COMBE BRACE FOR COOPER SEALS HAT-TRICK OF WINS
Luke Cooper claimed a double Castle Combe Formula Ford 1600 win in the traditional Easter Monday Howard’s Day Combe season-opener, following up his National FF1600 win at Silverstone the previous day.
In the wet opening race Cooper’s Swift led home Michael Eastwell’s Spectrum by just over a second. Cooper took a lead he wasn’t to lose on lap one when poleman Josh Fisher dropped down the order with electrical problems, causing Fisher to stop his Van Diemen at Bobbies chicane on lap two.
In the second race, now in the dry, it was Cooper’s turn to lose the lead to Fisher on lap one when he ran off. Cooper took the lead back two laps later when Fisher himself ran off briefly, and he led the rest of the way.
“Amazing day,” said Cooper, “it couldn’t really have gone any better.
“Things didn’t go to plan on the first lap [of race two]! But after that, brilliant. After I made that one mistake I made sure not to make another.”
Michael Vitulli took a win and second place in the first ever BMW Car Club race weekend, which attracted a grid of 21 cars.
In the wet first race – its starting grid was selected at random after qualifying running was impossible in very wet conditions – early leader Vitulli in his E46 M3 was passed by Richard Marsh’s E36 M3 around the back of the circuit on lap three. Winner Marsh beat Vitulli by 12 seconds.
Vitulli hit back in the dry second race by leading all the way to win after beating poleman Marsh off the line. Marsh fell back to finish fourth.
The first of the eclectic CCRC GT races was won by poleman Steve Putt in his Mazda RX-7. Oliver Bull took the second race in his Vauxhall Tigra after passing Putt at mid-distance. In both races Adam Higgins in his Ginetta G55 came from the back to finish second – the track veteran didn’t take part in qualifying after entering the event late.
Both 750 Motor Club Locost races were taken by first-time winners. Gregory Smith claimed race one, taking the lead from Tim Neat at the restart after a safety car period caused by champion Ian Allee leaving the track in intensifying drizzle. Smith held off runner-up Ben Powney by a second; Powney had risen from 14th on the grid – he said set-up changes after qualifying made his car “unreal” for the race.
Mark Burton won the second Locost race, holding off a late charge from Louis Wall.
James Harridge in his Maverick won the first Formula Vee contest after a last-lap pass on Ian Jordan’s Sheane Jordan, following a racelong battle. Ian Buxton won the restarted second race in his GAC Daghorn, heading a tight fourcar battle.
Double champion Simon Thornton-norris claimed the CCRC Saloon Car win in his Mitsubishi Colt. He took the lead on lap three when poleman Gary Prebble had to switch his SEAT Leon’s engine off momentarily after his throttle had stuck open. Prebble dropped to fifth as a result but recovered to second.
Josh Harvey eventually cruised to the Hot Hatch win by 11 seconds in his Honda EG 2000, after he finished the opening lap in 14th place following an off at the first turn.