| Main Startline Menu | Main Monoposto Menu | For Sale |
|
|
Startline OnLine | ||
|
| Track & Race
Cars Magazine Mono Championship Corkscrew Controversy Qualifying At the very sharp end of the grid, Jeremy Timms and Neil Harrison traded places for pole for most of practice, with the outcome uncertain right to the final two laps. Neil just shaded it, but only by a few hundredths of a second – it looked like the race was going to be tight, and it was. Russ Giles was looking very fit as he dipped into the 1.07s, Tony “The Clutch” Davies was going even better than Saturday, he was already looking like a candidate for a win; and Peter Bragg was steadily chipping his times down even further. Ian Hughes had cured a flat spot on pick-up, courtesy of a spare carburettor from one of Ewen Sergison’s Tricycles (This Is True). A final flourish came from Jonathon Baggott who impressed with a couple of brisk spins. Race The race start saw Jeremy get the jump on Neil, with Russ Giles leading Classic and Tony Davies ahead of Ian Hughes and Tony Cotton in the Mono 1600s. Mick Kinghorn and Jeremy Goodman became enmeshed in an interesting dice, some of which seemed to be off-track at various times. As Jeremy pulled away slightly from Neil the trio of Bragg, Watts and Clark started an elaborate three way discussion which went on for the whole race. By mid race Jeremy was definitely pulling away. Additional interest was being generated by Ian Hughes attempts to pass Bill Janson – he was all over him like a cheap suit for several laps and eventually found a way through, securing second in the Mono 1600s in process. “The Clutch” was long gone though, and looking very smooth with it. In the lapping Pete Bragg, still enmeshed with Watts and Clark, inadvertently clipped Jonathon Baggott who pulled up to check for damage. Rupert Reader disappeared off the charts, for (currently) unknown reasons. Then it started to change. Neil began to close almost imperceptibly on Jeremy, who nevertheless looked to be in charge. Goodman passed Kinghorn, and pulled away. As they began to lap the faster cars as well, Timms got the worse of a couple of calls and Harrison got closer. The suddenly Neil had stuck his nose inside Jeremy on the tight downhill corkscrew right hander, the two Dallaras touched hard: Harrison front wheel to Timms side pod, and Jeremy ran off on the right hand side of the track with a dead engine, just coasting the car into the paddock exit road. So Neil ran out the ontrack winner, but it looked like there was going to be more of a story yet. Jeremy didn’t immediately know what had stopped the engine, but thought probably the impact on the pod had dislodged some of the electronics mounted in there. Russ Giles took a good overall second and first Classic, with a pleased Mick Kinghorn taking second in Mono 2000. Pete Bragg decided he would be past Lou Watts and took a very good third in Mono 2000. “The Clutch” took the Mono 1600s in fine style and may be a hard man to beat now he has sorted his little impediment. Tony Cotton had a consolation as he took the Super Clutch Driver of the Day Award, having improved from 14th to 12th overall at the finish. No results appeared for some time – the Clerk of the Course wanted to take a very close look at the decisive incident, and needed to consult with the Observer at the corner. They concluded that Neil had overstepped the mark, and issued a formal Reprimand, together with two licence penalty points, but ruled that the ontrack result should stand. So Neil took his second win of a dramatic weekend.
Simon Davey
Pictures: Norwich Photo, Tesco/The Sun |
Practice photo: Agent DR1 closely pursues Dallara 397. I would guess that sentence has never appeared anywhere before.
Mick Kinghorn and Jeremy Goodman enjoyed a good tussle
Ian Hughes all over Bill Janson
Pete Bragg and Lou Watts
Russ Giles, second overall and Classic winner
|
|||||
 |
Mark
Smith and David Parkinson
