National reports: Castle Combe; Cadwell Park; Snetterton
Four days before the 70th anniversary of the venue’s inaugural race meeting, the Castle Combe Racing Club brought sanctioned racing back to life in the UK’S first POSTCOVID-19 lockdown event.
Pioneering new protocols (see page 69 for further details) in miserable conditions, which triggered a number of incidents to test them, officials passed with flying colours as seven happy winners emerged from a very strange eight-race programme in which the four resident grids each ran twice with no presence of spectators.
Six thousandths of a second split
Formula Ford poleman Luke Cooper and Felix Fisher as an encouraging 23-strong entry tackled a drying track. It took 2018 champion Cooper four laps to depose fast-starter Fisher in the dry opener and the Swift driver held on as they finished comfortably clear. Fisher was imperious in the contrasting sequel, walking on water as he drove his Tom Margetson-prepared Ray GR06 away from Cooper.
American visitors Bryce Aron and
Grant Palmer (Low Dempsey Racing Rays) impressed, acclimatising for their National Formula Ford Championship outings, which begin later this month. Aron finished third in the opener, but a superbly judged lastlap dive into Tower allowed David Vivian (Kevin Mills Racing Spectrum 011) to demote Palmer and grab the last podium in race two. Class B standout James Tucker shaded fellow Swift SC92 pilot Paul Barnes in race one, then doubled up more easily. Four-time Combe FF1600 champion Bob Higgins’s exhaust came adrift in the first stanza, then he threw his Van Diemen RF88 off at Quarry in the second. Marc de Rozarieux thus snared top class points both times.
The GT pack harboured a fine mix of cars, although opening-lap shenanigans sidelined Chris Everill’s Ginetta G55 and Keith Butcher’s Audi R8 LMS Ultra with suspension damage following contact.
Poleman Lucky Khera – in the magnificent Ferrari 488 he debuted at Brands Hatch’s Britcar night race last November – powered clear of Oliver Bull in Jeremy Irwin’s Ford Ecoboost-engined Vauxhall Tigra clone at the reshuffled restart. Kevin Jones (Noble M12), recovering from a moment, chased down Lee Frost’s old-school BMW M3 for third, albeit embedded in the Recticel barriers after the timing line!
Khera withdrew from race two, not wishing to sacrifice new wets, which set
Bull free. Buoyed by a 1m05.5s personal best in Thursday testing, which proved the winter’s turbo, cylinder head and cam upgrades, the outright lap record is under threat but conditions precluded a shot last weekend. Nonetheless Bull lapped all but Tony Bennett (Caterham R300) and Jamie Sturges (SEAT Leon Eurocup).
The Castle Combe Saloon Championship’s 25th year began with
0.347s covering the top four after a damp qualifying session. Second qualifier Rob Ballard (VW Scirocco, broken timing chain), British Touring Car Championship racer Josh Cook (Renault Sport Megane, buzzed engine) and Jon Lannon (Citroen Saxo) were all sidelined though, leaving 12 starters.
The attrition did not stop there as poleman Gary Prebble’s SEAT Leon Cupra suffered turbo failure off the line, leaving younger brother Adam to take a comfortable win. Simon Thornton-norris’s Mitsubishi Colt’s oil filter came adrift and Terry Thorne’s Ford Fiesta clobbered the Esses tyre wall as spinner Kevin Bird (Nissan 200SX), the misfiring Dave Scaramanga
(VW Scirocco) and Tony Dolley (SEAT
Leon) followed Prebble minor’s Vauxhall Astra turbo at a distance.
The younger Prebble and Scaramanga
missed race two with transmission problems and a broken front strut mount respectively, leaving Thornton-norris’s repaired Colt to sizzle to the win. Double gyrator Bird, on dry tyres, and Dolley – sideswiped at Quarry on lap one – completed the top three as only six finished.
Quickest qualifier Chris Southcott was the afternoon’s only double race winner in the Hot Hatch series. But he had to drive his Peugeot 205 through from row four of the second race – ordered by second best qualifying times – and worked hard to demote demon debutant Dan Brown, his closest practice rival, who started his Honda Civic from pole. Tony Cooper and Shaun Goverd (Peugeot 106 Gtis) landed thirds, as double Class C victor Goverd delighted with a maiden podium in his Will di Claudiofettled car. Best of the Minis was ex-ff1600 driver Steven Jensen’s zebra-striped example.