Brands Hatch Semsec meeting 8^th September 2008 - Grahams Coles Diary

For this round the WRDA classes were split to run with their counterparts from the SEMSEC championship. This meant that we were one of around 23 sports-racing cars taking to the track for the first 12.30 qualifying session. Out in this session were WRDA regulars Peter Williams, Huw Williams, Ginger Marshall & Lee Parkes. Andy Williams & Keith Butcher meanwhile started with the SEMSEC saloons.

Qualifying

We took to the track full of optimising having elected to play our joker for this event. We put in the usual couple of warm up laps to gets things up to temperature and were quite happily getting quicker when the turbo pop off valve…. er…. Popped off ! Luckily our expected rival Mark Burton in his Jade seemed to be having problems of his own, so that our earlier lap time of 46.4 secs was quick enough to clinch pole. Ginger Marshall and John Harrison (Nemesis) also piped the Mark’s orange Jade with WRDA contender Lee Parkes in 6^th place in his red Nemesis. Peter Williams took 8^th and Huw Williams on his first visit to Brands in 14^th place.

The Race

Following a really protracted start procedure cars were on the grid with engines running for over 5 mins before the warm up lap was under way. Further delays meant that the start was officially delayed again, necessitating another warm up lap. When the lights turned to green we had one of our best starts ever to gain a 2 sec lead over Mark Burton on lap 1. However an errand Westfield on the approach to Graham Hill bend meant that the race was red flagged before it had really begun, so we all lined up again for another start procedure. Another long delay before the warm up lap meant that our hot Jade’s turbo was again happily cooking things under the rear engine bay! Alas it was also enough to overheat Huw Williams’ Radical engine to 110 degrees, thus effectively ending an impressive Brands Hatch debut as the stricken Radical was wheeled off the grid. When the 5 sec board came up engine’s screamed ready for the red lights, when …another delayed start (!) Most people left their engines running despite the boiling, so when the 5 sec board suddenly appeared an anxious few seconds followed as our boiling Jade turbo engine decided if it wanted to start or not. Luckily it did and despite some excessive wheel spin we were able to take the lead once again this time with Mark Burton challenging hard for the first couple of laps. Luckily we were able to get past the back markers more easily than Mark to finish over 8 secs ahead at the end.

Of the other WRDA crews Ginger Marshall pulled off with clutch problems after lap 5, while Peter ended a battling performance in 4^th just ahead of Lee Parkes in 5^th place. So for me in the Jade it was mission accomplished when, with the help of Sue, Doug, & Bev we got maximum joker points, overhauling Peter (Williams) to reclaim the lead of class A and 3^rd overall (I think)!

Meanwhile in the Saloon & Sports cars race, Andy Williams & Keith Butcher represented the WRDA interests in a huge grid of saloon cars. Both were to figure well up in the results with Andy the first saloon home, clinching 3rd position and Keith 4th overall with Dave Fullers tiny MG Midget the meat in the WRDA heavy metal sandwich, whilst Jon Dhillon and his fabulous Ferrari 360 again added some glamour to proceedings, winning a close race with Tommy Carreia who was also in a 360. The other 360 was a dnf.