Two By Two

The entry of 22 cars was quite good for a foreign round, especially as there was a strict requirement for National A race licences. There were two separate practice sessions - one at 11.00 in the morning on Saturday and the other at 4.00 p.m. The quickest time from either practice session would count for both grid positions.

In the first session, Davids' Testarossa was quickest, followed by the two F40s of Pogson and Bowler, Hetherington's F50 and Nicky Paul-Barron's 355/Ch, who was the quickest of the "C" cars ahead of Marco Attard.

In the second session, however, things speeded up mightily and Pogson knocked over two seconds off his P1 time to lead the grid ahead of Bowler, Hetherington, Davids and Alan Cosby (F512M), whose car was now back in excellent fettle with a completely re-built engine courtesy of Shiltech.

After qualifying all was not peace and quiet in the paddock. Davids' Testarossa was found to be a massive 23 kilos underweight and his P2 time was disallowed, but this was no major problem to him as his P1 time was quicker anyway. Pogson's F40 was found to have non-standard discs but much persuasion eventually allowed him to race. David Ashburn's "O" class F355 became a non-starter with head gasket maladies and John Swift's 308GTB was clearly coming to the end of its clutch life and this would make life difficult for him come race day.

At the excruciating hour of ten in the morning the first race got under way on Sunday, although whether the competitors or the safety car subsequently did more laps became debatable. Woodford's 355/Ch spun into the gravel on his first lap and immediately the yellow flags and safety car came out. For two laps the field ran under the caution period, with Pogson, Davids, Hetherington, Bowler and Cosby leading the parade. Woody's 355/Ch was extracted from the gravel and drove round to the pits to retire but at the same time dropping enough stones on the track to build a flyover.

Once the race re-started the stones became the undoing of Nicky P-B, who spun into retirement but then, even worse, Stuart Bowler's F40 came off-line and made heavy contact with the tyre barriers, incurring considerable damage. The safety car came out again and by the time the F40 was removed from its dangerous position only two more laps of racing remained. Pogson took a narrow win from Davids, with Alan Cosby in third ahead of Hetherington's F50. The latter moved up one place in the results when Cosby was subsequently disqualified for passing under the yellow flag. Marco Attard finished fourth and won the Challenge class and Fred Moss's extraordinarily quick drive gave him the "O" class by a considerable margin from Shaun Powell, both of them in F355s.

The second race started at the more respectable hour of 1.00 in the afternoon and this time the race ran cleanly for ten laps without any interruptions. Pogson took his F40 for a flag to flag win some seven seconds ahead of Davids' Testarossa. The latter, however, had a major tussle on his hands with Hetherington's F50 and the two finished just one second apart. Alan Cosby's F512M ran a lonely race into fourth place but behind him was the usual frenetic scrap amongst the Challenge cars. As has recently become the pattern, Marco Attard proved the quickest and Nicky P-B eventually got ahead of Neil Woodford to finish second.

Fred Moss again took "O" class honours - in both races he finished ahead of a considerable number of the Challenge cars; Shaun Powell went quicker again in the second race, his lap times getting closer to those of Moss, and for this excellent effort he received the Psygnosis Driver of the Day award.

Half-way through the season, the points tables make interesting reading. In the "O" and "C" classes it is difficult to see how their competition will stop Fred Moss and Marco Attard take their respective categories. Amongst the "M"s, however, Ian Hetherington still leads, but John Pogson is closing rapidly following his recent spate of wins. Needless to say, there are probably a number of other drivers who would disagree with this easy assessment and the second half of the season could yet spring a few surprises!

Click here for

Qualifying Times & Race Results

Paddock Stories

Current Points Standing