With the usual suspects all gathered in South Wales the two-lap sprint at Pembrey looked like it was going to be a cracker, little did we know that it would stretch over two days. There were a few delays early on when the radios were not all working and there was a timing fault. Then in practice there were a couple of incidents that saw some more precious time slip away. Finally when the timed runs were delayed after the lunch break the Top Twelve looked in danger.
In the class runs it was the Road Saloons leading the way. In the 1400 class Dave West once again was the class act whilst in the two litres Pete Goodman in the Elise recovered from a first run spin to take the win ahead of David Marshall and Paul Waters. Matt Oakley was another dominant winner with his Griffiths in the over two litre class whilst the two turbocharged cars were isolated into a fourth class which saw Andrew Meek cruise home in the lead. The two kit car classes followed and David Hussey in the Striker took the Up to 1700 class ahead of Tim Pennington & John Loudon. In the Over 1700 class Matt Hillam once again was top dog finishing well ahead of Barry Slingsby and the rest.
Into the Mod Prods and in the 1400 class Martin Depper did a Dave West and won at a canter. In the two litres it was Paul Perkin who was nearly ten seconds ahead of Alun Jones in a similar 205. In the first of the Mod Prod Kit Car classes Martin Perry was the star turn finishing nearly six seconds clear of local hot-shot Brian Jones. In the final Mod Prod class John Tomlinson rumbled to the win in the SEight as Adrian Clinton-Watkins closed in for second ahead of Mark Anson.
The Sports Libre numbers were bolstered by some overly modified kit-cars; in the up to 1700 class Rob Stevens was just unstoppable as he took the class however the Force developed a series of faults which would eventually rule him out of the run-off and see him non-start on Sunday. In the over 1700 class Steve Broughton & Peter Hayter shared the latter's ex-works Westfield and came home first & second. Dorian Tyrrell in the Honda powered ADR was third just ahead of Derek Hodder and Julie Black as Simon Bainbridge posted another retirement in the hugely powerful but brittle Audi TT.
Into the Racing Car classes and the 1100s provided a superb contest. Jonathan Toulmin surprised himself with the pace of the Marengo as he closed out the class ahead of Tom Potter & Henryk Kozlowski. In the Formula Fords Martin Webb just took the win from Iain Houston with Webb's co-driver Tony Jarvis in third. In the 1600 Racing Car class Nick Algar had it all to do on his second run after a failed first attempt and he didn't disappoint taking the class from Dave & Scott Pillinger in their Royale. Darren Underwood was fourth in the somewhat under-geared OMS. Into the two-litres and Orville was really flying as Mark Smith fought back from a first run spin. Terry Holmes took second but in the process the Reynard's engine went off song and he too would miss the run-off. Steve Miles just edged out Dave Sims and Kevin Lealan for third. In the over two-litre class Roy Dawson again rocketed into the lead but all was not well in the Dawson camp and Flintstone Racing packed up on Saturday and headed for home. Second place went to Matt Oliver with Dan Pickett close at hand in second. Bill Oliver took fourth ahead of the misfiring Ralt of Phil Lynch and John Payne.
The next batch of classes were for the locals and with Mark Jago taking the Classic Class in his elderly Dutton Melos and Ken Pryce being unopposed in the Historic Rally Car class it left the Rally Car class to get the juices flowing. Graham Millar was again in wonderful form opposite locking the Escort at every opportunity however Simon Mansell in the in the Rover V8 engined Escort just pipped him to top spot. The final class was for the Lotus 7 Owners Club and it was Mark Durrant who prevailed ahead of Robert Gribsby and Adrian Williams.
However time had run-out and the curfew had been reached. However the organisers managed to rearrange the Sunday schedule and the run-off would take place first thing the following morning.
TOP TWELVE RUN-OFF
Bright and early on Sunday the Top Twelve contenders assembled in the Pit Lane. However there were three missing! Rob Stevens and Roy Dawson had already packed up and gone home whilst Terry Holmes and Graham Porrett had the Reynard in the trailer ready to leave. This left us with an effective Top Nine and it was Bill Oliver who led off. It was a steady run by Bill some 4 seconds off his Q-time as the level of grip was debateable. Kevin Lealan then slipped his FVL ahead of the GR37 but was still off his pace of yesterday. David Sims put up a huge cloud of dust at Debeni as he also just pipped Bill Oliver's time. Next it was Mole Racing's Steve Miles who was well off the pace dropping down the order after a partial spin. Nick Algar then recorded the best time so far with the Firehawk in a smooth unflustered run. Jonathan Toulmin was delighted with his qualifying pace and was a meagre second adrift on his first run; however it would be his only one as the Marengo was overheating! It was then Orville's turn and Mark Smith was the first to break the 100 second barrier and cruise into the lead. Dan Pickett then just pipped Smith's time as he put on the pressure. Matt Oliver responded with his fastest time so far to take the lead. There was then a break whilst Matt vacated the Gould and Bill was strapped in. With a better idea of the conditions Bill's second run took him to within half a second of the 100 second barrier and elevated him to fourth place. Kev Lealan could only clip a few tenths off his first run time and dropped back one place. David Sims had another wild moment and aborted his run before Steve Miles got his act together and moved ahead of Sims and Lealan. Nick Algar was really flying on his first lap but the engine suddenly started to sound rough. Nick kept his foot hard down but there was a sudden bang as he headed to the line and he coasted to a halt on the back straight with a rather large hole in the block! With no Marengo available the next car to the line was Orville! Mark Smith flew off the line but carried too much pace into Hatchets and spun round through 180 degrees. By the time he had got back pointing in the right direction it was too late but he completed his run having to settle for third. Dan Pickett then just failed to beat Matt Oliver's first run time and despite having the win in the bag Matt took his second run. He was almost as quick (just six hundredths off the pace) and pulled back into the pit lane with his maiden championship victory under his belt! At this point the usual celebrations were muted as we had another event to prepare for!
Rd 4 SBD Motorsport British Sprint Championship: Pembrey
1 Matt Oliver (4.0 Gould-Judd GR37) 94.34secs; 2 Dan Pickett (3.5 Pilbeam-Judd MP58) 94.68secs; 3 Mark Smith (2.0 Reynard-Vauxhall 903) 97.05secs; 4 Bill Oliver (4.0 Gould-Judd GR37) 100.56secs; 5 Nick Algar (1.5 DJ Firehawk-Suzuki) 100.95secs; 6 Jonathan Toulmin (1.1 Marengo-Suzuki 2) 102.16secs; 7 Steve Miles (2.0 Van Diemen-Zetec RF96M) 103.48secs; 8 Kevin Lealan (2.0 Formula Vauxhall Lotus) 103.67secs; 9 David Sims (2.0 Ralt-Duratec RT33/34) 104.45secs; Roy Dawson (3.5 Gould-NME GR55) DNS; Terry Holmes (2.0 Reynard-Ford SF84) DNS; Rob Stevens (1.6 Force-Suzuki SR4) DNS.
Class Winners: David West (1.4 Austin Cooper S) 133.98secs; Pete Goodman (1.8 Lotus Elise) 125.82secs; Matthew Oakley (5.0 TVR Griffith) 121.84secs; Andrew Meek (2.0t Subaru Impreza) 127.55secs; David Hussey (1.6 RAW Striker) 120.77secs; Matt Hillam (2.0 Westfield SEi) 120.66secs; Martin Depper (1.4 Rover Mini Cooper) 121.80secs; Paul Perkin (1.9 Peugeot 205) 118.47secs; Martin Perry (1.6 Westfield SEi) 113.79secs; John Tomlinson (4.0 Westfield SEight) 111.09secs; Rob Stevens 100.33secs; Steve Broughton (2.0 Westfield SBO) 107.46secs; Jonathan Toulmin 101.33secs; Martin Webb (1.6 Van Diemen RF84) 121.36secs; Nick Algar 102.22secs; Mark Smith 96.74secs; Roy Dawson 92.20secs; Mark Jago (1.7 Dutton Melos) 142.05secs; Ken Pryce (1.0 Austin Cooper S) 144.05secs; Simon Mansell (3.5 Ford/Rover Escort) 122.30secs; Mark Durrant (1.8 Caterham Superlight R500) 114.96secs.