Saturday morning and the sun was shining. We had already had several withdrawals the most notable being Nick Algar who was still in France dealing with a family matter never-the-less there was a tidy entry and everyone was keen to get stuck in.After the single practice run the timed runs followed smoothly on.
First to the line were the Modified Production car classes. In the 1400Martin Depper was again the man to beat as he put in three super times to annex the top spot; Peter Hills, who now has a BMW cylinder head fitted to his Mini just like the Deppers, was second finishing some 8 seconds off the pace. In the first of the Kit Car classes Rob Crossland finished well clear of Paul Dew and Tim Wood whilst in the next class it was a lot closer. Phil Newall just managed to hold off a challenge from Mark Anson whilst David Hussey was the best of the rest. The final Kit Car class saw the Team SBD entry battling it out for supremacy as first Matt Hillam led only for Craig Sampson to snatch the win on the final run. Andy Dunbar was third ahead of Derek Hodder who only managed one run in the fragile Honda powered car. Barry Slingsby was the best of the rest.
In the first of the two Sports Libre classes Simon Clemow held the lead throughout but he was harried all the way by Dave Thomas in the Global GT2 whilst Martin Clemow was third. In the Over two litre class Simon Bainbridge looked to be the easy winner but he broke a rear upright on his first timed run and despite getting parts delivered was unable to locate the correct suspension element to repair the Audi so retired. This left Colin Early in the Darrian to take the class win, despite a massive spin on his second run, whilst co-driver Carole Torkington was second.
Into the Racing Car classes and first was a two-car 600 class – something of a novelty in sprinting. Tim Tudor in the original Marengo, back briefly with the BSC family, ran out an easy winner from Gordon Hick in the Megapin. Gary Thomas then took a solo 1100 class win at record breaking pace. Another two-car class followed – the Formula Fords and this provided a very close battle. Dennis Pickett in the Quest led initially but Andrew Nichols in the Van Diemen snatched a close win on the third run as he led Pickett home by just 0.62 secs. In the 1600 Racing Car class Tom Potter was surprisingly off his usual class record breaking pace but still took the win over Jonathan Toulmin, who was having problems with the front wing on the Force and also a top end misfire. It transpired that Tom had kept catching the switch on the dashboard that controls the two phase turbocharger. With no less than eleven 2 litres on show this would turn out to be a very competitive class. Up front Mark Smith just held off Steve Broughton by 0.02 secs. These two were well clear of the rest who were led home by Phil Lynch & Steve Miles. In the Over 2 litre class Stewart Robb Snr was always just fast enough to keep in the lead as Terry Holmes challenged. Ross Napier was third but only managed one timed run as the Cosworth DFR flatly refused to fire-up after that.
Next on track was a single car Classic class which Roger Turner in the very pretty MG L-Type won at a sedate pace. Dave West then won the two litre Roadgoing class from Jon Beard who was making his Pembrey debut. In the Over 2 litre class Trevor Hartland just held off Andrew Meek’s Impreza with Phil Oram third ahead of Derrick Jones in the BMW M Coupe. Hartland had a wild ride on the exit of Dibeni on his second run and with the splitter and rear venturis wrecked he called it a day. The Roadgoing Kit Cars followed and in the Up to 1700 split it was the talented Chris Jones who took a clear-cut victory. David & Jim Spencer chased hard in second & third with their Striker whilst Stuart Hill was the best of the rest. In the final class Tim Pennington’s Westfield, now devoid of all the various sidepods etc, took the win from Anne Ballantyne in the wonderfully sonorous Westfield SEight.
The Napiers were still struggling to get the Cossie to fire-up and thus missed the run-off. Jonathan Toulmin was somewhat handicapped by the misfire and also by having an older low-down-force front wing so couldn’t replicate his best qualifying time on either run which left his down in tenth. Steve Miles again pulled out all the stops in the run-off and clipped over 6 seconds off his best Q-time to take ninth. Gary Thomas only took his first Top 12 run due to the Force overheating and was another who failed to match his Q-time – possibly due to the track temperature dropping. Tom Potter’s first run was just off his earlier pace but second time round he set a PB which was good enough for sixth place. Phil Lynch was another to improve dramatically. The Dallara driver first clipped over two seconds off his Q-time and then on his second run took just over a second off his first run time. Neither of Graham Porrett’s times in the run-off bettered his Q-time but it was still good enough for a season’s best fifth place. Mark Smith was on fine form and on each run set new PBs as he brought his time down to 93.91 but it would only be good enough for fourth. Terry Holmes set a new PB on his first run with a 92.79 but his second was slower and he would have to settle for third. Steve Broughton on the other hand was flying! Having qualified on 95.17 he bolted on a new set of tyres and slam-dunked the 2 litre championship record with a stunning 92.69 grabbing second place in the process. Meanwhile Stewart Robb Snr came perilously close to the outright record on his first run and despite having the run-off win under his belt he chose to have a crack at the record. In the cooling conditions he was slightly slower but the intent was there to capitalise on the extra points if at all possible. Mind you two sub 92 second runs were not at all shabby!
1 Stewart Robb Snr (4.0 Pilbeam-Judd KV MP88) 91.79secs; 2 Steve Broughton (1.3s SBD-OMS-Suzuki CF08) 92.69secs; 3 Terry Holmes (3.5 Lola-Judd/Swindon ERH) 92.79secs; 4 Mark Smith (2.0 Reynard-Vauxhall/Swindon 903) 93.91secs; 5 Graham Porrett (3.5 Lola-Judd/Swindon ERH) 97.22secs; 6 Phil Lynch (2.0 Dallara-Vauxhall/JRE 301) 98.42secs; 7 Tom Potter (1.0T Jedi/Suzuki Mk4) 99.03secs; 8 Gary Thomas (1.1 Force-Suzuki PT) 101.06secs; 9 Steve Miles (2.0 Van Diemen-Zetec RF96MM) 101.12secs; 10 Jonathan Toulmin (1.5 Force-Suzuki/TTS PT) 104.35secs; Ross Napier (3.5 Gould-Cosworth DFR GR37) – DNS; Roy Napier (3.5 Gould-Cosworth DFR GR37) – DNS FTD – Stewart Robb Snr – 91.79secs
Class Winners:
Dave West (1.6 Peugeot 106 GTi) 130.09secs; Trevor Hartland (2.0t Mitsubishi EVO 6) 126.01secs; Chris Jones (1.6 Westfield SE) 117.13secs; Tim Pennington (2.0 Westfield SE) 116.17secs; Martin Depper (1.4 Rover Mini Cooper) 119.86secs; Rob Crossland (2.0 Westfield SEi) 122.78secs; Phil Newall (1.0 Westfield SE) 111.33secs; Craig Sampson (2.0 SBD Westfield S2000) 106.79secs; Simon Clemow (1.4 Radical Clubsport) 110.82secs; Colin Early (2.0 Darrian T9) 124.24secs; Tim Tudor (0.6 Marengo 1) 108.61secs; Gary Thomas 100.26secs – Record; Andrew Nichols (1.6 Van Diemen RF81 FF1600) 123.20secs; Tom Potter 99.64secs; Mark Smith 95.15secs; Stewart Robb Snr 93.57secs; Roger Turner (1.1s MG L Type) 191.41secs.