A Specialised One-Two

Following the various incidents at the Castle Combe round, only Neil Woodford's 355/Ch was missing out of the five cars which had suffered damage there.

Qualifying brought yet another tightly packed grid and it was Ian Hetherington's F50 which rode the bumpy track better than the rest and Stuart Bowler put his F40 alongside on the front row. In the second row was Colin Davids' Testarossa, with the first of the 355 Challenge cars, that of John Seale. Marco Attard's 355/Ch was next, ahead of John Pogson's F40 and another 355/Ch - that of Nicky Paul-Barron.

In the "O" class, Gary Culver (F355) was quickest, ahead of the similar tipos of Fred Moss and David Ashburn. Could Culver maintain that lead this time?

With a large crowd looking on, it was a frantic first corner after the start when John Seale's 355 from row two made contact with Davids' Testarossa and the latter went on to the grass and spun. At some point Bowler's F40 also made contact with the 355, leaving black rubber marks down the sides of both cars.

Bowler put himself into the wheel tracks of Hetherington's F50 and stayed there for the entire race, having to watch a more modern car handle Thruxton's notorious bumps in a more proficient fashion. Pogson and Seale came next but soon exchanged positions, although both continued to have relatively lonely races before eventually finishing third and fourth. Behind this quartet came the usual profusion of 355/Chs, with Marco Attard gamely chasing after Seale's class lead car, followed by Marc Gachoud, Nicky Paul-Barron, Graham Reeder and Rory Fordyce. Gachoud spun twice and lost his place in this gaggle.

The two flat 12s had mixed fortunes. After Davids spun his Testarossa to the very tail of the field on lap one, he set about a mighty chase through the pack and eventually finished tenth overall and fourth in the "M" class. Alan Cosby's F512M ran initially in sixth place amidst all the Challenge cars but eventually became the race's only retirement when the oil pressure warning light came on.

And that was the way that it stayed to the end. Ian Hetherington crossed the line just over one second ahead of Stuart Bowler to claim his second GMFC win this year and making it a 1-2 result for the Specialised Cars team of Martin Shaw. Pogson claimed third in the F40 ahead of five 355/Chs led by Seale. Ninth overall and winner of the "O" class was yet again Fred Moss, who finished some 8 seconds ahead of Gary Culver, whilst David Ashburn came a distant third following a spin. For his remarkable drive in his sweetly handling standard 355, Moss was named the Psygnosis Driver of the Day.

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