by Steve Wilkinson
Friday evening and with the wind blasting through the Paddock the championship contenders started to arrive at Scotland's premier circuit. You had to keep on the move to retain any warmth and with access to the track only available once the track day had finished there was little time for the first timers to get a view of the track. As the Paddock started to fill up on Saturday morning the temperature had risen nicely and better yet the wind was down to a slight breeze. Of the 22 original entries Mike Musson and Richard Williams hadn't made the trip North whilst after a brief practice appearance Roy Dawson retired the DJ Firehawk with a broken fuel pump.
First cars on track in both practice and the class runs were the championship contenders. Wigton Motor Club had, as usual, bracketed all the registered runners into one big class - the exceptions being Mark Smith, who was in with the Westfield Speed runners, and Garry Dickson, who was slotted into his usual Scottish Speed Championship Mod Prod class. Topping the times on each of the timed runs was Stewart Robb in the ex-Griffiths/Grace/Newton MP58. He was in superb form and was inline for the coveted Motorsport News Driver of the Day Award. However Tony Eyles, who was in second, was having problems with the engine management system on the Lola-Judd. It kept cutting out and sometimes it 'interrupted a single run on more than one occasion. With no lap top available to do any diagnosis and no other option open to him Tony was just battling on! Tony 'Wilt' Wiltshire, who was on his first trip to Knockhill, took a comfortable third in the Pug-Powered Ralt whilst Simon Ashby and Martin Dowling were not far behind. The Chichester Flyers, Terry Holmes and Graham Porrett, suffered clutch failure in the Reynard. This handicapped Graham so much that he failed to qualify whilst Terry was down in an unaccustomed sixth qualifying slot. Next up were a batch of Knockhill debutantes led by Stephen 'The Mole' Miles who had been practicing on his Playstation all week! Steve Broughton was struggling to learn the track not having had the luxury of a Sony-assist whilst John 'Fly Drive' Payne was glad to get the mighty Reynard round in one very large piece. John Sampson was having a ball thrashing the Quantum round the undulating track and felt the car was topping out over the finishing line. Final Qualifier from the Contenders class was Peter Howgate who once again out performed the other member of the Sheffield Mafia! Tracey Ashby had an off in practice which dented her confidence as well as causing a little damage to the Reynard. The accident was caused by a breakage in the rear suspension which was quickly rectified. Sue Griffiths had a personal target set of 120 seconds to beat on her first visit. Having set a 123 on her first timed run the Chevron driver braked just a tad too late for McIntyre's and slid off into the gravel. Kim Kingham was just over a second behind the Griffiths Chevron whilst final contender was Tony Ellis in the monocoque Megapin. After a 124 on his first run the car expired on the line to deny him a second effort. Running in the Scottish Mod Prod class Garry Dickson was making his British Sprint Championship debut however the Orkadian could only manage second in class and missed the cut for the run-off by a couple of seconds. In the Westfield Speed class Mark Smith was totally dominant taking the class by a comprehensive five seconds and assuring himself of a run-off place.After the somewhat eccentric BOC and Scottish Sprint classes the Top Twelve runners were assembled in the pit lane by Clerk of the Course Vernon Williamson ready for Round Three of the championship.
TOP TWELVE RUN-OFF
There was a major problem for the Top Twelve - there was no digital read-out visible in the Pit Lane, in fact there wasn't a read-out anywhere! With there being no commentary either the drivers were going to be in the dark as to their relative performances. Leading the run-off was John Payne, the Reynard-Judd being the only shared car. A conservative approach saw Payne put in a banker run slower than his Q-Time and guaranteed at least some points before 'having a go' on his second run. Pete Howgate was also slower than his Q-Time but only just. Third car in the run-off was the mighty Quantum Xtreme piloted by the larger than life John Sampson who was in determined mood. However it all went pear shaped when the genial Devonian hit the brakes for Taylors' Hairpin. The beastie locked up all four wheels and slithered along in a huge cloud of blue smoke which changed to a fetching brown hue as the car hit the gravel trap. After coming to rest against the Recticel the Quantum was extracted without having sustained any damage and John toured back to the Paddock to recycle some gravel. Back on the startline it was the second Mod Prod in the run-off - Mark Smith - who became the first driver to improve on his Q-Time with another totally committed charge. Steve Broughton finally got his head round the switchback track and his first effort carved over a second off his Q-Time taking the lead in the process. Stephen Miles was some way off his qualifying pace after a moment at Clark and slipped down the order. Team Tegra's huge effort to get the Reynard fettled saw Terry Holmes arrive late minus the sidepods. The Chichester Chippy was also minus an operating clutch and in the circumstances his time of 107.54 was excellent. Then the Judd engine barked into life again as Martin Dowling came to the line. Off down Duffus, through McIntyre's he squeezed through Glenvarigill only to fall off at Clark to the accompaniment of gravel peppering the undertray. Once again the rescue truck trundled round to pick up a stricken car meanwhile John Payne wandered back into the paddock to get ready to clean up the Reynard. Once the track was clear it was Simon Ashby who was launching the Reynard into the blue as he attacked Duffus Dip. He too missed out on beating his Q-Time as a slight error slowed the Hereford blacksmith. So with just three cars left to run Steve Broughton led from Simon Ashby and Terry Holmes. Could Tony Wiltshire do anything about this? Of course he could! The Newton Abbott driver duly set a PB and shot straight into the lead - surely it couldn't last? As Tony Eyles plummeted down Duffus on his first run he was praying there wouldn't be a repeat of the engine management glitch. His luck was out though as there was a slight hesitation exiting Glenvarigill but then it chimed in and never missed a beat. Out of Taylor's the Lola slewed in a typical Tony Eyles charge and then blasted up Stewart Straight to commence the second lap. No further problems this time round and an equally committed lap stopped the clocks in a new course record time. Now the ball was back in Stewart Robb's court! The Pilbeam was lightning quick off the line, shooting down Duffus and off round the back of the track. However despite looking very rapid the clocks told a different story as he only shaved half a second off his Q-Time to slip into second.
John Payne was still in the Paddock so had to miss his turn as the Reynard wasn't ready in time after Martin's off. Thus first car in the second runs was Pete Howgate - smoothness personified he shaved off just over a second to record a PB and grab some much needed points. John Sampson was aware he had to record a time to get any points and erred on the conservative side and moved into 11th. Mark Smith then shaved over half a second off to improve his PB and move up the leader board. Then the boss of SBD came to the line! Steve Broughton was superb and with the little OMS howling he was on roll. The autochange system was working well especially on the run up from the hairpin and the time saved meant he recorded a new PB and was over a second quicker than earlier. Steve Miles was determined to put into practice the advice he had received and after the disappointment of his first run everything came together as he sliced nearly four seconds off his first run time! Team Tegra had been working on the Reynard after the first run and Terry Holmes now benefited from Graham Porrett's efforts. The Chichester Chippy set a 104.69 and took a giant stride up the leader board. Out of the Paddock came the dust covered Reynard-Judd of Martin Dowling. The tyres were a fetching shade of brown but a quick couple of spins brought the surfaces at any rate back to the standard black. Caught between a rock and a hard place Martin had to go quickly but not overdo things and spin again. His time of 106.61 although slower than his Q-Time meant he moved into eighth and recovered 5 points. Tracey Ashby had given hubbie Simon a stern lecture which got Simon into the right frame of mind for his usual last run charge. The run was total commitment and his fastest ever round Knockhill earning him fourth spot on the leader board. Tony Wiltshire had third place in the bag and realistically shouldn't have been able to challenge for second but 'Wilt' doesn't know the meaning of the word retreat - I put it down to the Devonian education system! He was in fine form looking unflurried and very quick. Then it all went wrong at Taylor's as he spun out on exiting the hairpin. A failed run was recorded and third place gratefully accepted! As Tony Eyles sat in the pit lane waiting to be called to the line for his second run his time was relayed to him plus the lead he had over Robb. Tony new another quick time would guarantee top spot so it was head down and go for it. The Lola flew off the line, down Duffus and out onto the back of the track. As he appeared under braking for Taylor's he looked quick. Slewing out of the Hairpin he put the hammer down and rocketed over the crest of Stewart Straight. Lap two and it was all coming together plus no cutting out! Down Duffus in the twinkling of an eye, he was off into the back section with the Judd engine bellowing away behind him. Again at Taylors there was a touch of tail-out motoring but the big car was soon into its stride up Stewart Straight and over the line setting yet another New Course Record! With Stewart Robb on the line and knowing he had to pull out all the stops to beat Tony it would be a do or die run. As the MP58 fired off the line the chase was on. The car was stable and Robb was not letting the beast get away. His car control was super but there was just a lack of top speed and after two gritty laps he had set a new PB but had to be content with second place.
As the competitors started to pack up the full list of times were published and there were a few raised eyebrows at Tony Eyles new record. Steve Miles said he wished that Knockhill was as close to home as Curborough was! Don't we all! Then as the winding down process continued talk turned to the next round at the Angelsey Racing Circuit or as we know it Ty Croes. It looks like another full entry with more drivers taking their first trip to Angelsey - lets hope Mike Musson and Richard Williams make it there!
Results:
FTD: Tony Eyles (3.5 Lola-Judd CV T90/50) 93.91s - New Course Record Rd 3 British Sprint Championship: 1 Tony Eyles 93.61s; 2 Stewart Robb (3.5 Pilbeam-Cosworth
DFR MP58) 97.03s; 3 Tony Wiltshire (2.0 Ralt-Peugeot RT34) 103.34s; 4 Simon Ashby (2.0 Reynard-
Millington 883) 104.15s; 5 Steve Broughton (1.3 OMS-Suzuki 2000M) 104.61s; 6 Terry Holmes (2.0
Reynard-Ford SF84) 104.69s; 7 Stephen Miles (2.0 Van Diemen-Ford RF96) 105.33s; 8 Martin Dowling
(3.5 Reynard-Judd CV 88D) 106.61s; 9 Mark Smith (2.0 Westfield-Vauxhall SEiW) 108.46s; 10 Peter
Howgate (1.8 Ralt-Rover RT30) 111.13s; 11 John Payne (3.5 Reynard-Judd CV 88D) 112.12; 12 John
Sampson (5.0 Quantum-Rover Xtreme) 112.94s.
KNOCKHILL Knatterings
John Payne and his son followed in the illustrious footsteps of Championship Co-ordinator Paul
Parker when they did a Fly Drive to Edinburgh airport for their visit to Knockhill.
Stephen 'The Mole' Miles thinks he may have stumbled upon a slight technical hitch that has
been slowing him up. Apparently he has had his contact lenses in the wrong eyes! They do say
Moles are short-sighted but that is ridiculous!
First time visitors to Knockhill included Steve Broughton, Tony Wiltshire, Stephen Miles,
John Sampson, John Payne and Sue Griffiths. All of the first timers were full of praise for the
venue and hope to be back next year. With 22 contenders entered, of which 20 turned up, this was
the best field so far this year.