Sunday morning was overcast and cooler. Meanwhile I was wondering if the Pembrey gremlins strike again. On arrival at the circuit I learnt that Simon Bainbridge and the Napiers would be non starters – the spares for the Audi that had been delivered from north Yorkshire wouldn’t fit so Simon had loaded up & was about to leave and the Napiers had given up the unequal struggle to get the Cossie to fire-up and were going to set off in the general direction of Tim Mason’s workshop.
Again there was just the one practice run before the timed runs commenced with the Mod Prod classes. In the first class Paul Dew kept Tim Wood in second place prior to Wood’s trip into the scenery! Next it was the battling bike engined Westies at the forefront of class 3D and again Phil Newall took the win with Mark Anson second – they both opted out of their third runs as they both considered there was no more time to come. The Hussey’s were the best of the rest. In 3E it was another Sampson versus Hillam fight for the class win. On the first run Hillam had the edge and despite his best efforts Sampson couldn’t respond and had to settle for second. Andy Dunbar took third ahead of Barry Slingsby and the usual suspects!
In the first of the Sports Libre classes Simon Clemow again took the win with Dave Thomas and Martin Clemow second & third. The extra runner (Simon Mansell in the 2 litre Fiesta Saloon Libre) was somewhat off the pace. In the second Libre class Colin Early again took the win from Carole Torkington and this time there were no wild gyrations.
The Racing Car classes again started with an Up to 600 duo; Tim Tudor only took one timed run to win the class whilst Gordon Hick was again back in second. Gary Thomas was again the only 1100 and he duly wrapped up the class with another class record into the bargain. Dennis Pickett was now the only FF1600 runner but he picked up the pace and finished the day with a PB inside the class winning time from Saturday. In the 1600 class Jonathan Toulmin again split the Potters. Tom won the class but as he blasted off the line on his second attempt a driveshaft cried enough. With no spares the Potters were sidelined which was particularly galling for Andy as he had qualified for the Top 12 Run-off. In the 2 litre class Mark Smith again took the win although on his second run he aborted when the rain set in. Steve Broughton had spun on his first run so had to go in the rain and scrapped into the run-off. John Payne was the best of the rest benefiting from a drier track for his second early run. Stewart Robb Snr was again top of the over 2 litres whilst Holmes and Porrett were close behind.
Roger Turner again took the Classic class with the MG before we moved into the Roadgoing classes. Dave West was the only 2 litre running as Jon Beard had withdrawn with an oil leak in his 205. Andrew Meek took the Over 2 litre class with ease before the Kit Cars came out to play. In the Up to 1700 class it was again the talented Chris Jones who took top spot and once again it was the Spencers in hot pursuit – Jim beating David today – whilst Mark Leybourne was the best of the rest. In the final class Tim Pennington’s Westie came first and second. Tim won the class whilst Stuart Hill was second after his car gave up the ghost and he switched to Tim’s car. Anne Ballantyne was third ahead of the Padley’s in their SSC Stylus.
The first part of the run-off provided the drama. John Payne immediately followed Tom Potter’s example and broke a driveshaft. This eliminated the Dallara driver on the spot. Graham Porrett only got as far as the second corner (Spitfires) when the car started to smoke. He was flagged down on Cowles Straight and retired from the run and ultimately from the run-off. The Lola had a broken oil pipe which the Chichester Flyers then proceeded to bypass in an attempt to get the car back on track.
Martin Webb’s first run was uneventful but for his second he was lined up far too early and as the Opel engine started to overheat Martin switched off. He was pushed aside and when the car had cooled he eventually took his second run but this was also slower than his Q-time but never-the-less he finished eighth and recorded his best ever championship score. Jonathan Toulmin only took his first top 12 run as the misfire was getting worse so he duly scrapped home in seventh. Steve Miles again picked up the pace in the run-off but could not advance beyond sixth place. Gary Thomas also took just the one run and improved on his new class record; he also nearly flung the force off the track at Dibeni so discretion being the better part of valour he opted out of his second run. Steve Broughton’s first run was in the 96s however he was another to suffer when his second run failed to record a time. He was allowed to let the car cool but by the time he took his second run the tyres were going off. Mark Smith put in two super runs to finish a fine third – although at one time he was placed in second. He ended up top 2 litre and despite his results and the fact he was now runner-up in the championship he wasn’t that impressed! The Chichester Flyers meanwhile had been having a character building Top 12. They had cleaned up the oil from the split pipe and rerouted the system but then it all went wrong again as Terry drove down the pit lane. The oil filler cap came off and more oil was sprayed over the engine bay. This was duly mopped up and eventually Terry took his one and only shot. He was immediately on the pace and despite the odd wisp of oil smoke slotted the Lola into second place. Impervious to all the disasters and drama Stewart Robb Snr had the run-off in the bag with his first effort; however he wanted that extra point. His second effort looked a lot quicker but he would again just fall short of setting a new course record.
Pembrey had once again lived up to its reputation as a car breaker. Several teams now faced a week of intensive work to get their cars ready for Anglesey meanwhile with a 30 point lead in the championship Stewart Robb Snr was busy working out the tactics for the up-coming rounds.
1 Stewart Robb Snr (4.0 Pilbeam-Judd KV MP88) 92.80secs; 2 Terry Holmes (3.5 Lola-Judd/Swindon ERH) 93.32secs; 3 Mark Smith (2.0 Reynard-Vauxhall/Swindon 903) 94.58secs; 4 Steve Broughton (1.3s SBD-OMS-Suzuki CF08) 96.29secs; 5 Gary Thomas (1.1 Force-Suzuki PT) 99.11secs; 6 Steve Miles (2.0 Van Diemen-Zetec RF96MM) 102.56secs; 7 Jonathan Toulmin (1.5 Force-Suzuki/TTS PT) 105.70secs; 8 Martin Webb (2.0 Reynard FVL) 107.17secs; Graham Porrett (3.5 Lola-Judd/Swindon ERH) – Fail; John Payne (2.0 Dallara-Vauxhall/JRE 301) – Fail; Tom Potter (1.0T Jedi/Suzuki Mk4) – DNS; Andy Potter (1.0T Jedi/Suzuki Mk4) DNS
Class Winners:
Dave West (1.6 Peugeot 106 GTi) 130.14secs; Andrew Meek (2.0t Subaru Impreza) 129.33secs; Chris Jones (1.6 Westfield SE) 116.18secs; Tim Pennington (2.0 Westfield SE) 114.26secs; David Campion (1.3 Locost 7) 135.56secs; Paul Dew (2.0 Westfield SEiW) 119.54secs; Phil Newall (1.0 Westfield SE) 110.68secs; Matt Hillam (2.0 SBD Westfield S2000) 105.64secs; Simon Clemow (1.4 Radical Clubsport) 109.41secs; Colin Early (2.0 Darrian T9) 124.10secs; Tim Tudor (0.6 Marengo 1) 108.68secs; Gary Thomas 99.23secs – Record; Dennis Pickett (1.6 Quest MT FF86 FF1600) 122.30secs; Tom Potter 99.31secs; Mark Smith 95.85secs; Stewart Robb Snr 92.93secs; Roger Turner (1.1s MG L Type) 189.92secs.