2009 Welsh Sports & Saloon Car Championship

Round 1 report - Round 2 report Round 3 report

The Irish Rover - Micheal Riordans' Tigra was rampant!

Rounds 1 report Pembrey 18^th April + Michael Riordan talks about his 1st visit to Pembrey below

On a super sunny spring weekend 14 cars lined up for the start of the 2009 season. All sorts for people were missing; for all sorts of reasons, but of the drivers who made it to the track, Adrian Chapman had his diff pack up, just by driving it off the trailer! Ken Rattenbury has his Mondoe out but sadly his gearbox quit and despite the effort of Alvin Powell sadly that was another car missing. However there were new drivers and new cars to replace some the missing cars, and Michael Riordan was a new driver making the most impact after taking pole position on his first visit. Michael is from Fermoy in County Cork in Ireland, and has previously had experience in Hot-Rod racing. His car was down in the programme as a Rover, but it must have been an Irish Rover, as it looked like & was a Vauxhall Tigra body shell with a Vauxhall engine. Michael took pole with a time of 61.315 secs.

Keith Butcher was alongside with 62.848 secs; in his nice looking RML Nissan Primera, tended by Dave Jarman. Martin Davies was 3^rd  with Geraint Rees 4^th. Andy Williams was 5^th with Jeff Davies 6^th. The Peugeot of John Morris was a long way down in 7^th place. Nick Jones’ Clio was 8^th ahead of guest Lea Woods in his Clio. Paul Trowbridge was 10^th ahead of Andrew Meyrick and his Vauxhall Chevette.

12^th was Russell Haggerty and his new Raw Striker out with a strange looking bonnet hump, and the biggest convex driving mirror I have ever seen. Russell explained ‘I had it made special for me. It means you don’t need wing mirrors. Otherwise if you have them hanging out from the car, you will tend to loose them if you get to close too another car! It is one of Raws’ racing chassis and it’s fitted with supercharged Fireblade engine." Glynne Jones was last, with his trusty Alfa, at least that’s what I thought I heard the commentator say.

The race 1 : 15 minutes + 1 lap - Rolling Start

Michael Riordan got the best start & although he briefly came under pressure from John Morris in races 2 & 3, that was about it for the man from the Emerald Isle in the Emerald green car. Martin Davies was initially 2^nd, with his 4wd turbo Ford Sierra Sapphire sounding well pumped-up, with Keith Butcher, Geraint Rees and sparring partner Jeff Davies & Andy Williams all in the mix on the opening lap . Andy Williams sandwiched the Westfield pair with his 2wd non-turbo Ford Sierra Sapphire. An early feature of the race was the progress of John Morris’ Peugeot through the field, and by lap 7 he was up to 3^rd and challenging Martin for 2^nd place. John got close at one stage and then when it looked like it Martin had 2^nd place sewn up, he slowed dramatically after one of his front tyres went down. Although he tried to limp home, Martin failed to make it, with the tyre looking pretty shredded at the end. "I thought I could make but there was just one more lap to go" John happily inherited 2^nd . Also on the rise again was Keith Butcher, who eventually finished in 4^th behind Andy Williams who was 3^rd, after being involved with a dice between Geraint Rees, Jeff Davies and the rising John Morris. Keith was up and down the order, but wasn’t around to give any information, and wasn’t on the grid for Sundays races. Geraint finished 5^th but Jeff was another who didn’t make it to the end.

6 & 7th were warring Clios of guest drivers Lea Wood and Nick Jones. Lea who is mate of John Morris was giving the Welsh Championship a go, and was initially behind Nick, but got by on lap 10. Nick responded to keep Lea under pressure in the dice of the race , and was only a 10^th or so behind at the end. "Lea’s car was quick in a straight line so I just couldn’t get past again" A lonely 8^th was Paul Trowbridge "I was looking for a few Hondas to play with, but they weren’t there!" Several Honda drivers did turn up, but sadly without their cars. Lets hope the sunshine showed them what they are missing and they start getting their cars out for the remaining rounds. Andrew ‘Pembroke’ Meyrick was also a lonely 9^th, and Russell Haggerty an equally lonely 10^th. At least Russell had Glynne to play with early on. That is until Glynne pulled off, after he had the Alfa in a particularly lurid sideways slide at Dibeni that reminded the older observers of his antics in his old rear-wheel drive Ford Anglia! "I thought something may have broken in the back, but it was probably me overdriving it as usual!"

So a pole to flag victory for the quiet man from Cork; Michael making an early trip to the podium to sure he had some extra souvenirs to pack for the journey home!

Michael Riordan talks about his 1st visit to Pembrey

Many thanks to Steve Williams & Chris Morris for their excellent photos

Results from TSL Timing