Sunday race 1 (round 7)- 15 minutes + 1 lap

 Lucky 7 - Dom heads for his 7th win in a row as Dave & Neil head down to Hatchets

Starting from the back for Sundays first race, were the repaired cars of Neil Trainer & Jann Mardenborough and they both carved through the pack fairly quickly. Dom had already disappeared, but behind him a fast starting Russell was 2nd, with Dave Krayem 3rd, Neil Watts 4th and Neil Trainer 5th. Russell held 2nd place, until lap 7 when he slowed and pulled into the pits with clutch problems, leaving Dave Krayem in 2^nd place from Neil Watts in 3^rd, and Neil Trainer 4th, after one of his best performances to date. Mike Woods was also forced into the pits with a rough sounding engine. However it turned it to be fixable, as a screw had come loose in the distributor. “This has happened before and I was thinking I need to put some Locitite on it” Mike confirmed. Once the distributor was fixed, and the timing belt adjusted, the engine sang like a bird.

 Back in the race Bryan & Jann were providing the highlights, as Jann caught up very quickly but dutifully stayed behind his team-mate, even if it was by only inches at times! Perhaps mindful that team boss Bob Neville had to read the riot act last year after some risky overtaking, and that the main purpose was to finish to get signatures on his license, there was no Lewis & Jenson moment for the Academy boys. So Bryan took 5^th with Jann 6^th but Jann had the consolation of setting the fastest lap, and earned himself ‘Driver of the Race’ for his efforts. After the race Vince Brown revealed that, as per championship regulations, Neil Watts & Russell Haggerty had both exceeded the Class C limits again in race 2 in their dice for 2^nd place and they had been reclassified into Class D. At the back John O’Shea got the Mazda in front of Paul Townsend  at the start but Paul got past early on and was never headed, despite a mystery loss of fuel pressure in some corners.

Prize giving - Evan tells dad Neil - I can see Blackpool Tower from here Dad!

At the prize-giving Bryan & Jann were resplendent in their racing overalls (in a rather warm looking black) with their guru in the background making sure the sponsors logos got full exposure. With most of the rest of the competitors relaxing in shorts & t-shirts, it showed the difference between us amateurs (i.e from the French root L'amour i.e we do it for the love of the sport) and Bryan & Jann, who are being groomed for a possible professional career. Both drivers have moved to Northampton for the next few months to commit to the Nissan Playstation Academy course. We all sincerely we hope they make it. 

 I spoke to both Academy stars Bryan & Jann in the Lunch break and Bryan confirmed ‘I wanted to win,’ whilst Jann confirmed “I only started doing it as a laugh, I didn’t plan it’ Jann is noted as a student from Cardiff, but he revealed ‘My dad was a footballer so we moved to whatever he was playing’. His dad Steve Mardenborough had an extensive career and apart from clubs like Wolves, he played for all 3 Welsh clubs in the South, Swansea City, Newport County & Cardiff City, in the mid-1980s, and Jann lived in Wales for 12 years, so that gives Jann a right to claim himself as a naturalised Welshman if he’d wanted to. We’d certainly welcome that.

Report & photos Rob Allender

Points after 8 rounds

Times from http://www.tsl-timing.com/