The penultimate race of the championship saw Rory Farrell take a well-earned break as the new champion. This no doubt led to the other drivers thinking they had a chance to take a win. The obvious front runners, Davey and Kestenbaum, Walton, pere et fils and Ollie Robinson were the obvious contenders.

In terms of points positions Stuart Kestenbaum was in 2^nd with 69, Simon Davey with 64 and Joe 4^th with 63. Steve Pearce and Paul Walton were the only other ones with any interest at the top of this Class on 52 and 51 respectively.

Class B was still led handsomely by Andy Smith on 96 points with Dave Lowe 17 points behind. A good result for Andy would see him champion of his class. Dave Lowe was on the back foot slightly as he had comprehensively destroyed the engine and gearbox of his Lotus 69 at Dijon necessitating a very expensive rebuild. He brought out his Lotus 61 (oh, to have a spare car) and will probably finish the season in this car.

John Hayes-Harlow was trying to finally get his Elden Mk8/10 to finish a race at the third attempt since shipping the car over from the USA at the beginning of the year. His massive variety of racing both here and in the USA ( briefly:- FF1600, FF200, Formula Talbot, Sports 2000, IMSA GTO, Historics – winning a race in a Spitfire – there’s a first – and 3^rd in his class at the Daytona 24 hours) should make for some interesting viewing during the day.

The AGM of the Classic Formula Ford Register held the night before was a triumph of optimism over reality and the committee are now charged with making the decisions which will maintain and develop the club towards an even more successful future. Not much pressure there then.

Qualifying

The first lap of qualifying summed up the whole session in a way. Simon Davey looked like he was really trying with Stuart Kestenbaum pushing. Ollie Robinson was glued to Paul Walton with Joe spinning on the first time through Russell, and then again later.

Andrew Smith looked very fast through the chicane but Dave Lowe, somewhat surprisingly bearing in mind the age of his car and its relative unknown characteristics, was pretty close.

This does not give any real impression of how exciting a session this really was. Simon was dancing his car on a tightrope with considerable verve. Late braking, drifting, across kerbs he made all the spectators smile with his boyish enthusiasm and car control and he ended up with a deserved pole position. Stuart was less enthusiastic and was 0.45 seconds slower on a 1.18.5. Afterwards he was rather despondent about too much understeer and without wishing to impose human characteristics onto a car his Van Diemen matched his mood. Simon meanwhile actually said “I enjoyed that”, which is unusual for him this season, but he still managed to claim his whole car needed a rebuild saying it was “tired”. I suspect others would happily swap!

Ollie Robinson was next up in third albeit 1 second away from Simon. He followed Paul Walton for most of qualifying, with a suspicion that without the tow Paul may have been just ahead. As it was Paul was 4^th and near the end of the session he tried so hard to break the tow by acing the Russell chicane that he conducted a peculiar manoeuvre which gave Ollie such a fright he had to spin. That’s one way of breaking the tow.

5th and 6^th were Andy Smith and Dave Lowe. This was a great performance by both Class B drivers with Andy looking particularly quick through the chicane (although he claimed he was a bit “tense” when driving). From the outside he looked impressive. Dave appeared more sedate but was just over a tenth away from Andy so both deserved some plaudits.

It is easy to play the psychologist but there is a suspicion that Joe Walton, who drive fantastically at Brands at the last race, was hoping for more than 7^th. He was clearly trying very hard, as evidenced by two spins, and some muscular kerbing moments. Joe has all the smoothness of his father and, dare we say it, potentially a little more speed but today it all looked a bit brutal. If he can get past the two Class Bs in front and adopt his classic style he could be a dark horse for the race.

David Gathercole was out in Matt Johnson’s car, the latter being temporarily insolvent, but only had Brands ratios in so will hope for better than 8^th in the race. The much travelled John Hayes-Harlow was 9^th, pleased to have finished respectably and looking forward to a finish anywhere.

Michael Burdon was 10^th and far ahead of the other novices and with Matt Johnson not contesting the Novice Challenge here he could make Castle Combe an interesting event.  Bernard Baxter was unable to match his speed to the garish nature of his racing boots but the car looked gently driven and was probably surprised at the love it was being shown.

Phillip Norris who had worried about his clutch before qualifying was 12th with Steve Pearce and a broken carburettor float 13^th. His braking demonstrations were an exciting means of making up for no revs over 5500 but his good form of the season could not overcome mechanical problems.

John Hesp and Alan Fincham were the last of the hares, still being about 6 seconds off pole.

Then came the tortoises. In order of speed (if that word can be used in this context) it was Valentine, Greenwood, Folkes (with a plug lead off and a ghastly sounding engine) and Saunders – 19 seconds away from Davey. To avoid embarrassment no identification will be made but it appeared to this reporter that braking for the chicane for one competitor started before Coram. Saves on pads though.

The race in prospect (the qualifying report was written before the race , hence the prediction) looks like resulting in a Davey win, some distance from Kestenbaum, with the next 5 or 6 having a tremendous time of it. This is too easy a prediction and the determination of Kestenbaum may lead to a challenge for Simon and Joe Walton may just spring a surprise.

Warm Up Lap

Dateline Snetterton: as the field  came onto the Revett Straight on the green flag lap – there sitting in the middle of the track was a small brown rabbit, facing the oncoming horde and having an “Oh S**t” moment.  Davey steered round him, and so did everyone else – imagine the image in his mirrors of a long line of weaving FF1600s – all because of a rabbit.  Kestenbaum and Davey then carry on down the straight side-by-side, hands off steering wheels doing rabbit ear impressions on our crash helmets for the marshals’ amusement.

Said rabbit had gone by the time they came round on lap 1………..

The Race

This was a fantastic race and one that simply cannot be described by this amateur. Why more people do not follow this championship is impossible to explain. For £10 you can become an associate member, get to know all the participants and have something to do with your life. Why wouldn’t you?

Anyway the screaming from the commentator at the start indicated it was close and Joe Walton’s tyre imprint on Dave Lowe’s sidepod tended to prove that fact. Simon led the most laps after Stuart and Ollie had led for two laps each until, literally the last yard of the race when Ollie Robinson took Simon on the line by 16/100ths of a second. Even this does not go near to explaining the dramas of the race.

Initially Stuart Kestenbaum was the man in front after a great start with Ollie in second and Simon third. Ollie took the lead for two laps and then Simon grabbed it after Ollie had an enormous moment at the Bombhole. Two completely differing accounts of this incident then surfaced. One driver said he understeered off whilst another said he oversteered! Ollie himself felt that he had taken the corner exactly as before, hundreds of times, but whatever, this led to Simon leading, Paul Walton in second and David Gathercole (from 8^th on the grid) in third. The next lap it was Simon, David, Joe then Paul Walton with Ollie beginning his comeback drive. What was clearly happening down the back straight was everyone was slipstreaming everyone else and after the race trying to identify who and when was well nigh impossible.

Next time around Joe was in second and looking like repeating his Brands performance, if not better, and victory was on the cards but that was to be as far as he was to get. His oil light came on – no oil pressure – and he pulled over. Some people may have carried on regardless in the hope that it was a faulty light (others would not have even seen it) but this would have been madness. Thus he has one more race to get his chance of the top step of the metaphorical podium.

The main feature of the race became Ollie climbing back towards the front. With a couple of laps to go he was in second but Simon knows the circuit well and held on until those last few feet. Ollie seemed to just get a better drive out of Russell but it is interesting to wonder if he would have actually kept the lead after the pit straight because Simon may have had the better line. This is pointless conjecture because it was over, Ollie was the winner and Simon was able so say “it happens” with a remarkably relaxed air of nonchalance. Ollie also got the fastest lap (1.17.9) just a hairs breath away from the lap record. He ended up a deserved Cobra Beer driver of the day for a great drive, including moments off the track, getting from fifth to first, overtaking and absolute determination. To fit all this in 12 laps was quite astonishing.

David Gathercole had had a very good race to come third followed by Stuart both of whom will have many tales to tell of this race. Stuart attained the second fastest lap of the race on his last lap, slightly quicker than in qualifying. David was two seconds a lap quicker than his time in the earlier session and looked quite puffed at the close. Paul Walton was a slightly chastened fifth having got back past Andy Smith after a spin at Russell lost him a place.

And then of course we had the Class B champion – finally. Andy has looked very competent and smooth all year and has largely had the measure of the evergreen Dave Lowe who has won this class many times in past years. Today Dave put in a sterling effort in qualifying in his “other” Lotus but all his experience was not quite enough. Fastest lap and a class win for Andy demonstrated the style and speed he has shown throughout the season. After the race he confirmed he had not fought Paul for fifth as he was focused on resolving the championship. He also said that watching the Class A guys go at it was almost as much fun as winning his class – but not quite.

Next up was Dave Lowe, a hard charging Bernard Baxter and Steve Pearce. The latter felt a little flat as this was his last race this year. (Andy Hodson is likely to be out in the Pearcemobile at Castle Combe.) Dave was his usual sanguine self and Bernard made a point of telling anyone that would listen that he was a second quicker than in qualifying. That was just me then……

In truth they did have a good dice and Dave did well to get back past Bernard, who had moved inexorably up the field – even if a back marker may have assisted in some small way.

Michael Burdon did his novice challenge aspirations no harm by being premier novice and if both he and Matt Johnson turn up at Castle Combe it could be a tight thing. Michael was 10^th and pleased with the result but he had felt a little lonely in the race.

John Hayes-Harlow (it is so tempting to make a crack about that name) had an effervescent time in his nicely painted Elden and seemed to be getting increasingly quick through Russell. This was obviously a false impression as his fastest lap was 1.5 seconds slower than in qualifying. He was closely followed by Phil Norris who has to deal with a problematic clutch in the off-season after deciding to give Combe a miss.

The only other unlapped runners were John Hesp who had spun at Coram, a scary place to come off, but executed the professional racing drivers trick and spun it again to get it pointing the right way. He was 13^th and Alan Fincham, clearly happy with the fun he had had, coming home in 14^th.

Messrs Folkes and Valentine had their own private little dice whilst watching the frontrunners go past them once. 15^th and 16^th

Jonathan Greenwood and Michael Saunders had this experience twice some 16 and 17 seconds respectively off the pace of the winner. It may be a good idea to invest in some testing before Combe to get a little pace on. The prospect of the leading pack in Class A arriving with them at Quarry is the stuff of nightmares.

Next and last 2007 race: Castle Combe, Saturday 6^th October. Please come and meet the drivers, they love to tell war stories – but come to the officials to check their veracity.