Monday dawned bright but windy after a night of torrential rain. The course was nearly dry by the time practice started. It was in practice that we 'lost' the SBD OMS when it popped a rod through the side. Kim Kingham sat out the rest of the day whilst Steve Broughton took up Nick Algar's offer of a shared drive. Meanwhile most of the bike engined single seaters were very busy changing to higher ratios!
The timed runs started at the Mod Prods and after Andrew Till blew yet another Imp engine in the Clan it was Mark Chater in the Davrian who took a comfortable win in the 1400 division. It was only after Chater's class victory was secure did his engine decide during the first class runs that he should make it interesting for his competition when he liberally coated Turn 8 with oil when a sump plug blew out! In the 1800 division Mark Roberts in the very yellow CRX fought back from second after the first runs to take the win from Robert May (Corolla) and co-driver Jonathan Milne. In the 2600 division, one of the South West's oddball classes, it was Paul Perkin who took the win in class record breaking time despite only having four gears! Ken Dollen in the 240Z was second some 4 seconds off the pace. The first two Kit Car Mod Prod classes were amalgamated and Lee Joint in the Westfield was a comfortable winner. In the next class Dick Hulbert and Carole Torkington were giving the newest SBD Westfield its competition debut; in fact it had barely turned a wheel before the convoy runs. In the timed runs Mike Rudge took the class from Dick Hulbert with Graham Rudge third and Carole, recovering from a first run spin, fourth. There were just two classes of Sports Libres and in the amalgamated Up to 1800 class Ian Cameron in the Radical held off the challenge of co-driver Richard Wilyman whilst Steve Wilkinson trailed in third. In the Over 1800 class Martin Baker in the wonderful Morris Minor set the pace finishing ahead of a brace of Davrians driven by Colin Early and Phil Gale. The drop-dead-gorgeous Osella Abarth of Peter Rigby was fourth whilst John Reed's (3 litre Capri engined) RS105E Anglia was fifth.
Into the racing car class and at last we had a 600 division! Hamish Lindsay proved the class act setting the pace on his first run whilst Tim and Peter Tudor closed him down on the second runs. In the very healthy 1100 division Tom Potter set a new class record en route to victory despite some aggressive driving. Dave Cutcliffe was second in the Trevor Hartland OMS whilst Dan Pickett took third. It was noticed that young Piglet was making some extra pocket-money through his loo-hire business D.A.N. Toilet Hire whose motto is "Where there's muck there's brass!" Into the 1600 division where Eynon Price hurled the OMS round in true rally style to take the class win. Despite switching cars Steve Broughton was just a few tenths back in second. Scott Pillinger had to fight back from a cone bashing first run to just edge father Dave out of third place. As there was just one over two litre car entered the organisers made up one Over 1600 class and it was the Flying Scotsman Roy Dawson who rocketed his way to the class win going sub 64 seconds and setting a new class record. Kevin Lealan used his local knowledge to take a well deserved second with Terry Holmes smokin' his way to third. Roy Sims beat son David for once as the Sims finished fourth and fifth just ahead of Steve Miles whose Van Diemen was again leaking oil despite having a 'nappy' fitted!
The Road Modified classes were next and in the 1400 class Barrie Dare once again took the win in his Suzuki Swift. In the 1800 class Graham Wild didn't live up to his name and calmly took the class in the Elise. In the 2600 class Toby Harris in the smart Puma was the class act and won convincingly, whilst in the Over 2600 class Barry Squibb frightened the life out of the cones en route to a victory over son Jamie in their shared Evo 6 RS. Into the Kit Car classes and in the amalgamated B1 and B2 class it was Neal Coles in the Striker who proved the quickest. In B3 David Rae in the Robin Hood won despite a massive second run spin. Peter Kukanis took second just 0.23 shy of the winning time.
TOP TWELVE RUN OFF
First to the line for the run-off was Nick Algar who was indeed twelfth fastest. Despite clipping more time off in both runs he would remain twelfth in the order. David Sims was next and far from happy that Roy had out-qualified him. His first run was an improvement but saw him still behind Roy! His second was over seven tenths fastest and saw him just slip through to beat his dad and take seventh. Steve Miles was still concerned over the oil leak and chose to take just one run. This did disadvantage him and meant he finished where he qualified in eleventh. Dan Pickett was next and he clipped over a second off his Q-time but it still left him down the order. A superb second run saw him close down on Broughton and Potter and finish sixth. Roy Sims initially found well over a second improvement over his Q-time but was unable to match this on his second run and despite an improvement he dropped back to eighth. Dave Cutcliffe's first run was just over a second quicker than in qualification however his second run was typical Cutcliffe. His pace through turns 4 and 8 were astonishing as he reset the Championship Record for 1100s and shot up to second place. Steve Broughton had been able to give Nick the benefit of a second driver's view in setting up the Firehawk. The improvements meant he continued to cut big chunks off his Q-time in his first run. However on his second he arrived at the notorious Turn 7 chicane a bit too quickly and as he slithered through on the grass he hit the straw bale on the inside. All this added up to a lot slower time and he had to settle for fifth place. Unfortunately the marshals at Turn 7 were still clearing up when the next car was sent out so re-runs became the order of the day! Terry Holmes had been happy with his first run improvement but was far from happy when he arrived at Turn 7 to find straw all over the road and marshals scurrying for cover! On his re-run he clipped a further four tenths off his time despite being somewhat irate but in the end he was happy with third overall. Eynon Price had been near to the limit in the class runs and could find very little improvement on his first run. After being flagged on his second the re-run was slower so he fell down the order to ninth place. Kevin Lealan was the first drive in the run-off who failed to improve on his first run! Then when he spun on his second run the third fastest qualifier dropped down to a lowly tenth. Tom Potter meanwhile was smoothing out his approach and learning fast however he like Lealan was slower on his first run than in qualifying. This put him on the back foot however a super-human effort saw the youngster recover from tenth to finish a deserved fourth. This just left Roy Dawson and on his first run he was mighty as he blasted the Gould to a new outright record as he became the first driver to go below 63 seconds. When it came round to his second run I for one was surprised that he actually came to the line however he was in no mood to hold back. Off the line the car was awesome, it flew down to Turn 1 sparking on the bumps, exiting Turn 2 onto the main straight he gunned the NME engine and the orange projectile roared over the crest. Down through Turns 5 and 6 he held the line perfectly and the 'wiggle-woggle' of Turn 7 was negotiated without incident then it was the buttock-clenching Turn 8. Round the corner disregarding the remnants of the oil slick he blasted over the finishing line to stop the clocks at 61.92 seconds! Another Outright Course Record and New Championship Record for the Colerne course, he was one very happy Scot!
Results:
1 Roy Dawson (3.5 Gould-NME GR55) 61.92s; 2 Dave Cutcliffe (1.1 OMS-Suzuki 2000M) 67.69s; 3 Terry Holmes (2.0 Reynard-Ford/Tegra SF84) 68.26s; 4 Tom Potter (1.0 Jedi-Suzuki Mk 4) 68.78s; 5 Steve Broughton (1.3 DJ Firehawk-Suzuki) 68.79s; 6 Dan Pickett (1.0 Jedi-Yamaha Mk 4) 68.82s; 7 David Sims (2.0 Ralt-Duratec/SRD RT33/34) 69.00s; 8 Roy Sims (2.0 Ralt-Duratec/SRD RT33/34) 69.06s; 9 Eynon Price (1.3 OMS-Honda 2000M) 69.08s; 10 Kevin Lealan (2.0 Formula Vauxhall Lotus) 69.39s; 11 Steve Miles (2.0 Van Diemen-Ford RF96) 70.19s; 12 Nick Algar (1.3 DJ Firehawk-Suzuki) 70.46s.
FTD: Roy Dawson 61.92s - New Outright Course Record
Class Winners: Barrie Dare (1.4 Suzuki Swift) 90.44s; Graham Wild (1.8 Lotus Elise 111S) 87.52s; Toby Harris (1.6t Ford Puma) 82.62s; Barry Squibb (2.0t Mitsubishi EVO 6RS) 77.90s; Neal Coles (1.0 Sylva Striker) 81.00s; David Rae (2.0 Robin Hood 2B) 82.20s; Mark Chater (1.0 Davrian-Imp Mk 7A) 88.82s; Mark Roberts (1.6 Honda CRX) 85.06s; Paul Perkin (1.9 Peugeot 205) 78.99s - Record; Lee Joint (1.8 Westfield SEiW) 78.48s; Mike Rudge (2.0 Westfield SEi) 73.98s; Ian Cameron (1.1 Radical-Kawasaki Clubsport 0001) 75.17s; Martin Baker (2.0s Morris Minor) 78.44s; Hamish Lindsay (0.6 Jedi-Krauser Mk2/92) 75.14s; Tom Potter 68.76s - Record; Eynon Price 69.81s; Roy Dawson 63.88s - Record.