last update 27/05/2015

Round 4 of the 2015 Welsh Sports & Saloon Championship 

Pembrey Sunday 24th May

 report and photos by Rob Allender

Race 2– 15 minutes + 1 Lap

Plenty of action throughout the field!

By the time everybody got ready for the second race of the day, the sun was out, and the track was dry. Well it was a Trucks meeting, so that ‘dry’ meant there was still lots of unburnt DERV fuel (Diesel Engine Road Vehicle) and several different layers of rubber from the Truck and Legends races on the track! As Damians car was not repairable at the track, that meant that quite unusually, with all the big hitters in their rightful places, there was no-one to come through from the back! As the grid came round to Honda for the start, the conditions were tailor made for Keith, and he grabbed a lead he was never to loose. However Martin Davies chased him hard, pushing Keith to lap record pace! On lap 3 Keith set his fastest lap at 60.909 secs and Martin got down to 61.465 seconds. However this was not without consequences as Martin’s Ford Sierra Sapphire started to trail a wisp of smoke or steam as he saw the engine temperature start to climb and he dropped away from the pursuit of Keith as he reduced the turbo boost to try to help to reduce the strain on the engine.  It didn’t help and on lap 9 Martin decided his engine wasn’t going to make it to end of the race and retired to the paddock with a suspected blown head gasket! ‘It could have something to do with getting down to 61 seconds, but I felt as there were about 7 laps left,  it would have never made it!’ Martin demise let Nick Holden into a distant chase of Keith White, although Nick did his best, setting his fastest lap on lap 13.  However although Keith was able to draw out to win by almost 20 seconds having completed 16 laps, he & Nick were able to lap the whole field!  Sam Summerhayes was in an excellent 3rd place, albeit 1 lap behind on 15 laps. Having played his ‘Joker’ Sam had been involved in a battle with a fast starting Dave Scarmanga, who was initially 4th followed by  Mike Edgell, Ken James, Sam himself and Glynne Jones. The order changed on lap 3 and Sam found himself in 4^th place followed by Ken James, Mike Edgell, and Glynne. Later Glynne started to make his move and passed Mike and Ken to close on Sam and keep him honest. Everyone moved up a place when Martin Davies retired, which also promoted Glynne to the lead of Class CS, and with Mike Edgell keeping his fellow CS runners Ken James and Dave Scarmanga at bay for him, Glynne picked up a well-deserved win in Class CS. In Class AS, well behind Mike Edgell, in 8^th place, Peter Hills was holding sway over Chris Morris & his ‘Sticky Tape’ Special!  Roger Dowden was well down early on, behind Giles Beck, Josh Wright and Nick Rocke, but managed to work his way up to 10^th place to at least keep Chris in sight. Roger was the last man on 15 laps. Nick Rocke was 11^th and won Class BT, ahead of Giles Beck who had a good battle with Josh Wright and his Megane on his way to 12^th with Josh (Class CS) in 13^thplace. Colin Dunn finished in 14^th place but there was a splendid dice involving Colin, Tyrone Lufferelli, Dan Burt and Susanne Jones. This was diluted somewhat when Tyrones’ Peugeot 106 started to trail an increasingly large & oily looking cloud of smoke and he retired to the pits, just as the black flag was being prepared for him.  So Nick ran out as the Class BT winner again but there was only just over 30 seconds covering the 6 cars from 11^th to 16^th with Giles Beck,  Josh Wright (Class CS)  Colin Dunn Dan Burt and Susanne Jones in that order. Andrew K Williams was 17^th and the 2^nd Class AT runner with his MG ZR but at least his time improved by almost a second from race 1 to race2 although he has a long way to go to get on terms with Sam Summerhayes! Graham Welch was 18^th and the last finisher in the car he shares with his daughter Holly, and although they picked up points for finishing, Holly will have the bragging rites as her fastest lap time in race 1 was quicker than her Dads in race 2! (BTW Daryl Radford had pulled out on the 1^st lap)

 So Keith stroked home to his first double win of the season, but with Nick Holden there to keep to the pressure on and some rumours that Fabio may be planning to move up to Class D with a ‘Super’ Mini, Class D may yet be very competitive. In the meantime the points show Keith and Sam tied on points at the top of the overall table with 55 points each, whilst in the Classes there are still plenty of close battles.

Race 1 report

Full results are on http://www.tsl-timing.com/file/?f=BARC/2015/152121wss.pdf