Arriving at the circuit early Friday evening the first impression was one of surprise. Surprise that the course was in such good condition after hearing all sorts of scurrilous rumours about it being a poor surface; surprise at the superb layout that is now on offer (the last time I visited it was more the typical airfield track – long straights and right angle corners); and finally surprise that we hadn’t been there before!
Day one and with 25 Sprint Championship runners present plus a good field of Scots it promised to be a great day of sprinting. Practice was dogged with ‘new venue incidents’ as not only the Sassenachs but also the Scots found their way round and also the limit of adhesion. After a short lunch we got underway with the class runs.
Road Saloons kicked off proceedings and in the single class John Stevenson in the Impreza was unbeatable despite being stuck in third gear! Archie Bain in another Impreza was second as he slipped past Andrew Scott’s Escort. In the 1400 Road Sports it was purely Westfields and Nicola Menzies pulverised the opposition in her ‘Busa powered example. Wullie Beaton was second after just pipping Ross Napier. The 1700 Road Sports class was a two car affair and Fergus Duncan won the battle of the Caterhams. The Over 1700 class saw Stephen Alexander in the 2 litre Westie set the standard on his first run & despite a second run glitch took the class from co-driver David Loomes. Classic & Thoroughbreds were next and Tom Wilson in the Sunbeam Ti led throughout with William Amps second in the RS3000 Capri closing in for second. Graeme Bremner then took the Marque Road Sports class in his Exige with Paul Gartshore in the V8 TR7 in second. We then had an odd class for “Road-going Production Two-wheel-drive Saloons up to 1800cc”. Rory Adam’s 2 litre Civic took this all Honda affair. Peter Girvan then had a solo class win in his Pug 405 before we moved into Mod Sports territory. In the 1400 category Drew Murray in the Fisher Fury took the win despite a massive grassy slide in practice that ended up in the tyre barrier. Lenny Bray in the F27 was second whilst Eric & Sam Kiltie chased them hard. Just one car and two drivers in the over 1700 class and it marked the return of the Ashbys. Simon & Tracey now have a 2.2 Duratec powered Caterham and despite having some rather wooden Avon tyres had fun getting used to their new mount.
There were three classes for Sports Libres and in the Up to 1400 division Colin & Kyle Murchie took their highly modified Locoblade to a 1-2 ahead of a rather off-form Angus Buchan. In the 1800 class John MacKenzie cruised to a solo win in his Radical Prosport whilst in the Over 1800 class Simon Bainbridge had the front suspension of the Audi collapse in practice leaving John Ramsay to run out the winner. The Audi would be repaired in time for the following day. With just two Racing Car classes (Up to 1100 & Over 1100) there was a bit of an imbalance with numbers. The 1100s had just 5 runners and it was former Sprint contender Garry Dickson who now has a Force that came to the fore. Darren Law ran him a close second in his OMS whilst Jonathan Toulmin was sidelined with a broken exhaust – he joined the queue for the welding services and would be back in action on Sunday. In the Over 1100s Roy Dawson had a fight on his hands as Robb Jnr led initially, however the former champion blasted into the lead. With young Robb second it was Matt Oliver who finished third just ahead of Stewart Robb Snr. Mark Smith was the top two litre with Kermit in seventh whilst Nick Algar in ninth was the top 1600 runner. Martin Pickles was the only Formula Ford in the entry list but he plugged away manfully as he had two nurses in attendance to massage his ego! The final class featured just one entry but everyone in the paddock stopped and watched at Malcolm Wishart took his drop-dead gorgeous Chevron B16 continuation model to a solo win. The two-litre BMW engined car was resplendent in Scottish Blue and drew admiring glances all week-end.
TOP TWELVE Run-Off
Before the run-off got underway Stewart Robb Snr withdrew as there was a problem with the clutch and he didn’t want to overtax it. There was also a casualty when on his first run Mark Smith had the ECU fail. This proved terminal for poor old Kermit and the Reynard was loaded into the trailer ready for the journey home Sunday morning. Heather Calder missed a gear on her first run so eased down to ensure that she got a time, the youngster picked up the pace on her second effort finishing a few tenths adrift of Phil Lynch. Lynch had put in a very good first run, not his fastest but rapid none the less but his ploy backfired when he had a moment. Bill Oliver aborted his first run and on his second effort just slipped ahead of Lynch but the strain was taking its toll on his injured left elbow. He decided that he would not drive on Sunday for fear of aggravating the injury. Graham Porrett seemed to have got the measure of the Lola and put in a good first run just off his qualifying pace but then on his second run he aborted the run after just one lap. To paraphrase the garagiste “I made a slight mess of that!” Nick Algar on the other hand had his moment on his first run so he cruised home to at least record a time and guarantee some points. His second effort was superb as he set a new championship 1600 record en route to sixth place. Colin Calder had been chipping away at his times all day and in the run-off he continued to make in-roads on his best time. His efforts were rewarded with another PB and fifth place. Terry Holmes first run was his fastest of the day and he held fourth however when they checked the car over after Graham’s moment there was a problem with the gears and the chip shop owner had to stand down. Matt Oliver again worked hard at getting his times down setting a PB on his first run before calling it a day. Stewart Robb Jnr on his first run clipped over two seconds off his Q-time before he too cried enough! Roy Dawson meanwhile led comfortably after the first run and was determined to go sub-100 seconds. So as the last runner everything was set for a banzai attack. Everything was going well as he appeared into view hammering down the Old Road towards the Esses. Through Campbell’s Hairpin he was mighty on the brakes and as he flashed past the finishing line on his first lap he was in touching distance of the 99 second mark. Heading into Railway Bend he didn’t get onto the brakes cleanly and had trouble scrubbing off speed. Despite this he was back on the power and darted through Snake and was soon hammering into the Hairpin. There was an almighty cloud of rubber as the Gould slowed and in a flash he was back on the power and heading for the line. When the clock stopped it was a new course record but he had just failed to get that elusive 99 second time.
Results
1 Roy Dawson (3.5 Gould-NME GR55) 100.32secs; 2 Stewart Robb Jnr (4.0 Pilbeam-Judd MP88) 101.05secs; 3 Matt Oliver (4.0 Gould-Judd GR37) 103.97secs; 4 Terry Holmes (3.5 Lola-Judd ERH) 105.78secs; 5 Colin Calder (3.5 Gould-Judd GR37) 108.74secs; 6 Nick Algar (1.6 DJ Firehawk-Suzuki) 111.95secs, 7 Graham Porrett (3.5 Lola-Judd ERH) 113.58secs; 8 Bill Oliver (4.0 Gould-Judd GR37) 115.08secs; 9 Phil Lynch (3.2 Ralt-Judd RT37) 115.16secs, 10 Heather Calder (3.5 Gould-Judd GR37) 115.66secs; Mark Smith (2.0 Reynard-Vauxhall 903) Failed; Stewart Robb Snr (4.0 Pilbeam-Judd MP88) DNS
Class Winners: John Stevenson (2.0t Subaru Impreza) 141.79secs; Nicola Menzies (1.4 Westfield-Hayabusa) 133.18secs; Fergus Duncan (1.6 Caterham 7) 135.23secs; Stephen Alexander (2.0 Westfield SEi) 133.44secs; Tom Wilson (2.0 Sunbeam Ti) 149.80secs; Graeme Bremner (1.8 Lotus Exige) 152.64secs; Rory Adam (2.0 Honda Civic) 153.36secs; Peter Girvan (1.9 Peugeot 405) 144.71secs; Drew Murray (1.3 Fisher Fury) 129.86secs; Simon Ashby (2.2 Caterham 7) 159.25secs; Colin Murchie (1.0 Locoblade) 136.36secs; John MacKenzie (1.5 Radical Prosport) 122.06secs; John Ramsay (2.0 Opel Manta) 147.76secs; Garry Dickson (1.0 Force-Suzuki) 118.92secs; Dawson 102.14secs; Malcolm Wishart (2.0 Chevron-BMW B16) 153.60secs.
Sunday and with an appalling weather forecast it looked like there would be no new records today. Firstly the weather stayed fine and secondly there were some new records to record. First ‘casualty’ of the day was Roy Dawson who was soon on his way home – is this the last appearance of Dawson as a competitor at a British Sprint round? Also heading home were the Ashby’s as they were far from happy with the Caterham’s tyres.
After three practice runs were on offer and a more leisurely lunch break – well fewer competitors were falling off – the timed runs once again got underway. John Roddick had a solo win in the 1800 Road Saloon class before the Over 1800s did battle. John Stevenson was again struggling with the gearbox but needed only one run to take the class from Tony Hume in the 306 Pug. Nicola Menzies again took the 1400 Road Sports class with Wullie Beaton & Ross Napier still snapping at her heels. Fergus Duncan & Stephen Alexander repeated their class wins in the other Road Sports classes. Tom Wilson again took the Thoroughbred class from Willie Amps in the Capri. Graeme Bremner was another repeat offender with the Exige in the Marque Sports car class whilst next Ian Wright won the battle of the Civics. Peter Girvan again had a solo win in the 405 Pug before Drew Murray’s patched up Fisher Fury won the 1400 Mod Sports class. Angus Buchan got it right this time, winning the 1400 Sports Libre class and walloping the Murchie clan in their Locoblade. John MacKenzie was still unopposed in the 1800 division whilst in the over 1800s it was a totally different story. Simon Bainbridge took all three practice runs to learn the track and not only took the class but got into the run-off. Garry Dickson again took the 1100 class with Stewart Brown second and a repaired Marengo with Jonathan Toulmin at the wheel in third.
In the over 1100 class it was young Mr Robb who won with Matt Oliver second. James Davidson in the FVL Reynard was top 2 litre despite being on hard race rubber whilst Nick Algar again was the top 1600 but at what a price! The Firehawk’s rear wing collapsed as he concluded his second run – would this sideline him from the run-off? Martin Pickles was still the only Formula Ford present and despite only having one nurse available today he was seen jogging in the infield! However at most double headers someone has a terminal problem and this time it was Terry Holmes and Graham Porrett. They had sorted the gearbox problems overnight only to suffer a water leak in practice when a couple of bolts worked loose. Having fixed the leak the pair were then sidelined for good when they had the diff break.
TOP TWELVE Run-Off
The second run-off of the week-end was very tense, would we get through before the rain that appeared to be heading to East Fortune arrived? Nick Algar despite his excellent qualifying pace had by now had to remove the whole of the rear wing just leaving the support bracketry With no rear down force he just pottered round for one run before putting it in the trailer. However he would pocket a single point for twelfth. Jonathan Toulmin got off to a flying start however as he headed into the chicane to complete his first lap he was carrying too much speed and after clambering onto the mid corner kerb the car started to spin. Jonathan held it, had a quick trip over the grass and a nod to the flag marshal before heading off to complete his run. When he later moved forward to take run number two there was a problem with the front right wheel and after a quick check he retired contenting himself with eleventh. Dave Pillinger had just out-qualified son Scott and after his first run was ahead on the clock. However after Scott’s second run Dave was looking on the pace when there was a problem with the engine as he headed towards the hairpin so he aborted the run and had to settle for tenth. Simon Bainbridge, having put the woes of Saturday behind him, was in fine form and set a cracking time on his first run. When he almost clipped a further two seconds off this time on his second run it moved him ahead of Dave Pillinger into ninth. Scott Pillinger’s first run had just put him ahead of Bainbridge but behind his father. On his second he recorded his fastest time of the week-end and slipped up to eighth. John Payne qualified well for what would be his first run-off of 2008. He found another two seconds on his first run but when he bogged the start on his second effort the improvement was only minimal but secured him seventh spot. Payne’s co-driver, Phil Lynch, was initially in fifth but during the second runs despite finding over six tenths of an improvement he fell back to sixth. 17 year old Heather Calder was picking up improvements like they were going out of style and on her first run found over two seconds. However on the second Heather found even more time, especially through Pate’s Bend, and slipped past Lynch into a thoroughly deserved fifth place. Colin Calder was initially in fourth as he more or less replicated his qualifying time. On his second run he did improve but only by the smallest margin so remained fourth – his best result to date in the Championship. Matt Oliver was desperate to score well and third place after the first run may well have been OK for most but he wasn’t that impressed. He really pulled out all the stops but could only find six tenths so remained in the bronze medal position. Stewart Robb Snr’s first run had taken him into second and he gambled on that being enough declining his second run. The gamble paid off and second was in the bag. Stewart Robb Jnr as the fastest qualifier was in the best place to dictate the run-off. He went for it on his first run and was in tremendous form. Through the sweeps and curves the Judd V8 was wailing away behind him and Stewart was inch perfect through the tricky hairpin & chicane. When he crossed the finishing line he was just 0.15 seconds off Roy Dawson’s best time from Saturday. As the rest of the run-off played out Stewart was relaxed and when the final runner failed to beat him he sensibly declined his second run and pocketed the 12 points.
As the cars were being loaded up it was time for reflection. Heather Calder had finished higher in a run-off than any other lady driver since Patsy Burt; her first win can’t be that far away! Stewart Robb Jnr recorded his maiden British Sprint Championship victory – the first of many I suspect. Then finally East Fortune which had earned a place in British Sprint history and will I am sure provide years of keenly fought competition for years to come.
Results
Class Winners: John Roddick (1.6 Ford Fiesta) 159.48secs; John Stevenson 135.17secs; Nicola Menzies 132.01secs; Fergus Duncan 134.08secs; Stephen Alexander 133.16secs; Tom Wilson 149.23secs; Graeme Bremner 141.26secs; Ian Wright (1.6 Honda Civic) 152.17secs; Peter Girvan 143.45secs; Drew Murray 128.51secs; Angus Buchan (1.1 Radical Clubsport) 130.67secs; John MacKenzie 122.39secs; Bainbridge 120.14secs; Garry Dickson 117.14secs; Robb Jnr 103.88secs; Malcolm Wishart 147.37secs.