WINNING RETURN FOR ANDERSON AT BRANDS
After a two-year break from racing Clive Anderson made a winning return to Special Saloons and Modsports in his Rover V8-powered BMW E30.
Having set out to treat the weekend as an extended test session, Anderson was delighted to qualify third. He powered past Paul Sibley’s Lotus Elan then cut inside the Peugeot 309 GTI of Ricky Parker-morris exiting Paddock Hill Bend early in race one to claim a maiden victory.
Anderson had to settle for second in races two and three behind Andy Southcott’s MG Midget, finally cured of a chronic misfire after a change of wiring loom. Joe Ward had led race two in the ex-gerry Marshall ‘Baby Bertha’ after diving past the Peugeot, now pedalled by Danny Morris, only to spin at Druids when the brakes deserted him.
Parker-morris completed a hat-trick of third-place finishes for the 309 on its first outing this year, but Sibley’s weekend went downhill after beating him in the opener, suffering with a sick engine.
Modern Classics success went to the Porsche 968 of Paul Livesey. Polesitter Dan Williamson’s newer Porsche 911 lost out at the start to the superior straightline speed of Charlie Jackson’s Ford Escort Cosworth, which Jackson had formerly campaigned as a Group A rally car.
But, in searing heat, the Escort retired with a water leak, so Williamson led into the pitstops where restarting his car turned its driving aids on.
As Williamson struggled to switch them off, the car was cutting its revs and Livesey moved in front. With full power restored after ripping off the panel in frustration, Williamson dived back ahead into Druids, only to spin on oil when taking a tighter line into Paddock through traffic and hand Livesey the win.
Contact that shifted the tyre on its rim knocked the handling askew on Stephen Scott-dunwoodie’s BMW M3 E46 in the New Millennium race, allowing James Moulton-smith to win in the E36 started by father Mark Smith.
An earlier brush between the BMWS of initial pacesetters Piers Reid and Lucky Khera spun both and ended their challenges.
The majority of the Tin Tops field were handed 60-second penalties for Code 60 violations, allowing Richard Wheeler to keep the win despite his transgression and running out of fuel as he crossed the line. Jonathan Bevan/rod Birley were promoted to second after Dave Banks/ryan Colvey and Nigel Ainge/danny Cassar copped 120s penalties. Fourth was poor reward for Cassar, who had driven through the field following polesitter Ainge’s lap-one spin.
Jamie Keevill overcame a 30s success penalty in Group 2 of the Swinging Sixties to hold off a fast-closing Geoff Taylor, whose chase ended with a final-lap off at Paddock before scrambling back on track for second. Group 1 honours went to Ian Staines after Tom Pead crawled into retirement with a suspected ignition switch failure on his BMW.
The Talbot Sunbeam Lotus of Matt and Martin Ellis took a comfortable Future Classics win after polesitter Mark Chilton’s Nissan Skyline GTR overheated at its pitstop.
Sam Smith pounced when leader Tom Dunstan was wrong-footed by a spinning backmarker to win Classic K in the Lotus Elan started by Tim Cousins.
Carl Chambers’ Peugeot 208 GTI made light of his 30s success penalty to win the Turbo Tin Tops race, reeling in Gary Patterson – who also lost out to Ollie Clarke – after the pitstops.