POLLARD EXTRACTS HIS REVENGE WITH A BRACE OF WINS
With 250 qualifiers for 16 races, Croft’s 750MC weekender had unpredictability and talking points galore.
The Formula Vee title fight intensified as Craig Pollard – twice beaten in Cadwell’s opening rounds – took revenge by doing the double over chief rival James Harridge.
Pollard’s Bears GAC took pole for both races and led Harridge’s Maverick all the way in the first.
Harridge, though, took the lead at the start of the second which soon turned into a classic as the pair traded top spot six times inside the opening two laps alone.
Harridge was ahead when the race was red flagged late on but, on countback, Pollard was declared the winner.
Tim Probert (Storm Bowles) and
Peter Studer (TCR Challenger) took a third apiece.
Three breathless Locost races – each typically decided on the final lap – went the way, in order, of Geoff Peek, Mark
Burton and Martin West, the latter’s win coming thanks to a stunning move through the Complex. Andrew Tait was an ever-present threat in all three encounters.
The action was similarly fraught in an MX-5 triple-header. Ben Short won the first thrash, Tom Roche the second and Short again the third, as Michael Comber, Bens Hancy and Abbitt, and Courtney Milnes also played starring roles.
Ryan Yarrow (Spire GT3S) needed a successful appeal to have him reinstated as winner of the opening Sports 1000 race ahead of Rich Miles (Spire GT3RM). Miles won the second race, aided when Yarrow spun at Hawthorn after contact from Victor Neumann.
Joe Stables (Radical PR6) headed Scott Mittell (Mittell MC 41 RR) in the first Bikesports race, but the second went the way of the latter thanks to a decisive move exiting Sunny Out.
Adam Shepherd collected both wins in the Type-R Trophy. In race one he overcame gear selection issues to hold off Mark Balmer and Lee Deegan. Balmer led momentarily into Clervaux at the start of race two, but minor contact sent him crashing out and left Shepherd clear to lead home from Deegan.
Ross McEwen was fortunate to emerge unscathed from a sizeable crash that forced the Club Enduro race to be stopped early on. His demolished Porsche Boxster became wedged underneath the barriers at Sunny In and it took several attempts to extricate himself. The restarted race was won easily by Carl Swift/ Richard Baker’s Seat Leon.
Simon Mauger/Matthew
Faulner’s Honda Civic Type-R won in Roadsports after Andy Marston’s BMW E46 M3 was excluded for overtaking under yellow flags.