For those wanting to find out what happened at Mallory, my apologies. Mr Wills would write his race report before he had even walked through the door of his house on the Sunday evening – I’ve never been so well organised, but also excuse myself as my PC died (for 2 weeks) and I have spent the past evenings getting my hands dirty in the garage – amazingly enough, your club coordinator has finally got off his backside and entered a race in his own car for the first time in 6 years ! Oulton here we come.

So – Mallory Park – the briefest of resumes : a poorish entry (16), but the CFF1600s managed to put on some great entertainment as usual – 14 laps and the first seven cars were covered by a mere 3.5 seconds, with Paul Walton taking his second win of the season after a fraught battle with Simon Davey. Both had contact damage post race, although thankfully we didn’t see a repeat of 2006….Steve Pearce came in half a second adrift in arguably his best effort in the RF80 (this is his local track after all), with Jon Davis beating off Class B rival Andy Smith. Dave Malpas had a good run to 6^th, with Dave Lowe – with a fresh BBE motor, taking the final position in the lead train. Further down the road Mike Burdon beat Ian McMillan – partly due to the latter’s pit crew showing great ineptitude in displaying 2 laps to go when there was but one – the final lap passing manoeuvre was therefore not to be…Fellow novice James Gowens had a rather poor race, relinquishing the novice lead to Ian. And nice to welcome back Paul Simms in his immaculate Dulon.

The Class A championship was turning into a two horse race, with Simon on 42, Paul on 41. But Steve was in the hunt on 30, and with Stuart Kestenbaum missing Mallory, he is also looking good on 26 with one dropped score already. In B, Jon took a commanding lead on 35, with 2007 champ Andy level on points with Peter St Barbe on 26. Dave Lowe – only on 17, but with missing Pembrey following engine problems at the HSCC Donnington meeting, he can only add to his total score, knowing that others will have to drop points later on.

Last season we had 22 on the grid at Brands – this year we managed but 16 – surely our poorest grid here at the popular Kent circuit ? I remain in hope that we can turn it round in the second half of the season, but our average stands at 15.5 – well short of the 18 threshold. Let’s hope BARC take a lenient view bearing in mind the ever-increasing cost of fuel, which makes national championships such as ours all that more expensive compared to circuit or regional ones.  I have said it before, and will say it again – if you have a Classic FF in the garage, right now your Championship needs your attendance….

Nevertheless, we had another new face this weekend, which was good to see. David Brise welcome to Classic FF ! David had an eventful day before he had even got out on the circuit, what with an ineligible race suit delaying his scrutineering. David had circuit experience, but had never raced before – so this was a historic moment, seeing a new generation of the Brise family in a motor race. Certainly he won the prize for the biggest following – with atleast 25 people turning up in support, including other members of the family. It almost doubled the spectators…

Qualifying :

Fortunately, qualy and race were all on the Sunday of this two day meeting, and the weather was fantastic. A mid morning qualifying slot and mid afternoon race, with a lunch prepared by Mrs Burgermix, meant a relaxed and leisurely day, unless your name was Andy Powell. The Powell family was at Brands running cars in both the 1600 and 2 litre races, which was enough to keep them busy, only made worse when Reg accidently fired off one of the extinguishers…

Stuart Kestenbaum and Andy P were quick out of the blocks, with Stuart fastest in the early laps down in the mid 53s, joined by Jon Davis , Andy P, Andrew Smith, Ollie Robinson and Paul Walton. Steve Pearce took a few laps to dip down into the 53s, but once in there he stayed there. Stuart took pole three quarters through the session with a 52.7, bumping Jon to second, a full half a second adrift – a lifetime in Classic FF terms.  Behind Jon the next 5 drivers were within 0.4 seconds : Steve, Ollie, Paul, Andrew S and Andy P, the latter being hampered midway with broken points. Next up was Dave Lowe (also hampered by a loose plug lead needing a pit visit) followed by Matt Taylerson, making his 2008 debut in the other black Hawk. James Gowens made amends for his poor Mallory form with fastest novice, with Ian McMillan salvaging 11^th having stiffened up the rear of the Crossle after Mallory (bad idea), which gave him such severe turn in problems that the C of the C was most interested to hear why he kept spinning…David Brise ran well until a fuel feed problem towards the end of the session , a problem that was to have terminal effects on his race. The grid was filled by Phil Norris, Jeff Palmer, Ben Hopton and Jonathan Greenwood.

Race :

Classic FF1600s always provide superb entertainment at Brands, and this race proved no exception. Stuart took a lights to flag victory, but had to work hard defending from Jon, who was all over the Van Diemen gearbox for all bar one lap - it reminded me of his hounding of Paul Sleeman at Lydden a few years back. Steve kept a watching brief in third until he lost out at Clearways on lap 8 when he dropped back to fifth behind Paul and Ollie. Ollie had gone from 4^th on the grid to 7^th on the first lap, as he struggled to wind the brake bias to the rear, but then fought his way all the way up to second on lap 13, only for him to run wide at Graham Hill, which somehow cut his engine. He slowed dramatically, and those following (Paul and Andrew) were fortunate to avoid him.

David Brise lasted only 2 laps as the fuel starvation problems he had in qualifying returned, possibly down to the disintegrating rubber bag tank in the otherwise smartly turned-out RP21. A new tank may be the only solution ?

Poor old Dave suffered further problems when his oil pressure dived, so he switched off and pulled out. The Lotus would be going home on the ferry that evening….With Dave’s retirement, Matt set about chasing down Andy P, and succeeded in taking him on the final lap when Andy developed a problem.

James had a rather lonely race in mid field to take another novice win to add to his collection, and was well clear of Phil who was equally clear of Phil and Ian. Ian made it to the finish just as his ‘Transit Special’ blew itself to pieces….no doubt it was unimpressed with being revved to 6500 when it was more used to pootling round the potholed lanes of Ireland ! This was a severe blow to Ian’s challenge – he will have to dig deep to be back out with a fresh power unit if he wants to continue challenging James for the Novice crown. His one possible saving grace is that James himself must bow out for Oulton and Croft due to budget constraints.

At the back, Ben and Jeff had a good dice all race long, with Jonathan bringing up the rear.

So, all in all, a rather unfortunate end to the day, with atleast 2 cars unlikely to make the grid at Oulton, just when the championship needs every car it can get. With Paul taking third place on the road and second in class, he now moves onto 50 points with Simon Davey on 42, and Steve and Stuart joint third on 38, but Simon and Stuart have now dropped one of their two scores, so its pretty tight at the top as usual. Meanwhile Jon takes a convincing lead in Class B from Andrew (48 versus 35).

ADH

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