Mark made of the Wright stuff after victory charge
CADWELL PARK MGCC 8 MAY
Neither the day’s biggest entry nor a circuit on which overtaking is notoriously challenging could prevent Mark Wright claiming his first Cockshoot Cup victory from the back of the grid at a sunny Cadwell Park.
Alternator failure on his ex-vince Martin MGF Cup car forced Wright to qualify out of session and start each race at the rear of the 29-car grid – the northern-based championship’s largest for several years.
Wright’s rapid progress to 12th on the opening tour counted for nothing when Peter Bramble’s MGB smote the barrier at The Mountain, but the East Midlander went even better in the rerun. Fourth by the end of lap three of 10, he then picked off the Midgets of Keith Egar and David Morrison before homing in on Paul Wignall’s MG ZS 180. Wignall had scored a maiden pole position on his first appearance in the ex-morgan Short car but his valiant defence was breeched by Wright exiting Barn with two laps to go.
Wright’s bid for a repeat in the sequel ended with an engine blow-up having risen to third. Two-time class champion Wignall claimed his own maiden outright win, passing Egar mid-race after both benefited from an early clash between the faststarting Midgets of Morrison and Ian Whitt. Karl Green’s ZS completed the podium after pipping Phil Standish (ZR) on the line.
On his return to the championship, Jason Burgess had little trouble cruising to two victories over an MG Trophy field depleted by withdrawals. Patrick Booth kept him honest in the opener until flat-spotting his tyres in a failed lunge at Park late on, as set-up tweaks helped Burgess to a more dominant later win.
The action came behind them as the Class B frontrunners scrapped in their less powerful ZR 170s. Struggling with a long brake pedal, James Dennison lost out to Josh Bromley through The Mountain on race one’s final lap.
As Bromley attempted to repeat the move early in the rematch, the pair made contact. Bromley’s car was pitched across the nose of Dennison’s, causing chaos behind. Tylor Ballard was slammed into the barriers as he tried to squeeze past but Astin Wigley avoided the trouble to run third overall. He lost out to the recovering Dennison after the resulting safety car but held off the challenges of Joe Dalgarno and Jack Chapman, who came to blows at the final corner.
Reigning MG Trophy Class B champion Fergus Campbell won on his first MG Cup outing. Front-row men Campbell and Ian Boulton (both in ZRS) had lonely races as a queue formed behind Dave Nixon’s Rover 220 Tomcat in third. Nixon’s stout defence through Gooseneck in particular held firm until the penultimate lap when he bounced over the kerb at Mansfield, letting Richard Buckley’s similar car and Dennis Robinson’s ZR past.
From third on the grid, Buckley jumped Campbell and Boulton in race two as Nixon also powered past within a lap. Roles reversed, Buckley was forced into defending while Nixon’s attacks left him briefly losing out to Campbell before the Tomcat’s grunt eventually told.
In a repeat of the season-opener, Mark Eales and Mike Williams shared Metro Cup honours. Polesitter Williams dropped to fourth before clearing Tim Shooter and Dick Trevett then shadowing Eales home
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