DAVIES/SUTTON SHOW WHO’S BOSS
Ford roundly beat Chevrolet in Saturday’s Gordon Spice Trophy Pro-Am Group 1 touring car feature, in which Craig Davies started superbly and relayed reigning fourtime British Touring Car champion Ash Sutton to victory over Fred Shepherd and Porsche star Timo Bernhard, making his event debut.
Both pairings drove hulking Mustang Boss 302s against the growing Camaro Z28 hordes.
A host of Chevy teams put up great fights, with Gordon Shedden bringing Jack Young’s James Hunt Tour of Britan tribute car home third, ahead of James Cottingham/Dario Franchitti in David Clark’s later Bastos Spa 24 Hours version and those of James Thorpe/Andy Priaulx and Marino Franchitti/Olly Bryant.
Best of the Ford Capri V6s was
Rick Wood’s which BTCC ace Jake Hill scorched back to seventh, clear of the Rob Huff/Richard Meins example. Michael Whitaker Jr/Tom Ingram were ninth in the former’s Rover SD1 while the Camaro of Jack Tetley – who inverted it at last year’s Members’ Meeting – and Tom Kristensen rounded out the top 10.
The first four-cylinder car home was Kerry Michael and
Andrew Watson’s Escort RS2000, chased by Nick Swift in the best of three Mini 1275GTs.
Shepherd won the reversed grid entrants’ race that closed the event, restarted after a first-lap incident in which the ex-Jon Mowatt Mini of Larry Warr – who found himself on pole – and Nick Sleep’s Rover, shared on Saturday with Jamie Chadwick, collided at Lavant seconds after an earlier brush on the rise from St Mary’s flicked Warr onto the grass.