Anglesy Ty Croes Circuit report - dramas and downpours

Anthony Allitt reports, Unfortunately Rob I had to come home early as I had an accident in qualifying on Saturday , a stub axle broke, flipped the car in the air and the wheel bounded down the track at about 80mph. So I came home with a 3 wheel car, this following a front wheel bearing failure on Friday morning just before testing that did not bode well for me. The good news was that I felt on top of my car for the first time this season and could have given Andy Williams a run for his money. Never mind thats motorsport ! regards Anthony

Paul Trowbridge reports. FYI Anthony Allit broke a rear stub-axle in qualifying and had to scratch and Huw only managed 1 lap in the Davrian - don't know what the problem was - Peter Williams had chronic miss-fire all weekend !! The guy in the Caterham who won both races (he's from the BARC North West championship) knows the circuit like the back of his hand and won their own races as well - the Fisher's had no wet tyres hence they were pretty slow in the first race but put on the only real battle in the Sunday race.

From the PMT motorsport website From Hampshire it's a long, long, long trek North West for the PMT Motorsport team to reach the Anglesey circuit - often used by TV's 5th Gear testers - The team was making it's re-appearance in the Welsh Sports and Saloon Car Championship and was also taking in a round of the BARC North West's own multi-class championship giving them plenty of track-time. Qualifying for the North West championship saw Paul set a new personal best for the track at 52.760 on Saturday morning followed by a double sub 52 second run at the end of the WRDA session just before lunch with a fastest lap of 51.838s

As the teams prepared for the North West race the clear sunny skies had long-gone but no-one on the grid was prepared for the rain that suddenly swept in from the Irish Sea that went from a few spits after three or four laps to a complete downpour by half-distance. The Ginetta G20, shod with the regulation Dunlop D02 cut-slicks, was one of the few cars to stay on track throughout the whole race in the treacherous conditions and was able to pick up several places ahead of some of the more powerful, but inadequately tyred, machinery to finish in eight place overall and third-in-class (with a cup to add to the trophy cabinet).

For the Welsh Championship race at 5pm the rain was incessant, but the car was now set-up for the conditions and from sixth on the grid Paul was soon up to third on the road as others struggled for grip or spun away places. Peter Williams in the ultra-fast Radical sports racing car who had stalled trying to get away from his pole-postion on the grid soon demoted Paul to fourth and as the field battled as much with the conditions as each other, Paul fought to keep a gap to the recovering Andy Williams in the powerful Ford Sierra, but had to concede with a couple of laps to go. Fifth on the road was enough for a class B win and associated trophy and the team cleared up for the evening in good heart having also picked up another point for fastest lap.

Unfortunately Paul was unable to repeat his success in Sunday's WRDA race,retiring from the race at half-distance with a broken throttle linkage while running in a strong 5th-place overall, but still scored a point for fastest lap in class-B. The long drive home did nothing to damped the team's spirits (and home in time to watch the World Cup Final) and they now look forward to their return to the Pembrey circuit in South Wales in three weeks time where their progress should be cemented at the track where some of Paul's strongest results have come over the last few years.

Results and times www.msttiming.com