The Ringmeisters

The entry of 23 Ferraris was a good one for an overseas round, particularly as some of the newer competitors had not yet had an opportunity of up-grading their licences to the required level. There were two qualifying heats, one each on Friday and Saturday, and the best time would count for each of the two grids - one on Saturday and one on Sunday morning.

First qualifying saw John Pogson's Italia Autosport F40 quickest, with Ian Hetherington's F50 in second spot but some three seconds behind. Colin Davids' Testarossa was third. Amongst the 355/Chs John Seale put his track knowledge to good use and was quickest, whilst in the 'O' class Fred Moss took his customary place ahead of David Ashburn, both in their usual F355s.

In the second session, Hetherington improved enormously to put his Specialised Cars F50 on pole ahead of Pogson, Davids, Seale and Alan Cosby (F512M). Next came the 355/Chs of Graham Reeder, Nicky Paul-Barron and Marco Attard barely separable by a stop-watch.

Immediately after practice all the relevant cars were scrutineered for compliance with the catalytic converter regulation and it was found that the 355s of Moss and Ashburn were not fitted with the proper devices. Both had their qualifying times disallowed but, subject to cats being fitted in time, were granted permission to commence the races from the back of the grid.

Round 10

Missing from the grid were Mike Reeder, who had comprehensively shunted his 355/Ch in practice, and Neil Woodford, who had damaged his engine beyond repair. David Ashburn had been unable to find cats in time and therefore non-started and Fred Moss, who had pinched some cats from the damaged Reeder car, had then found a further problem with a broken wheel stud which could simply not be fixed in time.

Nineteen cars therefore took the green light and it was Pogson who went into a lead he was never to lose to the finish. Hetherington had a lonely drive into second place but the two big flat 12s of Cosby and Davids were locked in a close tussle, with Cosby eventually getting the upper hand by the smallest of margins.

Marco Attard passed Seale to take the lead amongst the Challenge cars and they gradually dropped Nicky Paul-Barron, who had made a poor start and spent the rest of the race trying to catch up.

With Moss and Ashburn non-starting their 'O' class 355s, Gary Culver made certain of gaining the maximum points as he took a 10 second victory from Shaun Powell, with Jon Goodwin (Mondial t) and Ben Cosby (308GT4) taking the next places in the class.

Round 11

As the field thundered into the first corner, Hetherington's F50 led the way in front of Pogson, but Attard's 355/Ch spun into a gravel trap avoiding Andy Micheal's GT4 and he continued in a lowly 13th place to chase the 'C' class lead all the way to the finish.

On the fourth lap Pogson attempted to pass Hetherington but the two cars made heavy contact and both spun. They re-started without losing the lead and then Pogson made another attempt to pass the F50 but ended up in the gravel trap for the remainder of the race. The F40 driver put both incidents down to difficulties with the brakes.

Hetherington then cruised to an unchallenged win, with Colin Davids this time holding off Alan Cosby for second place. Attard flew like the wind and caught NP-B somewhat unawares to take back the 'C' class lead just two laps from the end. This time Nicky had got a flying start but admitted that he may have eased off too much following a yellow and white flag incident. Bruno Cappuccini had another strong race to take third in the Challenge class.

Freddy Moss did everything possible to wrest the 'O' class from his back of the grid starting position. On the first lap alone he had made up nine places, but Gary Culver kept it all together to the end and crossed the line some six seconds ahead, with Shaun Powell just two seconds behind Moss. The latter, however, was then penalised 30 seconds for by-passing one of the chicanes, which handed second in class to Shaun.

A highly delighted Gary Culver won the Psygnosis Driver of the Day award following his two race victories and a very trying time with various car problems.

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