last update 13/04/2015

2015 Welsh Sports & Saloon Car Championship

Castle Combe.  Howards Day race meeting - Monday 6^th April

Report by Rob Allender

Keith White - Super win on a super sunny day! (photo thanks to Stephen Carpenter spc_photo@yahoo.co.uk www.twitter.com/@spc_photo )

Race 1 – 15 minutes + 1 Lap

The big grid moved off as one on the Green flag lap and re-appeared from behind the new, spectator unfriendly, solar panel array which has now obscured the previous almost 360 degree view of the circuit! Coming to the line the first 4 or so rows got away well! (Nb there was some confusion further down the grid, but more of that later) As the lights changed Keith White held half a cars length lead over Martin Davies, but only until Martins turbo spooled up! With Quarry Corner some way off in the distance, the run to the first corner was turbo country and Martin lead away into the distance and re-appeared in the lead but with Keith W only about ¼ of second behind! On lap 2 Keith made his move, “I knew I had to try to get ahead early before Martins tyres came in’ Martin was impressed by Keith’s overtaking manoeuvre ‘ His car was very stable and flew across the ground like a hovercraft! I was ahead going into the chicane, but he was alongside me on the way out! He’s clearly improved his car over the winter’ Actually Keith had changed his engine tuner and was impressed by the extra torque his unit now has. Martin continued to keep Keith in sight, but by the end Keith had drawn away to win by 6.7 seconds. Keith Butcher got his new Audi up into 3^rd place, and with the first 3 drivers having won 6 Welsh Championships between them, the Welsh race was turning into our own  ‘Race of Champions’  

Sam Summerhayes established himself in  4^th place from David Smitheram, but he dropped out early on in his colourful Lotus Elise S1 leaving Dave Scaramangas’ VW up into 5^th place. Matthew Howell in his hot Mini was 6^th until he was displaced in the closing laps by the flying Fabio Lufferelli! Fabio was true to his word and worked his way up from last place to finish in 6^th place! Matthew was 7^th and was the last unlapped runner!

1 Lap down,  Craig White was 8^th and he scored heavily as he was the first Class BT runner home and scored double points as he had also played his ‘Joker Card . Glynne Jones was initially 9^th.

In 9^th place and the Class AS winner was Chris Morris, but he had a race long struggle with Mike Edgell who was only .68 of a second behind at the end! Glynne finished in 11^th place but behind him Daryl Radford was in a close battle with fellow debut maker, Peter Hills, Susanne Jones and Daniel Burt. Daryl was 12^th (2^nd in Class BT ) but only .2 ahead of Peter Hills (3^rd in AS). Susanne in 14^th placewas delighted to be picking up a trophy for 3^rd in Class BT!    Daniel Burt was 15^th and Nick Rocke was 16^th and they all part of a mid Class BT dice with Tyronne Lufferell. However Tyrone was out on lap 6 with a few dents on the side of his Peugeot 106GTi after he backed it into the barriers and was in urgent need of some attention from the Lufferell magic spanners as wielded by his dad Fabio! Tal Lambert had a strange race in his Fisher Fury dropping from row 5 to the back of the grid, before rising again to finish 17^th just ahead of Colin Dunn who was 18^th! Roger Dowden also dropped down the order and was overtaken by Giles Beck  for 19^th place, right in front of the spectators at Camp Corner! Huw Morgan was 20^th but had Elen Worthington as close company.  Andrew Williams was 23^rd in his MGZR ahead of Verity in her MG. Verity had new girl Holly Welch for close company as they battled at the back. 

Back in the paddock both Holly, and fellow novice Peter Hills were full of the joys, Peter commenting ‘I loved it'. Sadly the other novice Elen Worthington, despite qualifying well, and bringing the car home 22^nd, wasn’t loving it and elected to miss the last race and go home! Lets hope she gives it another try, maybe at Pembrey.  At the start of race 1, behind the first 16 or so cars there seemed to be a big gap, as if there was almost 2 races! There was some confusion with several drivers not sure how to do a rolling start, as this was their first race. After some wise words from Mike Skelton, the Championship Clerk of the Course, the second start was much better, but more of that later!

 Race 2 Drama- Martin Davies wins but Craig Wright takes an early points lead!

WSSCC Entry & Qualli report.

2015 WSSCC Overall Points after 2 rounds

Castle Combe Results courtsey of www.tsl-timing.com