SUPER MARIO WINS AT ANGLESEY
Long-time Avon Tyres Northern Formula Ford 1600 competitor, Mario Sarchet, scored his first ever victory in round 3 of the Championship at Anglesey on Sunday, 29th April and followed it up with a second later in the afternoon as the BRSCC’s North Western Centre hosted a weekend of action at the North Wales circuit.
Hamish McAllister had annexed pole for the opening encounter in his 2011 Mygale during qualifying on Saturday. He converted this into a comfortable lead but suffered engine troubles on lap 8 which forced him to retire in the pit-lane and prevented him from taking any further part in the meeting.
Andrew Thomas had started from the outside of the front row with his Mygale GV15K but a poor getaway put him in the middle of the pack as the field bunched up at The Banking for the first time and the resulting contact pitched him into a spin.
The misfortunes of these drivers put Brian Young, who has done a deal to run a few races this year in UCLAN Racing’s Reynard FF89, out-front but Sarchet put him under enormous pressure. On what turned out to be the last lap, Young ran wide at Rocket and then struggled to select second gear allowing Sarchet to nip through. The erstwhile leader was determined to regain the position on the following circuit but the 20 minute duration had just expired triggering the chequered flag.
Edwin Hannah completed the podium in his Reynard FF84, a feat he was unable to repeat later in the day following contact with Juiceie Bruceie’s similar car on the opening lap. Alaric Gordon (Swift SC97) therefore took third as Sarchet led Young from start to finish on the occasion.
Darren Smith and Matthew Holben recreated memories of the TVR Challenge from the 1990s as they battled hard in their Tuscans during the first Dunlop TVR contest of the weekend. Smith came out on top. The fight was less intense the second time around as Holben was delayed on lap 1 when Christopher Ridge (Cebera) attempted to outbrake him into Rocket. Holben was able to reel in Smith and reverse the earlier result. Ridge went home with a brace of thirds.
The Kerax Hyperdrive ST-XR Challenge enjoyed at Triple Header. In their first blast, Michael Heath retired from a thrilling battle for the lead between a trio of XR2s with brake failure. This left Justin Roberts to fend off Steve Poole to take the win. Roberts got a great start to race 2 only to run wide at Rocket due to his car having too much oversteer, he battled back into the Top Three only to get into trouble at the same corner on lap 5. Another recovery drive put him into position to attempt a pass on leader Poole exiting the final corner only for him to spin through 180 degrees. He had the presence of mind to hook reverse gear, as Alistair May sped by to claim the runner-up position, to cross the line in third place backwards!
Heath worked his way up the order after his race 1 retirement to take fifth. From there he was soon into second when the final event got under way although Poole found himself back ahead following some door handle to door handle action on the section of track from Rocket to The Corkscrew. Later at the steep downhill chicane, Heath reclaimed the runner-up spot but by this time Roberts was too far ahead to be caught.
After Michael Blackburn retired from Saturday’s event, the XR3i Class went to Lee Bowron but Blackburn recovered to take those spoils twice on Sunday.
A fabulous entry came to Wales for a pair of Cox Motor Parts Civic Cup rounds. The evenly matched hatches produced a great spectacle. The first 3 home on Sunday morning were Rob Baker, David Vincent and Mark Grice but with a partially reversed grid being a feature when the drivers returned to action in the afternoon, fourth was the best Baker could manage as the podium was filled by Jason Ballantyne, James Griffith and Lewis Rose.
The Fun Cup contenders had two 3 hour races on Saturday, the first took place at lunch-time and the second finished as dusk fell. In the former, the appearance of a Safety Car late in proceedings brought Sherardize UK into contention for the victory but Team Honeywell just held on by little more than half a second with Team Viking completing the podium. Sherardize UK dominated the evening encounter, taking the win 40 seconds to the good as JPR Uvio fended off the rapidly closing 2Rent Domino’s in the final laps.
Just before the last Fun Cup race of the day drivers in the first Alfa Romeo Championship enjoyed their first event. In this, Mervyn Miller romped away to win from Roger Evans and Paul Webster. The result was the same on Sunday morning although Evans had led the early laps with Miller trying everything he knew to get by. He made it past just before proceedings had to be stopped and restarted when Riccardo Losselli and Thomas Gallagher collided causing extensive damage to both cars. In the TwinSpark category, Paul Plant seemed on his way to doing the double when his car hesitated on the run to Church (possibly due to a missed gearchange) allowing Tom Hill to snatch victory on the last lap.
The amazing machines from the Superkarting-UK Club Championship raced twice as a guest category with Andrew Gulliford (250 Viper Anderson) taking the laurels each time.
You can view the full results at ANGLESEY RESULTS.
Dave Williams
