The competitive desire in this championship was again proved by the testing completed on the Wednesday before the race. Rory  Farrell (Jnr) flew over to try his car out, having never been to Mallory before, his car having arrived from Ireland courtesy of his supporters. Stuart Kestenbaum and both the Walton’s had also given it a go with Stuart coming out on top (and with a tow) with a 49.8. The others were in the 50s. Andrew Bartosiak was also out but as his session only lasted just over two laps this was probably not of great assistance. His car was showing signs of tank-tape repair but it was running with a lovely new rim – only the rest of the car to go. This season’s weather issues also continued at Mallory. Showers of differing strength and length meant drivers were again uncertain about settings. As it turned out the qualifying began a little wet but after a few laps it looked largely dry.

The most significant absentee was Dave Lowe who was celebrating anniversaries at Brands and this reduced the Class B field to 3 runners.

Qualifying

Mallory is of course a relatively narrow circuit and a short lap so traffic is always an issue. Even with only 18 runners it all looked quite busy. Lap times were relatively slow (around the 53/54 second level for the faster guys) until the circuit dried out after about 7 minutes. Times then quickly dropped to the high 50s. Blue flags were the order of the day with the considerable speed differentials and the marshals made good use of them. It was not always obvious to the spectator that the drivers themselves took much notice.

Stuart Kestenbaum, on his penultimate lap squeezed out a 50.5, closely followed by Joe Walton, 50.6, Rory, 50.7, fractionally quicker than Paul Walton with Simon Davey, the first non-tester very close behind. These top five were covered by 0.198 of a second and were clearly the class of the day. The race promised to be a corker.

Of course the fact that this was Joe Walton’s 18^th birthday, 2^nd was his highest qualifying place in the championship and he beat his old man needs a mention. He seems to edge a little closer to that first win at every race and his wry smile afterwards demonstrated a degree of pleasure in his performance. Quite rightly he felt “really pleased”

Stuart is of course vastly experienced here and there was some expectation that he would be at the front. Rory’s performance showed the advantages of racing at these circuits before but his demeanour indicated that the race was going to be exciting. Simon Davey, also vastly experienced, was suffering from a degree of disorderly stomach but was pleased to be within spitting distance although he had hoped for at least the second row.

The best of the rest was Steve Pearce who despite a rooted rose joint, causing his inside rear wheel to be at ghastly angle, managed 6^th on lap 11. He was 1.2 seconds off Simon in 5^th but a repaired car and years of experience may allow a good race. Andrew Smith led the Class B field with a rather quiet session and he was looking forward to his usual dice with Master Pearce. Following them was Matt Johnson who was a very creditable 8^th and looking smooth. Unfortunately smoothness is, or can be, a temporary thing, as on lap 13 (!) he thought he should keep the fast chaps in sight and the combination of hot tyres (aren’t they supposed to be hot?) and enthusiasm saw a spin at Gerrards, to go with his previous collection. No real damage, except perhaps to ego, and a car full of gravel.

Alan Williamson was 9^th but found a broken steering rack, the legacy of Silverstone, caused some anguish, both to his ability to drive quickly and his wallet. Peter St Barbe, fielding his repaired Jamun was next, closely followed by Michael Whitehead, out only for the second time this season. Michael was pleased with his performance and rather modestly described it as “respectable”.

Michael Burdon was similarly relaxed about his performance and David Owen, probably the only driver here today completely on his own, was next with Ian Millward following them. Ian’s RF80 (built from 14 boxes of bits) was out for the first time since Dijon in 2005 but there was a misfiring issue which led him to come into the pits to try and find a cure. It was not to be and there will be a bit of a scramble to discover and fix the problem before the race.

Andrew Bartosiak also had problems with his carburettor, continuing his run of worries. Alan Fincham had a quiet time and the 68 year old Tony Folkes was almost drawing up the rear some 11 seconds off the pace.  Tony is always honest and the fact that his car cost so much to get back on the track does play on his mind – having said this of course it is worth a lot of money as well. Michael Valentine could only manage 3 laps as his rear wheel nuts had come loose after all the repairs to his rear suspension damaged at Silverstone.

Prediction for the race: Exciting, close and worth the entry fee. Literally anyone from Stuart, Joe, Rory, Paul or Simon could win it. If betting, the wiliness and experience of Stuart would, just, make him favourite.

The Race

Well the prediction proved right but the manner in which it was achieved was less predictable. From the outset Paul Walton did not make the final grid. A useless coil meant his car was never going to run smoothly so rather than cause mayhem on the grid he pulled straight off into the pits. From the start Stuart Kestenbaum was in the lead but it was all clearly going to be very close. Joe Walton was second with Rory Farrell third. Simon Davey was maintaining a watching brief with Steve Pearce close behind.

Simon felt his engine was down on power and he never really challenged the front three during the race, despite looking the most exciting into Gerrards, and Steve just lost touch enough to know it was going to be a long race.

But at the front – my word! Stuart maintained a lead but Rory was all over Joe in the first few laps. It is always difficult to overtake here and Joe was driving with considerable chutzpah to keep the highly motivated Rory behind. Eventually he had to give best and Rory set off after Stuart but Joe stayed with him.

After about half the race Rory finally squeezed past Stuart but it was by no means over. Stuart has not won this many races by accepting his fate and he stuck to his task. Joe was also in very close proximity and if the entry to Gerrards was not so damn quick there would undoubtedly have been more changing of places. Interestingly Rory was turning in later and taking this corner in third whilst the received wisdom is that it is a fourth gear corner. Whatever is right it shows that the margins here are very small and Rory certainly seemed to come out a little quicker.

So on the last lap they dived into Gerrards, Rory, Stuart, and then Joe with it looking like Rory would get it by virtue of leading at this point. However a backmarker appeared at the exit of Gerrards and instant decisions had to be made. Rory went left but found the gap between himself and the grass rapidly diminishing. With no escape from the inevitable he spun with great rapidity and many revolutions. Of course this left the backmarker Alan Fincham with a spinning Rory to one side and getting closer. His move to the right forced Joe onto the grass (Stuart having just got through ahead) resulting in the most spectacular bit of agriculture seen for some time. Whilst no real damage ensued, Joe’s car was indistinguishable from a piece of turf. He was unable to finish but his lap time was the second fastest of the race (only 0.007 slower than Rory) and he has undoubtedly become a potential race winner. All this in his second season and on his 18^th birthday…………………

Stuart then came through to win with the rather fortunate Simon in second (although perhaps this makes up for his disaster of a race here last year) and a recovering Rory in third. Steve Pearce was fourth and Andy Smith was the first Class B home – again. He had had a quiet time of it when Steve had got away but was pleased to post a more reasonable time of 51.7.

Michael Burdon made up for a poor qualifying by changing his coil and carburettor, the latter thanks to Rory’s cavernous parts bin. This led to a three second a lap improvement on qualifying and a very pleasing 6^th place. His manoeuvre to overtake Alan Williamson into Gerrards was an example of a very assertive drive and the grin on his face after it was all over indicates he may keep trying to get his car out despite other commitments.

Alan Williamson came in 7^th but not before he had witnessed the start of an extraordinary time for Matt Johnson. Matt’s good qualifying (which ended in a spin remember) stood him in good stead but a poor start let him down a little. In trying to regain a place he whizzed into Gerrards, whilst overtaking Alan. Now Matt is sure he lost it under braking as he had forgotten to reset the brake balance after the slightly wet qualifying. To be honest the point where adhesion was lost looked further on into the corner than where brakes would be an issue but the guy in charge of the car knows best. In any event Alan and Michael missed him as he beached himself on the outside of the corner, as did a good few others.

Matt obviously thought he had waited long enough and in clouds of tyre smoke he rejoined the circuit, attempted one of those F1 style spins, not completely successfully, but managed to getting it pointing the right way eventually and began the chase again. Unfortunately he had done this right in front of Tony Folkes who had entered Gerrards, saw Matt, and pulled slightly to the right to avoid the stationary car, when it suddenly became less stationary. Massive application of brakes, more tyre smoke, from the Lotus this time, and no contact. This was until the end of the race when Matt was asked to have some contact with the Clerk of the Course who was un-amused by the reports of his observers. The irrepressible Matt explained his position to the beak and the upshot was “words of advice”.

So Alan, to get back to the race, survived this fright and came home 7^th. Then it was Michael Whitehead who had a great race long dice with Peter St Barbe, the second Class B runner home. This was a satisfying day for Michael who has not been able to compete as often as he would like and to finish 9^th, just behind Peter, on one of his rare outings was a good show.

The only two other unlapped runners were David Owen and Matt. David was out for the last time for some time and was dragging his oversteering car around Gerrards with some aplomb. Imagine what he could do with tyres which were a little younger than the 6 year old set he was using at this race. Matt Johnson followed him home with a time which was 6^th fastest, but as they always say, to finish first, first you have to finish etc etc – or at least not spin!

The last four were Ian Millward who had an engine problem all day, new plugs not solving the problem, Tony Folkes, Alan Fincham, who was the meat in the sandwich of the mayhem amongst the leaders, and Michael Valentine, who just breathed a sigh of relief when seeing the chequered flag. Andrew Bartosiak’s engine would not pull over 4000 revs and he gave up after 5 laps.

So what were the themes of this race?

·        Rory faced more of a challenge than previously.

·        Stuart showed real determination, race craft and how to acknowledge the crowd after a win

·        Joe is very definitely a front runner amongst the vastly more experienced.

·        Back markers will play their part……………

[back to2007 results and reports]