2013 Welsh Sports & Saloon Car Championship reaches in climax

After a year which saw a welcome mini heat-wave in July, and a lot of warm dry weather after that, the weekend weather forecast was for high winds, heavy rain showers and some sunshine, to add to the unpredictability! However on the day, after some high winds and heavy rain showers in the night, the day was largely dry, if a little breezy!

Up to 5 drivers had a chance of the overall title, with some more mathematical than others, but with all but one of the Class titles up for grabs, there was still a lot to race for. The main title contenders were Chris Morris, who was in pole position with 70 points already scored, and Keith White. Keith could overtake Chris for the title, if he scored well and Chris didn’t. See the race preview for details.

Joining the cast of regulars was Jim Lyons, a former grass-tracker from Bridgend, who was having his first ever track race, in a Mini under the care of Endaf Owens. Amongst the returnees were Steve Pearcy who raced with us a few years back and Del Delaronde who raced with us more than a few years back, in a BMW. Verity Banks and Phil Bendall were making welcome re-appearances.

With the track still damp from the overnight rain, the choice of tyres would be crucial; and Jason Davies opted for wets, with the option to pit for a change to slicks if the track dried. However after only a few laps, and deciding staying with the wets was the best option, Jason powered on to take pole with a time on 67.337 secs! 2nd fastest on 67.869 was Andy Williams, making it an all Ford front row. Keith White was 3^rd fastest and the only other driver to get under 1 min 10 seconds. Next to him was Glynne Jones (BMW). On the 3^rd row was Neil Watts (Westfield), making it 4 Class CS cars on the first 5 places! Other drivers making hay when the sun wasn’t shining, was Paul Flinders (Class BT Toyota MR2) who joined Neil on Row 3. Roger Dowden (back in his Darrian) and Mike Edgell (Mini) were on row 4. On row 5 was Steve Pearcy (Rover Tom cat) and Jim Lyons (turbo Mini). On Row was Mellissa (Moto Mini) who was joined by Huw Morgan in his best ever Qualifying position! Huw drives his Class BT Honda Civic R to and from the circuit and was 2^nd in Class BT having scored in every round so far!

Ken James (Locost Hornet) was joined on row 7 by points leader Chris Morris (Suzuki Ignis) who was a little concerned to be only 3^rd fastest in Class BT behind Paul Flinders and Huw, but was boosted by the fact that Keith White could only score a maximum of 15 points as he was the only Class D starter! Behind Chris row 8, in the sensation of practice, was the defending Champion Michael Cond! “I went out on slicks, but couldn’t get any heat in them, so I pulled off early on! Anyway I hope it dries out as I’ve only got some cut slicks or Yokohama road tyres, but I don’t really like them!” Making up the rest of the grid was the Class BT trio Phil Bendall, and the MG ZR mounted Del Delaronde & Verity Banks

In between practice & the race, a wide dry line had appeared as the rain stayed away, as the Legends, BMW Repmobiles and Pickups all had races, and did the Trucks!

From the start, once he got past Jason, Keith White blasted through to take a lead he was never going to lose, winning by just over 13 seconds! Jason Davies gave chase early on, but then had to pay more attention to the fast closing Michael Cond. Mike had risen from the penultimate row of the grid to 3^rd place overall in only 3 laps and initially was some 10 seconds behind Jason. However late in the race, Jasons’ lead had dwindled as his heavy metal 2wd Sapphire turbo began to suffer from brake problems as well as a lack of traction from a duff diff! “One of the front wheel bearing was breaking up and this was knocking the pads away from the disc! The brake pedal started to get longer and longer!’ Michael confirmed ‘I could see Jason was having traction problems as tyre smoke was pouring off his inside wheel in the corners. It’s a shame my in-car camera didn’t last that long!’

Initially 3^rd , until a quick spin at Brooklands dropped him back to 12^th was Andy Williams. Jason had a grandstand seat to it all ‘Keith, me and Andy were all trying to get around the corner 3 wide and Andy got 2 wheels on the kerbs!’ With the kerbs still wet from the overnight rain, a quick spin was result.

This let a fast starting Paul Flinders into 3^rd, chased by Neil Watts, who had Mike Cond on his tail. Paul, Neil and Mike swapped places on lap 3. Neil went onto finish in 4^th place, the last un-lapped runner. Andy Williams meanwhile eventually rose up to finish 5^th,but not without some opposition. Paul Flinders had a fast starting Roger Dowden, Steve Pearcy, Mike Edgell, Glynne Jones, Andy Williams and Melissa to contend with at one time or another.

Glynne got past Paul on lap 6 with Andy following a lap later. However catching Glynne was one thing, it was quite another for Andy to get by, and it took him a long while and some determined looking tries before he made it. Glynne chased hard, but a wild looking slide at Dibeni dropped him back to finish 6^th. Paul Flinders was 7^th but he had Mellissa right on his tail, after she had caught and passed Roger Dowden and fought her way past Mike Edgell to finish in 8^th place, and earn herself the ‘Driver of the Race, award from the marshals. Mike was 9^th & Ken James was 10^th having got passed Chris Morris, to leave Chris having a race on his own; which is probably the way he liked it, as 2^nd in class was just enough to give him an unassailable lead in the provisional championship points table.

Chris eventually finished 12^th behind Roger Dowden (11^th). Phil Bendal was 13^th Huw Morgan 14^th and Del-boy Delarode was 15^th n last runner. Jim Lyons pulled off early on, Steve Pearcy pulled off at about half distance with a blown head gasket and late in the race Verity Banks exited on the biggest cloud of oil-smoke seen at Pembrey for a long time! Boom!

Entering the final laps the battle for 2^nd place was holding the attention, and with a yellow flag at Hatchets denying Mike any chance of passing with Jason there, Jason was just holding the flying Riot off. Until the penultimate lap when Mike found a way through. Jason chased Mike all the way and almost snatched the lead back at Honda! Or so it seemed from the outside! On the inside all was not well in the M&S liveried Sapphire, as Jason explained later ‘The brake pedal was getting longer & longer and when I came into Honda I had almost no brakes at all! My nose of my car was getting closer and closer to the back of Michaels car, and I was thinking oh no!' Mike was safe however and was able to cross the line in 2^nd place behind the winner Keith White with Jason 3^rd. Hear the class winners interveiws (Sorry Keith I missed yours)

In the break before Race 2 Martin, Jason and the crew were hard at it, to change the wheel bearing, and try to make one good diff out of the 2 that they had.

Verity needed to try to borrow a car, not from our old friends in Swansea Met, but from our old friends, now in the new colours of the University of Wales Trinity Saint Davids! No, I've never heard of it either! However in the break Roger Dowden explained the changes behind the new name, which also meant a change of logo and eventually a new livery for the race centre, which the team generously allows us to use. Of more interest was the story behind the teams’ Davrian mk6. Apparently it is a 1972 model with a fibre glass monocoque body. The power plants were based on a 1965 Hillman Imp engine, which was an all-aluminium power unit, adapted from a Coventry Climax FWMA fire pump engine. Such units had enjoyed some success on the racing scene in the early 60s’ (Google it & Mike Parkes for more details). In 1999 Roger got a call from a scrap dealer in Guildford and when he picked it up, it only had 3 wheels! It took until 2010 to get it back to running order. However earlier in the year the engine suffered a major blow up and with the engines in such short supply, it took until now to get the car back on track, complete with the new University of Wales Trinity Saint Davids logo! Looks like 3 snowflakes bordered by oakleaves to me! (above Roger & the crew with the newly logo-ed car.)

There was still plenty to race for in the final race of the season, as Classes CS and M were not yet settled. Jason Davies led Class CS with 51 points from Neil Watts who was on 48 pts with Andy Williams 3^rd on 44. Mike Cond had already won Class M with 54 points but Mellissa on 39 points could overhaul the absent Andy Long who was 2^nd on 47 points, if she scored well!

As the lights changed for the final race of the year, Jason initially chased Keith who had taken the lead, but later in the lap Jason pulled into the pits to retire, after the brake pedal had already started to go long! This put Michael Cond into 2^nd place and Neil Watts in a potentially class winning 3^rd place. Andy Williams slotted into a big points scoring 4^th place.

Paul Flinders put himself into 4^th place from Melissa, Mike Edgell, and Glynne Jones. Melissa & Paul swapped and re-swapped places, but after 5 laps Paul pulled off to retire to the paddock. Del Delaronde and Chris Morris had already pulled off. Del after going straight on at Hatchets, which left his MG looking a bit battered, Chris having found his rear tyres giving no grip at all!

This left Mellisa in 5^th and under pressure from Glynne in a mighty battle that lasted for the rest of the race! Mike Edgell got a good start but found himself in a battle with Jim Lyons, who had Endaf to thank for getting him going after race 1 problems. Jim eventually moved from the tail of the feild, into 7^th place and won the Driver of the Race award! Mike then had Ken James for company and Ken had Roger Dowden on his tail, in what was the closest finish of the race, although the Mellissa v Glynne battle ran them close! Phil Bendall was the Class BT winner in 11^th with Huw Morgan 12^th With neither Paul Flinders or Chris Morris finishing, Huws' consistent points scoring in his road going car, has given him 2nd in Class BT in the provisional points. Paul Flinders would be 3rd in BT one point ahead of Phil!

Whilst all the action seemed to be in the midfield, at the front Keith was really flying, eventually lapping everyone up to 3^rd place. Neil Watts had a lonely, Class winning race, to 3^rd place, and Andy Williams was also racking up the points in 4^th place.

However late in the race Michael Cond began to cut the gap to Keith who had extended his lead to about 7.5 seconds! Mike seemed to get closer, but there was a lot of lapped cars to negotiate and even though Mike set the fastest lap of the race at 61.098 sec on the last lap, Keith had enough in hand and took his 2^nd win of the day by over 5 seconds! Keith was well satisfied with his win 'I went out hard at the start and after that it was comforatble, even though Mike was pushing hard late on!'

So after the dust had settled, the provisional points showed Neil Watts was a slightly bemused winner of Class CS and Andy Williams

had moved into 2nd place, pushing Jason back to 3^rd in class by a single point!

In Class M Mellissa Lufferelli tied on points with the absent Andy Long, although Andy had 2 early season class wins to put him into 2^nd place on count-back, with Mellissa 3^rd in Class in the provisional points.