Monoposto Championship, Snetterton, 1600. 18&19 October 2008 - Autumn Brake

English weather. Don't you love it? No, to be honest. It seems that the best weather for Mono meetings this year has been Silverstone in April and Snetterton in October. But the lack of rain didn't mean there were no problems. Guest scribe Graham Easter (with a bit of background from his team) pens his thoughts.

Saturday Qualifying

With the championship tied up, Ewen Sergisson wasn't entered, which left the field clear for Geoff Fern followed by Tony Davies. Tony ran the faithful FR1700 without a rear wing which presumably helped speed on the straight at the expense of stability Coram. An interesting balancing act, but he ended in the expected slot behind Geoff, so no harm was done. Dave Parkinson took his customary position just in front of Tony Cotton, who spun on the first corner of practice and then in the essees and spent the rest of practice whinging to his pit crew about brakes when it was apparent that it was the tyres and the talent. I was part of that pit crew.

Completing the field, Sara Fogg lined up 4th, ahead of Chris Anstruther and a returning Peter Beasley, the racing detective.

At this point, thanks go to Ollie from team Whitmore for advice on brake rebuilding, and to Phil Anstruther for kindly lending a caliper when we found a leak in the bit we weren't rebuilding.

Saturday Race

Sara told my driver that she did a superb start "like a thoroughbred hunter leaping over a fence". She's one of the country's top horse riding instructors, hence the analogy. It seemed a pity that the Agent had to be shot after the first lap. Team manager and chief engineer Ian Hughes took responsibility and was shot as well.

Geoff drove a faultless race until the last lap when the car seemed from the pitwall to go onto 3 or fewer cylinders. He had built a big enough lead that there wasn't a problem and he romped home to the win. Second man Tony Davies also slowed on the last lap. I remember when I helped Tony C last year at Snet that we carefully calculated the fuel necessary, measured it exactly and then he sloshed in an extra 3 litres for no apparent reason. And finished just 2kg over the limit. Snet is a full throttle track more than most and fuel can be a fickle and capricious mistress who will spank you when you least expect it. David Parkinson certainly showed the bruises because after running third for 12 of the 13 laps he conked out, dry. So dry, in fact, that the fuel pump wouldn't pick up a refilled tank and it was necessary to put pewtrol in the carbs to get it to run in the paddock afterwards. That left Tony Cotton to pick up an undeserved third place, though he tells me he went into the esses side by side with David on lap one and then chickened out. So what, as we said to our driver. Chris and Peter ran behind the podium 3 at a consistent pace to complete the field.

Sunday Practice

Peter Beasley outqualified Chris Anstruther, and Tony David Davies put his wing on to get pole, so obviously a wing helps. Except he was 0.7 seconds slower than without a wing. We wondered whether Geoff Fern's problems from Saturday were reflected in qualifying as he was a couple of seconds slower than on Saturday.Elsewhere, pretty much as Saturday.

Sunday Race

Geoff Fern spun at Sears on lap one, and rejoined near the tail of the field. This led to a great drive as he scythed through the field, passing Tony Cotton on lap 5 and Tony Davies on lap 8 to take the lead. Sadly, it was for nothing because after 9 laps he parked up at the end of the pitlane with a dead car. The cause seemed to be engine, and I was very surprised because having followed Mono for a few years, relaibility in the 1600 has always been one of Geoff's (many - ed) strong points.

I've mentioned how Geoff passed Tony Cotton and Tony Davies, but what about David Parkinson? Unfortunatley, there was no passing of David because he was out on lap 2. As he braked for the esses - nothing. The pedal went to the floor and with just back brakes on a cement dust oil slick from a previous shed race the inevitable happened. In a cloud of dust he spun and approched the Armco at speed. The gearbox snapped and the suspension was seriously deranged. The whole paddock was dismayed to see the season end in such a manner for one of the most popular competitors around. Fortunately, David himself seemed OK. Patrick Huston tells us that when the brake pedal was squeezed on the wreckage, fluid spurted from the apparently undamaged front armoured brake line.

Sara Fogg came in a delighted third - a podium on her third finish is pretty impressive. Her last lap was disturbed by Tony Cotton spinning yet again and rejoining in her vicinity. Just behind her were Chris Antruther and Peter Beasley.

I haven't seen a Mono 1600 race for some time, but I've followed them on this website. Neither was exactly a classic, though they were more exciting than some of the Grands Prix I've seen this year. Finally, as an outsider, I've often wondered why, despite the editorial team asking, nobody writes a 1200 report. One of life's mysteries.

Graham Easter

Author's 1600 Driver of the Day, Sara Fogg

Winner Tony Davies

Peter Beasley and Dave Parkinson

Chris Anstruther

DP leads TC

Geoff Fern