by Steve Wilkinson
As the competitors gathered at Pembrey on Friday evening we were in for the most critical 48 hours of the British Sprint Championship season. Could Tony Eyles take the two wins necessary to promote him to the top spot or could Tony Wiltshire withstand the pressure and complete the championship victory he so desired?
As practice got underway little did we know how devastating this would be for Team Tegra. The car was suddenly being pushed back to the paddock and after some rapid spanner work by Graham and Terry the worst news possible emerged. The engine bolts had somehow worked loose and the engine had a big groove in the block. It was game over for the Chichester Flyers. However sprinting is a family sport and before you could say Ralt-Alfa Romeo Terry Holmes was in Phil's car and taking to the track. In the class runs it was the Mod Prods that led off. It was a Rover clean sweep in the 1400 class as Malcolm Allen took the win over Peter Hills, Peter Evans and David Moss. Paul Perkin annexed the 2000 class on his first run which was a good job as second time round he ran wide at Debeni and went grass tracking! Jonathan Milne steered the CRX through the clouds of dust into second whilst circuit instructor Nigel Hughes brought the Pembrey Pace car home third. Steve Heath's purple and white TVR wedge took the over 2000 class before the Modified Kit Cars came out to play. In the 1800 split it was Garry Dickson who prevailed over the local specialists Dorian Tyrrell and Brian Jones. In the over 1800 class John Sampson is near enough unbeatable now he has Avon rubber under him. The Quantum rumbled round and look far less of a handful than earlier when on Hoosiers. Mark Smith was back after his holidays and a couple of Westfield Speed events kept him away from the Sprint series. In the Racing Car classes West Countryman Henryk Kozlowski just shaded out Ross Browne for top slot. The Jedi driver is planning the installation of a Yamaha R1 unit and is contemplating a season in the Sprint Championship. Keith Sollis had to work hard to keep his Van Diemen ahead of Iain Houston in the Laser which he did by 0.24 of a second. In the 1600 Racing Car class it was a question of Hayabusas ahoy as Roy Dawson brought the still standard engined Firehawk home in front of Steve Broughton in the OMS. Jonathan Varley was a fine third in the ex-Alan Newton March and joined the long list of potential Championship contenders for 2005. In the 2000 class it was 'Lofty' Cutcliffe who again was the man to beat. However after his first run annexed top spot the engine went off song whilst being warmed up and Cutcliffe feared the worst for his glued and riveted block! Tony Wiltshire cruised into second whilst Mole Racing's Number One driver Steve Miles took a fine third. Terry Holmes came home in fourth in the Lynch Ralt whilst the car's owner was back in ninth. Adrian Desoutter and Richard Crisp were out again in the ex-Moon Racing Reynard and finished sixth and tenth respectively. In the over 2000 class Tony Eyles was clear of the Dowling Payne battle which went to Martin. However the Reynard sprung a fuel leak and Martin only took the one run.In the Road Modified classes David West registered yet another win in his Mini whilst Gareth Griffiths took the ex-Bobby Fryers Clio to a class win. Jeff Stokes was also a clear-cut winner whilst the disappointing Kit Car classes saw wins for Alan Wood and Gordon Hick.
Top Twelve Run-off
First to the stripe was John Payne who should be giving master classes in starting. The Reynard catapulted off the line as he carved over eight tenths off his Q-time. Second time round though and the start was the same but as John slotted through the box for second there was a graunching noise and the car coasted to a halt with a stripped second gear. Sixth place for Payne was probably an injustice on balance but that's sprinting. Phil Lynch was next and the Midlander kept chipping away at his times moving his Ralt through to eight by the finish. Mike Musson was off the pace and fell away in a lacklustre performance to end up tenth. Kevin Lealan was away from Colerne his home circuit and having got the underpowered Formula Vauxhall Lotus into the run-off he held onto ninth spot throughout. Simon Ashby was a disappointingly lowly qualifier and his luck just got worse! As the Tramway Forge Reynard headed towards Hatchets Hairpin there was a rattle from the transmission. Simon slowed and pottered round to the finish. His time was irrelevant but it did put him in eleventh. Terry Holmes should have been next but he stood down as with dropped scores it was nigh on impossible for the Fastest Chippy in Britain to add to his score. So next to te stripe was Steve Miles. The Van Diemen shuddered off the line and first time round was just about on his previous pace, however when it came to his second run the difference was clear cut. Through Spitfires and into Debeni the Dunnell engine was screaming and when the clocks stopped Steve had chopped nearly two seconds off his first run time. Martin Dowling was next and his cool and unruffled approach paid off when he dropped into the 49s first time round. Unfortunately there would be no second run due to that stripped second gear however fourth place kept his score ticking over nicely. Steve Broughton was suffering from terrible handling problems with the OMS picking up rear wheels and spinning the unloaded wheel through the Esses and Brooklands. His first run dropped him behind Martin Dowling however even though he improved second time around he dropped to fourth. Roy Dawson was going from strength to strength despite the set-backs with the 'new' engine blowing up on the dyno and setting fire to the building he was in an uncompromising mood. 49.27 first time round was great; 48.89 on his second run was awesome. The Scot was firing the narrow Firehawk through the sweeping Pembrey corners like an archer aiming at the gold. He won the 1600 battle with Steve Broughton and oh so nearly beat the best of the two-litres. Tony Wiltshire meanwhile had set a cracking pace on his first run and would lead at the half way point. On the second run a too aggressive approach to Hatchets and the time slipped away. Wilt was slower and the door was open for Tony Eyles to slip through into the lead. Eyles' first run had been his slowest of the day so he had to raise his game. His second was his fastest at 47.21 and saw a big grin return to the 2001 Champions face. Could he repeat the result tomorrow? With rain forecast it was anyone's guess!
RESULTS:
1 Tony Eyles (3.5 Lola-Judd/Connaught T90/50) 47.21sec; 2 Tony Wiltshire (2.0 Ralt- Peugeot/Longman RT34) 47.61sec; 3 Roy Dawson (1.3 DJ Firehawk/Suzuki) 48.89sec; 4 Martin Dowling (3.5 Reynard-Judd 88D) 49.42sec; 5 Steve Broughton (1.3 OMS-Suzuki 2000M) 49.87sec; 6 John Payne (3.5 Reynard-Judd 88D) 50.11sec; 7 Stephen Miles (2.0 Van Diemen-Ford/Dunnell RF96M) 50.74sec; 8 Phil Lynch (2.0 Ralt-Alfa Romeo/Connaught RT30) 51.58sec; 9 Kevin Lealan (2.0 Formula Vauxhall Lotus) 51.80sec; 10 Mike Musson (2.0 Duel-Force-Suzuki PT8) 53.58sec; 11 Simon Ashby (2.0 Reynard-Millington 883) 114.72sec; Terry Holmes (2.0 Ralt-Alfa Romeo/Connaught RT30) DNS
Class Winners: David West (1.4 Austin Cooper S) 65.06sec; Gareth Griffiths (2.0 Renault Clio Williams) 64.04sec; Jeff Stokes (2.0t Mitsubishi EVO 5RS) 59.95sec; Alan Wood (1.7 Westfield SEi) 61.06sec; Gordon Hick (2.0 Procomp LA Gold) 65.16sec; Alex Mitchell (1.0 Caterham 7) 67.03sec; Malcolm Allen (1.4 Rover 114GTi) 60.26sec; Paul Perkin (1.9 Peugeot 205GTi) 60.64sec; Steve Heath (3.9 TVR 390Se) 59.83sec; Garry Dickson (1.6 Westfield/Vauxhall/SBD SEi) 56.22sec; John Sampson (5.0 Quantum Xtreme) 53.18sec; Matthew Powell (1.3 Cox GTM) 67.32sec; Henryk Kozlowski (1.1 Jedi Mk1/6) 54.26sec; Keith Sollis (1.6 Van Diemen RF86) 58.23sec; Dawson 50.34sec; Dave Cutcliffe (2.0 Van Diemen-Ford DC93M) 48.79sec; Eyles 47.57sec; Mike Griffiths (2.0 Ford Escort Mk1) 62.04sec.