Richard Allen's 328GTB knows it's way up Gurston and with a high 37 he had a good one second margin over John Marshall's 328GTB. Terry's 328GTB was not far behind John, then Geoff Dark, who has this strange habit for practice runs of dawdling over the finish line at 50 mph or so. Nick Frost, on his first visit to Gurston, was really tramping on with his sporty 348 looking set to break the forty second barrier. Jos van de Perre (308GTS) and Mark Hargreaves were close, as were Stuart Bailey (246GT) and new boy Mike Spicer (308GT4), still on those Michelin XWXs already going well on his first visit to Gurston.

Such was the pace of the meeting, and BARC (SW)'s smooth organisation, that the officials got underway at 1.00 p.m. and the Ferraris were soon queuing for the startline. As it was to turn out, the practice times were a bit illusory and there would be a very close battle for class honours. On the first outing, John Marshall went in to the lead just six hundredths ahead of Geoff Dark, with Terry Esom in close attendance. Richard Allen lost second gear midway through the Karussel and forgot to turn right, going off on the grass in the process and slipping to fourth spot. Nick Frost, meanwhile, remarkably broke the forty second barrier to head Jos van de Perre, Mark Hargreaves, Stuart Bailey and Mike Spicer.

On the final run, all the Ferrari pilots, except for Jos van de Perre, gnawed off more time. Mike Spicer improved further with a low 43, maybe the best anyone ever went on antique tyres, whilst Stuart Bailey, improving dramatically over last year with a mid 42, just a shade behind Mark Hargreaves. Jos van de Perre was on his own in the mid 41s, whilst Nick Frost went quicker still to keep in touch with the experienced front runners. Geoff Dark put in as quick a time as we have ever seen from a 308 before - enough to pull the maximum points which was his objective, but only sufficient for fourth overall. Terry Esom, easily the quickest over the first half of the course, lost time somewhere, but pulled ahead of Geoff for third spot. Meanwhile, pace-setter John Marshall, a second quicker than he had been at Gurston previously - with a low 38, should really have been the class winner, a position Richard Allen just scraped with a time well short of his practice, and where he had been a couple of years ago. Notably, there was just six hundredths between first and second and second and third and about a tenth back to fourth. You can't get much closer competition than that!

With the PEPs applied, it was therefore Dark who took the maximum points, followed by Allen, Esom and Marshall. Cumulatively, Robin Ward still leads the table with 75 points but John Marshall (69) and Geoff Dark (66) are close up.

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