The races on the Silverstone National course were the first time for the Welsh Sports & Saloon Championship to race on this layout, so Fastest Laps for all classes were there to be set.
The entry – It was the start of the ‘Heatwave’ and it was Hot in the sun, but as we were assigned garages it was cooler! Especially when the doors on both the pitlane side and paddock side were open! Although Class BT was the largest, with Andrew Barron giving an Aston Martin V12 a run out in Class D, and with Keith Butcher, Chris Everill & Dave Krayem, that made it 4 Class D runners for the first time in many years! Robert Rees joined us for the first time and made a good debut with an impressive 9th Place!
Qualifying We shared the grid with C&MMC (Classic and Modern) Modern Cars class. However the man on a mission was Dave Krayem, who had raced at Combe the day before, and he annexed Pole with a time of 59.866 secs and was just over a second faster than Chris Everill (who was also at Combe on Saturday!) Keith Butcher was 3rd making it a Class D 1-2-3 lockout! Damian Longotano shared the 2nd row with Keith. On row 3 was the first of the C&M runner's Matt Eddolls Aston Martin and Gareth John who took the Class BS pole!
On Row 4 was Wayne Spiller(Mazda RX8) and Todd Garner (Renault Clio )
On Row 5 Robert Rees made his WSSCC debut in his Mini R56 and shared the row with the massive C&MMC Ford Taurus!
On Row 6 Colin Dunn took the Class BT pole ahead of WSSCC Guest, Matthew Jones, and his Ford Focus. On Row 7 it was Class BT Renault Clios of Rod Teague & Tyrone Dowsell
On Row 8 Andrew Barron moved to Class D to debut his Aston Martin V12 and the returning Mike Cook BMW 330 (now Class BT). Andrew Williams(Renault Clio) & Verity Banks (Ford Fiesta) made up the grid.
Race One – Round 7 -
15 Minutes Rolling Start. Dave Krayem converted pole into the lead, but he
had Chris Everill and Keith Butcher in close attendance. With the leaders
making a glorious rumbling sound, Dave held sway for the first 3 laps, but
outduelled himself and gifted the lead to Chris Everill with Keith in 2nd
place! Dave was soon back on it, and
he closed up to Keith and re-took 2nd
place on Lap 8, and set the Class D lap record in the process! He put Chris
under extreme pressure, until on lap 11,
after a big spin, he drifted into the pits to check the car and tyres over! This left Chris to reel off the laps, with Keith keeping
him honest! This should have let Andrew Barron into 3rd in Class D
and a trophy! However, he also pitted having overheated his brakes. ‘The Pedal
went long, so I decided not to risk it! Dave Kayems demise let Damian Longotano into 3d place overall, some
way back but with Matt Eddolls Aston
Martin for company! These 4 were the only cars on the lead lap at the end! The massive C&MMC Ford Taurus was 5th 6th
and winning Class BS was Gareth John; just ahead of Todd Garner (7th)and Wayne Spiller (8th). An Impressive
9th on his debut was Robert Rees! In 10th and winning
Class, BT was Colin Dunn who was 12 secs ahead of Tyrone Dowsell, who had Rodney
Teague right on his tail! In 13th
place was Alex Balwin, one of the C&MMC
guys in a Citreon Saxo! 14th was the returning Mike Cook and
his Big Beemer, who took the CT spoils.
We shared the grid with Peugeot 206 GTi cup runners, Andrew Williams
was 18th in the midst of them and Verity Banks 23rd out
of 25 finishers. So Chris Everill ran out the winner but the Ginetta was less
than 10 seconds ahead of Keith Butcher.
Among the lap record setters
In Class D David KRAYEM Ginetta G50 59.930 secs 98.54 mph
Class CS Damian LONGOTANO Westfield SE 1:00.963 secs 96.87 mph
Class BS Gareth JOHN Ginetta G40 GT5 1:06.339 secs 89.02 mph
Class BT Colin DUNN Renault Clio 1:11.737 secs 82.32 mph
Class CT Mike COOK BMW 330 1:12.663 secs 81.27 mph
Race Two – Round 8 - 15 Minutes Rolling Start. With the finishing order of Race 1 setting the grid for Race 2, this meant we were missing Matthew Jones but Andrew Barron and Dave Krayem were at the back along with the massive C&MMC Ford Taurus now with its 2nd Driver in.,. At the front Chris Everill took the lead he was never to lose! A fast-starting Damian Longotano slotted into 2nd place ahead of Keith Butcher. Robert Rees also made a good start, but Dave Krayem was on the march and slipped by into 4th place on lap 2. It took him several laps to move past Keith Butcher and then Damian Longotano but by the time Dave got into 2nd place, Chris had a good 14-second cushion he kept until the Chequered flag flew after 15 laps! Damian Longotano was 3rd and Keith Butcher was 4th only a few seconds behind! In 5th place, Matt Eddolls Aston Martin was the last car on the lead lap! The massive Ford Taurus was 6th with Robert Rees 7th. In 8th place, Wayne Spiller and his RX8 was the only BS runner to finish and gained a full points Class win, after Gareth John took the start, but ended his race on the first lap! (Sadly Gareth also had some trouble getting home as his tow Vehicle broke down and left him and his crew stranded at the circuit until the rescue vehicle turned up!) There was even more joy for Wayne as Todd Garner drifted into the pits to retire on Lap 2! In 9th Place, Colin Dunn was the Class BT winner and the last person on 14 laps, but Tyrone Dowsell did keep him honest! I’m sure Rodney Teague would have liked to put more pressure on Tyrone but he had a good dice with Alex Baladwn one of C&MMC guys in a Citreon Saxo! In 13th Place was Andrew Barron in his Class D Aston Martin (his other car is a Rover BRM) 14th was the Douglas Bader of the WSSCC, Mike Cook, and his CT BMW. Andrew Williams was in 18th place, but sadly Verity Banks was the last runner and after a smoky last lap, slowed to a stop in the pit lane, and was pushed back to the garage by 2 kind marshals! (cue for a lot of work by the Hill Croft boys aka Andrew Williams) So Chris Everill took a win double from Silverstone, cementing himself at the top of the Blake Edwards Award standings!
Photo- Wayne Spiller- Class winner!