The day dawned bright & sunny again but unlike Combe the weather was kind if a little on the chilly side. There were late withdrawals for the Sims clan when the starter motor failed and they are faced with an extensive replacement regime. Practice went well with the first session picking up pace whilst the second was rattled off in double quick time. In between the two practice sessions and before the first timed run there were the Super Karts. To say these miniscule devices were impressive would be an understatement – they were brilliant!
The first of the Qualifying runs saw Matt Oliver on his return to the championship take charge. All those laps karting paid dividends as the reigning champion held a slender lead from Stewart Robb Snr & Roy Dawson. Top two litre was Mark Smith with Kermit whilst in the 1600s it was a Pillinger 1-2 with Scott just in the lead. The 1100 class saw Dan Pickett, who was sharing with Matt Withers, take the lead. The Formula Ford battle was initially led by Keith Sollis from Andrew Henson whilst in Sports Libre Simon Bainbridge held a narrow lead.
After a further Super Kart race the second of the Qualifying runs saw a couple of changes & a major incident. Up front Stewart Robb Jnr slipped through from fourth place to take the Top Qualifier spot. Matt Oliver failed to improve and dropped to second whilst Robb Snr & Dawson were close behind. Mark Smith was still the top two litre back in seventh whilst 17 year old Heather Calder qualified for the run-off in tenth place and became the youngest person to qualify for a British Championship Top 12 run-off. The final qualifier was Dan Pickett in the 1100 Jedi beating five two litres and both of the 1600s. In the 1600 category Dave Pillinger fought back to outgun Scott whilst in the Formula Fords Keith Sollis eased into the lead from Martin Pickles & Andrew Henson. Simon Bainbridge was the top Sports Libre but he was in big trouble. Half way round his first lap the rear of the car became engulfed in acrid oil smoke, but with no rearward vision the North East farmer carried on. A Half spin at Shaw’s Hairpin did not deter him and with the smoke getting worse he approached Gerard’s. As he downshifted the rear of the car burst into flames and he finally coasted to a halt on the grass by the marshal’s post at Gerard’s out. The ever efficient marshals put out the flames and the car was towed in rather worse for wear. Meanwhile the course was being treated with cement dust to dress the oil spillage. Few cars in the qualifying that ran after this incident made an improvement on their previous time. Derek Hodder being the worst affected as he was sat on the line waiting for the green light when the Audi passed & burst into flames!
TOP TWELVE Run-Off
With the final Super Kart race completed the Top 12 competitor’s gathered in the Pit Lane. First to the line was Dan Pickett and with nearly two seconds deficit to the next competitor he just gave it his best shot. However the psychological block of still having the cement dust trail on the track saw him a second & a half slower than in his best qualifying run. Heather Calder on the other hand clipped nearly three seconds off her best time as she once again showed a surprising maturity for a 17 year old. Phil Lynch who had trailed Heather by three hundredths in qualifying did the same on the first run and slotted into second behind the young Scot. Graham Porrett, who seems to be growing in confidence with each run in the Lola then clipped 4 tenths off his Q-time to move into the lead. Bill Oliver, who was still walking with the aid of crutches after breaking his leg over the winter break, made a significant improvement but failed to overhaul Porrett. Mark Smith clipped a further 3 tenths off his Q-time and there looked like there was more to come as the Welshman put in a banker. Next it was Colin Calder, another Run-off debutante, and despite the times that had been posted he was over two seconds off his Q-time. Suddenly there was the bark of the KV4 Judd as Stewart Robb Snr came to the line. The Scot was in determined mood and duly recorded the first sub-60 time in the run-off to take the lead. Terry Holmes couldn’t match that time but slotted into second. Roy Dawson then slipped ahead of the Chichester Chippy for second place which just left the two young chargers. Matt Oliver rocketed off the line and nailed not only the Esses but also Devil’s Elbow as he cruised effortlessly into the lead with a 1.7 second advantage. Stewart Robb Jnr looked to be capable of matching this time when he suddenly slowed with an ailing battery. He took the short-cut into the Pit Lane and retirement from his first run.
The second runs started again with Dan Pickett who clipped over 2 seconds off his previous effort and also beat his Q-time; however it wasn’t enough and he remained anchored in twelfth. Despite a rather fraught late-braking manoeuvre at Shaw’s Heather Calder managed to take six tenths of her previous best – would it be enough? Phil Lynch then put in his best performance of the day to slip past Heather by just 4 tenths. Graham Porrett found over a second as he slipped ahead of Mark Smith. Bill Oliver was another to improve his time but he didn’t improve his final ranking. Meanwhile Mark Smith had been struggling to get the Vauxhall engine to fire-up. Eventually he had to call it a day and settle for his first run banker. Colin Calder then went slower than on his first run after what appeared to be a solid performance. Stewart Robb Snr was unable to take his run as they were still struggling to change the battery so would have to rely on his 59.25 first run. Terry Holmes found a meagre improvement – three hundredths before the orange GR 55 of Roy Dawson returned to the startline. The Scot was quickly into his stride but on the exit of Devil’s Elbow was well clear of the rumple strip. Despite this he still improved by over a second & a half to slip into second. With Bill Oliver’s condition slowing the change over next to the line was not Matt Oliver but Stewart robb Jnr. The youngster was immediately on the pace and flew through the Esses. His line through Devil’s elbow was near perfect and when he finally stopped the clocks he had not only passed Roy Dawson’s mark but was ahead of Matt Oliver. As Matt came to the line as the final runner he was aware that he was back in second place. Off the line the Gould lurched to the right before picking up the pace through Gerard’s. Through the Esses he too was going well. His line round Shaw’s was immaculate and through Devil’s Elbow he used every millimetre of track just kissing the rumple strip. The final sweep round Gerard’s and the run to the line saw the crowd holding their breath – 56.08 not only took the win, not only was the fastest time of the day but his ‘flying lap’ was unofficially only 2/10ths outside the outright course record!But a 38.5 second flying lap is some performance and the whole run saw an everage over 125mph!
There are still some cars in need of repair prior to the double header week-end at East Fortune on the 3rd & 4th May. If you can be there it looks liable to be another un-missable encounter. Will Roy Dawson fight back, will Matt Oliver continue his winning way, will Stewart Robb Jnr take victory on home tarmac, or will experience take the win in the more than capable hands of Stewart Robb Snr?
Results
1 Matt Oliver (4.0 Gould-Judd/Connaught GR37) 56.08secs; 2 Stewart Robb Junior (4.0 Pilbeam-Judd KV4 MP88) 57.14secs; 3 Roy Dawson (3.5 Gould-NME GR55) 58.35secs; 4 Stewart Robb Senior (4.0 Pilbeam-Judd KV4 MP88) 59.25secs; 5 Terry Holmes (3.5 Lola-Judd/Connaught ERH) 60.56secs; 6 Graham Porrett (3.5 Lola-Judd/Connaught ERH) 61.70secs; 7 Mark Smith (2.0 Reynard-Vauxhall/SBD 903) 62.55secs; 8 Bill Oliver (4.0 Gould-Judd/Connaught GR37) 63.20secs; 9 Colin Calder (3.5 Gould-Judd GR37) 64.58secs; 10 Phil Lynch (3.2 Ralt-Judd/Connaught RT37) 65.53secs; 11 Heather Calder (3.5 Gould-Judd GR37) 65.96secs; 12 Dan Pickett (1.0 Jedi-Yamaha Mk4) 67.35secs;
Class Winners: Keith Sollis (1.6 Van Diemen-Ford RF86) 76.60secs; Simon Bainbridge (4.2t Audi TT 4-w-d) 70.38secs; Dan Pickett (1.0 Jedi-Yamaha R1 Mk 4) 67.95secs; Dave Pillinger (1.4 Royale-Suzuki Hayabusa) 68.10secs; Mark Smith 62.87; Stewart Robb Junior 58.08secs. All of these times establish new category records.