|
It now seems to have become a tradition that the first round of a new championship is held at the Mendip circuit over the Easter weekend. In mercifully dry and sunny conditions, many of the 62 entries for Sunday’s race turned up on Saturday for practice. In terms of practice it seemed a case of as you were from last year with any one of twenty or so cars capable of having the lap speed capable of booking a place in the A final. Of the drivers who looked quick Mark Green (fresh from his pre-worlds win in Argentina) looked quickest, with consistent 15.4 laps. Behind Mark were another ten or fifteen drivers all capable of running consistently in the 15.5 to 15.7 lap times.
Sunday arrived with the same cloudless dry conditions as Saturday but accompanied by a cool stiff breeze, and that seemed to take the edge off the circuit’s traction compared to Saturday. That said Dean Lacey’s 18/312 in the very first heat showed just what was going to be needed for a place in the A final. We had our first 19 run in heat four courtesy of Daniel Thorpe and from then on 19’s came thick and fast. In the last two heats very fast 19’s were the norm, but it was Mark Green who was first into the 20’s. Round two saw much of the same and even now it was obvious that you would need an extremely fast 19 to have any chance of the A final. In the last heat of the round Mark Green was again in the 20’s as was Richard Hicklin, Neil Diver would probably have joined them but stopped just short of the finish line. The final round was your last chance to improve and find those few scant seconds that could lift you in to a higher final. Although in the end though only about a third of the field actually managed to find any improvement. Dave Dixon was one of those few who did as he joined the 20 lap club. In the end it was Mark Green on pole but below the top three just three seconds separated fourth to tenth in the A, and if you couldn’t manage a 19/303 or better you were in a lower final than the A. The first final didn’t get under way until just before two o’clock and that final the F was won by Martin Thurston, whilst Mike Manning did the same in the E final. Jason Thompson was the man in form as far as the D final was concerned, whilst Jason Frost was the quickest of the C final runners. Kev Brown led the B final away and was pursued by Tim Wood; Kev went out after only 15 laps. From then on Tim was always in control of the race, but was kept honest for his win by both Ian Campbell and Andrew Hastings. It was just before five o’clock when Mark Green blasted off at the start of the A final, and used his qualifying superiority to slowly pull away from the rest of the field. Behind him with qualifying positions being so close there was a great scrap for the remaining podium positions. As the race continued at a frantic pace positions seemed to be constantly changing. In the end it was Mark home on 113 laps, Gareth Bell second on 110 and Andy North third on 108.
At the end of the meeting trophies were presented for some unknown reason individually to drivers within the confines of race control, certainly the strangest trophy presentation ceremony most of us have ever seen. It also denied many us an opportunity to see the generous additional commemorative cups and Easter eggs donated to the winners by circuit owner Colin Sanford, and although we didn’t get to do it on the day on behalf of the section I would like to thank him for his generosity. With everything done and dusted it only remained for us to battle back home through the Bank Holiday traffic on the M5 and then get ready for the Crystal Palace meeting on 29th of April. See you there Phil Carr PRO |
||||
|
Copyright BRCA |
