With Tony Eyles ruling the roost on Anglesey it was the battle for second and fourth places that provided all the excitement. The battle for run-off places also kept everyone on the edge of their seats. Practice saw Roy Dawson out when the Firehawk's gear change system failed; the Scot was despondent and was threatening to retire!
The class runs kicked off with the Road Going classes and there was a major upset when David West was beaten into second place by Steve English. Clare Sullivan was a close third whilst George Povey was the best of the rest. In the two litre class it was a 205 clean sweep as David Marshall romped home followed by James Kerr and Russell Herring. In the over two litre class the delightful David Wood in the glorious 993RS cruised to a dominant victory over Graham Jones in the SS1 Scimitar. Fred Currell, who was using his tow car after the Audi unit in his Reynard expired the day before, was a slowly sideways third just ahead of the hard charging Paul Waters in his Audi.
Into the Kit Car classes and in the 1700 split John Loudon finished a comfortable leader ahead of Mike 'Puma' Smith in the Striker. In the over 1700 class Ash Mason again showed a clean pair of heels to the opposition. Four TVRs contested their one-make class and it was a Simon 1-2 with Mr Cole in the wedgie beating Mr Bridge in the Griffiths by nearly two seconds. Simon Lawrence had a solo victory in the Elise class before the Mod Prods took to the track. In the 1400s it was a ding dong battle between Tara Collinson and Peter Hills. Hills just managed to hold onto top spot whilst Collinson was comfortable in second. In the two litres Christian Evans was back with his Golf. The Welshman was a convincing winner with Stuart Tranter over a second adrift. Nick Algar and John Sampson took solo Mod Prod Kit Car class wins before Paul Bond won the Sports Libre class by a country mile over Mike Edge in the MK Indy which was surely in the wrong class!
The Racing Car classes kicked off with the 1100s and it was Chris Aspinall in the Formula Honda Jedi that led from the get-go. His smooth driving style was ideally suited to the sweeps and climbs and he ran out an easy winner over Henryk Kozlowski and Tony Ellis. Hamish Lindsay screamed round in the 500 Jedi and certainly ensured no one slept! Just four Formula Fords contested the next class and it was Martin Webb and Tony Jarvis in their shared RF84 who took a fine 1-2. In the 1600 Racing Car class young Chris Green in the ex-Tim Wilson OMS was the class act putting two superb runs that would have qualified him well up the order for the run-off had he been registered. Jonathan Varley was second finishing clear of Steve Broughton who had to retire when the Suzuki evacuated the oil tank when Kim Kingham was taking her second run. In the two litre Racing Car class it was Andy Platt all the way although Tony Wiltshire was just a heartbeat away in second. Guy Gibson had his best result of the year with third in class whilst the Flying Chippy, Terry Holmes, was a comfortable fourth. Tony Eyles ran out a comfortable winner in the over two litre class as Martin Dowling got used to life without John Payne who has stepped down for the rest of the season.
Two Historic classes wrapped things up and in the Up to 1400 class Adrian Ball won the family feud in the Sprite whilst in the Over 1400 class Graham Oxley kept the massed hordes of Sunbeam Alpines at bay to take a close fought class from Bryn Griffiths.
TOP TWELVE RUN-OFF
With Steve Broughton having to withdraw due to the oil loss in the OMS it left us with a Top Eleven! First to the line was Guy Gibson in the only shared car in the run-off. His first run was just off his Q-time but he would be up to fourth by the time he came back to the line. On his second run he clipped a handy nine tenths off and looked set to finish in fourth. Tony Ellis was second to the line and immediately went quicker than in qualifying. Despite this he would only progress to 10th and when he was slower on his second run he looked vulnerable. John Sampson was next and on his first run he was over four seconds off his Q-time, was this 'a banker' or had he got problems? It was all going to count on his second run. Second Run and Big John was fairly flying as he swept towards School on his 'flying' lap. Suddenly the car snapped right and he had an almighty spin onto the grass. He crawled back to the pit lane and would have to make do with 11th - he had let Tony Ellis off the hook! Kevin Lealan was next and benefiting from having Dave Cutcliffe as 'crew chief' the young charger from Bristol was fired up. His first run was two seconds inside his Q-time and when he carved another second off his time 8th place looked secure. Next up was Martin Dowling and his indifferent pace in qualifying suddenly vanished as he chopped a whopping 3 seconds off his Q-time. His second run was even quicker but he could only salvage 6th spot. Simon Ashby was next and the Hereford Blacksmith was slower on his first run and tumbled down the order. His second run was only marginally quicker than his first and he ended up a poor 9th. Phil Lynch was next in the RT30 and the Midlander was a little off the pace of qualifying. His second run was better but only just but it did move him up to 7th at the expense of Lealan. The next to the line was the Fastest Fryer in Britain, Terry Holmes. However his first run was slower than his Q-time and when he came to the line for his second shot he was back in sixth. However he was smartly off the line and looked ever so smooth through Douglas. He managed to improve his time by nearly two seconds and moved up to an impressive 4th spot. Tony Wiltshire was desperate to beat Andy Platt and on his first run he set the best two-litre time of the day. He was up to second spot when he came to the line for his second run. Could he improve? As he ran down to School he was well on the pace but at Radar it all went wrong and the orange Ralt rotated. Would that be the opening that Andy Platt needed? Earlier on Andy's first run had been lacklustre as he finished nearly half a second down on his Q-time. It was all or nothing now. Off the line Platt wrung the neck of the Dallara. There was an almighty twitch as he flashed through Douglas. Then onto the second lap and he was in touch. A demon late braking throw of the dice at the hairpin came off and he crossed the line in his fastest time of the day and moved into a well earned second place. Final runner was Tony Eyles who had sown up the 12 points on his first run. However he was mindful of the extra point for breaking the over two litre championship record so thought he might as well have a punt! Off the line and the Opel V6 was screaming in protest. Down through School and round Abbotts the line was super smooth. Through Radar he clambered over the kerbing and was off to the Hairpin in no time. Through the last couple of corners the car looked to be on rails. Past the Pits and off on the second lap the Force was flying. The second lap was equally impressive and when he flashed over the line the clocks stopped at a new course record and Tony had grabbed that all important extra point.
After a glorious day's sprinting the championship has a few weeks rest before it all starts again. The Chester Motor Club's organisational team are meanwhile already planning for 2006 and after their efforts this year they may well end up with two rounds next year!
Results:
1 Tony Eyles (2.5 Force-Opel PC024) 77.81sec; 2 Andy Platt (2.0 Dallara-Vauxhall F397) 80.05sec; 3 Tony Wiltshire (2.0 Ralt-Peugeot RT34) 81.22sec; 4 Terry Holmes (2.0 Reynard-Ford SF84) 82.77sec; 5 Guy Gibson (2.0 Dallara-Vauxhall F397) 82.88sec; 6 Martin Dowling (3.5 Reynard-Judd CV 88D) 83.96sec; 44.40sec; 7 Phil Lynch (2.0 Ralt-Alfa Romeo RT30) 84.41sec; 8 Kevin Lealan (2.0 Formula Vauxhall Lotus) 85.34sec; 9 Simon Ashby (2.0 Reynard-Millington 883) 86.42sec; 10 Tony Ellis (1.1 Megapin-Suzuki 21-03) 89.51sec; 11 John Sampson (5.0 Quantum Xtreme) 90.17sec; Steve Broughton (1.3 OMS-Suzuki CF04) DNS.
Class Winners:
Steve English (1.4 Rover Mini Cooper) 103.65sec; David Marshall (1.9 Peugeot 205 GTi) 101.70sec; David Wood (3.7 Porsche 993RS) 108.64sec; John Loudon (1.7 Westfield SE) 99.95sec; Ash Mason (2.0 Westfield SEi) 93.21sec; Simon Cole (4.5 TVR 350i) 98.85sec; Simon Lawrence (1.8 Lotus Elise) 107.25sec; Peter Hills (1.4 Rover Mini) 99.74sec; Christian Evans (1.9 VW Golf) 97.54sec; Nick Algar (1.2s Westfield Supabusa) 99.17sec; Sampson 86.64sec; Paul Bond (2.0 Crossle 9S) 93.37sec; Chris Aspinall (1.0 Jedi-Honda Mk 4) 85.05sec; Martin Webb (1.6 Van Diemen-Ford RF84) 99.54sec; Chris Green (1.2 OMS-Honda 2000M) 84.52sec; Platt 81.44sec; Tony Eyles 81.12sec; Adrian Ball 1.3 Austin Healey Sprite) 106.00sec; Graham Oxley (1.7 Lotus Elan S3) 110.10sec.