Terry Brown .. Pole Position

Sunday Entry and Practice

Having lost Peter Williams with mechanical problems it was nice to welcome Paul Trowbridge who joined us on Sunday having done the Saturday Ginetta race (or non-race as some unhappy Ginetta drivers claimed), as well as Andy Williams whose Sierra Sapphire turbo added a once familiar chirrup to the scene. Paul and Andy could only race on Sunday - Andy due to business commitments and Paul because the Ginetta and WRDA races followed each other immediately on Saturday. Paul had gone well in the shortened Ginetta race on Saturday to come a very good 3rd, and had been set to challenge for an even higher podium place had the race not been red-flagged. (It was a pity that more of Pauls mates from the Ginetta series didn’t follow his lead as he seemed to be having a whale of a time)

With the grid sheets showing a lot of drivers with very close and competitive times, Terry once again took pole position with 56.634 secs, just a shade slower than Saturdays’ time. Mark Thomas was the leading Class C runner with 57.072 making it a Radical front row, but the real news was Dave Krayem who shaved a second of his Saturday time with his giant Stealth to take 3^rd place with 58.149. Clive Hayes was 4^th with 58.394 and was the last runner with a time under 1 minute. Huw Williams completed the Prosport runners in 5^th place with 60.612 secs, closely followed by Jamie Lovell on 60.792 and Richard Rohzon.(Jamie and Richards’ Radicals are of the Clubsport variety i.e no wings and 1100 c.c engines.) There was barely a 10^th separating the times of Huw & Jamie, but there was only a few 100ths separating Richard Rhozon from the U2 of Marcus Bicknell with 62.423 and 64.436 respectively!

On the 5^th row, 9^th and first saloon was Rhodri Jenkins (67.256) closely followed by Rhys Lloyd (68.009).

Rhys however was looking doubtful for the race having flat-spotted one his of his tyres! Step forward Rhodri, who showed the true spirit of the series by juggling his tyres to give Rhys a matched pair to go on the back of his car to at least get Rhys into the race "I’d have been sick if he'd have beaten me though’ quipped Rhodri. Rhodri’s magnanimous action was matched by Clive Hayes who also reached out to help a fellow competitor by lending Mark Thomas one of this spare drive-shafts after Marks machine broke the right side shaft. It’s that kind of thing that makes this championship special!

A look back to grid countdown showed Rhys was likely to have plenty to think about with Paul Trowbridges Ginetta less than 2/10ths slower. Cindy Pearce was 12^th with her Global light on 69.762, while Peter Salter was the best of the 70 second boys on 70.741 secs. Andy Williams was 14^th on 71.286 with Mike Bevington 15^th with 72.999 secs. (Mike obviously got that time at the sales.) Just to prove that things can be competitive all through the field, the hot-hatch brigade of Lee David and Tony Allitt were less than a second apart . Lees’ VW Golf was on 76.132 secs and Tonys’ Vauxhall Nova was on 76.874 secs to complete the field.

Sunday 11^th May - The Race – 12 laps – Rolling Start

It was Terry’s race from the moment the lights changed, and by the time the emerged from Hatchets, Mark Thomas has slotted into 2^nd place. Clive made it a Radical 1-2-3 by getting the drop on Dave Krayems Stealth. Behind them things started to change at the end of lap one, when the engine on Jamie Lovell’s Clubsport started to smoke and forced him to retire almost on the spot. He may having been laying some oil behind him as several drivers had difficult moments, Huw Williams had a half-spin at Hatchets as did Cindy (she later managed a full rotation, but recovered to finish 13th).

By lap 3 Terry had a long lead with similar gaps between Mark, Clive, and Dave, but behind them an interesting 3 way battle was brewing between Huw Williams, Richard Rozhon and Marcus Bicknell. However Huw himself disappeared on the next lap, leaving Richard and Marcus to carry on their battle which started the day before.

(Huw and Jamie were the only 2 retirements of the race). Rhodri was the leading saloon, but Andy Williams, Rhys "Smokin’ Tyres" Lloyd and Paul Trowbridge were having an interesting battle. Things were also close down in the Hot Hatchery between Lee David and Tony Allitt, whilst Peter Salter and Mike Bevington were just getting on with their own races. However a few spins livened things up and spins by Paul Trowbrige and Cindy dropped them down the order, promoting Peter Salter to 10^th.

By this time Terry was starting to lap the field (he eventually lapped everybody up to 4^th place), and Marcus Bicknell saw his chance and followed Terry through to pass Richard Rozhon for 5^th place. However Richard wasn’t going to take that lying down and re-passed Marcus to take 5^th place in what was the best battle of the weekend. At the end there was only 3/10ths of a second between them. Another battle that looked like brewing up nicely was Rhodri and Rhys, who had passed Andy Williams and clearly wasn’t tyred out. (Ok Rhys. That’s the end of the tyre references for now I promise), but the chequered flag halted his progress. Peter, Paul, Mike and Cindy finished in that order with Peter 10^th and Cindy 13^th, with Lee "Tarzan" David and Tony Allitt completing the finishers, but with less than a second between Lee’s "jungle-cds.com" Golf and Tony Allitts Nova. Richard and Marcus battled all the way to the flag (Richard setting his fastest lap on lap 11), and later Marcus was so pleased at the racing and camaraderie in the Welsh Championship that he was inspired to email Rufus to thank everyone for such a great racing weekend

Dear Rufus

Thanks you for your sporting hospitality at Pembrey. I had two cracking races with Richard Rozhon (the score was one-all if you missed it!) and enjoyed myself thoroughly. I am going to try to do a couple more rounds. Pembrey is 5 hours from me if there is usual traffic so I am looking at Oulton, Mallory or Lydden. By the way, do you know how I could contact the cameraman that was Shooting Richard and others? I need some footage for my web site. Check out the existing videos on http://www.marcusbicknell.co.uk/racing All the best and thanks again. Marcus Bicknell

We’ll look forward to seeing U again soon and few more of your friends 2 Marcus.

Back in the race, at the end Mark closed up on Terry who still had a 5.5 second lead on the line, but. Terry confirmed it wasn’t quite as easy as it looked, "Another 3 laps and I think he would have had me, my tyres and brakes were getting quite worn"

Terry will have enough time to replace them before the next races which are on June7th & 8th at Pembrey

Points after round 5

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Times and results http://www.mst-group.co.uk

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