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The third round of this year’s championship was held at the Wombwell circuit in South Yorkshire. With close to sixty drivers booked in for Sunday’s race day Saturdays practice was again always going to be busy. I think at one time on Saturday afternoon we had sixteen drivers on the rostrum and a further three or four either jockeying for position or patiently waiting. The weather Saturday was probably the best seen this season being both warm and dry. Sadly the forecast for Sunday was just the opposite, with heavy rain forecast all day. Again sadly the forecasters got it dead right.
Race day Sunday was exactly as the forecasters had predicted and by the time practice was due to start certain parts of the circuit and in particular the sweeper leading onto the straight had lots of standing water. With many drivers deciding not to go out the racing started slowly. Brian Fitzgerald open proceedings in heat one with a 9 lap run in 300 seconds dead. Mark Wakelin found an extra lap in heat two, just ahead of Paul Dewsnap. Merv Marshall and John Russell managed 9’s in heat three as the rain continued to come down hard. Kyle Branson only just missed a ten lap time in heat four, whilst Peter Watts was the best of heat five with 8 laps. John Carr with 11/306 and Richard Hicklin 11/316 raised the bar for everyone in the last heat. With the rain increasing in ferocity Brian Fitzgerald tried in heat one but his car was overcome after only two laps. Not surprisingly no one ventured out in heat two, whilst Merv Marshall’s 4 laps was the best of heat three as the rain eased slightly. Rob Stillion posted a respectable 9 laps in the next heat, as Chris Edwards in heat 5 recorded a 10/322, with Phil Jones a lap behind. Mark Green finally broke cover in heat six and an 11/322 was his reward as was Tim Woods 10/315. If you had a respectable time in you could just about afford to sit back as the rain swept in again. It eased slightly in the lunch break but the track was still wet. Martin Thurston’s 10/313 was very respectable and would reward him with an A final spot. Phil Butterworth managed nine laps in heat two while Merv Marshall managed 10 in 308. Kyle Branson managed 11/314 in heat four, whilst Peter Watts 10/305 was the best on offer in heat five. Richard Hicklin got his act together in the last heat to secure FTD with a 12/316 whilst Tim Woods improved to an 11/300 dead. The rain came over again as the finals began and in the C final with only two runners Lee Wakelin managed five laps before retiring, sadly that was just two laps fewer than Joe Diacono who with seven laps won the C final. Only three drivers decided to risk the B final, and of those Martin Lane was gone after three laps. Mario Morelli drove a fine race for the win on 41 laps and that was four laps up on Rob Stillion. I’m not quite sure just what it says about the A finalists and there pit persons but all ten drivers made the start. Tim Woods made the start over Richard Hicklin and from the get go set off for home. John Carr eased past Richard early and set off after Tim. Throughout the race we had cars racing, spinning, running onto and off the infield as the drivers all battled for a spot on the podium. I think it’s a credit to them all as in the totally atrocious conditions they all put on a magnificent race. As the race progressed Tim built up a slight lead over John but just not enough to make him feel comfortable. Behind them after a slow start Mark Green was moving up and was doing to John what John was doing to Tim. At the end of the half hour we had Tim Home first on 65 laps, John second on 64 laps, and Mark third on 63 laps.
All in all one of the wettest meetings that we’ve had for a long time, to all the drivers who went out to race, a special mention. Equally a mention to both Eric White and Dennis Paul who whilst they stayed dry in race control pushed the meeting along allowing us all back on the road to home nice and early. That’s the second wet meeting out of the three to date lets hope it’s the last this season, but somehow I don’t think so!
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