With the Dungarvan hillclimb in Southern Ireland being cancelled there was a late influx of entries. Amongst these was one for Simon McKinley in the ex-John Payne Lant. Also making his first appearance at a British Sprint Championship round for nearly 20 years was 1991 champion Jackie Harris. Harris was driving his latest acquisition a Peugeot Hot Rod! On the Sprint Championship front there were just 5 hardy souls who made the trip over the Irish Sea to Ulster, due in no small measure to the exorbitant cost of ferry crossings from Stranraer to Belfast or Larne. Saturday benefited from being a round of the Ulster championship but even so there were some notable absentees. Before even practice got underway there were two notable retirements. Robert & John Morgan had to withdraw when the usually reliable Pilbeam MP82 they share suffered from a jammed starter motor. No amount of towing round the paddock would free it so the car was loaded up and the pair headed home to Belfast. Everyone else survived the two practice runs and then the timed runs on the short ‘national’ circuit started.
Road Going saloons started the ball rolling and in the first class veteran Tom Lawther took the class win in his mighty Rover SD1 which lumbered through the twisty section in style. Second went to Paul ‘Sooty’ Soutar in his Toyota MR2 who just pipped Maurice Jellie in the BMW M3. Barry Griffin took a solo win in the next Road Going class with his Impreza and probably due to having no opposition he was slower than Tom Lawther. Next were the Road Going Kit Cars and the first one went to Larne’s Kevin Haveron who just kept ahead of the CVH powered Westfield of Neil Finlay. In the second kit car class Geoffrey Kidd took the class win in his rotating Tiger Cat whilst Derek Miller wasn’t that far behind in his RAM Cobra.
Mod Prods were next to the line and in the Up to 2 litre Saloon car class Nigel Kinnaird in the Fiesta just held off a spirited challenge from Dublin’s Noel Bryson in the indecently quick FIAT Uno. Mark Rutherford and Mal Haveron were some way back in third & fourth. Gardiner McIlwaine took a solo win in Class 7 before Andy and Steven Hawthorne dominated Class 7A in their shared Locost.
Class 8 for Sports Libres saw three Special Saloon Maguire cars in opposition. Ian Howard in the first of the Minis just kept ahead of Mark Steed in the Imp while Rudi Gage in the second Mini only managed one run before early retirement. The next Sports Libre class was dominated by Rory Stephens from County Wicklow in his Radical SR3. The engine is one of the turbocharged Holeshot Racing Hayabusas and propelled Rory no only to the class win but also to sixth fastest time overall. Second place went to youngster Mark Francis in a 2 litre turbocharged Escort whilst Neil Dugan in the Cosworth powered Peugeot 205 kept everyone entertained with his usual brand of sideways motoring whilst Jackie Harris took fourth as his Peugeot lacked the power having only an 8-valve engine.
Class 10, the first of the Rally Car classes, saw Robert Gage finish well clear of the Talbot Sunbeam of Norman Rutherford. Class 11 went to the sonorous Mazda RX8 of Alan Woods whilst Becky Cherry was understandably well down in the 205 GTi. The large capacity sports libres were next and Simon Bainbridge thundered round to a comfortable class win over the heavily modified Impreza of Neil Tohill.
In the first of the single seater classes Henry Campbell took a solo win with his FF1600 Reynard before the Up to 1400cc racing cars took to the track. Chris Houston in the ex-Tim Wilson OMS CF04 took the win from Dublin’s Joe Courtney in the ex-McBeath OMS Hornet. Robert McGimpsey was third in his RMG-Blackbird which utilises the front half of a 1985 Van Diemen Formula Ford. Deirdre Delaney was fourth in the FVJ whilst George Stevenson failed to rocket anywhere when his Jedi ground to a halt on his first timed run. The Over 1400 class was dominated by the two V8s. Nick Algar was in class record breaking form en route to the win whilst Stewart Robb Snr took second less than a second adrift. In third was Simon McKinley who managed to get the Lant into some precarious positions and still got it round indecently quickly. Simon drives the Lant just like he drives his Mk 2 Escort and is an absolute delight to watch. In fourth spot was Colin Birkbeck, on his first visit to Kirkistown; he finished some way off the two litre record as that was set by Robert Woodside Junior last year. Jonathan Toulmin was fifth whilst Graeme Thompson in the neat GTR was sixth.
The final class was for Historic cars and was an all Hillman affair which Avenger driver Harry Brown won finishing a couple of seconds clear of Ernest Stewart in the Hunter.
With just 5 Sprint Championship contenders available the organisers rounded this up to the full compliment of 12 with the ‘locals’. The none-championship runners went first however Rory Stephens was sidelined with an oil leak and Joe Courtney’s Hornet was over-heating so we were back to just 10. Andy Hawthorne in the shared FVL was unable to raise his game and failed to match his qualifying time as did co-driver David Hawthorne. Chris Houston took just one run as his OMS was also marginal on cooling and he too failed to match his qualifying time. Graeme Thompson put in two stunning runs in the GTR to record his best ever times. Final ‘local’ runner was Sideways McKinley and in the two run-off attempts he didn’t hold back. Initially he put in his first sub-90 second run which included the most extravagant drift out of the Cut-through before posting a 90.56 on his second attempt which featured what appeared to be a hand-brake turn!
It was then the turn of the Sprint Championship contenders. Simon Bainbridge took just the one run as he wished to make sure the Audi was available on Sunday. Despite this caution he still posted his best time of the day en-route to fifth place. Jonathan Toulmin’s first run in the Force set yet another 1600 Racing Car record however on his second run he managed to cover some 60 yards on the grass exiting The Chicane yet he was still inside the old record set last year. Colin Birkbeck’s first run was only marginally faster than in qualifying however his second saw him carve a further second off as he finished third. Stewart Robb Snr’s first run was his usual banker and then he was set for a challenge for Nick Algar. Off the line the Pilbeam was quickly into its stride and all was looking well until on the second lap he was clearly in trouble. Despite slowing on his second lap he was faster by just three tenths. On returning to the paddock Stewart discovered that the front left tyre had lost close to 60% of its pressure hence the slower than expected time. Nick Algar’s first run again reset the course record he had set earlier and despite having the run-off in the bag he set off to get inside the old record for his second extra point. All was well until the midpoint of the Cut-through when the back end broke away and the Gould slithered to a halt up against a tyre wall. Fortunately no damage was suffered to the Gould whilst Nick was somewhat annoyed with himself for pushing so hard.
SBD Motorsport MSA British Sprint Championship Rd 10
1 Nick Algar (3.5 Gould-NME GR55) 82.92secs; 2 Stewart Robb Snr (4.0 Pilbeam-Judd KV4 MP88) 84.79secs; 3 Colin Birkbeck (2.0 Dallara-Vauxhall F301) 91.73secs; 4 Jonathan Toulmin (1.5 Force-Suzuki PT) 94.60secs; 5 Simon Bainbridge (4.2T Audi TT Replica 4-W-D) 97.17secs; No other starters.
1 Simon McKinley (2.5 Lant-Warrior RT4) 89.94sedcs; 2 Graeme Thompson (1.3T GTR) 94.73secs; 3 Chris Houston (1.3 OMS CF04) 98.67secs; 4 David Hawthorne (2.0 FVL) 100.71secs; 5 Andy Hawthorne (2.0 FVL) 100.97secs; No other starters. BTD: Nick Algar 82.92secs
Class Winners:
Tom Lawther (3.5 Rover SD1) 118.35secs; Barry Griffin (2.0t Subaru Impreza (120.01secs; Kevin Haveron (2.0 Westfield SEi) 123.54secs; Geoffrey Kidd (2.0 Tiger Cat) 115.02secs; Nigel Kinnaird (1.6 Ford Fiesta) 122.60secs; Gardiner McIlwaine (2.0 Westfield SEi) 113.62secs; Andy Hawthorne (2.0 Locost) 109.95secs; Ian Howard (1.4 Maguire Mini) 109.97secs; Rory Stephens (1.3T Radical SR3) 96.63secs – Record; Robert Gage (1.6 Vauxhall Nova) 112.72secs; Alan Woods (2.0 Mazda RX8) 112.11secs; Simon Bainbridge (4.2T Audi TT Replica 4-w-d) 97.27secs – Record; Chris Houston (1.3 OMS CF04) 97.80secs; Nick Algar 84.00secs – Record; Harry Brown (1.6 Hillman Avenger) 126.51secs.