MGCC CHAMPS CROWNED IN DAY OF DRAMA
Champions were crowned amid extreme drama in MG Car Club’s seasonconcluding Snetterton round held in everchanging conditions.
The MG Metro Cup resolved its title fight with a bumper grid marking the championship’s 30th anniversary. It looked like the year-long championship scrap could be tilted to Mike Williams at the last, as Mark Eales’ Metro was disqualified from Norfolk’s race one for being underweight.
However the title just as sensationally swung back in the final race as Williams retired from the lead, when gearbox oil leaked onto his exhaust. He could have continued but was concerned his oil would make the track treacherous for others. Eales climbed to third-place points scorer, which by common calculation was enough for him to retain his crown.
Eales told Motorsport News: “It was a roller-coaster day. I weighed the car before qualifying; weighed it again after race one and it was underweight, don’t know how.
“With Mike not finishing [race two] I just had to drive the wheels off the car, and hopefully [I’ve] just done enough.”
MG Trophy’s title conclusion was if anything even more dramatic, as championshipprotagonist Class B pair Joe Dalgarno and Josh Bromley at the last drag raced for the finish line and the title; Dalgarno pipped his foe by just 0.058 seconds to take the crown. However the pair had made contact at the Murrays final turn; the meeting’s clerk ruled it a racing incident but Bromley has spoken of protesting it.
There were close MG Trophy races at the front too, as Jason Burgess twice held off Adam Jackson to win.
The Midget & Sprite Challenge also had a special meeting as its first race was for the Ted Reeve Memorial Trophy, remembering the Midget racing stalwart. And it was the returning newly crowned Cockshoot Cup champion David Morrison who took it, running away after a gamble on wet tyres paid off.
Another returnee Martin Morris won the second race as this time Morrison chose wrong with wet rubber while Morris’s slicks choice was correct, unlike in race one, and he cruised to victory. Poignantly he was in Ted Reeve’s old car, and was a late substitute for multiple-champion Paul Sibley. Pippa Cow meanwhile retained her title.
Richard Buckley wrapped up the MG Cup championship too, despite two tricky races in the damp conditions. Both races were dominated by Jack Chapman in his recently improved MG ZR 170, and amazingly these were his firstever race wins.
Ian Sumner won both Morgan Challenge races despite being unhappy with his gearbox, which meant he chose to start race two from the pits. Andrew Thompson’s title shot meanwhile was thrown into uncertainty when he retired from that finale race when oil leaked onto his brakes.