying itself was fairly uneventful, at least from my side of the pit wall, with no retirements or major dinks. The grid ended up with Will Penrose on pole in time of 1.13.47 closely followed by Graham Heard in car 99 chasing for the fastest time. Paul 'no spot' Pattison achieved his highest ever grid position of third. The rest of the grid lined up behind with a difference of 20 seconds between pole and last car across the line.
Chatting to the drivers after qualifying and before race 1 showed that business was pretty much as usual in the paddock with Richard Mowbray (car 10) worrying he wasn't going to finish because of problems with his big end! Probably just nerves.
John Broadley, car 31, was still up on jacks 1 hour before the race and looked slightly, actually more than slightly, bothered that he may not make the start.
Race 1
The race itself started 15 minutes earlier than the advertised time but this time we were almost all ready. Car 15, Peter Trunwill didn't make it on to the grid as his car just couldn't be fixed in time.
No 19, Paul 'no spot' Pattison came off the grid in the lead closely followed by Jonathon Ramsay and Will Penrose but as Will came into the pit lane straight his car appeared to be smoking a little at the rear. He had said that he might have problems with his track rod ends before the race. Didn't seem to be slowing him down any though.
Coming in to lap 2 the positions changed and Will overtook Jonathon to take 2nd. Graham Heard was in 4th at this point followed by Richard Mowbray in car 10. The racing was very close. The positions changed a little over the next three laps as Graham Heard worked his forward to the front overtaking a car on each lap. The battle at the front hotted up. Lap 8 saw Will Penrose limping in to the pits with a very smoky car after a spin at Fosters. Fosters also claimed car 69 after hitting the barrier and by lap 10 the rear marker 31 was being lapped by the front runners. The field was stretching out. Lap 11 saw Alistair trying out a new air cooling system. His front valance was lifting away from the car and he finally lost it all together a couple of laps further on. He was later seen trudging disconsolately to the other side of the track to collect it. By lap 12 the three leaders Graham Heard, Paul Pattison and Jonathan were widening the gap from the rest of the field but there were still battles going on further down the field.
The end of the race had Graham Heard 1st, Paul Pattison 2nd,Jonathon Ramsay 3rd, Steve Cheetham 4th, Matt Davies 5th, Alistair Kirkham 6th, Steve King 7th, Richard Mowbray 8th, Bob Searles 9th, Alec Fraser 10th Car 66 11th Steven Brown 12th and John Broadley 13th. Will Penrose, Carlo Bonetti, Gareth Broadbent and Peter Trunwill never made it across the line.
A quote from Richard Mowbray 'The calliper seized on to the discs, couldn't do corners, couldn't slow down but otherwise good'. Ever the optimist our Red Baron.
Race 2 was equally eventful.
Car 11, Gareth Broadbent was still working on his car right up to the last minute and car 60 never made to the start. Graham Heard was the 1st off the line this time, followed by Steve Cheetham in 43, Jonathan Ramsey in 3 with Alistair Kirkham and Richard Mowbray breathing down their necks. Lap 2 and 3 seemed uneventful by the time the cars came in to the pit straight the lead had changed and few dents could be seen. Obviously a bit of a dink somewhere I couldn't see. Car 99 (Graham) was now leading followed by Paul Pattison, and Will Penrose. By lap 5 it was all change again as after a controversial incident between the leaders Steve Cheetham had to retire in car 43 after losing his front wheel at Fosters.
By lap 8 the back markers were being lapped and the positions stayed much the same for the rest of the race. The final lap had Graham Heard winning, Paul Pattison taking a very well earned second, Will Penrose 3rd, Jonathan Ramsay 4th, Alistair Kirkham 5th, Matt Davies 6th, Richard Mowbray 7th, Bob Searles 8th, Alec Fraser 9, John Broadley 10th, Steven Brown 11th.
Paul Pattison took the lap record for our series on the new Toyo tyres.
For more detailed lap timings and breakdowns please take a look at the BRSCC website where all the statistics for all the racing at the weekend are.
Well done lads.
By G Staplin |
