Thruxton Circuit 4th July – Entry and Qualifying
Thruxton Circuit 4th July – Entry and Qualifying
After the cancellation of the early season races at Pembrey, Thruxton was now the second event in the 2021 Welsh Sports & Saloon Car Championship, featuring rounds 3 & 4 in the championship as the WSSCC contenders tackled the awesome sweeps of the high speed circuit for the first time ever! Unlike so many other circuits, there is only one layout at Thruxton. A section after the chicane, with some nice corners and then a flat out blast back to the chicane! For many people it would be the only time they would use more than 3 gears!
Leading the points scoring entries was Chris Everill and his big red Ginetta G55, now with a Chevvy V8 in the engine bay! Now if you’re thinking of some massive iron-blocked 1960s unit, think again, as this was a high tech unit that looked small and neat!
Kevin Jones from Barnstaple joined us as a non-points scoring Guest and gave his rapid Noble M12 RSR a runout! There was much pre-race speculation about the potency of Kevin & the Noble, but in the end Chris planted the Ginetta on Pole with a time of 1.22.792. Kevin was next with a time of 1.24.234! On the 2nd row was the 2019 champion Damian Longotano and his Westfield (1.26.312). and he had Aberystwyth’Deri Davies and his DarrianT90 for company (1.29.660). Davies who is a Novice race driver, is in fact a very experienced off –road racer and is the current points leader having already played his double points Joker card!
On row 3 was Colin Dunn driving his usual Class BT (i.e on list 1a tyres) Renault Clio (1.34.412)
And ahead of the Class BS Gareth John of Llanelli (Ginetta G40) 1.35.135
On row 4 was Mark Nicholson also in Class BS with his Renault Clio 1.35.612 and the first of our newcomers Jack Boulton from Newport, Gwent and his VW Golf Turbo, judged to be in Class CS!
On Row 5 was Mark Williams and his little red Pug 205. Mike has voluntarily elected to move to Class BT and would start scoring points in the new class in rounds 3&4! He had new boy Aled Dark in the massive green MGB GT V8 with a supercharger! (Aled is the son of the 1997 champion Peter Dark and the efforts of Aled and Deri Davies has inspired Neil Thomas (from Devils Bridge) to join us and he plans to race a standard MGB!)
On Row 6 was another of the new drivers, Jason Peard from Cwmbran and his Honda Civic. I saw Jason at the Magor services, early on. Jason was joining up with Andrew Williams, who could have just fallen out of bed to make it from Caldicot to Magor! Lol Jason had Roger Dowden on the row with him. Rogers’ lightweight Davrian Mk6 was now sporting some new (Barn door) Aero bits! On the 7and last row was Alan Smith 1.43.094 and last was the aforementioned Andrew Williams (MG ZR) who seemed out of place and off the pace. 1.43.272.
Results are on page https://www.tsl-timing.com/event/212623
The Race (round 3) – 15 Mins – rolling start
So 14 cars made up the grid and it gives me the chance to mangle Shakespeare’s Henry V again ‘We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; And drivers with cars still in the garage, Shall think themselves accurs’d they were not here!
Mike Moss, who was on-hand as his (new to him) car wasn’t feeling too well, helped Mark Reed, our new co-ordinator, to get the cars assembled in grid order! It was overcast with some massive clouds, but it was dry for the race. It was a good rolling start with Chris & Kevin marshalling the grid to the line and then the race was on!. Chris got away well and was never headed. Kevin slotted in 2nd place and Damian Longotano was 3rd . Damian kept Kevin in sight, but was unable to challenge him. ‘I could keep up on the corners but he was able to pull away through the fast bits!’ Damian was the last driver on 11 laps. Deri Davies and his pretty green Darrian T90 was also in the mix early on, but faded away to finish 8th, after he found his car was stuck in 4th gear! A tightening of the gear linkage by his pit-crew/helpers would hopefully restore the full gears for race 2!
Colin Dunn, seemed un-phased by the high speed Thruxton sweeps, but then he had almost 5hrs of Silverstone circuit in the rain to fall back on. However in the race, a fast starting Mark Nicholson moved ahead, but lap 4 Gareth John had moved into 4th Place, ahead of Mark N and Colin, just as Deri Davies fell down to 8th place. Gareth pulled a gap, but Mark had Colin for company and there was just 1.517 between the 2 Clios at the end! In 7th place Mark Williams was getting used to the Class CT tyres! He was ahead of the hobbling Deri Davies who was ahead of Aled Dark. Jason Peard was 10th with Jack Boulton in 11th Place and the last runner on 10 laps. Jack had started in 8th place and initially seemed to be running well, with the turbo VW sounding crisp, but he faded as it seemed he couldn’t keep the revs up exiting the chicane. This was later traced to gearbox problems as the clutch slave cylinder wasn’t releasing properly.
Just to add some excitement to 12th & 13th place, Roger Dowden and Alan Smith were nose to tail all the way through the race. Roger seemed slow in the middle of the chicane, and Alan almost tripped over him more than once! However Alan couldn’t find his way past and there was only 1.112 between them at the end!
Andrew Williams pulled out on lap 2 when the MG seemed to be on the verge of a complete blow up. Later after dismantling the engine, it seemed as if the problem was with at the bottom of the engine as the big end(s) had gone!
So in the dry there was time for 11 laps in the 15 minutes! Lap records were set in race 1
|
Thruxton lap Records |
|||||
|
Class |
Driver |
Car |
Time |
Date |
Mph |
|
AS |
Roger Dowden |
Davrian Mk6 |
1.42.398 |
4th July 2021 |
82.82 mph |
|
AT |
Alan Smith |
Ford Ka Sport |
1.42.700 |
4th July 2021 |
82.58 mph |
|
BS |
Gareth John |
Ginetta G40 |
1.32.660 |
4th July 2021 |
91.53 mph |
|
BT |
Colin Dunn |
Renault Clio 172 |
1.33.052 |
4th July 2021 |
91.14 mph |
|
CS |
Damian Longotano |
Westfield SE 2000 |
1.24.886 |
4th July 2021 |
99.91 mph |
|
D |
Chris Everill |
Ginetta G55 |
1.23.056 |
4th July 2021 |
102.11 mph |
|
Guest |
Kevin Jones |
Noble M12 |
1.23.941 |
4th July 2021 |
101.04 mph |
Race 2 –Rain – Wet
As the time approached for Race 2, there was some drizzle, but then the rain really set in. For drivers like Chris Everill, Kevin Jones and Deri Davies, it was a case of slapping on the Wets and cramming on as much wing as they could! For all the rest it was a case of getting on their best tyres and being a brave as they could be! We were without Andrew Williams and Jack Boulton, so the remaining 12 went on the green flag lap. Mark William had a rocket start and was 3rd on the first lap! Deri Davies was on the rise and passed Mark for 3rd . Chris, Kevin, and Deri were 1-2-3 for the rest of the race. Mark Williams settled into 4th place and first BT car for most of the rest of the race, with Damian Longotano was 5th and being the only open car in the race,.defo not loving the race! Gareth John was 6th but faded to finish 8th behind Aled Dark, as the inside of his wind screen began to fog up ‘I thought somebody had let a damp dog into the car!’ There were lots of spins and things going on.
Colin Dunn fell from his lofty grid place and had a quiet race initially, but got into the groove and pulled up to 4th place on the last lap, being the best Saloon car! Mark Williams was 5th, but crucially set the Class BT fastest lap, and so got the extra point! Damian was 6th Aled Dark was 7th , Gareth John was a lowly 8th with Roger Dowden 9th and Alan Smith was 10th and the last runner, as Mark Nicholson had headed for pits on lap 1 and Jason Peard and his Honda Civic pulled out after 5 laps!
In true Motor Racing fashion it stopped raining almost as soon as the race was over!
Next Rounds in the 2021 WSSCC 12th September Pembrey – 26th September Donington Park – 10th October -Pembrey