Race One
Qualifying for the 16-car classic race saw Richard Allen briefly into the gravel at Leslie’s and Chris Butler having a spin at the hairpin. Gary Culver set the pace with a fastest lap in 60.147, over a second quicker than Marco Pullen (61.235) and third placed Nicky P-B (61.505). At scrutineering, Nigel Jenkins and Chris Goddard were found to have underweight cars and were consequently penalised by having to start at the back of the grid with a 10 second penalty.

In hot conditions the PFfc 15 lapper sprint race got underway at around 4.30 in the afternoon. Pole man Culver was out of the traps first, hotly pursued by Nicky P-B, Pullen, and Tomlin in his disfigured 328. As the leaders arrived at the first corner, Seat, all that could be seen from mid-field was an impenetrable cloud of dust. It looked like chaos, with the possibility of a car, or cars, marooned in the middle of the track, but all got through safely.

By lap 3, Culver had opened up a useful gap to his pursuers, with Tomlin now falling back a little in 4th spot. Swift moved up from the back by virtue of Goddard spinning at the hairpin.
Pullen took up the chase on lap 8 after finding a way past Paul-Barron and four laps later Nicky dropped a further place when Tomlin got by. In 5th, where he had been all the race, was Butler , who was managing to fend off the attentions of Richard Moseley and Fred Honnor. Richard Allen, his 328 suffering from fuel starvation, was gradually slowing.

At the flag it was Culver, with an 11 second lead from Pullen, who just managed to hold on from a last lap surge from Tomlin, the latter being the first Gp2 car home. The race winner established the new lap record in 60.759, while Tomlin set a new Gp2 target of 61.573.

Race Two
There were some delays to the start of the classic race due to the parades and other activities taking rather longer than programmed. However, at around 3.00pm our 16 cars assembled on the grid for the long distance (25 laps) race. Again Nigel Jenkins and Chris Goddard were despatched to the back of the grid (but this time without the 10 second penalty) due to being found under the minimum weight in qualifying.

This time it was Pullen who got the drop on Tomlin as the field surged off the line, with Paul-Barron and Culver slogging it out for third behind the flying Pullen and Tomlin but on lap 3 their positions were reversed. Two laps later Culver had relieved Tomlin of his second place and set off after the leader. In a solid 5th spot was Butler, heading a stream of closely packed Ferraris consisting of Honnor, Bartholomew, Moseley R, and Hathaway. The last named had a gravel experience off the track which sent him out of contention.

Lap 9 was when Culver managed to slip past Pullen to take the lead, and from thereon he was never headed. However Pullen’s problems were not over and he had to fight off a fierce attack on his nether quarters from the battling Nicky P-B and Tomlin (these two being contenders for Gp2 honours).

A little further back there was some really exciting racing to watch, with everyone doing their very best. Nigel Jenkins was coming through the field in impressive fashion from his back row start, and by mid-race was challenging Chris Butler (who had been overtaken by Fred Honnor) for 6th place. Also exciting was the duel between the Moseleys, with father (Peter) being only a smidgeon slower than son (Richard). Simon Bartholomew remained the filling in this entertaining Moseley sandwich.

Swift had aspirations of getting past Ben Cartwright but to his credit Ben made no errors and it never happened. Twenty-five hectic laps on a demanding track like Knockhill is pretty hard work on a hot day, and the last few laps seemed to be gruelling for some, not least your reporter who has to confess to a certain amount of wilting towards the end. I was quite sure the man at the finish line had forgotten to wave his chequered flag!

However, when the flag finally came out it was Gary Culver notching yet another fine win on his rifle butt. He came home some eight seconds ahead of Marco Pullen, with Nicky Paul-Barron less than a car’s length to take third and a win in Gp2.

L ap times were marginally quicker that they had been on Saturday, with new records set by Culver in Gp3 (60.736) and Paul-Barron 61.224 in Gp2.