2005 Welsh Championship. Round 4 Saturday 21^st May. Entry & Practice

There was another good grid with 24 cars, with the championship regulars boosted by some visiting Mazda MX5 drivers. Also making an appearance were Russ Leaves and his Mallock U2 and Alvin Powell and his Le Mans Tiga.

Qualifying was wet and ‘orrible. Graham Cole, after finishing well up at Silverstone showed he was still on form by taking pole position in his black Jade Trackstar with Jeff Davies and his new Radical, hot on his heels. Terry Brown was 3^rd, with Dave Krayem 4^th and Steve Griffiths in 5^th ahead of Richard Rhozon in 6^th and then Alvin and his Tiga 288. Russ Leaves was next followed by Huw Williams and then Clive Hayes in 10^th, who was last of the sportscars, having suffered a puncture which cut short his practice.

Andrew Williams in11th was the first saloon ahead of Ken Rattenbury. Anthony Allitt lead the Rovers, from Matthew Perkins, Lee David &Stephen Pearcy. Richard Hill was next in the share-a-car Golf Gti, ahead of Chris Davies, then a gaggle of MX5s Douglas Bowkett in his Peugeot 309 and Adrian Chapman who was the last runner in 24^th.

The race – 15 mins + 1 Lap

The start was absolutely all over the place as Graham Cole bogged down on the line allowing Jeff & Terry et al a head start before getting past to lead the first lap from Terry Brown and Dave Krayem. Jeff Davies was right up with them until he had to take to the grass which took off his splitter and some bodywork which upset his handling. Then it all went wrong, with the leaders coming up to the back markers, Graham Cole & Ken Rattenbury spun, (Ken getting bogged down on the grass) which bought out the yellows. Terry slowed to avoiding passing under the yellows, and at the same time Dave Krayem clipped the back of one of the Mazdas putting them both out, whilst almost at the same time Alvin had a moment at Honda and spun off backwards, fortunately (or unfortunately) into the tyre wall, inflicting some serious looking damage to the back end of his car. All this brought out the red flags.

Restarting from his original grid position, this time Graham blasted into the lead and that where he finished. Terry Brown followed in 2^nd place keeping Graham under pressure until Graham managed to draw away to finish 6 seconds up. Steve Griffiths was a steady 3^rd with Jeff Davies struggling to hold on to 4^th. Russ Leaves finished 5^th to take the ‘Best Visitor ‘ award. Behind the other Radicals, Lee David was the first saloon home in 9^th place , Andy Williams was 10^th and a very pleased Richard Hill was 11^th and second in class.

Behind the other Rovers and the Mazdas, Adrian Chapman looked on course for one of his best ever results until Douglas Bowket picked his pocket on the last lap when Adrian thought he was being lapped, and allowed Douglas to nip past!

At the end of the day Graham was pleased to become the 4^th different winner in 4 rounds although he said "Terry didn’t make it easy, he was pushing me hard for most of the race" However the overnight points score leaves Andy Williams out in front in the championship.

Thanks to Gill & Tony Allen for the report.