St Cross Electronics Monoposto Championship Round 6
MotoMono and 1800
Silversone National 13 May 2012

David Parkinson has already described the 1600 race so I won't seek to repeat his report; this therefore covers the 1800 and MotoMono elements of Sunday's smaller capacity race. Apologies for the lateness of the report, I was accountancying.

Qualifying

Adrian Wright was quick straight away, and ended up on top of the qualifying sheet on 56.9. As he says, the GEM is ideally suited to Silverstone with quick corners making use of the aero. Jason Timms was half a second behind, Geoff Fern a little further, and Marc Fortune 4th on 58.0. Dax Ward looked to be going well but stopped at Maggotts with a fueling issue. 3 thousandths (that's 6 inches at 120mph) separated the leading 1800s, advantage Ewen Sergison over Paul Britten. This was particularly impressive as Ewen had some overnight repair work on Saturday. So too did Phil Nicholson who sourced a new Swift upright from Dermot Healy (that's “new” as in “Dermot”) and modified it to fit. A fantastic effort rewarded with 4th on the grid.

Race

Thanks are due to the Moto/1600/1800 competitiors whose race was moved to accommodate the 2 litre boys, so that they could complete their Saturday race.

Marc Fortune must have had a good start because he was leading from Jason Timms by a car's length at Maggotts, Adrian Wright a car further back. Geoff Fern slotted neatly in next, and then came Dax Ward and Christian Parker. I suppose you could have put a feeler gauge between DW and CP as they passed me, but it would have to have been a thin one. Adrian captured second from Jason on lap 2, and we looked to be in for a good race at the front but Marc started to rapidly fall back and was out on lap 4. Adrian took the lead and held a steady gap from Jason, while series sponsor Dax, fresh from an overnight engine change and in his first race weekend for 9 months, came through in third. The anticipated fight with Christian Parker's Seward didn't materialise as it looked as though Christian had a few more delays from slower cars than Dax.

Mike Reed, Len Turner and Geoff Cowell came a little further down the field but looked to be having a good time by racing with the 1800 and 1600 classes. Geoff Fern retired to the pits (engine problems) after running second for much of the race and retiring whilst fighting for third.Dan Levy rose as high as sixth before retiring on lap 8.

The 1800 race started well with a bit of dicing between John Whitbourn in second and Paul Britten in third, but after a couple of laps and a swap of places the podium settled into a fairly safe Ewen, Paul and John. (“safe” and “Ewen” in one sentence, that's a first). However, proving that you don't have to be in a class race to have fun, Mike Reed and Phil Nicholson had some close racing in contrasting Jedi and Swift, resolved in Phil's favour. William Howe's classic FF2000 Reynard worked hard in the race. For the early laps he was racing side-by-side with Sunbac winner Marcus Sheard, until Marcus drew away, only to drop to seventh after a spin a lap from the end, I believe on the oil from one of the engine blow ups. So William was on for fifth, except Michael Dale got motivated. Whilst many tire in a race, Michael found new energy and put in some very quick laps – faster than his qualifying. He caught William and passed him on the last lap.

Jonathan Baggott and Jock Sergison started and finished the race ahead of Douglas Maclay who was recovering from an incident on Saturday. However, in between, they had some kind of delay on lap two which dropped them both well back – I'm assuming a minor coming together as they both lost around 10 seconds. As a result, Doug got ahead and there was a lot of passing and mirror watching for the two of them to get ahead, Jonathan on lap 6 and Jock on lap 10.

UNOFFICIAL RESULTS

Jason Timms passes Geoff Cowell	John Whitbourn	Michael Dales challenges William Howe

Tony Cotton

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 offical results due to copyright reasons.

Ewen Sergison in practice

Dax Ward suffers practice woes

Marc Fortune leads Jason Timms and Adrian Wright, lap1

Dax Ward and Christian Parker close.......and closer.

Mike Reed and Phil Nicholson

Marcus Sheard and William Howe

All pics Tony Cotton. Chain link fence copyright Silverstone.