Track and Race Cars Magazine Monoposto Championship Croft 26 September 2009 2litres and 1600s

I've already mentioned in my 1000/1400/1800 report that we had a few drop outs following the Open Race practice. From this race, Sara Hughes went home with oil pressure/big end problems, believed caught just in time. We worried about Tristan Cliffe but it turned out that his Dallara suffered from an air leak in the fuel line, easily remedied, and he was out on his new Silverstone tyres. Tristan tells us they're Malaysian and silicon based. Hmm, silicon based, there must be a Jordan joke somewhere in there. He was fast enough to get third but errant enough to spin spectacularly after Sunny Out into the ploughed infield.

Jeremy Timms knew he had to win to keep his championship hopes alive and wanted pole badly. But an engine management problem (resulting in the sidepod top being removed at a pitstop) meant only second was in reach, over a second behind a very much on form Neil Harrison. Nick Anstruther led the classics from Richard Purcell, and it was great to see Barry Smith's VDFX02 (or Ireland if you want it to sound a bit less Star Wars) back in one piece in seventh. He had the nerve to describe the immaculate machine as "in need of a new paint job over the winter".

In the 1600 class, Geoff Fern's RF89 got pole which is relatively normal, except that the opponent was former BTCC driver Nigel Smith, 3/4 of a second behind in his newly bewinged FVJ.

Race

The excitement, of the wrong sort, started in the assembly area when Jeremy Goodman's RT3 caught fire. Efficient marshalls soon extinguished it, but the next few hours would be spent cleaning and repairing rather than racing.

Jeremy beat neil away from the start, but Neil won the place back, only to lose it again on lap 2.Thereafter, Jeremy led to the flag to finish 16 seconds ahead. Tristan was third, 6 seconds behind Neil, but that was after some more unwanted excitement. Back in the "lower classes", Doug McLay in his surrogate 2litre 1800 was leading Tony Cotton into the hairpin. There was a bit of a misunderstanding and Doug and Tristan went off together, delaying Tristan by about 8 seconds from his normal lap time, with otherwise no harm done.

With Nick Anstruther behind Tristan, he was a strong bet for fourth at the very least, and whilst the Bristolian Bowman pilot was beaten by Richard Purcell's FVL off the line, Nick got his place back and went on to win the Classic Class. Graham Read, Barry Smith and Russ Giles represented Formula, 2000 and Classic respectively, and were closely matched. Between laps 8 and 10, Graham Read came from 8th to 6th to demote Barry and Russ with the ever-enthusiastic Terry Clark following up.Just behind him was Chris Spencer's very neat FVL. Unfortunately, we didn't have chance to speak to Chris, but with a top 5 Classic finish and a very nicely presented cra, we hope it's not the last we will see of him. Chris spent most of the race in the company of two of the 1600 class's chargers. Nobody could accuse ether Geoff Fern or Nigel Smith of giving places away like copies of Metro, but still he finsihed ahead of them. As for the two 1600s, Nigel pipped Geoff for 2 laps but Geoff got back into the lead and kept it to the flag. Lenny Coleman followed Nigel in, and was generally 2 or 3 seconds behind, closing up in the last couple of laps.

Mark Smith kept his Tatuus FR97, a very pretty and effective car but a bit less powerful than some 2litres, well in front of David Parkinson, who "did a Button" by not actually winning the class but consolidating his already healthy lead. Tony Cotton followed him, having along the way had battles with Douglas McLay (see above) and Graham Probyn. After defeating Tony's wide FVJ. Graham had a harmless spin which allowed Tony to regain the place. Bringing up the rear was Eddie Guest in his Lola T640, who is talking of ways to improve the car's speed for 2010. so obviously he's getting the Mono bug. Personally, Eddie, I would advise one of those 1900cc engines like the rest of the 1600 class runs.

Non-finishers were the Mygale Novis twins of Ewan Sergison and Mick Kinghorn, who had a couple of offs followed by a terminal off at Clervaux.

Tony Cotton

Jeremy Timms, Neil Harrison and Tristan Cliffe.

Chris Spencer, FVL.

Unusual to see Jeremy Timms kicking up the dirt

Richard Purcell leads Barry Smith , Russ Giles (wing visible) and Graham Read.