Welsh Sports & Saloon Car Championship round 6

2002 Welsh Sports & Saloon Car Championship

Jointly adminsitered by WRDA & BARC Wales

Supported by The Pembrey Performance Driving School

On a dry day with only occasional spots of rain it was no surprise to see Terry Brown on pole with a time of 58.442 secs, heading the 14 car entry. With Clive Hayes alongside in 2^nd place and Elir Morris in 3^rd place that made it a Radical 1-2-3 on the gird! Alongside Elir and first non-Radical was Nick Spence in his lovely sounding Marcos. Peter Williams was next in this Global Light, whilst in 6^th was Graham Hollis (who must have heard it was going to rain! It didn't!). Cindy Pearce was only ½ a second behind in 7^th and Huw Williams was only a further ½ a second behind in 8^th. In a tight mid grid section Rhodri Jenkins was 2/10ths behind Huw and only 3/100ths in front of new comer Peter Commbs. Peter was driving his own car a Coombs Sports 5c, and when I say his own car I mean he built it himself! Peter, who now lives in Leominster, used to live and work in the London area and is a skilled sheet metal worker, and he applied those skills to his own benefit to construct a very professional looking aluminum honeycomb-sandwich monocoque. In fact Peter is an interesting man having worked at the Brabham factory in Byfleet in the 1966/67, when the factory won the World Constructors Championship 2 years in a row! Peter played it down a bit saying "I worked on the Formula 3 cars at the time" but it was very interesting. (I have just added a section on the World Constructors Championship to the website. Go to the links section and look under Formula 1). Peter is looking to find a place to race and we’re very pleased to welcome him. In 11^th place Peter Salter was followed only a couple of 100ths faster than another newcomer from Castle Combe, Julian Howell with a Mini running on road tyres. Paul Townsend in his Escort RS Turbo was less than second behind in 13^th, but down in 14^th Larry Phillips was feeling very unhappy. Larrys’ car was suffering from the usual Ford Sapphire curse at Pembrey, with continuing fuel feed problems in the left handers at the paddock crossing, and he was waiting for a new fuel pump.

The first rolling start in Welsh racing history is another milestone in a series that has breaking new ground ever since it’s inception and all the drivers were on their best behavior for this special event. In the run up to Honda curve the grid was well formed and as the pace car turned to the pits, it was green for go! Indeed the start was so orderly that the feedback from the Clerk of the Course said it was the best he’d seen for years, the grid even keeping the gap left by Huw Williams who could not overcome his gearbox gremlins!

However it was perhaps no surprise to see Terry in the lead as the pack emerged from Hatchets, but this time Clive was close and kept it close throughout to chase Terry all the way to the line. Behind them Elir Morris slipped into a fairly safe 3^rd place early on, but there were several battles for the lower places to keep the interest going.

Early on Graham Hollis was sandwiched between the Global lights of Peter Williams and Cindy Pearce with Nick Spence at little ahead. However Peter slowly began to reel Nick in and bring Graham and Cindy closer too. Behind them Peter Coombs and Rhodri Jenkins were disputing 8^th and 9^th with Larry initially within striking distance. However Julian Howell was soon starting to catch Larry as Larry’s fuel problems began to re-appear. Peter Salter was also looking to make some progress but then found himself the victim of an ambitious move at Honda curve by Paul Townsend who found that cranking up the turbo boost had given him the extra speed on the straights he needed. However he failed to re-calculate the breaking point and assaulted the back of Peters car and the scenery with some force, narrowly missing the pit lane amrco, entering the pit lane backwards before gathering it up and continuing! Back 4^th place Nick Spence was coming under extreme pressure from Peter Williams who was able to close up in the corners only to see Nick power away on the straights. However late in the race Peter just found the gap he needed to squeeze past Nick and make it stick, to take 4th at the end.

Graham and Cindy kept a close watch on each other (Cindy through her windscreen, Graham through his side windows!) to finish 6^th and 7^th. Similarly in 8^th and 9^th Peter Coombs and Rhodri were having a close duel, Peter just staying ahead of the Honda Civic with less than a second to spare at the end. Julian Howell took 10^th place in his Mini having passed the ailing Larry, who was also passed by Peter Salter and finished 12^th, well ahead of Paul who bought the wayward Escort home in a lonely 13^th

Back at the front Terry found himself under concerted pressure from Clive and had just 7/10^thsto spare at the end. On accepting the laurels Terry commented "It was hard work finding a way past the back-markers and keeping Clive behind, but I enjoyed it"

With a 100% record so far the others will have to find something special to break the trend