2013 Welsh Sports & Saloon Car Championship

VSSCC Pembrey Sunday 18th July

Rounds 5 & 6 Report by Rob & Marion Allender- Action photos Steve Williams

Behind you! The Keiths',  Mike Cond and Neil Watts keep Jason company! Action photos by Steve Williams

Entry & Practice

After a genuine heat-wave in July, the previous few weeks had seen some cooler, and rainier weather. There was a downpour on Saturday but Sunday turned out to be warm and with some nice sunshine. Which was ideal for our first ever event run by the VSCC  (Vintage Sports Car Club). The contrast between our modern cars with full safety equipment and some of the other cars from the vintage era was remarkable. After practice Keith White’s BMW lookalike was on pole with a time of 61.98 seconds ‘We are using our old Hot-rod engine, not our more powerful one, but the time is quicker, so the car must be handling better’ Keith Butcher was alongside with his Ginetta G50. 3rd Fastest was Neil Watts in his Westfield SEi with a nice new front splitter and rear wing, which put him at the head of his fellow Class CS runners. 4th was Jason Davies heading the heavy metal crew with his 2 wd turbo Cossie, trying a harder rear tyre, but still a few seconds ahead of Andy Williams and his non-turbo Seirra Sapphire. Glynne Jones was 6^th in the multi coloured BMW. On the  4^th row was Ken James, rounding out class CS in  his Locost,  and Mellissa in the Moto-Mini. Mellissa was the fastest Class M car in practice, ahead of Michael Cond (9^th) who was surprisingly far back ‘We’ve got a high speed misfire, which we’ll have to sort out’ Mike Edgell (Class AS) was 10^th fastest in his classic Mini. Next up was Paul Flinders, now in Class BT with his Toyota MR2. Andy Long was 12^th with his pretty Class M Sylvia Phoenix.  Giles Beck (BT) was 13^th with the Big Wing BMW ahead of Chris Morris, the BT and Championship points leader. Roger Dowden and Huw Morgan made up the runners. It was nice to see Alvin Powell, Rhodri Jenkins and Phil Bendall in the paddock. Nice to see you all lads, but next time bring your cars!

Race 1, 15 Minutes + 1 Lap Rolling Start

As the cars rolled up to the start, it was Jason Davies who leapt to the front, showing his karting background with a lightening start, followed by Keith White, Keith Butcher, Mike Cond & Neil Watts. Mike had found his flat-shift was causing the misfire, and with it disconnected, the engine was back on song! For the next several laps these 5 drivers showed you didn’t need a vintage car to provide vintage racing, with plenty of ducking and diving, overtaking, passing and re-passing. Jason however was always in the lead, doing his best to resist the pressure from first Keith White, Keith Butcher and then Mike Cond! On lap 10 Mike Cond saw his chance as Jason’s tyres started to fade, and took the lead to stoke away to a comfortable win. Dropping back, Jason was eventually passed by Keith White and then Neil Watts, to finish 4^th, with Keith W 2^nd and Neil 3^rd.  (Keith Butcher had pitted and later called it a day, although he was an active part the leading quintet in the early laps.)  Andy Williams was a little bit on his own, but was the last un-lapped runner.

Andy Williams heads the Glynne, Ken & Mellissa battle

 Behind him, Glynne, Ken James and Mellissa were having their own battle. Mellissa closed on Glynne who pitted with oil pressure problems but later rejoined to finish 13^th . Mellissa and Ken James had a battle, with Mellissa pulling away to finish 6^th and Ken 7^th.  Mike Edgell, Paul Flinders, and Andy Long had their own private battle early on eventually finishing 8^th, 9^th & 10^th respectively, with Andy the last runner on 15 laps. 11th was Chris Morris, who had a race long duel with Giles Beck for 2^nd & 3^rd in Class BT with only a few 10ths separating them at the end! Behind Glynne in 13^th, Roger Dowden was 14^th with Huw Morgan and his ‘run what you brung’ Honda Civic 15^th!

Mike Edgell won the 'Driver of the Race' award as judged by the Marshals on Post 3!

Paul, Andy, Chris, Huw, Giles & Roger were close too!

Afterwards Mike, Keith White. Neil and Jason were all happy to give their own version of what was a fantastic race.

See Michael Conds’ winners interview. Keith White was particularly happy with the way the race was conducted ‘It’s nice to have a close race like that with no damage! That’s what I call racing! Jason was quick in a straight line but I could catch him in corners, so I was trying to press him to make him use up his tyres and brakes, but whenever I got alongside he gave me room’ Neil Watts also had an exciting dice with Keith and eventually passed Jason, for 3^rd place after keeping his tyres on good shape for later in the race. ‘It was frustrating at first but I knew I had to pace myself to take advantage if Jason gave me the chance’ Jason wryly concluded ‘The harder tyres are not the answer, so I think we’ll go back to the other compound for the October meeting. Still it was a great race!’

Race 2, 15 Minutes + 1 Lap Rolling Start

After a long delay following a nasty accident in one of the VSCC races, Mike Conds’ dayglo Sylva (pronounced like Silver) Riot went into an immediate lead from Pole position, which he stretched out to win by almost 30 seconds at the end of what turned out to be 16 laps, with Mike lapping everyone up to 3^rd place! Keith White was 2^nd, but the dice of the race this time was between Jason and Neil Watts in a West Wales private scrap, of which more later on.

Andy Williams spun to the back of the pack at Hatchets early on, and then drove like the wind to make it back up to 5^th, having reeled in Mellissa in the later stages. Mellissa had to  escape from the Ken James’ well driven Locast Hornet (there were plenty of wasps about, but fortunately Kens’ car proved to be the only Hornet we’d see!) Ken had Mike Edgell for very close company, Mike being last runner to finish 15 laps. Andy Long and Paul Flinders had a close race, as did Giles Beck and Chris Morris. However this time Giles got himself in front of Chris and whilst they re-staged their race long duel from race 1 with only a few 10ths separating them at the end, this time it was Giles who took 2^nd in the BT Class! (Paul (Ned) Flinder took a Class BT winning double). Completing the finished were Huw Morgan who got the better of Roger Dowden in their private battle for the remaining places.

However to go back to the duel of the Pembrokeshire Yeomanry (Google it), after the first lap Jason was 3^rd with Neil snapping at his heels all the way through the race, sometime getting his Westfield alongside Jasons’ Sierra Sapphire, until on lap 13 when Neil went for the inside at the paddock turn only to find the gap between Jasons’ car and the kerb had closed. In cloud of tyre smoke, Jasons’ car was briefly up on 2 wheels, and both cars heading for the grass on the inside of the corner. Jason was able to continue to pick up 3^rd place, but Neil parked well out of the way as he could not continue. Afterwards both drivers were happy to understand each other’s perspective on the incident. Neil explained, ‘Jason was keeping himself in the middle of the track in the corners, which he is perfectively entitled to do. I was faster into Honda, but thought if I got by there he would have me on the straight. I thought if I could get by at the left hander, I could have a few corners to build up a lead, and just for a moment I thought I could see I could see a gap there! Still my car was always going to come off worst, so I parked it well out of the way to avoid a red flag situation!’  Jason accepted Neils’ explanation but revealed ‘I thought we were both out, but I thought I’d try to keep going’

 Results are on http://www.vscc.co.uk/vsccMedia/5493.pdf Thanks to Chris Morris for the link

All in all it was a day with some excellent WSSCC racing.

The points battle is still wide open with it all to be decided on  20^th October!

All smiles - The drivers line up aboard the Swansea Met Media Centre photo by Rob Allender

Please note if you have any interesting stories relating to your performance in the WSSCC races or any updates you have about mods or new bits, please let us know.

2013 Overall & Class Points. Exciting battles continue!