With a cracking weather forecast the second Welsh week-end looked set to be red hot. The return of Nick Algar assured that up the sharp end of the Top 12 things would be getting tight and with a few cars being fixed in time there was also an element of survival. The event was taking place on the stunning ‘International Course’ with the start out of the pit lane and the finish exiting the hairpin – in my mind the best possible layout available. Practice saw the demise of the Potters when the clutch exploded.
The timed runs started as usual with the Roadgoing classes and in the first for the Up to 2 litre saloons David West just held off a spirited challenge from James Kerr. In the Road-going Kit Car class Jim Spencer just pipped younger brother David to top spot before Martin Depper took a solo Up to 1400 Mod Prod victory. The 2 litre Mod Prods saw a better selection of tin-tops where John Moxham led throughout with Bruce McKie an equally secure second whilst in the Over 2 litre Mod Prods the BMW of Gez Bayliss overpowered John Phoenix’s elderly Sierra RS Cosworth. The next class was basically dominated by the Lotus Elise and David Ormerod Jnr just held off a strong challenge from Sarah Bosworth after he had been relegated to second by the Sheffield driver. John Graham then took a solo win in the Over 2 litre Mod Prod Sportscars with his neat lotus 2 Eleven before we moved into the Modified Kit Car class. Tony Allinson, who benefited from a trackday on the Friday, romped to victory in his pretty Caterham R500 with David Warburton closing in and just pipping Allan Warburton for second. The Clemows constituted the Up to 1700 Sports Libre class and once again Simon outgunned Martin. In the Over 1700 Sports Libre class Simon Bainbridge took the solo win in the mighty Audi TT.
,p>Into the Racing Car classes and in the 1100s Gary Thomas finished 3 seconds clear of the rest who were headed by Paul Masters in the Jedi who ended up with a 9 second plus advantage over the Delta of Glyn & Mick Thomas. Martin Pickles was the pick of the FF1600 class finishing 3 seconds clear of Dennis Pickett in the Quest whilst Phil Perks in the elderly Royale RP26 was even further adrift. The 1600 Racing Car class saw Jonathan Toulmin light years ahead of the only other runner – Peter Brogden in the pretty but underpowered & overweight March 733 that was originally campaigned by Masami Kuwashima in the British F3 championship.
The 2 litre Racing Car class was again ultra competitive. Andy Platt led initially from Phil Lynch and Colin Birkbeck. Then Mark Smith recovered from a failed first run to snatch the class. Making their debut with a new Dallara were Simon and Richard Keen. Simon finished a creditable fifth ahead of Steve Miles and company. There were just five runners in the Over 2 litre class and Nick Algar was in dominating form finishing ahead of Terry Holmes and Stewart Robb Snr. Graham Porrett was fourth and Ross Napier was fifth. Roy Napier did practice but a misfire meant that he reverted to the role of mechanic in deference to son Ross.
The final two classes were for the lovely Lotuses of the Paul Matty Sports cars lotus championship. In the Saloon and Sports Car class Grayham Parker in the Elise took the win on scratch ahead of Anthony Shute in the Expose and Keith Wilford in the be-snorkelled Europa. The Racing Car class saw John Palmer lead initially from Ken Lewis in their Lotus 61s but on the second run David Hampton rocketed into the lead with his superb Lotus 69.
John Payne in the Dallara he shares with Phil Lynch set a PB on his second run yet still fell to 12th. Jonathan Toulmin was initially 10th but fell back to 11th despite a healthy improvement. Gary Thomas set his best time on his first run as on his second he overcooked the uphill approach to Rocket and spun out; this would see him take 10th. Colin Birkbeck had the worst possible start to the Top 12 when he bogged the start and crossed the start line before grinding to a halt. On his second run with the pressure on he did set a PB but would have to settle for a cautious 9th. Phil Lynch lay 8th after the first runs and did just enough to keep the Dallara ahead of the similar chassis of Birkbeck. Andy Platt, making his 2010 British Sprint Championship debut, recorded an 80 second dead first run (another PB) and holding 5th. On his second run he dipped into the 79 second bracket falling down to 7th in the process. Graham Porrett’s first run was his fastest of the day but it slotted the garagiste into sixth however on his second run he just slipped past Platt to grab a well earned 6th. Mark Smith was once again the leading two litre in the run-off. His first effort saw him in 4th but as others improved Mark was unable to make massive inroads on his time and despite clipping 0.7 off his time he slipped to 5th. Ross Napier was struggling with a rather recalcitrant Cosworth DFR. His first run was over three seconds quicker than his Q-time but it sounded far from being a smooth engine behind him. On the second run it sounded a lot better and he clipped well over two seconds off his time to climb up to 4th.
Terry Holmes first run was good enough for third as he clipped 0.6 off his Q-time and it was a good job that he had set this time as a driveshaft failure sidelined him from setting a further time – third was his reward when he could so easily have finished second. Stewart Robb Snr set a cracking first run time and was on the same pace as Algar’s Q-time but it was only good enough for second. Then on his second run it all went wrong at the exit of Church as the Pilbeam drifted off the tarmac and took an extended trip over the grass. With first place already in the bag plus a new Outright Course Record Nick Algar wanted a maximum and his second run was close to a second quicker. Algar was jubilant and his team were pleased especially John Fisher who had spent a day with Nick and Luke sorting out that mysterious misfire. With 14 points in the bag could Sunday see a repeat?
1 Nick Algar (3.5 Gould-NME GR55) 74.05secs; 2 Stewart Robb Snr (4.0 Pilbeam-Judd KV4 MP88) 76.56secs; 3 Terry Holmes (3.5 Lola-Judd/Swindon ERH) 77.37secs; 4 Ross Napier (3.5 Gould-Cosworth DFR GR37) 78.16secs; 5 Mark Smith (2.0 Reynard-Vauxhall/Swindon 903) 78.35secs; 6 Graham Porrett (3.5 Lola-Judd/Swindon ERH) 79.73secs; 7 Andrew Platt (2.0 Dallara-Vauxhall/Pride F397) 79.85secs; 8 Phil Lynch (2.0 Dallara-Vauxhall/JRE F301) 80.73secs; 9 Colin Birkbeck (2.0 Dallara-Vauxhall 301) 81.79secs; 10 Gary Thomas (1.1 Force-Suzuki PT) 82.68secs; 11 Jonathan Toulmin (1.5 Force-Suzuki PT) 83.17secs; 12 John Payne (2.0 Dallara-Vauxhall/JRE F301) 83.32secs