Classical Gas
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An Eventful Day David Howard won an exciting race. Three of the four championship contenders had to work very hard for their class wins, only James Christie having a relatively easy victory. Neil had the narrowest win, crossing the line a mere tenth of a second in front of Ian Clark after the pair touched on the Revett straight. Steve Primett’s class win and fastest lap means he will be champion if he wins the final Donnington round. Click on the Links for:-
A nice dry and warm Snetterton greeted the Post Historic competitors on Saturday morning as they took to the track for qualifying. It proved eventful for some. First Steve Primett spun at the Russell Chicane. No sooner had he got going than Len Allgood’s Escort pulled off with a blown engine. Neil’s Capri wasn’t right, popping and banging as it reached maximum revs, then stopping completely at Coram . Fortunately, Neil had done one or two half decent laps, but even so he was towards the back of the grid, a row behind Ian Clark. Some of us hadn’t seen two of the cars before. Giles Cooper qualified his Firenza fifth fastest while William Jenkins was further back in his controversial BMW 3.0 CSL. It took Neil and his team quite a time to find the problem. A wire inside the Luminition module had broken, causing an intermittent problem. It was changed for the spare, only for this to be ruined when it was connected the wrong way round thanks to Luminition’s strange wiring colours. Another unit, borrowed from Jason Christie went the same way before a fourth one, loaned by Mark Lucock, got the car going. Looking at this it had clearly had the same problem as Neil’s original, and been repaired, so there is an intrinsic fault with these units. Come the start David Howard powered into a lead he was to keep for the whole race, even though local man Andy Gill was to get his Ford Mustang very close at times. Dave Nixon had been late to the start and his Maxda only lasted a few laps before he pulled off. Giles Copper had been slow away in the Firenza so it was the battle of the Escorts behind the two big bangers. Jason Christie, Mark Lucock and Steve Primett had a ding-dong fight for the first half of the race. First Jason led the trio, then Mark before Steve went into the class lead on lap six, but not before nearly loosing it at Russells in one of his many attempts to get by. Once Steve did get ahead he pulled away, Mark slipped back a few places and Jason had to fend off both Mark Osborne (Dolomite) and Giles Cooper (Firenza). In class B Neil had got by Ian on the start and was two seconds in front at half way when he came up on John Wrights Escort. Anxious to concentrate on a class win Neil didn’t try to get by and slowed a little, allowing Ian to come close behind. Try as he may Neil couldn’t get the gap back and the pair were side by side half way down The Revett Straight on the last lap. I didn’t see what happened, and the drivers accounts vary (in true BTCC style!), but what is certain is that they came together, to the minor detriment of the bodywork on both cars, and Neil came out of the Esses ahead of Ian. Exiting Russells Ian started to pull alongside on the Senna straight but Neil got his class win by a tenth of a second. However, Ian got fastest lap, denying Neil the full eleven points. Compared to all this drama James Christie had an uneventful race, winning class D in his Avenger and getting fastest lap to keep his championship hopes alive. So it’s all down to the last race at Donnington. If Steve wins his class he is champion again. If he doesn’t then David Howard, James Christie and Neil Bray all have a chance. That won’t end there season though because all four had their engines sealed after the Snetterton race and will be interesting to see what that leads to! Hope you enjoyed this report. You can show your support for our efforts on Classical Gas by joining our Frappr Map. Click here to join.
Championship Position Click here for full points. Stephen Primett 81 + 1 + 9 + 1** = 92 Points.
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