Saturday dawned hot and windless and as the temperatures climbed so did the intensity of the battle for the Championship. Roy Dawson was the only Scot to make the trip down and with Stewart Robb absent he extended his championship lead.
The day before the Westfield Speed crew were having a track day and several sprint contenders 'joined in'. During this pre-event testing Nick Algar hit a snag and thankfully managed to get it rectified overnight. The timed runs got underway with the Mod Prods and it was Martin Depper again who annexed the Up to 1400 class; Dave Depper was still hobbling round with the aid of a stick but was certainly more mobile. In the two litre Mod Prod class ex-BT man Paul Perkin once again proved the class act as he romped home in his 205; second place again went to Gary Thomas in the Elise with the Welsh contingent well off the pace. There was just one runner in the Over Two litre class and Martyn Ellis duly pocketed the trophy. In the first of the two Mod Prod Kit Car classes it was John Powell in the Caterham who nicked it just edging out Brian Jones. In the over 1800 class Mark Smith again was the man to beat however Derek Hodder had to switch to Smith's car when his gearbox broke and dutifully trailed in second.
The Sports Libres mustered two entries and Rob Stevens, who now had a 'bog standard' Hayabusa in the Force not only took the class win but also qualified for the run-off. However on his second class run he lost it at the right hander leading onto the back straight and badly damaged the bodywork and the floor of the Purple Force. Meanwhile Steve Wilkinson chipped away at his times in second.Into the Racing Cars and Hamish Lindsay as the sole 500 present howled his way to a class win after a practice double-salko at the Bus Stop Chicane. In the 1100s Tom Potter continued to impress and took the class from Jonathan Toulmin. Dan 'Pesky' Pickett was third but discovered a transmission problem late in the day. There were just three Formula Fords present and this time Chris Bennett in his 1988 Van Diemen took the win as he kept Webb and Jarvis at bay. In the 1600 Racing Car class Steve Broughton not only took a dominant win but also set the fastest qualification time! Nick Algar, having fixed Friday's problem cruised up to second whilst Eynon Price managed third ahead of Paul Sims in the old family Magnum. Into the two litre class and top dog was a returning Tony Wiltshire. The Newton Abbot wellington model finished well clear of Terry Holmes but as he hasn't registered this season missed out on a run-off spot. Steve Miles just managed to hang onto third after a second run spin whilst David Sims was a comfortable third and grabbed maximum points in the Foundation Cup. In the final Racing Car class Roy Dawson took the win with just one run as he kept the running time of the NME engine to a minimum. Tony Eyles brought the old Lola-Judd along and still managed second place ahead of the Luxton/Hutchins Pilbeam MP58.
Mike Griffiths in the Mk 1 Escort took the Rally Car class from the wheel-waving Graham Millar who provides a tremendous amount of entertainment. In the Classics Lyn Padfield just managed to beat Andrew Webber in the Plus 2 with Graham Oxley third in the S3 Elan. Fyrth Crosse brought the Mallock home fourth despite a second run 'moment'.Into the Road Modified classes and Dave West took yet another class win in the Mini with Mike Cooper second in the Innocenti version. In the two litre class Gareth Griffiths in the ex-Bobby Fryers Clio Williams again kept Dyrr Ardash at arms length. David Marshall was third and Fred 'Tin Top' Currell fourth in the Golf. In the Over Two Litre class Simon Bridge cruised home in the drop-dead-gorgeous Griffiths ahead of Jim Giddings TR8 and David Balderson's Tasmin. The two turbocharged Road Modified cars were run as a separate class and Andrew Meek once again led from the start with Phil Oram in the Pulsar less than a second in arrears. In the Up to 1700 Road Modified Kit Car class Guy Hussey had a comfortable win over Tim Pennington and Chris Jones. However Tim Nunn was the star turn as he attacked the Bus Stop's cones! In the Over 1700 class Matt Hillam recovered from second spot to take the class from Ash Mason with Peter Kukanis third. The final Bike Engined class of Road Modifieds went to Richard Evans in the Westie Megabusa from the lovely Honda powered Peugeot 205 rally car of Robin Davies.
TOP TWELVE RUN OFF
Leading the run-off was Matt Oliver in the Dallara. His first run would end up being the counter as the car refused to start for the second bash! Dave Sims was next and he put in a steady run dropping back to 12th however on his second run he picked up the pace and rocketed up to a super 5th. Jonathan Toulmin was next in the 'rolling' Marengo and popped in an initial time good enough for 8th, he then lowered his time by a few tenths but dropped all the way back to 11th. Steve Miles was still playing musical batteries and with his mind elsewhere could only place 10th after the first run. His second effort was far better and he slid up to a fine 6th. Next should have been Rob Stevens but with the Force stuck out on the in-field he was out of contention. So it was Terry Holmes who rolled up to the line. The Chichester Chippy put in a great first run that elevated him to fourth and on his second run he went even quicker and demoted Tony Eyles. The Welsh Wizard Eynon Price was next and after spending the day driving the OMS like a rally car he settled down in the runoff. His first effort saw him fall back to 9th and despite clipping nearly eight tenths off his time his second run saw him fall even further back as he finished 10th. Nick Algar then put in his banker and dropped back to 6th before he too clipped over three tenths off his time to tumble back to 8th. Tom Potter was electrifying on his first run. His handling of the Jedi was reminiscent of a kart and the marshals at the Bus Stop took a step back as he flew towards their patch but he somehow got it tamed and through the chicane, however he fell back to sixth from fourth fastest qualifier. He then took some more time off his first run counter but like others fell back even more places finishing up in 7th. Tony Eyles was perplexed at where the pace had gone however after his first run he remained 3rd. He then cut three tenths of his first run time but would fall back to 4th. Roy Dawson was expected to take just one run but his first although the fastest time of the day wasn't up to Dawson's exacting standards so he went out for his second run and clipped over half a second off to hold onto a two second lead. Steve Broughton having qualified fastest knew Roy Dawson was on the rampage and despite setting his fastest time on his first run he dropped into second place. Despite being safe in second he still took his second run and succeeded in cutting over seven tenths off in a superbly controlled display, however his efforts still left him second.Dawson's championship challenge is still on track and the sooner he 'gets the job done' the better!
Results:
1 Roy Dawson (3.5 Gould-NME GR55) 66.23s; 2 Steve Broughton (1.3 OMS-Suzuki/SBD CF04) 68.23s; 3 Terry Holmes (2.0 Reynard-Ford/Tegra SF84) 69.55s; 4 Tony Eyles (3.5 Lola-Cosworth/Connaught DFR T90/50) 69.59s; 5 David Sims (2.0 Ralt-Duratec/SRD RT33/34) 70.37s; 6 Steve Miles (2.0 Van Diemen-Ford RF96) 70.68s; 7 Tom Potter (1.0 Jedi-Suzuki Mk4) 70.80s; 8 Nick Algar (1.3 DJ Firehawk-Suzuki) 70.93s; 9 Matt Oliver (2.0 Dallara-Vauxhall/SBD F397) 71.11s; 10 Eynon Price (1.3 OMS-Honda 2000M) 71.40s; 11 Jonathan Toulmin (1.0 Marengo-Suzuki 2) 71.84s; Rob Stevens (1.3 Force-Suzuki SR4) DNS.
Class Winners: Martin Depper (1.4 Rover Mini Cooper) 83.60s; Paul Perkin (1.9 Peugeot 205 GTi) 83.17s; Martyn Ellis (2.2 Talbot Lotus Sunbeam) 84.53s; John Powell (1.8 Caterham R400) 79.31s; Mark Smith (2.0 Westfield-Vauxhall/SBD SEiW) 75.79s; Rob Stevens 71.79s - Class Record; Hamish Lindsay (0.5 Jedi-Krauser 2/92) 80.45s; Tom Potter 71.04s - Class Record; Chris Bennett (1.6 Van Diemen-Ford RF88) 84.52s; Steve Broughton 69.01s - Class record; Tony Wiltshire (2.0 Ralt-Peugeot RT34) 69.25s; Roy Dawson 69.12s; Mike Griffiths (2.3 Ford Escort Mk 1) 85.04s; Lyn Padfield (1.9 Lotus 7) 88.31s; Dave West (1.4 Austin Cooper S) 91.69s; Gareth Griffiths (2.0 Renault Clio Williams) 85.50s; Simon Bridge (5.0 TVR Griffith 400) 84.87s; Andrew Meek (2.0t Subaru Impreza) 88.87s; Guy Hussey (1.6 RAW Striker) 80.69s; Matt Hillman (2.0 Westfield SEi) 82.42s; Richard Evans (1.3 Westfield Megabusa) 86.51s.