750 Motor Club headed North to Croft
With 9 Formulae taking part across the two days, the spectators were to see a great variety of cars take part..
The Allcomers race which allows any type of car to take part saw BMWs to Locost racers take part. The 20 minute race was dominated by the two radicals with Doug Carter coming out on top by 0.25 seconds! A brief red flag half way through to recover the Porsche of Alasdair Gauld meant a 10 minute dash to the finish.
In the Hot Hatch, Class A was dominated in both races by Ben Rushworth making up for the car woes he had at Brands Hatch. Alistair Camp was all set for two second places but his Fiesta broke down in the second race, Steve Sawley finished 3rd in race 1. In race 2 there was a red flag, after the restart Steve got the jump on Ben and led for a lap before Ben out braked him at Tower. Martin Ward finished in 3rd in race two after taking a 4th place finish in race 1. In Class B Rodren Vella comfortably won both race fighting it out with the class A racers. Jon Peerless claimed 2nd in class in race 1 but did not finish in race 2. Phil Wright in his new Civic came home in 3rd place and 2nd place. Oliver Barsby on his hot hatch debut finished 3rd.In class C Micheal Winkworth done the double and finished in the top 10 overall in the second race. William Hornsey took a fine 2nd in the class C in race 1 with Mac Mccarthy adding to his trophy collection from Brands with 3rd place. In race two it was Adam Read back in his BMW who took 2nd from Tony Hobbs.
Locost racers had a busy weekend with 3 races. In a tight championship were slipstreaming is key, Mark Burton timed his 3 races to perfection taking treble victory. This is something that is very difficult to do and all three races were won in a different way with different strategies. In the first race the lead changed hands a few times, it was reigning champion ‘Slippy’ Ian who led for the first few laps, with Martin West exchanging places with him at the top. It was all going to be about timing which Mark timed perfectly on the last lap to out drag everyone to the line. Martin West and Ben Powney rounded the podium off.
Race two again saw a battle with Martin West, swapping places throughout the race Mark held on for victory, with Louis Wall slipstreaming past Martin West.
Race 3 Mark tried to make a break from the slipstream, ‘Slippy Ian’ was on the move from a bad start and was right with Mark on the penultimate lap. Ian was now in the lead with only one more lap to go, Mark made his move into ‘Sunny in’. They ran side by side until the complex were there was minor contact between the two, Mark held on to take his 3rd victory of the weekend. Jack Coveney and David Mason rounded the podium with Ian slipping to 6th. Tim Penstone - Smith had a consistent weekend after rebuilding the engine on his Locost after a difficult qualifying he made up plenty of places during the races to finish 9th twice and 11th.
RGB had a mixed grid in the first race due to various penalties from Brands Hatch. Soon the normal order was restored with Billy Albone taking double victory. Mittell Cars had a good weekend with Chippy and Paul Smith finishing 2nd and 3rd in race 1 and Paul finishing 2nd in race 2. John Cutmore gave his Spire its first outing this year and rounded the podium off in race 2. Chippy looked set for another good race, however an issue getting off the line dropped him back down the field. He fought his way back to the front pack, lying 3rd for a few laps he looked set for another podium finish, sadly Chippy had to retire a couple of laps from the end.
Formula Vee was a tight contest with Craig Pollard coming out on top in both races. With former champion Daniel Hands finishing 2nd in the first race. James Harridge won class B and finished 2nd overall in the 2nd race of the weekend. With Pollard and Hands battling hard in race 1 crossing the line with only half a second between them. Ian Jordan held onto 3rd place after battling with Tim Probert. James Harridge took class B honours after dropping back from 2nd to finish 5th.
Race 2 was to produce an even closer finish between the top two. Pollard fended off Harridge by 0.33 second. Ian Jordan added more silverware to his collection taking another 3rd place. The top three finished within a second of each other!
