Practice & Entry – Sunday 20^th July

There was good sized entry again at Pembrey meeting with some more welcome returns.

Heading the time sheets after Sundays dry practice was Peter Williams in his Radical Prosport with Mydrain Harries 2^nd in his turbo version and Alexis Cole and the Nemesis 3^rd all covered by only a few 10ths. 4^th was Alvin Powell also making a welcome return and heading the saloons with the Yellow BTCC Mondeo with Chris Everill, Andrew Williams, and then Rhodri Jenkins also making a welcome return & getting the better of Lee David in his turbo Honda CRX. Next up was Nigel Bowen and the Primera making another welcome return.

Mike Woods headed Mark Nicholson, Adrian Chapman & Andrew Meyrick with Nick Jones in the Proton and Amanda Elliott in a Mini Cooper, making 15 starters after Ken Rattenbury had to cut short his return with some engine gremlins, but the car looked nice!

Saturday race report

However Saturdays practice and race was very different and very wet. Peter Williams won from pole but he had Alvin as close company for a long time before drawing away to win by over 7 seconds. Mydrain Harries was 3^rd and Alexis Cole having his first wet race was 4^th. One lap behind, Chris Everill put one over on Andrew Williams taking the Class C win, (and allowing Peter Williams to edge closer in the points table) with Lee David 3^rd in Class C and 7^th overall.

Rhodri Jenkins was 8^th, winning Class B after a lot of midfield action in the early laps. "I went out with slicks on the front and wets on the rears, but I soon found out that was a mistake!" However as the race went on and the track began to dry, Rhodris’ gamble began to come good, and he was the last of the runners on 14 laps.

Heading a bunch of cars on 13 laps was Nick Jones, the conditions really suiting the grooved tyres of the Proton. Mark Nicholson & Andrew Meyrick finished only inches apart , heading a bunch of lads in TR7-V8s from the TR championship, with Amanda Elliott and Adrian Chapman, who was pleased to find himself lapping the Triumph Spitfire of Michael Davies. In the paddock after Adrian said to Michael "You are the first person I’ve ever lapped! "Michael took it in good part "You’re not my first though"

Sunday 20th August

The lunch break was time to catch up on some news, Alvin has been out with his Tiga in the Group C championship at Spa-Francochamps, winning his Class in the 2 race weekend, "I was 7^th overall in the 2 hour race and 10^th on the 1 hour sprint, but there were some fabulous cars there. One guy had the last of the Porsche 962s with a 1000 horsepower engine!" Alexis Cole was playing it cool and certainly wasn’t following the family trend by keeping his car all in one piece. "I’m not like my dad. He likes chaos!"

Race 15 mins + a lap – Standing Start

Ist corner -1st lap - Peter leads -picture by John William Davies

At the start Alexis got a good start but Peter Williams was in the lead coming out of Hatchets, Alvin got through on the inside of Mydrian with Chris Everill holding a watching brief. Rhodri & Lee got the better of Andy Williams until Andrew got by and left Rhodri and Lee to battle it out. Rhodri confirmed "I couldn’t hold Andrew down the straight and Lees’ car is quick too!" At the front Peter had Alexis in his mirrors whilst Alvin was holding off Mydrian until a wild moment at the paddock turn saw him exit via big spin with lots of tyre smoke (see mpeg). Happily Alvin was able to gather it up again and continued at a reduced pace until he could get back into the sweet spot and then began to pull back up through the field. In all the confusion Nigel Bowen was also on the rise, and had a late race duel with Chris 'Lofty' Everill (however does he fit into that tiny Ginetta?), pressing Chris really hard and inspiring him to set a new Class C lap record in his efforts to stay ahead.

Meanwhile Peter had broken away from Alexis with some decisive lapping as they came up on the back-markers and although Alexis did close the gap from time to time Peter was able to draw away again to take the chequered flag with almost 7.5 secs to spare. Afterwards Peter confirmed "It was a hard race. He was in my mirrors and I thought he was coming through so I knew I had to take some risks when we started lapping the slower cars. Alexis was pushing me really hard; and I knew that back-markers was my only advantage" Alexis confirmed "Its better in the dry but my tyres were going off at the end"

Lee & Rhodri duke it out at Hatchets-picture by John William Davies

Andy Williams was 7^th ahead of Rhodri Jenkins who fended off a determined challenge from Lee, which sadly for Lee ended in a smoky exit to the pits with a split oil pipe. However there was some consolation for Lee when he was awarded the "Driver of the Day" award.

Mike Woods, Adrian Chapman, Mark Nicholson, Andrew Meyrick and Nick Jones all had quiet races although Amanda Elliott sadly did not make it round the first lap.

However the points gap between Andrew & Peter Williams has continued to close and there is only 9 points between them at the head of the tables. With 2 away rounds and a double header finale at Pembrey to come the championship is beginning to simmer nicely and we could have another last round thriller on our hands again.