Dave Longhurst, our guest who had come all the way from Worthing, made sure his trip was worth(ing) it, by taking a second dominant win. Michael Riordan was 2^nd and was absolutely flat out, chasing Dave all the way, with both drivers pressing the 60 second barrier. Dave got the better of lapping the traffic to win by over 4 seconds. Afterwards Mike, who has won Class D, looked like he had been in a race, and although he had to leave early to get the ferry back home to Ireland, he promised he would be back next year if the racing is as good as it was for the final rounds. Lets hope it is, and we see our Irish friends next year. Behind them Ken Rattenbury was an excellent 3^rd again until a late race tangle saw him drop to 11^th. "I thought I saw a chance to get 2^nd from Michael, so there was a bit of red mist, and I came up to lap some back markers, one let me through but the other didn’t see me and we touched" Rhys Lloyd who had been 4^th inherited 3^rd from Ken, even though his power steering had gone. Dave Krayem was 4^th & Geraint Rees was 5^th Piers Grange was 6^th

Nick Jones, Gareth Smith & Neil Watts were having a real battle, Nick passing Gareth at the Paddock turn in an excellent move. Neil was 7^th with Nick making a real effort on the last lap and was only a cars length behind at the end. Mark Jenkins was 10^th & Ken Rattenbury recovered to 11^th . Behind Ken, Class A, and the Championship, was decided in favour of Russell Haggerty. Kareem Elsorafy had offered Russell the chance to compete, by taking over his Rover 216. Russell started from the back and battled his way past Adrian, Glynne & Chris Morris to take maximum points and wrap up the championship. John Morris was the only non-finisher.

Race 3 Pembrey 18^th October - 15 mins + 1 lap – Rolling Start

Nick Jones - made Russell work hard for the championship

After a big truck crash, the field had 2 warm-up laps to try & find if there were any bad oily patches. Dave Longhurst, who had to start from the back after dipping below the 60 second barrier, joined Russell Haggerty, now back with his repaired Stryker & Kareem Elsorafy now in the Rover, in starting from the back. With Michael Riordan on his way home, this put Rhys on pole, from Dave Krayem, and when the lights changed Rhys lead from Dave with a fast starting Piers in 3^rd. However Dave Longhurst was powering through the field like the proverbial hot knife through butter, and he was up to 3^rd by lap 2. By lap 3 he was pressing Rhys for the lead and although Rhys tried as hard as he could, Dave was in the lead after only 4 laps! Rhys kept him honest but eventually Dave drew away for another dominant win. Afterwards Dave said "I really enjoyed it, it was good even though I haven’t sat in the car for 2 years"

Dave Longhurst tells how he did it

Behind Dave & Rhys, Dave Krayem settled into 3^rd place, meanwhile Piers Grange & Geraint Rees had a David & Goliath battle, with Piers’ Seirra towering over Geraint and his Westfield. After a big brake locking moment into Hatchets, Geraint got the best of the exchange after his usual ‘wall of death’ run around the inside of Debeni and the paddock turn, but after setting his fastest lap of the race, Geraint had taken too much out of his tyres and later he became the races only retirement when a flat spot turned into a puncture. Later our genial Class C champion confirmed "It was good fun while it lasted" At this time Ken Rattenbury was hauling himself up from a lowly grid place to pass Piers & Geraint and home in on Dave Krayen in 3^rd place eventually getting by and sealing his best ever weekends results with two 3^rd places, narrowly missing out on a hat-trick. Piers Grange rounded off the top 5, but behind them Neil Watts, Mark Jenkins & Nick Jones were putting on one of the dices of the race, with plenty of challenges & place swapping, both Neil & Nick finding Marks Golf quick in a straight line. In the end Neil was 6^th Mark 7^th and Nick 8^th. Chris was an excellent 9^th after an excellent dice between the Class A boys. Russell Haggerty made his way past Phil Bendall, Adrian, Kareem, Glynne and Chris to lead the Class, but on the way he found his brakes and engine overheating and Chris was able to re-pass him for an excellent 2nd Class win of the weekend to put himself into 3^rd place overall. A super result for one of championships nicest guys. Kareem was also on the move and was 12^th. Adrian was 13^th and set the fastest lap of the class on his last lap and took the marshals vote for ‘Driver on the Day’ Phil Bendall finished 14^th with his engine sounding like a bag of nails. Glynne Jones was 14^th and Gareth Smith was 10^th after pitting, although he had been as high as 8^th and Glynne higher too. Glynnes’ front bumper was coming adrift and he did a quick pit stop to have it fixed, after he was given the Black & Yellow flag. Gareth was also passing the pit wall at the time and explained "I saw the Black & Yellow flag and thought it was for me. But it turned to be for Glynne!" Gareth quickly got going again but his chance of a better result was gone "There are a lot of quick drivers in this championship, but we will come back again when we can" At the end understandably Russell was almost overcome by emotion and he paid tribute to the competitors in his class "I feel great, but I didn’t win this championship on my own. I was probably only 10% of the equation. It was all down to the spirit and friendship of my Class A competitors. They worked tirelessly to fix my car, and then Kareem offered to lend me his car. He didn’t have to do that, but it shows the spirit of this championship"

For his part Nick Jones had given it everything he could and its one of the toughest parts of motorsport that there can be only one winner to a championship. Certainly without him there wouldn’t have been a real contest for the championship. In the run-up to the weekend Russell had paid tribute to his opponent "Nick is a great driver and I am sure that if we were both in the same cars he’d have beaten me. He’s got a great future in front of him." Lets hope he comes back to try again maybe next year when the mathematics might be more in his favour.