Andy Hodson witnessed a great race at Thruxton and Roger Newman gives us a drivers view:

Round 3 saw a relatively healthy 23 car entry, with a whopping 6 cars entered for Class A. It was good to see some old regulars back on board, and Al Crocker has dusted down his Ray, being driven this year by our resident chef Giovanni. The international flavour continues with American driver Mitch Wenger in his RF79. Mitch is involved with a project to build a steam powered car which will attempt the world land speed record for a steam car. Keep us posted Mitch - can we come and watch ?

For many, qualifying was the first experience of driving the Thruxton circuit (bar the TOCA Touring Car playstation game), and the weather was kind. In fact, disobeying the forecast, the weather stayed good for the whole day.

Keith Ward's Jomic failed to start in the collecting area, which helped increase his blood pressure. Fortunately after fiddling with the plugs, it sprang to life just in time. Qualifying was a disaster for Mitch, who visited the scenery on lap 3 and damaged a corner. He was to experience the taken-for-granted assistance from his fellow competitors in getting the car onto the grid, for which he was most appreciative. Thanks to Simon especially who became a lunchtime welder. Dave Lowe was the other casualty of the morning, when No 4 piston developed claustrophobia and decided it wanted some fresh air. Unlucky Dave - at least the start money dulled the pain a bit!

After 15 minutes, the front row was shared between Nigel and Simon, separated by two hundredths. The grid spread out further back, no doubt due to first time caution and lack of track knowledge - 11 drivers were outside 107%. Ian Millward was driving with a broken arm (see Anglesey report) - some people are suckers for punishment...

Race : 22 cars ventured out of the collecting area, and 21 made the grid, the seemingly permanently unlucky Guy Snook succumbing to ignition problems on the way round.
Off the line, Nigel held off Simon for most of the opening lap, but Simon squeezed through into the chicane. Everyone else seemed to have made it through the first lap cleanly, with the order at the end of lap 2 being Simon/Nigel/David Penlington/Steve Pearce/a slow starting Steve Hare/Anthony Wills getting used to the front end of the grid/an impressive Roger Newman/ a gap opening up to a lonely Martin Camp/a further gap down to the next gaggle comprising Chubby Hubbard/Keith/Steve Collyer (his first time out since Silverstone)/Alan Williamson/Colin Williams/Neil Marshall/Jeff Palmer enjoying what would become his best race. Jon Nash was in trouble already with a box full of neutrals, but persisted for more laps than he should have done before being black flagged. Team Hackett was down to a single car. Nigel made it back into the lead on lap 3 after a mistake from Simon, and at once began to pull out a gap to the following 6 car train of Simon/David/Steve H/Steve P/Roger/Anthony. Steve Collyer made it to the front of the second pack by lap 5, taking the lead in Class A he was to hold for the rest of the race. Keith too made it past Chubby.

The man on the move in the second half of the race was Roger, who made it passed Steve H on lap 7. The 2 Van Diemen drivers circulated nose to tail for the remaining laps, and nobody was more delighted to see the chequered flag than Roger, taking a well deserved first podium. By lap 10, Nigel had opened up a 6 second gap to the squabbling VD drivers. Simon slipped back to 4th, with Steve P and Anthony in close proximity. David hit oil and spun on lap 9, and dropped 4 places to 7th. The top 10 was rounded out by Jeff Palmer, who took the Novice win and collected the Cobra Beer Driver of the Day. Another driver to be found wandering around the paddock with a huge grin on his face. Well done Jeff. Towards the back, Giovanni finally made it passed Ian, who unsurprisingly was finding it difficult to change direction in the Dulon.

So, an eventful 15 minutes. If we can put on races like that every time, we should have nothing to worry about. Lets hope for an even better entry at Brands.

ADH.

Roger Newman writes our driver view this week.

The last time (and first time) I raced at Thruxton was in 2000, it was only my 3rd race and after a poor start I spent most of the race trying to pass someone for about twenty third position. This time I thought I could surely do much better?!

During qualifying I was pleased to be able to stay with Steve Hare as he is usually able to put in a good qualifying performance. I spent most of the session trying to carry far too much speed through Campbell and Cobb which resulted in some untidy slides, and edging as close as I could to doing Goodwood through to Church 'flat'. The result of my efforts was 8th on the grid, a couple of tenths behind Steve Hare who was 6th which I thought was good as the gap between us can usually be measured in whole seconds. It wasn't a surprise to see that Nigel Lingwood was on pole followed by Championship leader Simon Davey in second.

Back in the paddock after studying the results I was feeling fairly confident as I had about a second gap between myself and the performance of the 9th placed driver, which I thought would allow me to focus on staying with the guys in front of me and seeing if I could further improve my laptimes without any pressure from behind. Unfortunately the start would go ahead without the usually immaculate Lotus 69 of Dave Lowe due to a huge hole in the side of his engine block from a suspected sheared crankshaft, which seems to be a common problem with the Kent Engine. Mitchell Wenger's crew also had their work cut out to fix his RF79 after a trip into the tyre wall knocked off a rear corner, it was good to see spares lent by fellow club members enabled Mitchell to take the start.

On the formation of the grid I realised I might have a problem at the start as I was on a slope and once I selected first gear and put my foot on the throttle the car started to roll forward. I managed to get my heel onto the bottom of the brake pedal enough to stop the car moving but this resulted in an awkward start. The six cars ahead of me got away well with Simon taking the lead and I was pleased that no one had got passed me off the line. On the entrance to Campbell I saw a gap up the inside and went for it a bit too keenly and ended up on the grass all locked up in avoidance of Steve H, luckily I managed to avoid any contact. For the first 3 laps I hung on to the back of the pack and was pleased to see that we had broken away from the following cars but I still had the leaders in sight, a new experience for me. Steve H got back past Anthony Wills on lap two and Nigel got back past Simon on lap three into the lead. On lap four I managed to pass Anthony and started to realise this race could go to anybody in the first 7 cars as we were all still fairly tightly packed. As my confidence gained I must have been getting quicker around the second fast half of the circuit because on lap 6 I managed to get a good tow and passed Steve Pearce coming down Woodham Hill into Club, and on the next lap took advantage of Steve H approaching a back marker and passed him in the same place. Through Noble I was surprised to catch the battling Simon Davey and David Penlington who seemed to be slowing each other up and I got past through Goodwood. I wasn't too sure at that point what position I was in but I knew I must be fairly well up now and I was hoping to see the Chequered flag coming out of Club as I could see Steve Hare looming close in my mirrors. However there was one more lap and Steve was close enough to get a good tow and sure enough came past on the inside around Goodwood. At this point I wasn't prepared to give up that easily and got through Church flat out and it was my turn to get the tow. Steve was again approaching a backmarker and I expected him to take to the inside but managed to get there first and secure the inside line into Club. Nigel Lingwood took the class B and overall win and a slightly bewildered Stephen Collyer took the Class A win and joined us on the podium (eventually!).

I was chuffed to bits with my second place and it was a great first experience including going up onto the podium and talk to the commentator etc, and I was pleased that it was a good fair race with no serious incidents.
See you all next time!

Roger Newman

Back to 2003 Results

Home