The Welsh Sports & Saloon Championship, which is its 34th year, started the 2024 season at Castle Combe on Easter Bank Holiday Monday with its usual format of Qualifying and 2 races. In 2024 the current Champion is Wayne Spiller and he is trying to repeat his 2023 title win! Several other drivers are looking to challenge him, including Simon Baker who is from New Zealand . In the classes, Class One is for cars will racing on Treaded tyres. All other Classes the cars are racing on Slicks. Points are scored based on the number of entries in each class. All races are rolling starts. Full details are on www.wrda.co.uk
The Grid, which we shared with the Classic & Modern Motor Clubs’ Tin Top and Super Saloons lads and it made for an interesting 30 car grid. Chris Everill was on pole but he had a horde of CC Mc Bmws all around him, with Adrian Bradley sharing the front row and Rod Birley . Paul Watson and Dave Cowman all close behind. Fabio Luffarelli was 8th. James Hunt (no not that one)was 10th (He wasn’t with us but it was too good not to mention it) In the battle of the Class Two Mazdas, Wayne Spiller was 14th and on Class 2 pole, with new guy Simon Baker 16th in Craig Attards RX8. 21st was Russell Haggerty in the NMR Kawasaki but the car broke a half shaft so he only recorded 2 laps. 23rd was Mike COOK BMW 330, 25th was Andrew WILLIAMS Renault Clio and an excellent 28th was Verity BANKS, still Ford mounted for the moment!
It was cloudy but dry for most of the morning, but the heavens opened at the end of lunchtime, and we had a heavy shower, just as the 500s had a grid walk and then the first race of the afternoon. NB the 500s refer to cars that raced from 1946 to 1959 with chassis from Cooper (yes that one) and Keift (from Wales). Basically they were spaced framed single seater car with a 500 cc Motorcycle engine. 500s launched the careers of Merlin Stoss (a humorous misspelling of Stirling Moss) and a certain Bernie Ecclestone. (google him if you don’t know)
Race One -10 laps - Mass Rolling Start By the time of our first race, the weather was bright, the track was drying , and Chris Everill took an immediate lead, and looked like he was on for a lights to Flag run. However Adrian Bradley only lasted 2 laps, allowing the highly experienced Rod Birley to move into 2nd place. Rod ran just behind Chris, but on lap 4 he made a big effort and closed right up on Chris. Chris seemed to have the situation covered, until the last lap as he came on a group of backmarkers! Chris made his way through the backmarkers, giving them some racing room, but Rod followed him through and made a grab for the lead with the finishing line in sight, finishing just 0.887 ahead! Chris was the first Welsh Championship contender home. Fabio Luffarelli in the meantime had qualified 8th but pulled up to finish in 6th place. Meanwhile in 8th place Wayne Spiller converted his Class 2 pole into a Class 2 win, but had a running battle with one of the BMWs, Chris Haynsford in a ccmc RX8 and when those both dropped out, he had a Honda Civic (read it and weep Mike Moss) and a Pug 308 to deal with, which impressed enough for Wayne to be given the WSSCC ‘Driver of the Race’ award. All of the above were on the lead lap. Wayne also lowered his own Class Two lap record from 01:20.431 in 2023 to leave it at 1:18.362. In 14th place, Kiwi Simon Baker acquitted himself well on his Castle Combe and Welsh Championship debut. In 19th Andrew Williams round out the Class Two Runners and was the last runner on 9 laps. 21st was Mike Cook (BMW 330) 22nd was Russell Haggerty, whose pit crew had worked wonders to fix and replace the broken half-shaft, Russell said he was just going to see how It held up in Race 1 and if it was good, then really go for it in race2. 23rd out of 30 starters and 24 finishers , was Verity Banks who improved her Class One lap record slicing a few hundredeths to leave it at 1:33.520.
Race 2 -10 laps – Mass Rolling Start –
The cars departed for the pace lap, leading to the rolling start, but with so many cars on the grid it was perhaps inevitable that there may be few cars left along the way. So to give the marshals time to clear them away, the cars took another pace lap. Chris Everill again took an immediate lead, and completed a lights to Flag winning run. Behind him Rod Birley was initial close but so were all the C&M BMW runners, and they all tripped over each other to ease any pressure Chris might have felt. Fabio got himself in the mix. In the end C&M BMW Paul Watson was 2nd. Adrian Bradley came up from row 14 to finish 3rd (surely C&Ms ‘Drive of the Race if they have one!) 4th and ahead of 4 BMWs, Fabio Luffarelli was awarded the WSSCC ‘Driver of the Race’ for his mighty efforts! Rod Birley tumbled away from 2nd place on the last lap and finished 8th just ahead of Wayne Spiller who again was the first Class Two runner and was only ½ a second away from taking Rod Birley scalp, (Wayne set a new Class B lap record on the way, shaving a few 10ths of his race one time!)In 8th place Wayne was ahead of one of the other BMWs, the Pug 308, a Renault Megane and the C & M mc Mazda RX8. Simon Baker was 15th in Craigs RX8 and was close to the other RX8 as well and 2nd in Class B. Andrew Williams was 21st with Mike Cook 22nd. All the above were on the lead lap.
Russell Haggerty was 23rd and had a bright start, but sadly dropped back after he was collected by a wayward BMW in one of the worst ‘Racing incidences’ in the book. It seems that the BMW either missed his braking point or ran out of brakes, and hit Russell, inflicting a lot of damage to the little NMR. Russell went off the find the Clerk of the Course to report the situation. Russell had dropped behind Verity but made back in front of her on the last lap. Verity was 25th.
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Castle Combe WSSCC fastest laps Black type = 10/4/2023 Red = 1/4/2024 |
Race Car |
Class |
Lap Time |
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Chris Everill |
Ginetta G55 |
Five |
01:10.419 |
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Damian Longotano |
Westfield SE |
Four |
01:12.275 |
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Robert Rees |
Mini R56 |
Three |
01:17.745 |
|
Wayne Spiller (race Two) |
Mazda RX8 |
Two |
0 1. 18.182 |
|
Verity Banks (race One) |
Ford Fiesta |
One |
01:33.520 |
|
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Points go down to 10th place in each class.
4 + starters Ist = 20 points, 2nd = 18 pts 3rd = 16pts etc
3 starters Ist = 18 points, 2nd = 16 pts 3rd = 14pts
2 starters Ist = 16 points, 2nd = 14 pts
1 starter = 14pts
For more details about joining in with the championship, contact Robert Allender on 01792
791686 or 07722261988 and also look on The Welsh Racing Drivers Association website wrda.co.uk