Championship
Top 10

	Class Results - Round 13 - Snetterton - Sunday October 15th
	Class A     1 Tony Soper   2 Julian Birley   3 Andy Page     Class B     1 Tim Lewis   2 Adie Hawkins   3 John Griffiths     Class C     1 Steven Griffin   2 No other finishers   3 No other finishers     Class D     1 Roger Evans   2 Kevin Evans   3 Robin Eyre-Maunsell		Class E     1 Timothy Childs   2 Peter Guy L'Amie   3 Peter Higton     Class F     1 Lee Penn   2 Mark James   3 Martin Jones     Class G     1 Phil Donaghy   2 Paul Buckley   3 Andy Inman
	EasyTrack Driver of the Day Awards Class A - D - Tony Soper Class E - G - Timothy Childs

Well, it’s great for us spectators when a championship goes down to the final round to decide the winner – it’s probably not so good for the nerves of the drivers involved!

Three drivers arrived at Snetterton on October 15th with a very realistic chance winning their first Championship.

Roger Evans could not rely on just scoring maximum points in his class as he had a two point deficit to make up on Andy Inman and Tim Lewis. Andy had been in the lead of the Championship from the first round but had, in recent races, seen his lead slowly disappear. Tim Lewis had struggled all year with the number of starters in Class B – the rules say that you need 3 starters to score maximum points. Luckily for Tim there would be four starters in Class B for the final round.

Qualifying was cut short by a red flag after 13 minutes. The Class G cars of Ian Fisher and Sarah Heels had both stopped out on the circuit and it was necessary to stop the session due to the position of the cars. The result was that Tim Lewis had secured the first two points of the day for pole position in Class B – and overall pole yet again. The nearest car was teammate and rear-gunner Adie Hawkins. Andy Page lead Class A from Tony Soper despite the fact that Andy had also stopped on the circuit with a problem.

Steven Griffin was the sole Class C entry whilst Championship contender Roger Evans did all he could towards the title by taking Class D pole.

Rarely, Class E was an all Alfa 75 affair with Timothy Childs taking pole whilst in Class F Lee Penn was making a rare appearance and never looked threatened. The main battle in Class F was for second place where a strong points finish would secure second for Martin Jones – but any slip up and Bianco team-mate Mark James was ready to snatch it.

For the second race in a row Phil Donaghy chose to compete in Class G in his 145 and once again he took pole position. Championship contender Andy Inman had to be happy with second place in Class G by just outqualifying Paul Buckley.

So fifteen laps of Snetterton would decide the outcome of the 2006 championship. It was a good venue seeing as our 2006 sponsors Alfashop come from just up the road in Norwich and it was good to see them out in force to support the final round. A pit stop at the end of the warm-up lap by Aide Hawkins to secure a loose bonnet pin meant that Tim would be alone on the front row.

Behind Tim Graham Presley got a great start but a damaged front spoiler on lap 2 meant he would need to pit for repairs. After this Graham put in a great drive to finish 6th and lap right on the lead pace. At first it looked like Tim would romp away to another overall win but the LMA GTV of Tony Soper obviously hadn’t read the script and on lap 12 Tony took the lead of the race – one the Class A car would not lose. With Tim taking the Class B win and fastest race lap his position for the Championship looked strong.
In Class D Roger Evan did all he could by securing the full 24 points – that 2 point gap though remained. It looked for a while as if nobody wanted to win Class G as a few drivers ran into problems – not helped by an oil slick between The Esses and Russell Chicane. Class G leader Phil Donaghy was obviously having a real struggle with his car – later diagnosed as a failed rear wheel bearing and on lap 12 he was passed by Paul Buckley. A class third for Andy meant he would finish the year 8 points behind Tim Lewis and 6 away from Roger Evans.

Lee Penn took another good Class F win from Mark James whilst 3rd for Martin Jones meant he would finish second in Class F in the final points table behind Shaun Hazlewood. After missing a few rounds Shaun returned for the final race but had a miserable time as problems in qualifying and a retirement from the race meant he would not increase his points total.

The Class E battle of the 75s was won by Timothy Childs.

So despite some poor grids at some meetings the Championship proved to be one of the closest ever and everyone seemed to agree that Tim Lewis is a worthy Champion in the series 25th season.

No doubt the winter will fly by and it won’t be long before we are counting down to the 26th season, with it’s restructured classes, starting in March 2007. Can Tim do it again?

 

 

Photos by Graham & Andrea Heels

	Class Results - Round 12 - Oulton Park- Saturday September 23rd
	Class A     1 Andy Page   2 Graham Presley   3 No other finishers     Class B     1 Tim Lewis   2 No other finishers   3 No other finishers     Class C     1 Nev Simpson   2 No other finishers   3 No other finishers     Class D     1 Roger Evans   2 Graham Seager   3 Kevin Evans		Class E     1 Andy Woodall   2 Peter Higton   3 No other finishers     Class F     1 Mark James   2 Chris Baker   3 Martin Jones     Class G     1 Phil Donaghy   2 Paul Buckley   3 Sarah Heels
	EasyTrack Driver of the Day Awards Class A - D - Graham Seager Class E - G - TBC

Apologies for getting this onto the web site so late!

Arriving at Oulton Park, with two races it go, it was always going to be a vital round in deciding the destination of the 2006 Championship. Tim Lewis had the usual problem of just having one other car in Class B, the Lahoma 33 of Chris Snowdon, so he would be unable to score maximum points. Roger Evans didn’t have that problem in Class D but really needed a maximum score to keep in touch and Andy Inman in Class G needed to reverse the recent sequence on non-class wins. This would be tricky for Andy as Oulton Park expert Phil Donaghy had converted the 145 last seen in the hands of David Hughes back at Silverstone to 2 litre Class G specification. Phil would take Class G pole from Paul Buckley whilst other class pole winners were Andy Page (A), Tim Lewis (B), Neil Smith (C), Roger Evans (D), Andy Woodall (E) & Mark James in Class F.

Local driver Richard Salt’s run of Oulton Park bad luck continued when a trip through the gravel at the start of qualifying resulted in the terminal mix of gravel and timing belts meaning he would be a non-starter.

At the start of the race Tim Lewis immediately opened up a huge lead at the front – 7 seconds on lap 3, 10 by lap 5. Behind him there was drama though involving one of his Championship rivals. Back in the Class F battle 2nd, Martin Jones had started second on the grid but got just ahead of Bianco team-mate Mark James into Old Hall Corner but as Martin turned in there was slight contact that put him into a spin – luckily without anyone collecting him! As people took avoiding action Andy Inman struck the back of Chris Baker’s Class F 33. Whilst this propelled Chris into second in Class F the result for Andy was – well bizarre! As can be seen in the photographs on this page the rear bumper from Chris’ car attached itself to the front of Andy’s 156. Whilst his two new “horns” may have looked attractive! the officials didn’t think so and Andy was shown the black & orange (mechanical problem) flag. As a result on lap 4 Andy, who was unaware that his car had an additional part, stopped at Fosters for the marshals to remove his additional feature. Whilst this enabled Andy to continue it meant he would only finish 4th in Class G – the class won by Phil Donaghy from Paul Buckley and Sarah Heels.

Back at the other end of the grid Neil Smith had retired from the Class C lead with clutch failure leaving the class win for Nev Simpson.

Chris Snowdon got past Andy Page on lap 8 only to see a mechanical problem put him out on lap 10. Andy went on to win Class A from Graham Presley. In Class D championship contender Roger Evans was never really troubled by brother Kevin or Graham Seager and with a fastest lap as well Roger would be the only contender to leave Oulton with the full 24 points.

Andy Woodall took another win in Class E whilst Martin Jones fought back in Class F to finish 3rd behind Mark James and the bumperless Chris Baker.

So what was the result of all of that on the championship? Well we go to Snetterton on Sunday October 15th with Andy and Tim equal on 260 points and Roger right there on 258. It looks like all three of them will have enough starters in their class to score maximum points so it should be a straight battle with Roger needing both of his rivals to drop a few points.

 

 

Photos by Graham Heels

	Class Results - Round 11 - Brands Hatch - Saturday September 3rd For the Kevin Griffiths Trophy
	Class A     1 Andy Page   2 Graham Presley   3 No other finishers     Class B     1 Tim Lewis   2 No other finishers   3 No other finishers     Class C     1 Neil Smith   2 Nev Simpson   3 John Griffiths     Class D     1 Roger Evans   2 Robin Eyre-Maunsell   3 No other finishers		Class E     1 Phillip Ellwood   2 Nick Suiter   3 Andy Woodall     Class F     1 Mark James   2 Martin Jones   3 Wayne Ashford     Class G     1 Paul Buckley   2 Andy Inman   3 Sarah Heels
	EasyTrack Driver of the Day Awards Class A - D - Nev Simpson Class E - G - Wayne Ashford

A full grid is usually guaranteed at Brands Hatch but this is a funny year for entries. It was disappointing  that just 22 cars entered the round that was, this year, the championship round for the Kevin Griffiths Trophy. The biggest disappointment was the Class F entry of just four cars – especially seeing as Class E managed to produce a six car entry to be the best supported class by far.

Qualifying on a still damp track saw Tim Lewis take his customary pole position from Graham Presley and Chris Snowdon. It was good to see Chris back in the Lahoma car after his crash at Cadwell Park in July but unfortunately the 7 laps of qualifying that it completed were the only laps Chris managed all day as a terminal engine problem ended their day early.

Class C and D saw Neil Smith and Roger Evans take pole position whilst Phillip Ellwood continued his run of good form in Class E with pole position from Andy Woodall and Nick Suiter. Class F may have only has 4 entries but behind pole man Mark James it looked very close with Chris Healey, Martin Jones and Wayne Ashford just 0.3 seconds apart.

Championship leader Andy Inman was after an easy life in Class G to consolidate his overall lead but he wasn’t going to get it as Paul Buckley outqualified him and only a few places behind was Sarah Heels who was having another competitive showing in qualifying.

By the time the race started all 21 starters were faced with a completely dry track. Tim Lewis initially got a poor start to let Graham Presley and Andy Page through – but by the end of lap 1 normal service had resumed and Tim had a 2.5 second lead!! Over the course of the 23 lap race Tim would extend this to take the race win by over 30 seconds.

Andy Page eventually got the better of Graham Presley on lap 6 to take the Class A win whilst Neil Smith and Roger Evans never looked troubled in Class C and D. Equally Phillip Ellwood never looked likely to lose the Class E win although Nick Suiter’s 2nd in Class E was never as simple as he had Andy Woodall right behind him for the whole race.

Class F may have been “easy” for Mark James but the battle behind was probably the best in the race. Martin Jones, Wayne Ashford and Chris Healey were never more than a few car lengths apart and after a number of place changes eventually finished in that order.

After the first few laps it looked like Andy Inman was heading towards another class win in his quest for the overall championship. But Paul Buckley was never far behind and got past Andy at Paddock Hill on lap 15. Two laps later Andy made a mistake and ran through the gravel at Druids hairpin. A final lap surge from Andy didn’t give him the Class G win but made certain he got the extra 2 valuable points for fastest lap.

As a result of Tim being the only race starter in Class B Andy Inman extended his overall championship lead to 8 points whilst Roger Evans, currently in 3rd overall, closed the gap to 2nd placed man Tim Lewis to just 4 points.

With 2 rounds to go it looks to be Andy’s year but with all rounds counting towards the final points total it only needs one slip-up!! Next round is on Saturday September 23rd at Oulton Park.

 

Photos by Colin Nicholson & Graham Heels

	Class Results - Round 10 - Mallory Park - Sunday August 20th
	Class A     1 Andy Page   2 Graham Presley   3 No other finishers     Class B     1 Tim Lewis   2 No other finishers   3 No other finishers     Class C     1 Neil Smith   2 Nev Simpson   3 Steven Griffin     Class D     1 Roger Evans   2 Kevin Evans   3 No other finishers		Class E     1 Phil Donaghy   2 Andy Woodall   3 Timothy Childs     Class F     1 Lee Penn   2 Mark James   3 Martin Jones     Class G     1 Paul Buckley   2 Andy Inman   3 Sarah Heels
	EasyTrack Driver of the Day Awards Class A - D - Tim Lewis Class E - G - Paul Buckley

A number of factors were working against us having a large grid of cars at Mallory Park – summer holidays, the late confirmation of the race, the lower grid numbers this year and of course the memories of Mallory Park in 2002.

The final entry was 22 cars – with most of the championship and class leaders entered. It was good to see Lee Penn back to try to continue his unbeaten run but a shame that Shaun Hazlewood’s car was still receiving attention following it’s Donington exit – so Shaun would not have the opportunity to try to beat Lee again.

Qualifying on track still slightly damp in places saw Tim Lewis take another fine pole position. Tim was followed by a trio of Class A cars – Graham Presley, Ian Stapleton, Andy Page. Right behind them were the Class C pole man Neil Smith and both Class D “Evans” – Roger ahead of brother Kevin.

The Class E battle looked as if it may be one to watch as Phil Donaghy out qualified Andy Woodall by just 0.02 of a second!

In Class F Lee Penn took his expected class pole from a very rapid Martin Jones and Mark James. Donington winner Christopher Wright was a disappointing 5th in class.

Class G saw a minor upset in qualifying as class and overall Championship leader Andy Inman could only qualify 3rd of the three class runners. Paul Buckley took an impressive pole and Sarah Heels put the air flow meter problems of the past few meetings behind her to qualify 2nd. A trip to the rolling road showed that her car was only producing about 90bhp at the last race.

A single early race meant that many of us were looking forward to a nice “early night” after the race and prizegiving. However this was not to be as two early race stoppages meant the Alfa Championship was put back to the end of the days racing programme.

At the first attempt the cars got to the hairpin on the first lap when one of the lead cars, the rapid Class A GTV of Ian Stapleton, had a spin that resulted in his car being stranded up against the kerb in the middle of Shaw’s Hairpin. As the race was stopped after just one lap the race would be completely restarted allowing Ian to re-take his place in his original grid position.

On the restart Graham Presley got a flying start to take the lead. This would be short lived though as first Tim Lewis and then Ian Stapleton charged to the front. A few laps in though and Ian got it on the grass at the Lake Esses and after rejoining the track struck the barrier hard on the run towards the hairpin. The red flags were shown immediately – thankfully Ian was straight out of the car and was fine. . . . unlike his lovely car.

Quite understandably two red flags meant the Alfa race would now be rescheduled for the end of the days racing programme – meaning a long wait for the race.

It’s August so as you’d expect the warm up lap saw black clouds and drizzle . . . just what we didn’t need. Luckily though that was as bad as it got.

The race, now over 15 minutes, saw Tim Lewis take a lead he would never lose.

Andy Page took a fairly comfortable second overall and Class A win from Graham Presley – Graham could never relax though as Neil Smith’s  Class C 156 was with him for the whole race and in fact had been in front of him on the first lap.

Roger Evans and Lee Penn had fairly straightforward class wins in D and F whilst the battle for second in Class F was one of the best in the race. Mark James eventually beat his Bianco “team mate” Martin Jones after Martin had a little moment at the hairpin on lap 9.

Class E and G saw Phil Donaghy and Paul Buckley take wins whilst Andy Inman recovered from his morning’s performance to take the valuable points for 2nd.

Driver of the Day awards went to Tim Lewis and Paul Buckley. The Championship now moves on to Brands Hatch for Round 11 of 13 on Sunday September 3rd.

 

 

 

Race Photos by Graham Heels - Prizegiving Photos by Rachel Buckley

	Class Results - Round 9 - Donington Park - Saturday August 5th
	Class A     1 Andy Page   2 Graham Presley   3 Andy Millar     Class B     1 Tim Lewis   2 No other finishers   3 No other finishers     Class C     1 Nev Simpson   2 No other finishers   3 No other finishers     Class D     1 Roger Evans   2 Clive Hodgkin   3 Kevin Evans		Class E     1 Phillip Ellwood   2 Phil Donaghy   3 Andy Woodall     Class F     1 Christopher Wright   2 Chris Jones   3 Neil Smith     Class G     1 Paul Buckley   2 Andy Inman   3 Ian Fisher
	EasyTrack Driver of the Day Awards Class A - D - Andy Millar Class E - G - Richard Salt

Well, whichever way you look at it a 38 car grid is a big grid. And with seven classes and a 25 minute race it needed good weather, good driving and a bit of luck to make sure it went smoothly.

The reason for the singles grid was the fact that this race was a little different from our normal meeting in that we had been invited to be a guest championship on the EERC’s (the Britcar people) meeting. With a couple of 100 minute races on the programme we would only have room for a single Alfa race.

Despite a few last minute changes we ended up with the full 38 cars in the assembly area for a qualifying session that would once again be dominated by Tim Lewis. Time was followed by the Class A cars of Andy Page, Andy Millar(impressive on his first outing in the ex-Ray Mears 33 – now in yellow) & Ian Stapleton. In 5th and good to see him back was Bob Godbold in his Class B 33.

Nev Simpson took Class C pole as the only other Class C driver, John Griffiths, had some problems in qualifying and would be a distant 14 places back on the grid.

Championship front runner Roger Evans looked comfortable in Class D whilst Phillip Ellwood looked even better off in Class E – with 12 mostly Class F cars between him and a trio of other E cars. Phil Donaghy was having to take it a bit easy running in the new engine in his Alfatune 145 to replace the unit that let go in a big way at Cadwell Park.

Despite there being no entries from Lee Penn, Mark James or Alan Hudd the Class F entry looked very strong with 14 cars entered. Amongst those hoping to give runaway leader Shaun Hazlewood some competition were the ever faster Christopher Wright, newcomer to Alfas Chris Jones, 2004 Champion Neil Smith in Emma’s 33 16 valve and the man currently in 2nd place in Class F Martin Jones. Shaun took pole but the rest of the Class F pack including Wayne Ashford and Mark Bevington were never far behind. Also making a welcome return for his first race of 2006 was Chris Healey.

Class G had a fairly familiar look with Championship leader Andy Inman out front but this time only two places ahead of Paul Buckley – were Paul’s car problems finally sorted?!

 

A 25 minute race at Donington on a warm day would always be quite hard on the machinery and 10 non-finishers would support that.

Whilst Tim cruised to another Class B and overall win there was a great battle behind with Andy Page and Graham Presley swapping places for the lead in Class A and some great racing between Andy Millar, Tony Soper and Ian Stapleton – until Ian was forced to visit the pits on lap 10 with car problems.

Bob Godbold was going well until an engine failure put him out at the start of lap 8.

With John Griffiths out of the race Nev Simpson would take the Class C win whilst Roger Evans never looked troubled in Class D.

 

Class E, F and G all had very entertaining battles – all of which were affected by the events on lap 18 . . . . as was the Class A lead. With just a minute or two left of the 25 minute race a nasty accident at the Goddards chicane saw Shaun Bugner’s Class B 33 hit the barrier and turn over. Luckily Shaun was fine but a red flag was needed and the results were wound back to lap 17. In Class E Phil Donaghy caught and passed Phillip Ellwood just as the flag came out so Phillip Ellwood took the class win.

Class F had already seen Martin Jones retire with a split oil pipe. Neil Smith and Christopher Wright had been very close to leader Shaun Hazlewood but lap 16 had seen Shaun, struggling with high water temperatures, finally retire with a split coolant hose. Meanwhile Neil could feel the engine getting tight and he headed for the pits leaving Christpher Wright and Chris Jones at the front. Neil was most surprised after the race to discover he had been classified 3rd – when the result was declared he just crossed the finish line in the pit lane. This left an excellent 4th, 5th and 6th to Richard Salt, Tim Hayes and Chris Healey.

 

The battle for the overall Championship lead took a turn on lap 6 when Class G leader Andy Inman had a spin whilst fighting with cars in Class E and F. As a result Paul Buckley snatched the Class G lead and held on to the end – will those 2 dropped points prove to important at the end of the season?

In the Championship Andy Inman now has just a 4 point lead from Tim Lewis with Roger Evans and Shaun Hazlewood a bit further back in 3rd and 4th.

The Championship now moves on to Mallory Park on Sunday August 20th for Round 10 of 13.

 

 

 

 

Photos & Report by Graham Heels

	Class Results - Round 7 - Cadwell Park (Saturday July 15th)
	Class A     1 Andy Page   2 Ian Stapleton   3 Graham Presley     Class B     1 Tim Lewis   2 Chris Snowdon   3 No other finishers     Class C     1 John Clonis   2 No other finishers   3 No other finishers     Class D     1 Roger Evans   2 Andrew Bramah   3 Robin Eyre-Mansell		Class E     1 Graham Heels   2 Phil Donaghy   3 Andy Woodall     Class F     1 Shaun Hazlewood   2 Mark James   3 Christopher Wright     Class G     1 Andy Inman   2 Ian Fisher   3 Paul Buckley
	Class Results - Round 8 - Cadwell Park (Sunday July 16th)
	Class A     1 Graham Presley   2 Ian Stapleton   3 Andy Page     Class B     1 Tim Lewis   2 Adie Hawkins   3 No other finishers     Class C     1 John Clonis   2 No other finishers   3 No other finishers     Class D     1 Roger Evans   2 Andrew Bramah   3 Robin Eyre-Mansell		Class E     1 Graham Heels   2 Andy Woodall   3 Peter Guy L'Amie     Class F     1 Shaun Hazlewood   2 Christopher Wright   3 Mark Bevington     Class G     1 Andy Inman   2 Ian Fisher   3 Paul Buckley
	EasyTrack Driver of the Meeting Awards Class A - D - Andrew Bramah Class E - G - Christopher Wright

Race Report to follow Soon!!

Whilst we wait for Michael’s full report on the double header round at Cadwell Park over the weekend of July 15th and 16th I will give a brief account for those of you that were not there. It’s a little more difficult for me to do this for the Cadwell races as I was racing for the first time this season – therefore I had a rather restricted view of the races!

Unfortunately a cracked block in Friday’s testing ruled Brian Shrubb out of his local races – the result was a 26 car field with all classes racing together.

At the time Saturday morning’s qualifying session seemed to be in rather warm conditions but it would later prove to be the coolest session of the weekend. Cadwell is long enough and tricky enough at the best of times so having the session resticted to just a handful of flying laps is always a handicap. The reason was a red flag when Alan Hudd’s Class F 33 lost a rear wheel at the hairpin due to a bearing failure.

At the end of the session the top of the grid had a familiar look as Tim Lewis took pole by an impressive 1.3 seconds from Adie Hawkins, Andy Page & Ian Stapleton. Roger Evans GTV lead the Class D 75’s whilst John Clonis was the sole starter in Class C. John  and Graham Heels, on Class E pole, had the front running Class F cars of Shaun Hazlewood and Mark James between them and the impressive Christopher Wright just behind. Championship leader Andy Inman was the class of the Class G field.

A driveshaft problem off of the line for Saturday’s race meant two things – Adie Hawkins would be the only race retirement and Tim Lewis would cruise to a race win by some 15 seconds. Andy Page would finish a fine second with Chris Snowdon right behind – at last getting a good result in the Lahoma car.

Roger Evans and John Clonis repeated their dominant qualifying performances whilst Shaun Hazlewood never looked in any danger of losing his Class F win . . . well not on the track anyway. The Clerk of the Course chose to show Shaun the Black & Orange flag for the last few laps of the race – a flag that indicates a problem with the car requiring a visit to the pits. Shaun could not sense anything wrong and chose to continue racing. After a visit to the Clerk of the Courses office Shaun’s Class F win remained – as Mark James remarked at prizegiving “he’s obviously a very good salesman!”.

Class E went to Graham Heels on his return to the championship after a year of spectating whilst Andy Inman consolidated his championship lead with another Class G win.

Rather than use the positions from Saturday to decide Sunday’s grid the championship had another qualifying session on Sunday morning. This was especially welcomed by Adie Hawkins and Alan Hudd who had both repaired their cars after Satruday’s problems.

At the end of the session the grid had a remarkably familiar look to it with many drivers due to start Sunday’s race from the same position as Saturday’s.

By the time Sunday’s race came it was really roasting and what the drivers didn’t know was that they were going to spend a lot longer than expected in their hot cars. Off of the start line and into Coppice on the first lap there was some contact between Ian Stapleton’s GTV and Chris Snowdon’s 33. The result was that Chris’ car turned into the barriers on the left, losing the front left hand corner in the process. The race was red flagged and whilst the drivers warmed up even more at least the news that Chris was fine was a relief. Ian Stapleton got back to the grid and would take the restart while the Class F 33 of Mark James was missing. A broken diff at the start would see him unable to take the restart.

After a twenty minute wait the race eventually got underway again. Now 15 minutes in length, the race saw Tim take another win. Adie was 8 seconds behind at the flag but well ahaead of Class A winner Graham Presley. All other Class winners were a repeat of Saturday’s results. One unlucky man was Class E frontrunner Phil Donaghy whose 145 was getting very hot and eventually the engine expired on the penultimate lap.

With most of the Championship class leaders scoring maximum points the points table is getting a famliar look to it as we head to Donington on August 5th – can anyone do anything about Andy Inman?  

 

 

 

 

 

Photos by Andrea Heels, Colin Nicholson and Michael Lindsay

	Class Results - Round 6 - Snetterton One Championship Round - Two Races - Each Race For Half Points
	Class A     1 Ian Stapleton   2 Andy Page   3 No other finishers     Class B     1 Tim Lewis   2 Aide Hawkins   3 Bob Godbold     Class C     1 John Clonis   2 Nev Simpson   3 No other finishers     Class D     1 Roger Evans   2= Peter Sloan   2= Kevin Evans	Click Here for Full Results	Class E     1 Phillip Ellwood   2 Phil Donaghy   3 Andy Woodall     Class F     1 Shaun Hazlewood   2= Martin Jones   2= Alan Hudd     Class G     1 Andy Inman   2 Ian Fisher   3 Sarah Heels
	EasyTrack Driver of the Day Awards Class A - D - Peter Sloan Class E - G - Phillip Ellwood

 

 

On occasions it can be difficult to reach a sensible class split for races on the longer (and larger grid) circuits, particularly when some of the regular A to D runners are missing. Quite early on it looked as though Snetterton was going to pose a problem. The solution came in our suggestion that all classes should run together, and because we had two race slots, they should race twice. This would greatly improve "the show" and happily the BRSCC were agreeable. This was also a welcome move in the light of the current debate on entry fees and also because we hoped to have our sponsors Alfashop present in force.

34 cars eventually came out to qualify on a track that was mostly dry after some early morning drizzle. Tim Lewis had tested earlier in the year, setting sub lap record times and by the end of the session was half a second inside Julian Birley's previous best and a full 1.4" ahead of Adie Hawkins who would share the front row. Chris Snowdon was having another outing in the Lahoma 33 16v and would line up third alongside Class A leader Andy Page. Ian Stapleton was disappointed with fifth quickest with a worry over the GTV6's water temperature. After his clutch failure at Donington, Roger Evans was keen to put his championship chase back on track and was another driver to be below his class lap record to lead class D ahead of brother Kevin and Clive Hodgkin, the 155 and 75 3 litre split by the Class C leader, John Clonis. Shaun Hazlewood would line up an excellent 11th overall in his Class F 33 16v but a big surprise in the class was the performance of Christopher Wright who managed to edge out James Burland and Martin Jones. Philip Ellwood, having only his second race in the ex Chris Finch 156, set a quicker time than class front runners Phil Donaghy (145) and Andy Woodall (146), but Andy was pleased to get within .05" of his team mate. In G, Andy Inman was again the class of the field in his 156 although on this faster circuit he was not as close to the similar E cars as usual. Paul Buckley and Sarah Heels were second and third while Ian Fisher's Selespeed version cut out coming out of Russell on his third lap.

With a 25 second lap time gap between the quickest and slowest cars in the field it was not going to be long before the race leaders were going to lapping the backmarkers - 4 laps to be precise! Chris Snowdon made the best start in the first 15 minute race, shooting between Adie Hawkins and Tim Lewis, before Adie got into his stride, Tim taking the tight "Ridgard" route into Riches but failing to get there first. Andy Page had also got away well soon passed Chris, crossing the line third behind Adie and Tim with Ian Stapleton and Bob Godbold in pursuit. There was plenty of action during the next three laps as Tim took over the lead but Adie tried every way he could to wrest it back. Sadly Chris Snowdon pulled off before Riches as Ian Stapleton took over third place from Andy Page with all three leaders in the 1'16s

Further back, Roger Evans was leading Class D from brother Kevin but Clive Hodgkin was an early retirement after a large "bang" in the transmission of the 75. John Clonis had a clear advantage in C ahead of Nev Simpson but there were all kind of inter class battles going on as well to entertain the spectators with a strong drive being put in by Peter Sloan (75 3 litre) who was leading Shaun Hazlewood who headed Class F. Philip Ellwood was leading E from Phil Donaghy, helped to a degree by Martin Jones who was running between them in his 33 16v.In G, Andy Inman had established a 6 second advantage over Ian Fisher by lap 4.

The leaders were really getting into lapping the tail of the field, Adie Hawkins dropping back in the process, when the red flag was shown after Kevin Evans had knocked the Esses apex tyre wall into the middle of the track! Somehow everyone had got around the obstacle on laps 5 and 6 but it was a shame that the race had to be stopped and the result declared as at lap 5. This left Tim as the race winner from Adie and Ian Stapleton (1st I A). John Clonis, Roger Evans, Phillip Ellwood, Shaun Hazlewood and Andy Inman retained their class leading positions.

With plenty of time available in the timetable, the Championship Co-ordinator approached the Clerk of the Course to see whether or not the second race could be extended from 15 to 20 minutes. The MSA Steward was amenable provided that every competitor signed a form showing their agreement.   

31 cars lined up for race 2 as three o'clock approached and the sun shone. Tim Lewis was determined not to let Adie get ahead of him this time but Adie made a slow start anyway and the gap was already 2.1" by the end of lap one with Ian Stapleton pounding along just behind ahead of Andy Page, Bob Godbold, Roger Evans, John Clonis and John Griffiths. Adie closed the gap on lap 2 but Tim then put his head down to open the gap before they came to lapping the slower runners. Ian Stapleton was never far behind but Andy Page's Giulietta was rapidly dropping back. Shaun Hazlewood was continuing his domination of F (9th overall) but Alan Hudd had made a much better start than in race 1 and was lying second ahead of Martin Jones. In E, Phil Donaghy and Philip Ellwood had made contact at Russell, an angry Philip dropping back amongst the Class G cars and starting a drive through the field to try and regain his class lead. Andy Inman looked set for another Class G win and Sarah Heels was running ahead of Ian Fisher until lap 2.

Going through the field, with many battles going on all round the track once again, was keeping the leaders busy but Tim Lewis seemed to go to sleep on lap 9, losing three seconds to Adie Hawkins in the process and finding the black and yellow 33 right on his tail. Adie looked poised to make a bid for the lead but then ran wide onto the grass in a wild moment coming out of Coram and the status quo was resumed. Thereafter, Tim had it all well under control and came home with a 5.8" advantage. An exhausted Ian Stapleton brought his GTV6 home third, having spun twice during the race, with Andy Page, Bob Godbold, Class D winner Roger Evans, John Griffiths and John Clonis, taking Class C again, next in line. Shaun Hazlewood completed a 100% points scoring weekend to win Class F, but after a great battle for the runner-up spot, it was Martin Jones who beat Alan Hudd home. Class E was an intense affair as Philip Ellwood put in a superb drive to arrive on the tail of Phil Donaghy at Russell on the final lap. It was almost lap 1 in reverse with the 156 this time coming out head to take victory. Although both drivers were called to Clerk of the Course to discuss both events, the result was left as it was. Andy Woodall was a more distant third. In G, Andy Inman was again the class of the field, spending much of the race in the company of the Class F 33s of Richard Salt and Tony Russell while Ian Fisher and Sarah Heels were second and third after Paul Buckley was excluded for not having a working transponder. There were some other noteworthy drives - Kevin Evans (2nd in D and 10th overall) with Peter Sloan just behind him despite a spin and Tim Hayes who jousted with Bill Parker, both in 8v Class F 33s.

Four new class lap records were set during the day – Ian Stapleton’s GTV6 bettered Julian Birley’s previous Class A best with a 1’16.638” while Tim Lewis knocked over a second off his own previous Class B record to leave it at 1’16.080”. This now stands as the overall Alfa Championship lap record for Snetterton. Roger Evans also beat his own record in D with a stunning 1’22.945”. Andy Inman established a mark of Class G with a best of 1’30.326” . Jeremy Wales and his wife Kate made the presentations at the end of the day, competitors showing their appreciation for the support that we are receiving from Alfashop this year.

The results left Andy Inman still leading the Championship overall, 6 points clear of Tim Lewis with Shaun Hazlewood a close third. With a double header next at Cadwell (July 15/16) reliability will be all important.

All Photos by Graham Heels and Steve Fox

Prizegiving Photos by James Hodgkin

Class Results - Round 5 - Donington
Class A     1 Graham Presley   2 Ian Stapleton   3 No other finishers     Class B     1 Tim Lewis   2 Aide Hawkins   3 John Griffiths     Class C     1 John Clonis   2 Nev Simpson   3 No other finishers     Class D     1 Kevin Evans   2 Peter Sloan   3 No other finishers	Click Here for Full Results	Class E     1 Phil Donaghyl   2 Andy Woodall   3 Nick Suiter     Class F     1 Lee Penn   2 Mark James   3 Shaun Hazlewood     Class G     1 Andy Inman   2 Paul Buckley   3 Sarah Heels

 

 

Being allocated pit garages is always a novelty for the Championship and, with heavy rain showers forecast, a welcome one. As it was, the rain stayed away for qualifying, arrived during the early afternoon and then stopped soon enough to allow both Alfa races to be run on a dry track.

A to D Qualifying saw Ian Stapleton take a convincing pole with his GTV6, lapping below his 2005 lap record. He was chased hard by Tim Lewis, Andy Page and Adie Hawkins while 2004 Champion Neil Smith returned with his 156 to lap quicker than John Clonis who has dominated Class C this year. Roger Evans' GTV was the fastest Class D car comfortably clear of brother Kevin on this occasion.

Shaun Hazlewood topped the times in the Class F for much of the 15 minute session before Lee Penn pipped him for pole with five minutes to go. Mark James showed that an 8v 33 should not be discounted by heading the 16v versions of Martin Jones, James Burland and Phil Astell. In E, Nick Suiter turned the tables on Phil Donaghy while Andy Inman continued his run of form in Class G.

The 20 minute E, F & G race produced a superb contest as Mark James and Shaun Hazlewood took the fight to Lee Penn and for 7 laps, the gap was never more than a second between Mark and Lee while Mark always had his mirrors full of Shaun. Lee put the hammer down on laps 9 and 10, drawing away slightly and leaving his rivals to scrap for second place which they did to the end, crossing the line with Mark ahead by a whisker (0.25" in time terms!). Fourth overall, Phil Donaghy had thrown off the attentions of Nick Suiter in E, Nick dropping back to third behind Andy Woodall with a brakes problem. There were good drives by Martin Jones and Emma Karwacki to fourth and fifth in F while Andy Inman dominated G (8th overall) from the similar 156s of Paul Buckley and Sarah Heels.

After going so well in qualifying, Neil Smith heard some worrying noises from his engine, accompanied by low oil pressure, on the green flag lap and decided to non start the A to D race. As so often at Donington, the early laps flattered to deceive as Ian Stapleton, Adie Hawkins and Tim Lewis fought for the lead with Graham Presley sitting there ready to pick up the pieces. However, once Tim was ahead there was nothing to stop him and he powered away to a 15" win over Adie Hawkins and Graham Presley, Ian Stapleton had spun in his efforts to chase Tim as his tyres went off on lap 5, but recovered to fourth thanks to the retirements of Julian Birley and Andy Page. John Clonis was untroubled in Class C although Nev Simpson set a quicker fastest lap in his Alfetta GTV while join championship leader Roger Evans had his clutch explode with a couple of laps to go, leaving the Class D win to brother Kevin ahead of Peter Sloan.

EASYTRACK Driver of the Day awards went to Mark James (E,F& G) and Tim Lewis(A to D).

 

 

	Class Results - Round 3 - Pembrey
	Class A     1 Graham Presley   2 Andy Page   3 No other finishers     Class B     1 Aide Hawkins   2 Tim Lewis   3 Bob Godbold     Class C     1 John Clonis   2 No other finishers   3 No other finishers     Class D     1 Roger Evans   2 Clive Hodgkin   3 Peter Sloan	Click Here for Full Results	Class E     1 Andy Woodall   2 No other finishers   3 No other finishers     Class F     1 Shaun Hazlewood   2 Martin Jones   3 Alan Hudd     Class G     1 Andy Inman   2 Paul Buckley   3 Sarah Heels

 

	Class Results - Round 4 - Pembrey
	Class A     1 Andy Page   2 Graham Presley   3 No other finishers     Class B     1 Aide Hawkins   2 Tim Lewis   3 Bob Godbold     Class C     1 John Clonis   2 No other finishers   3 No other finishers     Class D     1 Roger Evans   2 Clive Hodgkin   3 Peter Sloan	Click Here for Full Results	Class E     1 Andy Woodall   2 No other finishers   3 No other finishers     Class F     1 Shaun Hazlewood   2 Phil Astell   3 Alan Hudd     Class G     1 Andy Inman   2 Sarah Heels   3 Paul Buckley

 

The Alfa Championship made its first visit to the 1.456 mile Pembrey circuit , near Llanelli in South Wales back in 1993 when race wins went to Peter Dalley in the first 75 Turbo to race in the series and Martin Parsons with his Class F 33. Fast forward to 2006 and none of those who took part in that first meeting were on the grid over the weekend May 13/14. Looking back to 1994, however, and we do find a few familiar names that were - Adie Hawkins, Paul Buckley, Tim Lewis and Graham Presley. The modified lap records from that year were also intact - Class A held by Chris Snowdon's GTV6 and B by Pete Cate's Alfasud Ti.

The combination of an increased grid size and a slightly disappointing entry in terms of numbers meant that the economics of the meeting dictated one instead of two races on each day. Interest was heightened, however, by the late entry of Adie Hawkins in his superbly engineered 33 16v - now with beefed up transmission after its failure at Oulton in round 1 and a wide yellow stripe added to the black bodywork in keeping with AHM tradition.

In Qualifying It was mid session, on a dry track, before anyone really showed their hand in with Adie, Tim Lewis, Graham Presley and Andy Page all posting laps in the 1-06s, but it was Tim who pulled out all the stops on the final lap to take pole, leaving Adie Hawkins 1.44" in his wake. Andy in his turn almost grabbed the second front row slot but had to be content with staying ahead of Graham Presley and Bob Godbold. 6th quickest was an amazing effort by Clive Hodgkin in his Class D 75 3 litre, over two seconds quicker than Roger Evans' lap record despite never having driven the circuit before. Also going very quickly was Shaun Hazlewood, fastest in F, who would share row four with Championship leader Roger Evans' GTV. Row five was all Class C with John Clonis heading Tony Matthews. The only Class E runner was Andy Woodall with his 146 but he would undoubtedly have fun with the F and G cars that made up the rest of the 22 car field, apart from Peter Sloan's 75 3.0 and Simon Bird's modified 33. Phil Astell was happy to be the second quickest Class F driver although Martin Jones was pushing him hard. In G, all three cars were covered by half a second with Paul Buckley celebrating with the class pole in his stunning metallic pink 156 which is supporting "Breakthrough", a breast cancer charity.

The start at Pembrey is always a little frantic as the first corner is a tight hairpin and there are always fingers crossed that everyone who goes in will come out the other side! One lock up and a bit of tyre smoke apart and all was fine with Tim Lewis taking an immediate lead - but not for long! Going through the corner by the Paddock crossing, Adie saw a gap on the inside and went for it. The tail of the 33 nearly got away from him in the process but by the time the two cars reached Esses the job was done.  At least that was how it should have been although Tim had far from given up.  "Don't hit that kerb at Brooklands" Lee Penn had told Adie over the phone from Spa. So on lap 8 we see the black 33 bouncing over the grass having done just that, throwing away the lead to Tim Lewis in the process. At the end of the lap the gap was 5.8" but Adie was flying, despite another off course excursion. A slow lap 17 by Tim allowed Adie to sense that a win was possible. Lap 18 a stunning new lap record. Lap 19, he was closing all the way. At Honda on the final lap, Tim ran slightly wide, Adie saw his chance down the inside and it was a drag race to the line with the 33 just getting there first. Phew!! Further back, Graham Presley had driven hard to stay ahead of Andy Page to win Class A with Bob Gobbold finishing 5th.

Having passed the pits in 6th place at the end of lap 1, half a second clear of Roger Evans, Clive Hodgkin spun at the hairpin impeded by a brake imbalance after which a clutch problem slowed his progress until the second half of the race. John Clonis had a clear run to win C after Tony Matthews had retired with a gearbox failure. Shaun Hazlewood was dominant in F after Phil Astell's suspension collapsed on lap 5, leaving Martin Jones and Alan Hudd to follow him home, Alan enjoying an entertaining racelong battle with Andy Woodall. Andy Inman was a runaway winner in G as pole-man Paul Buckley's 156 was suffering a power loss and brake problems.

Phil Astell's suspension was rebuilt before the Sunday afternoon race while Tony Matthew's 33 was fitted with a standard gearbox but later  he wished he hadn't bothered. As the lights went out, the main part of the field got away well but there was contact at the back, resulting in Tony hitting the pit wall backwards hard, Peter Sloan spinning off harmlessly onto the grass, a broken wheel for Paul Buckley and side body damage for Phil Astell. Happily Tony was unharmed but it took an age for the track to be cleaned up as there was fuel leaking from his car.

Eventually the all clear was given for the re-start, the race reduced from 20 to 14 minutes. Tim Lewis and Adie Hawkins arrived at the hairpin together but Tim overshot his braking point and Adie calmly took the lead and then proceeded to edge away to a win that was somewhat more comfortable than the day before. Graham Presley was running quickly in third with Andy Page just behind but Andy had a broadside moment on lap 2, dropping down to 9th place, seemingly with no chance of catching Graham before the finish. Passing the pits at the end of lap 11, with two to go, Graham suddenly slowed with what transpired to be a sticking throttle which meant that he had to slow the car by cutting the engine. This was to happen four times before the flag and enabled Andy Page to catch and pass the 75 for a class win although he couldn’t reach Bob Godbold who finished an excellent third overall.

Roger Evans had  a lonely race to a class D win and 6th overall ahead of Simon Bird (33) and Shaun Hazlewood who repeated his Class F win. This time, though, he had Phil Astell pushing him from about five seconds back, Phil taking a new lap record in the process. Alan Hudd took another third in class after Martin Jones had had to make a quick pit stop to pull bodywork off a damaged wheel after contact with Clive Hodgkin's errant 75. Clive recovered well to finish 2nd in D. Andy Inman took another convincing Class G win but this time Sarah Heels was able to stay ahead of Paul Buckley to finish second after a run of thirds places in her 156.

EASYTRACK Driver of the Day awards went to Adie Hawkins (Saturday) and Andy Woodall (Sunday), the latter having set a new Class E lap record with an indentical lap time on both days and being rewarded for his spirited driving in the absence of any class E competition. Other lap records to go were A (Graham Presley), B (Adie Hawkins), D (Clive Hodgkin), F (Phil Astell) while G was set by Andy Inman. Only Neil Smith's Class C lap record was left untouched.

Thanks to Tom Ibrahim for some of the photographs

Prizegiving photographs by James Hodgkin

Class Results and Race Report - Round 2 - Silverstone
Class A     1 Ian Stapleton   2 Tony Soper   3 Julian Birley     Class B     1 Tim Lewis   2 Bob Godbold   3 Bryan Shrubb     Class C     1 John Clonis   2 No other finishers   3 No other finishers     Class D     1 Roger Evans   2 Kevin Evans   3 Roger Eyre-Maunsell	Click Here for Full Results	Class E     1 Phil Donaghy   2 Nick Suiter   3 Andy Woodall     Class F     1 Shaun Hazlewood   2 Mark James   3 Alan Hudd     Class G     1 Ian Fisher   2 Andy Inman   3 Sarah Heels

Regular visitors to Silverstone (and Donington) over the years will have become familiar with Spring and Autumn early morning mists. More than once, the Championship Co-ordinator has been left to set the grid after competitors have been restricted to three laps behind the Course Car. As the BRSCC ALFASHOP ALFA ROMEO CHAMPIONSHIP circus gathered for Round 2 of this year’s series, there was a definite threat of a repeat as scrutineering got underway. However, a look down the pit lane as nine o’clock approached showed that things had improved enough to make marshals post to marshals post visbility at least adequate.

Classes E,F & G were the first to qualify, 20 cars making their cautious way onto the track for the fifteen minute session. From the word “go” it was clear that Shaun Hazlewood was determined to take the opportunity to grab pole and, if possible, his first ever race win. By lap 5 he had already set the fastest time with a 1’12.84” before most people had really woken up! Martin Jones was chasing Shaun hard, though, and managed a sequence of three laps in the 1’13s, the best of which (1’13.46”) was good enough to put him on the front row of the grid – uncharted territory for Martin. Phil Astell eventually came within 0.14” of Martin to line up third and complete a 16v 1-2-3. Lurking with Phil on the second row, however, was Mark James who had bought Bianco’s renta 33 8v which just happened to be the very same car that he had raced back in the mid 90s during those heady days of Mark James v Mark Ticehurst in Class F. It was good to see him back – older and wiser maybe! A very satisfied fifth fastest was Nick Suiter’s 146 Ti which had had just managed to oust Phil Donaghy’s 145 Cloverleaf from the Class E pole but they were split on the grid by Wayne Ashford’s 33, repaired since Oulton, Wayne again showing a good turn of speed. Very interesting was the performance of Phil Donaghy’s other 145, a 1.8, which was being driven by Dave Hughes in Class F who would line up eighth, ahead of Andy Woodall’s Class E 146Ti. Ian Fisher surprised Andy Inman by making the fastest lap in Class G with his 156 Selespeed.

By the time the A to D cars emerged, the mist had mostly blown away but it was soon clear that the track was covered in oil and nobody was setting rapid times early on although the speeds down the National Straight looked pretty impressive. Tony Soper (GTV) and Graham Presley (75 Turbo) enjoyed an early battle but times didn’t start to fall until halfway through the session. It wasn’t until the very end that Tony and Tim Lewis (Alfasud Sprint) fought it out for pole position, Tony finally ending up quickest in the LMA GTV with a best of 1’06.82”, nearly a second faster than Tim. Graham might have challenged but he was given the black and orange flag for allegedly dropping liquids. Nonetheless he had done enough to line up third quickest, just ahead of Andy Page whose Giulietta Turbo was running-in a rebuilt engine. Ian Stapleton was suffering handling problems with his GTV6 which now sported a big rear wing and ended up sixth behind the ever consistent Bryan Shrubb (33 8v). Julian Birley was totally unable to get the new tyres on his 75 3.6 V6 to give him any grip and he was to start back on the seventh row. In Class D, Kevin Evans was keeping up the pressure on brother Roger, in 155 and GTV respectively, but it was Roger who was fractionally quicker once again. John Clonis and Tony Matthews were again evenly matched in the 33 16v’s in Class C.

Another circuit, another red flag! Copse saw a tail-out Shaun Hazlewood as the E,F&G field arrived for the first time and although he collected it all together it was enough to unsettle the rest of the field, Martin Jones spinning and collecting Wayne Ashford while the fast starting Mel Healey and Nick Suiter were also involved as cars went in all directions. Martin and Mel’s 33s were too badly damaged to continue, Nick had to take the re-start from the back and Wayne went off for a quick rebuild!!

As the red lights went out for the second time, the race now reduced from 25 to 20 minutes, Shaun Hazlewood immediately stamped his authority on the resumed contest and try as he might, Mark James couldn’t mount a challenge. But 8v or not, he seemed to have the measure of Phil Astell’s 16v 33 and what might have been an entertaining battle ended with Phil in the gravel on lap 3. This left the focus on the battle for Class E, led by Phil Donaghy from Andy Woodall and on a frantic group not far behind that included Dave Hughes, Alan Hudd (33 16v), Andy Inman, Nick Suiter – making rapid progress through the field – and Ian Fisher. Nick’s target was Andy Woodall and by lap 5 the gap was down to just two seconds. Andy drove hard to keep Nick behind until lap 8 but Phil Donaghy did even better to keep the black 146 behind his 145 over the next 9 laps to claim his second Class E win in a row. Exciting stuff!

Alan Hudd eventually emerged to lead the following pack after Dave Hughes had dropped back with tyres that had lost grip. Class G gave us great entertainment as Ian Fisher took over the lead from Andy Inman on lap 10 and then stayed ahead although it was very close at the end, only 0.4” splitting the two 156s at the flag. Dave Hughes managed a well deserved fourth place in F ahead of Richard Ibrahim’s 33 8v and the similar car of Tony Russell. We were pleased to see Glynne Jones starting a race at his third attempt and finishing! Newcomers Oliver Maxfield and Peter L’Amie (75 Twin Sparks) aquitted themselves well while Sarah Heels (third in G with her 156) was inevitably more worried about husband Martin Jones than racing. Finally, Wayne Ashford made it back onto the track and completed enough laps to be classified as a finisher.

There were several questions to be answered as the A to D cars came to the line. Sadly missing was Nev Simpson who had suffered a gearbox problem with his Alfetta GTV, despite a winter re-build. Ready to go from the back, though, was Bob Godbold, hoping that his oil loss from the morning had been cured. Could Tony Soper stay ahead of Tim Lewis, would Ian Stapleton beat them both or would Julian Birley find the elusive grip that he needed? Tim Lewis had made up his own mind and wasted no time in taking the lead into Copse while Tony Soper dropped back behind Ian Stapleton and Graham Presley. Silverstone is a good track for Graham’s 75 Turbo (he held the lap record in 1’04.88” after all) and he motored past Ian on lap 2 to try chasing Tim. But the latter’s answer was to break Graham’s record, moving off to an eight second advantage by lap 8. Ian Stapleton was now getting back into the swing of things with the difficult GTV6, closing the gap to Graham until he was right on his tail as they entered lap 10. At Becketts, however, commentator BRDC Assistant Secretary James Beckett reported a “big red light” on Graham’s dash! A slow trip to the pits ensued while Ian now settled into the chase from a secure second place. For the next 13 laps we were to be enthralled by his efforts to catch the lights-on Alfasud Sprint and Tim’s response. Both drivers were banging in laps in the 1’04” bracket with a final new lap record going to Ian in 1’04.276”. Yet so even were they on times that it was only a poor lap 13 by Tim that enabled Ian to Ian to hope that he might take victory. As it was, this woke Tim to the danger behind and he quickly picked up the pace again. The gap at the finish was 4.75”

Tony Soper was lapping in the 1’06s throughout to hold on to an excellent third place while Julian Birley raced hard to catch and pass Andy Page, finishing fourth but wondering where he was going to find the extra speed to catch the new pace setters. “Not 2001 is it!” he was heard to say afterwards. Everyone was delighted to see Bob Godbold having a competitive race into the runner-up spot in B ahead of Bryan Shrubb. John Clonis was delayed getting off the line in C but as both Tony Matthews and Steven Griffin (GTV6) retired he still took a second class victory of 2006. Roger Evans also repeated his Oulton success, followed home by brother Kevin and Robin Eyre-Maunsell (75 3 litre) while Graham Seager (155) retired with low oil pressure.

 

The day’s racing left Roger Evans heading the Championship overall, two points clear of John Clonis and Tim Lewis. With a double header meeting next on the schedule, at Pembrey on May 13/14, there will be 48 points at stake in each class over the weekend, so we may well see some big changes in the table by the time we reach Donington for Round 5 two weeks later (May 27)