last update 19/05/2015

2015 Welsh Sports & Saloon Car Championship

Rounds 1 & 2 Castle Combe.  Howards Day race meeting - Monday 6^th April

Report by Rob Allender

New ground was being broken in the Championships 25^th  year as the 2015 Championship got under way with it’s first ever visit to the high speed circuit above the picturesque Castle Combe village. Indeed, the weather could not have been more perfect with barely a cloud in the sky!

Entry & Practice

There was a huge & welcome sprinkling of newcomers (14 in total), to add to the Championship regulars making 28 cars for the mid-morning practice session. However it was the current Champion Keith White who was heading the time sheets, taking pole with a time of 1.13.036, which was 1.85 seconds faster than Martin Davies. Martin responded by fitting harder springs & shocks from Jasons’ car which the team had brought with them, to stiffen up the rear end for the races!

3rd fastest and on the 2^nd row of the grid it was a big surprise to see  Sam Summerhayes and his 1600 c.c Class AT Citroen Saxo with a time of 1.17.87! Sam was the top newcomer and coming from nearby Bristol, must have some knowledge of his ‘home’ circuit, but still it was a pretty impressive performance! 4th fastest was Keith Butcher in his new & pristine, ex BTCC 2 litre 4wheel drive Audi. Keith was revelling in the cars traction and will get quicker as he gets more used to the car.

On the 3^rd row were Newcomers David Smitheram (Lotus Elise S1) and Dave Scaramanga (VW Vento in place of his Scirocco which suffered major woes in pre-season testing at Pembrey). Andy Williams was 7^th fastest but would miss the race after the timing jumped on his Sapphire and wrecked the engine! This would have left Fabio Lufferelli and his class M Mini Silhouette on his own on row 4, but he decided to start from the back. ‘I’m the only one my Class, and I won’t catch the leaders, so I might as well start from the back and have some fun!’

On row 4 should have been Class I invitee Julian Howell  in his Mini but he was promoted to row 3 by Fabios decision.  Row 4 was now filled by Class BT pole winner Craig Wright and his Peugeot 308 now with a new engine after he suffered a major, con-rod bending, blow up in in pre-season testing at Pembrey. Craig was one of the giant 10 car BT Class! (Craig doesn’t qualify as a Newcomer as he raced with us last year).  He was joined by another newcomer Tal Lambert and his Fisher Fury.  On Row 6 was Susanne Jones who was the fastest of a trio of lady drivers in a Lotus Elise and Glynne Jones and his BMW.

On row 7, making it an all Japanese & Bristol row was newcomer Daryl Radford and his Class BT Honda Civic, was joined by our 2013 champion Chris Morris. Chris was the Class AS pole winner with his Suzuki Ignis despite only being able to select 3rd & 5th gears! Huw Morgan stepped up and drove Chris back to pick up his old selector cabling which fixed the problem!

Row 8 was an all Mini affair with the highly experienced Mike Edgell alongside to Peter Hills who was making his race debut, and was loving it! Peter is normally seen as part of the Pembrey safety team, but has done some sprinting.  On Row 9 was Daniel Burt          and his Fiat Punto and another newcomer Elen Worthington and her Lotus Elise, who like Peter Hill was making her race debut. Like Peter, Elen has some experience in sprinting and track days.  However despite setting a decent & competitive time, she confirmed she wasn’t loving it, citing the number of cars and the presence of the faster cars as reasons for her nervousness! On row 10 were Tryone Lufferelli  (Peugeot 106 GTi) and Roger Dowden (Davrian Mk 5).

Row 11 was an all new-comer row with novice Colin Dunn (Williams Renault Clio) &  Nick Rocke (Ford Fiesta Mk 4)

On Row 12 Giles Beck was finding the long straights a drag for his MFI wing (it’s an ‘in’ joke, Giles is actually an expert & professional Car Restorer and the wing is actually a nice piece of work, the joke grew,  as for practical purposes the end plates are made of plywood! ) Alongside Giles was another newcomer  Andrew Williams (no relation) and his 1400 cc MGZR 150.

On Row 13 was Huw Morgan (Honda Civic) and Verity Banks MGZR.

And last but by no means least was Holly Welch, who was having her first ever race in the family Rover  200. Holly and her Dad Graham will share the car as our 2 races a day format suits them, with Graham due to take over for race 2. So that made it a grid filling 28 cars and with the possibility of another 3 cars or more lining up for Class D and at least another 6 in Class CS and plenty more to come in the other classes, it looks like 2015 could see more of these type of super size grids in Welsh Championship history!

Race 1 Report + Race 2 Report

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