CAVALCADE IN THE PARK

The front-line contenders in the Itchy Feet Open Sportscar Championship put in the fastest lap times of all the varied categories that were on display in the paddock. The two Jades of Graham Cole and Tony Sinclair were the quickest of the quick. The former established a 7 second advantage in the opening stages but this reduced to almost nothing when he began having problems changing down into fourth gear. By the completion of the 5th tour Sinclair was right on his tail but then Cole’s mechanical problems resolved themselves and he pulled away. Sinclair himself hit trouble with failing brakes towards the end of the contest.

Cole was out to do the double when these dramatic sports-racers returned to the tarmac for the final event of the day however it was not to be as his car caught fire on lap 3. It was quite a large conflagration and, with the possibility of smoke drifting across the circuit, Race Control sent a fire tender to the scene under the cover of a Safety Car. When the field was released after the situation had been brought under control Sinclair was now in the lead and could not be caught despite quite heavy drizzle making conditions tricky as proceedings drew to a close.

The BRSCC’s Mighty and Super Mighty Mini categories provided some of the best action in Cheshire last Saturday – the latter in particular lived up to their tag as they were indeed “super” with a jostling train of 6 of these classic cars battling from lights to flag. Chris Morgan got the verdict by just 0.13 secs from Patrick Ford. Scott Kendall enjoyed spells out in-front but crossed the line third at the finish.

The Mighty runners were split up when Matt Pinny and Wesley Dunford tried to occupy the same piece of tarmac at Hislops on lap 1. The resulting traffic jam enabled Louise Inch and Ade Tuckley to break clear. Their tussle ended in the favour of Tuckley by less than a Mini’s front bumper (0.046 secs to be exact!)

More modern Mini action was provided by the FFDR Scottish Cooper Cup which was making a guest appearance south of the border. Two outings were planned but an engine failure during qualifying for Fiona Wallace meant she had to miss the first of these while her crew made a mercy dash to find replacement components. Although repairs were successfully made for her to line up on the second grid of the afternoon a first corner crash which left Louise Flitton requiring medical attention brought out the red flags and there was no time for a restart. Therefore the sterling efforts of Wallace’s crew were in vain. Race 1 had been dominated by Oly Mortimer.

Mike Jenvey had a very busy meeting. He took a third and a second in the Open Sportscar events and added a further runner-up spot in the Duratec Sports 2000 encounter. On this occasion he was headed by Neil Burroughs. After Andy Mathew had retired at Lodge, David Houghton comfortably led home the Pinto-powered cars.

The drivers in the post-‘89 Avon Tyres Northern FF1600 Championship had slippery tarmac to deal with in their first of two thrashes after a shower of rain arrived while they waited in the assembly area. Stuart Gough coped best with the conditions as it took his chief rival, Jordan Skinner, until lap 4 to relieve Mike Bennett of second by which time Gough was out of reach. Skinner tussled with Gough later on when they came back out to play until they made contact at Hislops. Skinner retired while Gough took win number 2.

In the Pre-’90 class, Nigel Dolan was the star of the show. In their first race he charged from 5th at the end of the opening tour to finish a close second to John Farrell. Second time out he won a thrilling three way dice for the lead with Farrell and Lee Hannan.

For full results Click Here

Dave Williams