Castle Combe report – entry and qualifying.
There were some new faces/ new cars we haven’t seen in 2022. Prime among them was Russell Haggerty, who had entered a Ford Ka, to give Alan Smith some company. It was also the first sight of the year for Rod Teague, was worked long and hard to get his car out, and the welcome sight of Fabio Luffareli! (We were missing Mike Manning who had gearbox problems and Lyn Morgan who damaged the engine in his Westfield at a local sprint!)
Deri Davies had an engine problem and stopped out on the track without completing the 3 laps needed. The Clerk of the Course arranged to let him do 3 laps behind the pace car if he could get the engine to start! Deri was pessimistic until up stepped Jim(Jimbo) Lyons who was with Mini Miglias. Jimbo sorted it out and Deri was able to start race 1, from the back of the grid!
The Grid
Chris Everill and his mighty 6.2 litre Ginetta was on Pole with a time of 1:09.942. Damian LONGOTANO was also on the front row, but was unable to match Chris’ time!
On Row 2 were Fabio LUFFARELI and on the Class BS pole was the Mazda RX8 of Wayne SPILLER.
On ROW 3 was an all Class BS affair with Todd GARNER leading from Gareth JOHN
On ROW 4 Rodney TEAGUE took the Class BT pole, by a 10th Colin DUNN!
On ROW 5 Tyrone DOWSELL led from Andrew WILLIAMS whose Clio wasn’t ready so drove the Honda Type R
On ROW and on Class AT pole was Alan SMITH ahead of Class BTs Andrew BARRON
On ROW 7 was Verity BANKS and Russell HAGGERTY
Finally on ROW 8 was Deri DAVIES, but for how long!
Nice
to see Mike & Jennie Moss plus Mark Nicholson and also Mark Williams. but
all without cars. Also Susanne Williams who caught me making a mess of noshing
an Ice Cream. Doh
The Race – Round 5 - 15 minutes – Rolling start
So the cars came around Camp Corner, and as the lights changed Damian was quick off the mark, and lead for, just a few yards actually, until Chris’ engine hit its stride. With the run from the start-line to Quarry Corner being almost a straight line, from then on Chris and the red Ginetta held a lead he was never to lose, and he set a new lap record on his way with a time of 1.10.120! Damian kept in touch for a while but Chris extended his lead, taking the win by 58 seconds. Fabio Luffareli almost caught Damian, and was the only other driver to remain on the lead lap. Deri Davies was 4th having risen from the back, and was involved with many a tussle on his way. Todd Garner continued his Class BS winning ways, and also took the extra point for a fastest lap (indeed setting a new lap record on his way) he had Wayne Spiller for close company from early on! Gareth John was 7th. Behind them, it was Class BT that held the attention with Rod Teague holding a strong lead from Colin Dunn with Rod setting the fastest lap of the class on lap 8! However coming into Camp Corner, Rod clipped the grass on the right and with a set of squealing List 1a tyres he exited across the track! However luckily the Clio clipped the barrier side-on, and was ready to get back in the fray. ‘The Marshals held me because they wanted me to wait for a gap!’ Rod re-joined after Tyrone Dowsell and Andrew Williams had passed and finished 11th. In 12th place was Andrew Barron who was ahead of Alan Smith. Verity Banks completed the finishers, as Russell Haggerty had pulled off after 4 laps, as the Ka needed more work to make it competitive.
Race 2 – Round 6 - 15 minutes – Rolling start
So the cars came around Camp Corner for race 2, and as the lights changed Damain again was quick off the mark, and lead for, just a few yards actually, until Chris’ engine hit its stride. With the run from the start-line to Quarry Corner being almost a straight line, from then on Chris and the red Ginetta held a lead he was never to loose. This time however Damian made a determined effort to keep up, and on lap 8 he joined the ‘Record Breakers’ leaving the Class BS lap record at 1.10.937, only a few 10ths slower than Chris best time! Behind them battle was joined between a fast starting Deri Davies and Fabio Luffarelli. The battle was intense with Fabio pushing Deri all the way! In fact it was so intense that Deri set his fastest lap of the race on the penultimate lap and the pair of them began to make inroads into Damion’s 2nd place! Damian duly took 2nd overall but with Deri 3rd, two seconds behind and Fabio (4th)2 seconds behind him, and the last driver on the lead lap. In 5th Place and a lap down Todd Garner took the Class BS honours with the extra point for fastest lap too! Behind him it looked like Gareth John had the measure of Wayne Spiller, although Wayne was never far behind! On the last lap Wayne made his bid and overtook Gareth to finish 7th overall and 2nd in Class BS. Gareth chased Wayne to the end and was Just about 1 second behind in the end! Behind them there was another scrap between Rod Teague and Colin Dunn. Rod had found the brush with the barrier had not damaged the car internally, although it did look a little battle scarred! Rod lead Colin Dunn for a few laps before Colin got by and started to pull away to finish in 8th place. As well as winning Class BT and setting fastest lap, Colin was the last of the runners on 12 laps. Rod Teague was 9th (2nd in BT) Tyrone Dowsell was 10th (3rd in BT) with Andrew Williams in 11th place. Alan Smith was 12th Verity confirmed she had good dice in Race 2 - Another goodish start, got slightly bogged down initially, but managed to get pass Andrew Barron (#59) at Quarry and almost got Alan (#13). I had quite a ding dong battle with Andrew all race long, had a few squirrely moments , though I managed to beat him at the finish still had grip and braking issues, with it overheating., That was a hot and tough race, but fun. Even with no trophies, I finished both races in one piece!
Results are on https://www.tsl-timing.com/file/?f=CCRC/2022/222368wss.pdf