PEMBREY: BARC BY PETER SCHERER
Nick Dunn consolidated his lead in the Max5 Racing Championship by taking his fourth win of the season.
George Grant made a lightning start in race one but couldn’t hold off the challenge from John Munro and Dunn for long. Munro led from the lap two and gradually pulled clear of Dunn, while the duel for a distant third place finally went to Chris Webster after a race-long battle with Ian Loversidge.
Although Grant was still fifth on the road, he received two track limit penalties, which left Jeremy Shipley and Andrew Pretorious to complete the top six.
Munro started the second race from pole and it soon developed into a four-way scrap with Dunn, Webster and Loversidge. But four into one didn’t go at Hatchets and, after contact, Munro was stationary in the track and the race was red flagged.at the restart, Dunn took charge from the opening lap but had Webster as a constant shadow.
He held on just to take the flag with only 0.129s in hand, while Loversidge looked on from a solitary third. Pretorious, Grant and Lee Hollin rounded off the top six.
Grant got a win in the nonchampionship finale, heading Shipley from the start, but a terrific fight for third finally went to Pretorious with a lap to go, over Hollin.
Jason Davies’ Ford Sapphire Cosworth managed to shake off Keith White’s BMW Z4 from the start of the first Welsh Sports Saloon race, as Chris Everill’s Ginetta G50 held a distant and racelong third.
The second race looked like being a repeat until Davies slowed on lap 10 and White went ahead to seal the win. Despite his reducing pace, Davies held onto second for another six laps, before Everill came by, but by the flag Fabio Luffarelli’s Mini and Ken James’ Loco Hornet had followed too.
No one got near Nerijus Zabotka after he unleashed his Subaru Impreza in the combined Nippon Challenge/deutsche Marques/tricolore Trophy race. He won both races at a canter, with the Renault Clios of Tony Hunter and Nick Gwinnett joining him on the podium after a processional first race.
The second race was somewhat closer as Gwinnett’s initial pursuit faded after the second lap and left Hunter chasing. But as Gwinnett continued to slide down the order, Andrew Roberts’ Honda Civic came to the fore and had almost caught Hunter as the flag came out.
It was a three-way fight for supremacy at the start of the first MR2 race. Dave Hemmingway led poleman Aaron Pullan and Adam Lockwood, before Pullan took charge on the fourth lap. They remained close and, as Pullan managed to keep his nose ahead, Hemmingway and Lockwood swapped and changed repeatedly, with Lockwood finally sealing the place a lap from home.
Pullan got a break early into the second race and was fairly comfortable for the first 10 laps. Lockwood turned the tide back in his favour and, after scything past on lap 11, he went clear over the remaining laps.
Hemmingway had an early duel with Peter Higton for third, but once it was settled in his favour he drastically reduced the second-place cushion of the slowing Pullan.