2022 WSSCC Races 1 & 2 Pembrey Sunday 8th May
The weather & entry for the first races in the 2022 season, looked good, but more of that later.
Entry & Qualifying. For this event we used the Classic ‘National’ circuit.
In the event, the front row was a Class CS Champions lock- out! Damian Longotano , (2019 champion) with the Westie now sprouting a nice looking wing, who took Pole with a time of 1:00.071! 2nd fastest saw the return of Rhys Lloyd ( 2008 Champion) who set a time of in a 1:00.21 in his nice looking Opel Astra!
The 2nd row was an all Ginetta V8 affair with Chris Everill 3rd in his familiar red 169 car and Dave Krayem in 888 with a 7 litre engine!
On the 3rd row was Mike Manning and his Ford Sierra RS500 & on the Class BS pole Wayne Spiller Mazda RX8
On the 4th was current Champion Gareth John (Ginetta G40) and Todd Garner’s 1600 cc Renault Clio
On the5th row (and on BT pole ) was Andrew Williams who borrowed a Honda Civic Type R as his Clio wasn’t quite ready . In Andew’s old MG ZR car and making his race debut was Ralph Budd!
On the 6th row were the all BT shod new guys Rob Gaffney in a Ford Fiesta and Tyrone Dowsell on a Renault Clio!
On the 7th row was our favourite Yorkshireman Alan Smith Ford KA and a hobbling Deri Davies Darrian T90. (Vince Longotano ran his magic fingers over the car and cured the T90s misfire, by making sure the HT lead was securely in contact with the coil.
On the Final row was Verity Banks (Ford Focus) and Mark WILLIAMS Peugeot 205. Mark was unable to set a time!
So it was a nice number of 16 cars that did practice, however before the race we lost Rob Gaffney with the dreaded Head Gasket Failure (aka HGF). However we had already lost 6 cars in the days before the event so we could have had a really good entry. One of the guys missing was Mike Cook (BMW 330)who broke his leg as he was getting his car ready for the event. Hopefully we’ll see him back racing with us before too long!
Race 1 WSSCC Round 1 – Rolling Start – 15 minutes
So Blake Edwards brought the cars around to the start, and Rhys Lloyd made a good start, but was followed closely by Chris Everill and Damian. Mike Manning was 4th ahead from Dave Krayem. Gareth John was 6th with Wayne Spiller for company! Deri Davies was making his way up from the back and was 9th. Andrew Williams was 10th. With Tyrone Dowsell in 11th place. Alan Smith had Verity Banks for company! There was no sign of Mark Williams or Ralph Budd. But all of a sudden a Safety Car (driven by Bake Edwards) made an appearance! Regulations regarding the use of a Safety Car had only just been written into the Championship regulations, but I didn’t think it would be used at such an early stage! The Safety Car was needed so that the marshals could recover Ralph Budds car which came to rest, facing the wrong way, after an incident with the Mark Williams who had got on the grass as he was making his way up from the last row! Mark regained the track right in front of Ralph Budd, who couldn’t avoid T-boning the Peugeot! Whereas the Peugeot was at least mobile he had a massive dent in his door! Ralphs car was recovered, but had suffered too much front-end damage and may need re-shelling! After 2 laps, the safety car was withdrawn and there was still time for a further 10 laps!
Rhys Lloyd re-established his lead but behind him there was a tremendous battle between Chris Everill and Damian Longotano that went on for several laps, until Damian got ahead and then went after Rhys. Damian briefly took the lead on lap 10, but then began a slow descent down the order to finish in 8th place with the front mudguard rubbing on the tyre.
So Rhys Lloyd won with Chris Everill 2nd In 3rd place was Mike Manning, with Deri Davies right on his tail! ‘Mikes car had just too much straight line speedI’
In 5th place was Dave Krayem and his pretty Ginetta G55 ‘I’ll have to get used it’
In 6th was Wayne Spiller who was the Class BS winner in his Mazda RX8 after a race long duel with Gareth John ! Gareth (Ginetta G40) lead the class until Wayne slipped by in the closing laps! Gareth had the consolation of taking the point for the Class fastest lap!
Damian Longotano (Westfield SE ) slipped to 8th but also had the consolation of taking the point for the Class CS fastest lap!
In 9th place was Class BT winner Andrew Williams with his borrowed Honda Civic Type who took the point for the Class BT fastest lap!
10th was Tyrone Dowsell making his debut in his Renault
11th was Todd GARNER (Class BS Renault Clio)
12th and the final finisher was Verity Banks and her Ford Focus.
Alan Smith posted a DNF after the Coil on the Ford Ka went down. Lucky he had a spare.
There was a lot of fettling in between races to get Damians front mudguard race ready, which featured a lot of black tank tape!
Race 2 WSSCC Round 2 – Rolling Start – 15 minutes
With at least 3 non-starters it was a select bunch that formed up behind the Pace car, but somehow Dave Krayem had also withdrawn; so it was only 12 cars to bring the curtain down on the days racing! Even so the racing was excellent! Chris Everill got the drop on Rhys Lloyd and lead the early laps, until Rhys Lloyd took over for the next few laps! Damian Longotano was on the rise from the 4th row, and by lap 5 he had Rhys in his sights, and took the lead on lap 8 and held it to the end! Deri Davies got the drop on Mike Manning and went on to finish 4th with Mike in 5th place! Once again Wayne Spiller and Gareth John had a real ding-dong. However this time Wayne not only won Class BS but he also took the Class Fastest lap.
In 9th place Andrew Williams played his Joker and again won Class BT and set the fastest lap!
Tyrone Dowsell was 10th with Alan Smith 11th and Verity was 12th.
At the end of the day, the marshals on Post 5 nominated Damian Longotano as their ‘Driver of the Race’
On next to Mallory Park!
Result are at https://www.tsl-timing.com/file/?f=BARC/2022/221821wss.pdf