|
The second round of this year’s championship was staged at the high speed Crystal Palace circuit in London. The meeting clashing with the 1/10th Euro B championship depleting the field somewhat, but we still had almost 40 drivers turn out to practice and race over a gloriously sunny weekend in the capital. Saturday saw the circuit busy from early morning until late evening as drivers tried to squeeze that little bit extra out of there cars.
Palace is a real power circuit that rewards a clean lap with a fast lap time but on the flip side punishes you heavily for the slightest mistake. One thing that was certain Sunday would see some blisteringly quick cars on display at “the palace”. Right from heat one when Colin Gardener posted a 20/311 it was certain the anything other that a clean 100% run was needed for anything approaching a decent time. Quick qualifying times came through all the heats culminating with Mark Greens 24/302 in the last heat. By the close of round two it was obvious that unless you could muster at least a 23 lap time you had no chance of making the A final, whilst Dave Dixon’s and Neil Divers with 24 lap heats would all but guarantee themselves a place in the final. On to round three and with individual lap times now into the 12 second bracket racing was becoming even more frantic. Dave Dixon with his second 24 lap heat found a second improvement, whilst Chris Heath also managed a 24.Round four was your last chance to improve and saw many drivers improve there time whilst Richard Hicklin was another to join the exclusive 24 lap club. With a large crowd behind the safety fence and on the footbridge watching the racing we were into the finals by early afternoon .Peter Henry won the D final with 53 laps from Tony Clowes and Lee Korner, whilst Andy Mollett won the C with 60 laps ahead of Colin Gardener and Tony Demailo. Chris Simmons won the B final with 82 laps, three laps up on Andrew Hastings and Avo Anmahouni. A special mention for long time leader Ian Campbell who was taken out be a crashing car denying him of a deserved win. The A final was led away by pole sitter Mark Green who quickly built up a slight lead over a hard chasing Richard Hicklin and Neil Diver. As the race progressed Richard dropped away with problems whilst Tim Wood and Andy North moved up to contest third spot. With most cars refuelling at about four and a half minutes to five minutes the pits always seemed to be busy. At the end of the half hour we had Mark Green home first on 138 laps. Neil Diver second on 136, and Andy North third on 130 laps.
A mention to race director Colin Morgan and an extra special mention to Ivan Blair who worked tirelessly all weekend to make the meeting a success. See you all at Tibshelf on the 13th May for round three Phil Carr PRO
|
|||
|
Copyright BRCA |
