The long haul up north (well, for us southerners at least..) resulted in a predicted smaller entry for this two dayer than our norm so far this season – 14 against 20. The regulars were there of course, with many taking advantage of the Friday testing. Well this is Yorkshire in mid 2007, so it meant one thing – rain. OK, maybe not quite up to Hull standards thankfully, but it still meant that much of the Friday was washed out. Uncharacteristically, Mr Kestenbaum managed ¾ of a lap, his car ending up hard into the Armco, requiring the complete rebuilding of the front of the car by assisting spannerman John Esser. Everyone else managed to get away with it unscathed, albeit with minimal useful lappery due to constant red flags as cars (driven mostly those hot-headed 2 litre drivers !) used the cornfields as softer alternatives to tyre walls and crash barriers.

The Class B ranks were supplemented this weekend by a rather unusual looking Elden. Apparently known as the ‘Ippokampus’ Elden, the bodywork made the car look like a FF2000 without a rear wing. Whatever advantage it gave aerodynamically was surely negated by the added weight of it all. Nevertheless, it was a welcome addition to the grid, its recent owner – John Hayes-Harlow – using the weekend as a shakedown test. John hasn’t raced for 15 years, and the car hadn’t seen a race track for about as long. Needless to say it was to prove a busy weekend of problem-fixing (more of that later), but John and his crew remained up-beat throughout. Welcome to Classic FF John, and hope to see you again soon.

Saturday qualifying :

After Friday’s washout, fortunately Saturday was dry, albeit with the usual force six gale rolling off the North Yorkshire Moors. The windy conditions would add some 2-3 seconds to the normal dry lap times.

Rory Farrell took his fourth pole of the season, so no great surprises there. He was quickest by a monstrous 0.78 of a second, and even felt confident enough to duck into the pits late on for some suspension adjustment. Paul Walton took the other front row slot, clearly hoping for a decent points haul this weekend after two non scores on the trot.

Steve Pearce continued his impressive form this season with third, a tenth shy of Paul. He was one of several drivers to complain about recently acquired Avons being worn to buggery after only a few outings, and returned to his 2 year old cast-offs. Simon Davey, now fully recovered from the food poisoning that blighted his Mallory effort, was a pretty happy 4^th considering he hadn’t tested.

Joe Walton was just four thousandths behind in 5^th, and pleased to be in the hunt for what would be his first race at this, his local track. Stuart was half a second further back in 6^th, unimpressed with power understeer from his refettled RF80.

Andrew Smith took a lonely Class B pole, the only man in the 36s. He did shave a chunk of time off towards the end of the session, following Paul Walton, but it made no difference. Alan Williamson was 8^th, with repaired rack following his Silverstone shunt. The car was OK, although he thought that 2am on the juice the previous night was a tad to blame…

Nest up in 9^th was Phil Norris, reasonably happy. He had ventured out behind Rory, hoping to pick up some time by trying to hang on to him for a few laps. It seemed to work well enough for him to stay ahead of a somewhat bemused Dave Lowe, disappointed to be so far off the pace. An overheating, down on power motor might be to blame, although Dave wasn’t ruling out the horrendous thought that maybe, just maybe, he is losing his touch as he heads towards three score years and ten. Surely not !

Matthew Johnson, the weekend’s only novice entry, was a further 3 seconds adrift, and enhanced his reputation as the Most Frequent Spinner in the Championship. Jeff Palmer was another 1.5 seconds behind, with newcomer John Hayes-Harlow managing a creditable 1:42 in a car unable to rev beyond 6000 and a brake pedal that kept going to the floor.

Tony Folkes was appalled to be as slow as he was, and could only hope that he could chop away some of the 20 seconds that eluded him.

Sunday morning was dry, not nearly as windy, but all talk was on whether the ‘severe weather warning’ from the Met Office would hit the north east before or after 3.15pm.

Sod’s Law worked a treat as the rain arrived just as the cars were called to the collecting area. But it didn’t last, and stopped altogether after a few minutes. The circuit was certainly damp, but by no means completely wet. So – wet or dry settings ? Some elected for full wet, others for a compromise. It was all a bit of a lottery.

As the grid formed up, the rain began again, and this time it continued. Too late now though. Steve Pearce lined up pointing the nose of his RF80 towards the gap in the front row – he was determined to lead a Classic race for the first time in recent memory. He achieved his aim, and was first into Hawthorns, with Rory, Simon, Stuart and Joe following through. Paul had made a dreadful start, losing 4 places.

Matthew spun at the first corner (again..), and resumed at the tail, and retired shortly thereafter, reason unknown. John H-H was another for an early bath, his clutch failing when he left the collecting area ! An unfortunate end to his weekend, having solved his brake and carburation problems.

Up front, Steve’s lead was short lived, and Rory was passed before the end of lap 1. Simon held on in 3^rd, with a gap already forming to a struggling Stuart in 4^th. Walton Senior had passed Walton Junior when Joe had the first of 3 spins at Sunny.

The rain was now making conditions rather treacherous, especially round the back. Stuart fell back to 6^th as he battled to keep the car from understeering off the road completely. He continued circulating in this position until flag fall, and had a rather lonely race from lap 4.

From a spectator’s viewpoint, it all looked rather processional, but of course it was rather more exciting than that from inside the cars. Joe re-passed his dad on lap 3, and then proceeded to pull away from him, achieving the fastest lap of the race on lap 5 – a whopping 2 seconds better than anyone else ! (OK, he had brand new tyres, but even so !) Simon passed Steve on the run down to Hawthorns on lap 5, Steve now struggling a bit on worn tyres. Joe spun again on lap 7, allowing his dad passed once again. And again, he retook the position a lap later.

Rory remained unchallenged throughout the 10 laps, and took victory number 5 to deserved applause. Nobody knew at the time, but he had had it easier than it might have been. Simon – who held on to 2^nd once he had passed Steve, made little impression on Rory, which was uncharacteristic of him. Only afterwards did he explain his problem – a pop rivet had worked loose and fallen onto the floor, and had lodged itself under the throttle pedal. When he lifted off, the throttle pedal sometimes remained in the same position (the rivet preventing the pedal from returning to its resting position) – which is not really what you want when you are flat in fourth attempting corners like Barcroft in the wet….! At one point, he had to switch off the ignition to avoid the barriers. Few drivers would have attempted to race given such a situation, let alone finish second ! He was rewarded with the Cobra Beer Driver of the Day for his efforts.

For once, we actually awarded the beer to two drivers – in addition to Simon, Steve Pearce gratefully received another case of Cobra. This was his most competitive showing to date in the RF80, and recalled years gone by in his PRS. Steve dropped back towards the end, clearly aware that any pursuit of Mr Davey was fruitless, but he remained clear of a recovering Joe Walton, with Paul barely a second adrift at the end.

Stuart, as we have said, was 6^th, with Andrew Smith taking the Class B win in an uncontested 7^th. Andrew’s full wet set up came into its own by half distance, but by then the damage had been done, and he had little chance of catching anyone else. Mindful of full Class B points, he kept it together and avoided any unnecessary errors.

Alan splashed round in 8^th, keeping Dave behind him for the whole race bar lap 1, when he had to take to the grass at Sunny to avoid a spinning Joe. Alan spun himself at Tower on lap 7. Dave took 9^th , whilst Phil and Jeff toured round nose to tail for all 10 laps until Jeff spun on the last lap. Tony was the remaining (lapped) runner, and was still 20 seconds off the pace. 

Rory now heads into the second half of the season with a 27 point lead in Class A, and it must be said that the championship is his if he continues in this form. But behind him the battle is close, with 3 drivers separated by only 7 points. In Class B, Andrew is in an equally dominating position, although if Dave scores well at the double headers, it may look a lot tighter once the dropped score comes into play.

We head to the wilderness that is Pembrey in 2 weeks, where 26 points is on offer. Endure the monotony of the M4 and join us for what will hopefully be another fascinating instalment of the 2007 season.

ADH.