The FOC have not visited Nurburgring for many years so it was a first time on the track for most of its drivers. The weekend started with practice sessions on the Friday which proved challenging in the cold and wet conditions. There was a single qualifying session first thing on Saturday morning. Fastest laps counted for race 1 with 2nd fastest laps counting for race 2. Amazingly a dry track greeted the 25 cars. There were 10 from PFO, and 15 from PFfc.

Paul Bailey led qualifying for the Open cars, closely followed by Mick Dwane and Gary Eastwood (all 458/Chs). One unfortunate casualty of the qualifying session was Vance Kearney in his 355, who skidded at the chicane into a large concrete block. He was fine but the car would not be repaired in time for racing.

Race 1
A hesitant rolling start allowed Mick Dwane and Gary Eastwood to get ahead of pole man Paul Bailey. These three would steadily pull away from the field. Graham Reeder had a lonely race in his 360/Ch and would end the race a distant 4th overall and winner of class C2. Up front Eastwood got past Dwane on lap 5 and pulled away to win the race by 2 seconds.  Paul Bailey was a further 11secs behind after a small spin. The remaining Open cars had a very close race, with no more than 7 seconds covering the field for most of the race. Paul Brooks emerged victorious in C1.

Race 2
Another dry day, and a good start from Paul Bailey had him leading at the first corner from Gary Eastwood and Mick Dwane. As with the first race these cars were evenly matched and having a great race. Graham Reeder in his 360/Ch was again having a lonely race in 4th as was Nick Kaye (360/Ch) in 5th and Darren Laverty (355/Ch) in 6th. The final positions were as the first corner with Paul Bailey the winner, just half a second ahead of Gary Eastwood.

Click here for Race results.

Next Meeting: April 13/14 2013: Snetterton.

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