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2008 Welsh Sports & Saloon Car Championship |
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Sunday 12th October Rolling Start 15 min + 1 lap Alvin wins 3 as Rhys takes a lap of honour
2008 champion Rhys smiles in the sunshine after winning the
title If Saturdays races were high energy affairs, Sundays race was a little less so, but the
late autumn sunshine more than made up for it. Adrian couldn’t solve his gearbox
problem but Nigel Bowen , Andrew Slaney-Smith & Mark Nicolson were starting from the
back, Mark after a lot of help to make sure his car could rise from the dead. At the start
John Morris, (not missing Alvin) made a determined effort and following lots of tyre smoke
took the lead exiting Hatchets. However Alvin quickly moved into the lead and made tracks
into the distance whilst John & Rhys squabbled over 2nd place. By the time
Rhys had made his way into second place, after John had taken the long way round at the
Paddock turn, Alvin had too much of a lead and although Rhys pressed hard, Alvin had the
luxury of a winning margin of 1 second, both drivers revelling in the sunshine to set
times in the low 60 second mark. Alvins’ fastest lap was 60.202 secs and Rhys’
60.713 secs.
Hear Rhys talk about his championship win
Alvin talks about who his special tweak allowed him to ahead of Rhys.
MarkNicholson talks about his Class win
Jeff v Geraint - A battle to rival any over the weekend
Jeff Davies and Geraint Rees staged a rematch until Geraint dropped back after he lost 4th gear leaving Jeff to make 3rd place his own. John Morris made it back up to 4th after another grassy moment. Geraint was 5th, Lucas Ordonez was 6th , Nigel Bowen was the best riser in 7th. Jason Davies finished 8th. Behind him Ken Rattenbury, Paul Trowbridge and Mark Nicolson re-staged their duel but this time without the fender bending contact, once Mark had made his way up from the back. Ken eventually was able to pull a gap as Mark & Paul duelled to the end, finishing in 9th and winning The Driver of the Day award for his efforts. A delighted Mark finished 10th with Paul 11th. Anthony Allitt was 12th with Lars Scholmer 13th. Russell ‘Deep’ Haggerty finished 14th and won Class A after accumulating 44 points over the weekend to double his points total and overhaul Yolande Humpreys to finish 2nd in Class A. However he had a quiet time in this race after Glynne pulled off on lap 1 after a lead came loose in the Alfas’ engine bay. There was plenty of racing down in the lower order and after pressing Andy Meyrick early on, Chris Morris, after a few helpful tips from Mark Nicholson, found some late race extra pace to overtake the Chevette to finish 15th Andy Meyrick finished 16th and guest Dave Davies and Wayne Osborne completed the finishers after Andrew Slaney-Smith made a late-race exit.
So Alvin crossed the line to bring the last weekend of the 2008 season to a close with a clean sweep of race wins, afterwards revealing the secret tweak Hear Alvin talk about his special tweak. that allowed him to keep clear of the Rhys.
Rhys for his part was disappointed not to be able to give Alvin a closer challenge but was delighted to win the 2008 Welsh Sports & Saloon Car Championship. "It feels good. It’s a great honour to win the Welsh Championship when you consider the great names that have won it in the past" Hear Rhys talk about his championship win
Alvin won Class D and finished 2nd in the championship, ahead of the absent Steve Humpreys who won Class A as well as finishing 3rd in the championship.
Mark Nicolson won the Class B title and finished 4th overall but admitted "There is nobody more suprised than myself. I thought Jason had won it!" He went on to pay tribute to all those who had helped physically and motivationally to get him back on the track after Saturdays drama. "Martin Davies was right when he said to me that I would regret it if I didn’t do it. In the end the car felt good" Martin admitted "I felt gutted for Mark after seeing his accident, and I knew Jason felt the right place to win the title was out on the track" Hear Mark talk about his Class win
Jason however accumulated enough points to finish joint 5th overall with Adrian Chapman as well as being 2nd in Class A. Not bad for his first year in cars, although his karting background has surely helped to hone the competitive skills that makes him an exciting driver to watch. Indeed if Geraint Rees’ gearbox problems had worsened it could all have been different. So the year which saw a bold re-launch of the championship ended with another display of competitive racing the like of which the championship hasn’t seen for many years, fully justifying the faith the WRDA committee and the members pinned on the new format. With grids now boosted to an average of 24 cars, roll on 2009, especially as some small tweaks will see even closer racing for Class honours!
Thanks to Steve Williams for his excellent photos.
2008 Welsh Championship points Overall> Class>
Results http://www.tsl-timing.com