Older Fisher beats brother to a double catch
Josh Fisher’s stunning Bank Holiday Castle Combe Formula Ford 1600 double over brother Felix, with a combined winning advantage of just 0.386 seconds, moved their personal score to three-one this year. A fastest lap bonus point apiece means the brothers are now tied atop the country’s longest-running regional championship.
Felix (Ray GR05) qualified on pole from Luke Cooper (Swift SC20) and Josh (Van Diemen JL14) for both races, which followed similar patterns as the Somerset siblings exchanged the lead, sometimes twice per lap, with Cooper not quite able to split them. James Hadfield (Van Diemen RF03) and Kieran Attwood (Ray GR07) both landed fourths, Attwood named Driver of the Day for shadowing the stars second time out.
Adam Prebble opened his 2022 Castle Combe Racing Club Saloon account with a dominant victory in the Vauxhall Astra turbo on ex-racer father Brian’s 79th birthday. Dave Spiller and Tony Hutchings were second and third in Audi TTS, Hutchings’s lacking power. Pairs of
Renault Meganes and MG ZRS were next as returnee Robert Ballard and Harrison Chamberlain (who recovered well from a first-lap drama) were fourth and fifth. James Keepin staved off Lee Waterman for Class C honours after Matt Parr’s Peugeot 106 GTI expired at Bobbies.
A paltry four GTS made the grid, but fortunately three were fiercely competitive. Doug Watson (Ferrari 458 Challenge), Kevin Bird (debuting the ex-peter Kyle-henney/ Garry Wardle Porsche 991 GT3) and Keith Butcher (Audi R8 LMS ultra) circulated together, entertaining onlookers, before Watson came out on top by less than a second from Bird.
Mighty Minis took their bow under the CCRC flag, providing tyre-squealing action in both classes. Among the 1293cc Super Mighty Minis, Stuart Coombs took advantage of leader Neven Kirkpatrick’s
mistake at Tower to win the opener from Ian Slark and the chastened Kirkpatrick, who reversed the top three subsequently. Darren Nightingale and Graham Sheppard took narrow 1275cc MM honours.
Continuing his form from the Easter weekend, Craig Tomkinson’s Vauxhall Nova – pepped up with a two-litre Astra engine – won a third straight Hot Hatch series race, chased by Joe Dorrington’s Gary Prebble-prepared Honda Civic and Lewis Clark’s Ford Fiesta.
Dorrington completed a memorable afternoon by winning both Track Attack contests, pursued by Nick Gwinnett
(Renault Clio) and David Clark’s welldeveloped Renault 5 Turbo respectively.
Brands double winner Steve Mcdermid (ZR 170) extended his unbeaten MG Owners’ Club Championship tally to four races. Will Sharpe and Jack Woodcock completed the first podium in similar cars. Sharpe’s engine grenaded in a shower of pistons passing the pits in the finale, sending him spinning into the wall on its oil. Woodcock and Maninder Golhar took second and third, Golhar ecstatic with his first podium.