The entry was another good one for us : 23 drivers, including yet another newcomer to the Classics – Tim Robinson driving an RF81. Welcome to the club Tim. David Owen, having enjoyed his debut at Lydden two weeks previously, ventured out again, as did Robert Boyer in his mended RF81 following his Mallory qualifying shunt. Albert turned up in his freshly rebuilt 1973 vintage Merlyn, giving it its first run in 10 years – another fabulous addition to the Clements racing car stable, and Dave Lowe continued the theme with another (yes, he’s got a couple..) Lotus 61, rebuilt to the usual Lowe standard. The car is for sale should anyone be interested.

It was Doug Kibble’s turn to get the strict scrutineer this weekend, who decided that the fuel filler cap was not properly protected inside the cockpit. With the aid of a beer can from the previous evenings entertainment together with half a roll of tank tape, a relieved Doug eventually got his hands on a scrutineer sticker.  

So everyone made it out for the 20 minute qualifying session. Simon Davey was in no mood to hang around, keen to notch up his first win of the year. It was going to be close up front, with local boy David Penlington in attendance, together with Nigel Lingwood making his second meeting of the year joining the usual suspects Paul Walton and Anthony Wills.

Midway through the session, nobody expected Ollie Robinson to be up there in the 19s – at that point, he was surely good enough for the second row. His best qualifying effort this season, and on a track he hadn’t seen until the previous day….

Suddenly out came the red flags, and everyone was directed pitwards. Jon Nash had spun off and stalled his RF80, and required the tow truck to get him home. As the tow truck came into the pit, so began a most unfortunate chain of events. There was confusion in the pit, as several drivers were waived through the gate into the paddock. By the time they had realised that the session still had 5 minutes to run, they were stuffed, finding the return gate shut. For those that remained in the pitlane, the pitlane marshal's signalled everyone to start and proceed to exit onto the track. The manner in which this was done suggested that they wanted everyone out on track asap. However, there were 3 marshal's at the top of the pitlane who decided otherwise, and waived at the lead driver (Ian Millward) to stop. The pitlane light apparently showed red (although many drivers couldn’t see it).  Ian braked hard, only for Anthony to slam into his gearbox. Others behind had near misses, but thankfully no further contact was made.

          The final 5 minutes saw fastest laps from many drivers, including 4 of the top 5. Oliver ended up 6^th, unable to get a clear lap. Simon took the pole from David P, with Nigel and Paul on row 2. Richard Shelton had a good run to 5^th spot, with a happy Super Chubbs taking the Class A pole back in 7^th.  Colin Williams was the quickest of those who had been directed back into the paddock earlier on, and, along with the rest, was somewhat peeved by the marshalling error.

But not as much as poor Anthony. He was furious that the marshal's had directly caused his accident. A visit to the C of the C for ‘a chat’ came to nothing, as the officials refused to accept any blame whatsoever. He left the car in Bernard’s capable hands, and departed the scene in a way that Nigel Mansell would have approved ! Fearing his season is finished, we all hope you change your mind Anthony, as I’m sure Bernard can perform his magic without completely emptying your wallet… You can’t go now, just when Simon has also bowed out due to business commitments. We need someone to keep the pressure on Paul !

The Race : So, 22 cars made their way to the grid for the 10 lapper. Paul had a storming start, but David closed the door on the run down to the first corner. With David rather preoccupied with his mirrors, Nigel took second, and so began a see-saw battle for the lead with Simon. Colin was also on the move, getting up to 6^th from his 9^th grid spot by the end of lap 2. By the end of lap 3, it was a three car train of Simon, Nigel and David with a gap beginning to open up to Paul and Richard. Paul later admitted to not being able to get his head round the Russell chicane, which threw his concentration. He was to finish in 4^th (his worst result of the season) some 10 seconds off the lead trio.

Jeff Palmer spun at Russell on lap 3, which ended any hope of him keeping in touch with Phil Norris, which was his aim for the afternoon. He did manage however to pick up second place in the novice race, so he didn’t go home empty handed.

Another great dice was for 6^th place, with Colin, Oliver, Jon, Neil Marshall, Dave Lowe, Steve Bradley and Steve Collyer all squabbling for position. On lap 5, Oliver peeled into the pits with a badly mangled nosecone. Although he was to resume sans nose, in an effort to gain a signature, he was an unclassified finisher, and so ended a good run of form in the novice championship.

Another driver having his best race of the season so far was John Hesp, who, having qualified 16^th (which became 15^th by virtue of Anthony’s withdrawal), kept out of trouble to cross the line in 10^th overall, beating fellow RP26 pilot Phil Norris in the process. A very happy recipient of the Novice trophy. Well done John.

The Class A trio of Dave and the Two Steves had an interesting moment coming down to the Esses on lap 7. Dave is not accustomed to racing down in the midfield, but he had significant company today – for once, he was actually racing – on the same piece of tarmac – with fellow Class A protagonists ! That doesn’t happen very often these days does it Dave ? Steve B is finding life rather difficult in the ex Tony Harman Jamun, but is doing his damnedest to get the overweight device (that’s the car, not the driver..) moving as swiftly as possible. On the other hand, Steve ‘Super Chubbs’ Collyer is doing his damnedest to get his overweight device moving as swiftly as possible too. Guess which one I’m talking about now. And its not the car..

Anyway, back to the story. Approaching the Esses then on lap7. Steve B leading, put 2 wheels onto the grass, and promptly spun. Having been watching far too much of the Olympics for their own good, the Lotus and Dulon promptly went into a synchronised spin much to the amusement of a watching Stuart Tilley. Steve Bradley got through a full 360, and continued undisturbed by the episode, whilst both Dave and Steve C only half did theirs, and failed to register perfect scores from the watching judge. The fact that all three took home a trophy each, however, is testament to their driving skill (or was it just good old fashioned luck ?)

Neil had his first non-finish since Pembrey when he harmlessly spun out and stalled, unable to coax the RF78 back into life.

Back up the front, the lead swapped round almost on a lap-by-lap basis between Simon and Nigel, with David P keeping a close watching brief. Nigel took the lead for the final time on lap 10 to take his first overall victory of 2004, and with it the Cobra Driver Of The Day.

Richard followed Paul home, having been glued to his gearbox throughout, although the stewards decided he had jumped the start, so docked him 10 seconds, which gave 5^th overall to Jon Nash, who had an uneventful drive (for him).

Tim Robinson had a plug lead remove itself midway through the race, which dented an otherwise impressive debut.

So, with 6 down and 4 to go, the championship is now jointly led by Messrs Walton and Lowe, on 61 points. See you all at Thruxton. The barby will definitely get sparked up on the Friday evening, that I can promise.

ADH

Race report from Colin Williams:

Well we all arrived at Snetterton bright and early on Sunday morning for signing on at 08.30.  The sun was out and it looked like a nice day, but then it was like this last year up until half an hour before the race when it started to thunder and lightening!  We wondered if it would do the same this year, as Snetterton is renowned for the bad weather coming in very quickly.

[back to2004 Results and Reports]