Monoposto Championship, Rockingham 2000 and Classic, 8 June2008

Our Embedded Reporter Andy Woolley has filed his depatch:

Qualifying

By contrast to the previous day, conditions for qualifying were hot and dry as the 19 cars went out to qualify. As a result normal order was restored with Jeremy Timms (Dallara F397) at the top of the pile this time with a 1:20.757, closely followed by Neil Harrison (Dallara F398) just 0.360 seconds slower. Taking 3rd spot was Richard Purcell (FVL) with Tristan Cliffe (Reynard 883) just 0.014 slower. Geoff Fern (Dallara TFR08) and myself (Reynard 903) rounded out the top 6. Nick Anstruther (Bowman BC3) should have been in this mix but was hobbled by a misfire, ending up in 14th spot. Jeremy Goodman (Dallara F398) had got his rear brakes working (I think) but was clearly in some sort of trouble, winding up in 17th spot.

Race

It was very warm indeed as we lined up on the grid behind Jeremy for the race. I managed to outdrag Tristan on the run down to Turn 1 but he was later on the brakes and we were side by side on the approach to Turn 2, behind Jeremy, Neil and Richard. Tristan had the inside line though and forged ahead on the opening lap and pressing Richard very hard at every opportunity until he found a way by on Lap 3. Kevin Mason (Dallara) got past me on the same lap and Richard, Kevin and I formed a closely coupled train until Lap 5 when Nick Anstruther's rapid ascendance with a back on song engine got him onto the end of the train and then past me on the following lap. Sadly on Lap 8 Nick's engine went sick again and he went straight from low 1:24s to 1:29s, allowing me to pass him on the straight to regain 6th place on Lap 9. Kevin had dropped off the back of Richard due to a slipping clutch and 'gone off' tyres allowing me to close on him again. As we came up to Lap Mark Smith (Tatuus RC97) on Lap 10 I was right behind and gaining on Kevin exiting the final chicane but I used a little too much wellie coming onto the straight and promptly spun, allowing Nick back through into 6th. Having recovered, I chased after Nick and just caught him on the line to finish just 0.133 seconds behind him.

In front of Nick and I there were no position changes after Lap 4, so Jeremy duly won overall and the Mono 2000 class, finishing just over 15 seconds in front of Neil, with Tristan taking 3rd overall and 1st in Classic 2000 24 seconds further back, followed by Richard (2nd in Classic 2000) and Kevin (3rd in Mono 2000) with Nick taking 6th overall and 3rd in Classic 2000.

Geoff Fern was a first lap retirement after having suffered some sort of fire, with Ian Hughes (Van Diemen) retiring on Lap 2 and the unfortunate David Cox suffering his 2nd DNF of the weekend.

Andy Woolley

All pix by kind permission of Andrew Cliffe (see gallery on Mono website for collection)

Kevin Mason and Richard Purcell

Russ Giles and Paul Winterbottom

Andy Woolley

Victor Jeremy Timms