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Round 13 - Oulton Park 11 October 2003

The End Of An Era, Or The Beginning Of A New One ?

The sun shone brightly for our last ever race with the entry the highest for the season at twenty. There was a chance to welcome new drivers such as Kerry Gardiner in the serious looking ex Schlesser Alfa Romeo 75 1.8 Turbo touring car and Jo Fabby in the ex-Neil Smith Fiat Uno - and also to welcome back drivers such as Terry Davies and John Griffiths, all running as non points scoring guest entries. Good also to see Phil Thompson's Panda and Julian Brown's X1/9 up and running again after early season problems, and David Lambourn's Lancia Delta having a trouble free day.

Up front Ted Reddick set the qualifying pace, but championship contender Tim Lewis was throwing down the gauntlet just 0.7 seconds adrift, with Andy Thompson (Class B winner last time out at Oulton) a further 1.3 seconds behind Tim. That boded well for Tim who needed maximum points from the meeting to take the overall title for 2003. Further down the grid, Tony Soper was making a guest appearance in the Motorsport Engineering Alfa GTV V6 and he qualified a strong 4th. Ian Stapleton headed Neil Smith in Class C, with Westley Evans and Roger Donnan heading Classes D and E as is the norm, Roger keeping the pressure on Tim Lewis for the championship title.

The race would see one non starter, Ian Stapleton's GTV had valve damage and would not make the grid. Being the final race of the year any unplayed Jokers were automatically deployed. It was good clean start, but very crowded and the quicker cars were boxed in on the run down to Cascades. A dust cloud indicated trouble, Emma Karwacki's rear brakes had locked spinning her off to the outside of the track heading into the chicane, but fortunately she suffered no damage. On the third lap, Westley Evans' race was over, parked at Cascades with fuel pump failure.

Ted Reddick cut through the traffic quickly thereafter, followed by Tim Lewis who was determined to stay in touch. On the seventh lap disaster struck and Tim visited the same Druids gravel trap he explored in July's Alfa Romeo race, the championship quest was over for him unless Roger Donnan also failed to finish. This did not happen, Roger had one of his best runs and finished a strong sixth overall.

So, the race spoils went to Ted Reddick who shook off the Thompson Minari to win by twenty four seconds, with Tony Soper in third. Neil Smith won class C (4^th overall) from John Griffiths (7^th overall) and Terry Griffiths was fifth. Peter Woodard finished 8^th and took a class win whilst Graham Scott ran the whole race with his 156 stuck in third gear but strangely improved on his qualifying time by one second. Dave Lambourn chalked up some points in the Delta and it was good to see him finish a race, as it was with the Phil Thompson Panda. Julian Brown also finished in the X1/9 turbo but lost his battle with Jo Fabby after spinning at Cascades late in the race, however he finished well clear of Trevor Nicosia in the 75.

Picture courtesy of Karl Greenow : www.grenow.co.uk            

POINTS

Championship spoils go to Roger Donnan who claimed maximum points from the last meeting. Final class positions are as follows : Ted Reddick claimed Class A in his Ferrari 355C from Lindsay ward's Lancia Thema, with Trevor Nicosia and John Rutter tying for third on points however Trevor gets the nod with three second places in class whereas John just has two seconds and a third. In Class B Tim Lewis was clear of Andy Thompson whilst a late showing by Julian Brown gave him third place. Ian Stapleton's absence from the final race didn't stop him from winning Class C, with Neil Smith second and ex-class champion Ron Davidson third. Class D went to Westley Evans with Peter Woodard taking second and third falling to Graham Scott. Class E was taken by our new champion Roger Donnan from Emma Karwacki and Charles Cozens.

Congratulations to the 2003 Le Mans Auto-Italia champion Roger Donnan, commiseration's to Tim Lewis who ran so close and well done to all the class winners and runners up. As usual trophies will be presented at either (or both) the BRSCC dinner dance (17^th Jan) or the Alfa Romeo & Le Mans AutoItalia dinner dance (24^th Jan).

RESULTS

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