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Round 13 The final Monoposto Class of 2011 assembled at an unseasonably sunny Snetterton for a second stab at the long and technically demanding 300 circuit, with enough Championship podium spots still undecided to add quite a bit of tension. Qualifying The 2 litre classes were first out on a very sunny brisk morning. Initially Malcolm Scot put his refurbished Dallara on the pole, the car having been fixed after its engine dislocation at Silverstone. However local man Tristan Cliffe rapidly claimed his expected top position by the third lap. Behind these two at first came Jeremy Timms, this time running in Classic in Nick Catanzaro’s Formula Vauxhall. He was pursued up the grid by a scrap between Kevin Otway and Francis Phillips, which eventually went Francis way, but not before Ben Cater had surpassed both of them for the class pole, and Tony Bishop had moved the second Omicron car into third slot overall comfortably ahead of the flying Timms. Behind the two class leading groups late entry Jennifer Scott was having a run in Malcolm’s “spare” car, Nigel Davers couldn’t resist another run in the Fern family Classic Van Diemen, Barry Smith was struggling with various problems on his very smart Van Diemen FX and Mike Hatton’s interesting fuel injected Vauxhall had a plug lead fail. A rather larger field of Mono 1800/1600/1400/1000s followed on. Another Timms - this time Jason - immediately featured as the first claimant of pole, which he held onto until Adrian Wright got a faulty power shifter on the AW3 sorted out (they cut the wire - blue or red one wonders). After a couple of laps to and fro Adrian had the pole, and Jason was demoted to third by Jonathan Reed who was going blisteringly quickly in the Wingnut Racing Jedi. However all was not well with Adrians GEM and there was some anxious tweeking in the paddock after practice to remove nasty clicking sounds from the transmission. Next up after the three leading Mono 1000s came Geoff Ferns Hayabusa-powered JKS and Mikes Scotts Speads, which is starting to go really quickly now. Olly Thorpe just nipped his veteran Royale ahead of the newly wed Ewen Sergison's Swift, and Phil Nicholsons wingless version of the same marque. In Mono 1600 Nigel Davers/Dave Parkinson was the remaining unresolved title, with Nigel making got use of his extra track time from the 2 litres to plant the familiar VD 89 on the class pole, ahead of an ever-quicker Prajesh Shah. By contrast David had a major scare when one of the driveshafts became disconnected from its drive hub as he started up in the assembly area. It took quick work by a crowd of supporters to get Parkie out onto the track. Just to make things even more difficult, Jim Timms put the Timms family Lola into third ahead of David. Races Still the great weather was with us as the Mono 2000/Classic grid blasted away to a clean start, with Cliffe leading from Scott and Bishop at the end of the first lap. Jeremy Timms lead the Classics initially but came unstuck on lap one when he forgot he wasn't in a Dallara and took a grassy diversion as a result, dropping to the back of the leading Cater, Otway, Phillips group. Unfortunately real disaster then struck, with Nigel Davers spinning at the super-quick Riches, Tony Cotton anchored up to avoid contact and a closely following Jennifer Scott went straight over the top of Tony's Dallara. It was a pretty big accident which swiped a corner off the white Van Deimen and left tyre marks on Tony's helmet and roll hoop, athough his car wasn't otherwise too badly damaged. The same couldn't be said for Jennifer's car and she also had a precautionary visit to the Medical Centre. Out came the Safety car for a couple of laps while the efficient marshals sorted it out. On the restart Cliffe very carfefully managed the gap to the Safety car and immediately extended his lead over Scott and Bishop, who was driving a very strong race, these three running in this order to the finish. Behind them Timms rapidly, maybe even a bit too rapidly, moved past Phillips and then took Otway and Cater in turn to secure another impressive win. Kevin just held of Francis by half a second to ensure the second/third place Classic dispute went right down to the wire of Sunday's race. The larger Mono 1800/1600/1400/1000 grid also got away cleanly as the brilliant sun dropped low enough in the sky to give visibility problems. Adrian Wright stormed into the lead, initially from Jonathan Reed who was then passed by Jason Timms. These three quickly built up a big gap to the following group of Geoff Fern, Mike Scott, Ewen Sergison and Olly Thorpe. Geoff might have made life difficult for himself by taking a trip off which demolished the JKS' front wing, but its subsequent progressive disintegration didn't seem to slow the car at all. Ewen Sergison had an excellent start after which Olly Thorpe couldn't get close enough to him to cause any problems. Behind them Phil Ncholson had a slightly lonely race to take a good third, although his engine started to sound off towards the end. This group was split be Nigel Davers in the leading Mono 1600, initially ahead of Jim Timms and Prajesh Shah. However as the race progressed the Timms Lola suddenly sounded very harsh and was gone from the lap charts; afterwards the engine was found to have digested some of its valve gear. This let Prajesh into another good second and Parkie up to third, which was not good enough to keep his Championship title hopes alive. Just behind Alan Fincham's classic FF1600 Van Diemen was threatening David's more recent car, until Alan unfortunately got held up by the leaders after they had passed him on his last lap, but their slowing down lap. Talkng of the leaders, it was Jason Timms that eventually took the flag first, after a frustrated Adrian Wright span and dropped to second while avoiding a spinning lappee. Jonathan Reed wasn't able to take second from him because he had also spun.Simon Davey Disclaimer: The above represents only the unofficial view of the writer and not of the Monoposto Racing Club in any way whatsover. Subheadlines and captions are not originated from the named author. We are unable to reproduce results due to copyright reasons. If any pictures are copyright and the owner wishes them removed please email us.
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Pictures from Andrew Cliffe / Norwich Photo
Ben Cater and Terry Clark
Antonio Impieri leads Barry Smith, Nigel Davers & Lou Watts
Jeremy Timms
Jim Timms leads Prajesh Shah, Michael Dale and David Parkinson
Adrian Wright (Yes I know it's the same pictures as the other report. It's the same race isn't it? I haven't got all day you know. Asst Ed) |
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