StartlineOnLine

Startline OnLine

Monoposto Championship, Silverstone, 2000 & Classic, 27 April 2008

A Lights to Flag victory looked easy for Jeremy Timms. Andy Woolley reports from behind the wheel at Silverstone.

Qualifying

Having repaired his car from its Snetterton shunt Jeremy Timms stormed to the front of the 26 car entry with a very quick 57.641 leaving Neil Harrison trailing in his wake by over half a second. Making a rare appearance in the Anson and taking 3rd slot (and Classic pole) was David Dudley, followed by Kevin Mason (Dallara) and Tristan Cliffe (Reynard) with Richard Purcell taking 6th slot in his quick ‘ground effect’ FVL.

Geoff Fern was entered in last year’s Van Diemen but turned up in his ex-Phil Moore Dallara. Clearly he was experiencing problems and was way down in 21st just ahead of Nick Catanzaro’s immaculate metallic blue FVL.

It was good to see Jim Blockley (11th) making a guest appearance in his old Bowman following Nick Anstruther’s unexpected call to go and work in the Middle East. Also out after a long absence was David Cox (12th) in his venerable ex-Senna Ralt RT3.

Making up the final row were debutant Graham Probyn in the ex-Kevin Mason Reynard 863 and Richard Snuggs in his smart green Ralt RT30.

Following a panoply of new car problems, including noise test failure, Russ Giles failed to make it out in his immaculately prepared ‘Marlboro’ Reynard 913 but was eventually allowed to start from the back of the grid at the CoC’s discretion.

Race

David Dudley was slow away losing 3 places in the first lap but Andy Woolley (Reynard) was even slower away having failed to properly engage 1st gear on the startline. Fortunately, all those behind managed to miss him and he eventually got away at the tail of the field.

At the end of lap 1 it was Jeremy with a 2.7 second lead over Neil with Kevin and Tristan following closely. Tristan made a move on Graham into Copse but couldn’t make it stick over the lap. By lap 5 Jeremy had opened a gap of 8 seconds over Neil who still had Kevin and Tristan breathing down his neck. Unfortunately, Kevin retired on lap 7 leaving Tristan to take up 3rd place, with Richard Purcell gradually gaining on him. These two were in close company by lap 10 and enjoyed a good battle as they struggled through the back markers in the closing stages.

Meanwhile Andy was having a great race coming back through the field to finish 9th apart from one scary moment when Mark Scholfield spun in front of him in the middle of Copse. The highlight of Andy’s race was overtaking 4 cars in one go - Richard Bastow (Mygale), Lenny Coleman (FVL), Matthew Clark (Tatuus) and Graham Read (Dallara) - through the Brooklands/Luffield complex on lap 9. He had got past Graham and Lenny earlier in the race but they had sneaked past again when lapping backmarkers.

Jeremy duly won the first full distance race of the year with a winning margin of 36 seconds over Neil, having dominated throughout the meeting. Tristan once again achieved a place on the podium (if there had been one!) and first in the Classic class with Richard (4th) very close behind then a big gap to Barry Smith (Van Diemen FX) and Francis Philips (Ralt RT3). Making up the top ten were Tom Brown (ex-Russ Giles FVL), David Cox, Andy Woolley and Lenny Coleman.

Russ Giles had a miserable time, retiring on lap 4, and was joined in the dead car park by Matthew Clark, Kevin Mason, Geoff Fern, Jim Blockley, Richard Snuggs and Paul Winterbottom.

Andy Woolley

Driver & Team Quotes

Geoff Fern: "I had a misfire which just got worse so I pulled off. You know something's badly wrong when the Jag fire tender is trying to pass you."

Kevin Mason: "It's been a good day even though I had to pull off with a fuel pump problem. I was delighted with fourth on the grid, I bogged the start but got up to third and was chasing Neil. I think I'm getting to understand the Dallara, and I've changed the way I drive a bit to suit it."

Nick Catanzaro: "Dunno...." but after being pushed a bit..."I had no problems and a good enjoyable race. Jeremy just ran a demonstration today; it was so impressive."

Neil Harrison: "Jeremy was very quick today. Nobody else stood a chance. It was a lonely race for me."

Nick Harrison: "Our planned strategy today was to drive for the maximum available points with a long term objective of optimising the seasonal outcome." Nick wins the Ron Dennis Plain English award - actually he did say it with a big smile and then went on to say: "Jeremy put in a stunning drive."

Tristan Cliffe: "I haven't had understeer before so I put on some extra front wing then a bit more. It caused me to spin in third, but it went right round so I carried on and don't think I lost too much."

Driver quotes by TC - don't blame Andy