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The LeMans Auto Italia Championship showed its true worth at Mallory Park on April 16th when another varied capacity field enjoyed a good race free of incident, with plenty of action
taking place right through the field. Putting aside the disappointments of Donington and with even some sun showing, the spectators were treated to the sight of Julian Birley taking victory in the Rare Alfa 75
followed by Graham Scott's Stratos Corse and Drummond Bone taking third on the last lap in his Maserati Barchetta.
Qualifying, on a dry track, saw the big guns at the top of the list with Drummond pipping Julian Birley for top spot by 0.17 seconds. Looking down into the cockpit of the Maser from my viewpoint at the hairpin it
looked like hard, bumpy, work, but Drummond shrugged it off with 'It's good enough for pole!'. Graham Scott took third in Class A despite spending much of the session on 5 cylinders with an injector problem.Kevin
Griffiths was third fastest overall in his Class B Sud ahead of the very smooth and unflustered Mark Pollard and his Minari. He reckoned the smoothness was down to the disciplines of hillclimbing but he was a bit
fazed at having to share the track with others!
Sixth overall was a hard-charging Giovanni in his Fiat 128. How many seasons has it done now?! Enzo Mucci was down in ninth with niggling problems on the JSM 147 which now looks designer chic in black. First three in
Class D were all in the 56 second bracket and Alfa 33 mounted. Andy Thompson was only just quicker than Gary Buckland and Chris Forrest. Minette Rice Edwards was the only rider in Class C with her Alfa 75 and Derek
Jones headed Neil Smith and Brian Thorp for the Class E spots. Neil seems to be going quickly and giving his Fiat Uno some stick this season.
For the first couple of laps of the race Neil enjoyed the spotlight as he held the overall lead before the masses engulfed him. Making progress was Julian Birley but the Class D runners Thompson and Forrest took over
the lead spots for a while. This was an interesting race as no-one made an immediate break and the lead changed hands to increasingly quicker cars until Birley broke through. Even then Kevin Griffiths, Mark Pollard
and Russ Yates were pressing on well, within the top six. The JSM 147 with Enzo Mucci was picking up places threatening to take third overall, but after an ultra-cautious start by Drummond Bone, the Maserati was
soon catching Enzo at a faster rate. This led to a big sort-out at Gerard's on the last lap with Enzo and Kevin being taken by Drummond and the Mucci/147 combo following through for fourth.
So the big guns in Class A took the podium spots in the order Birley, Scott and Bone. Kevin Griffiths beat Mark Pollard for Class B after a good drive. Andy Thompson was Class D winner from Chris Forrest. Minette
took the C laurels and the charging Neil Smith grabbed fastest lap and first in Class E. Makes a change from an Alfa 33.
The crowd obviously enjoyed the show as many left immediately after the race. Keep up the good standards. (By Peter Collins)
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