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HOT ACTION AT DONINGTON
The sun
shone out of a flawless sky onto perhaps the biggest field ever gathered for a Le Mans Auto Italia round as a capacity grid fought at all levels for honours at the Italian Racing Festival meeting on September 1st. As with Michael at Spa, so with Ted Reddick at Donington. Ted planted his Ferrari 355C on pole with 1 min 20.54 secs to make him over a second quicker than Les Charneca, also 355C mounted. These two had Class A to themselves but it was a class B car, Andy Thompson's increasingly quick Minari, which took third qualifying spot in front of Drummond Bone. Mark Pollard's less radical Minari was second fastest B car. The unfortunate Ron Davidson took class C pole on his first outing this year but had an off in a later session rendering him a non-starter leaving Keith Fawdington all on his own in the class on a welcome return to the fray. Marc Connell underlined the Potential of the Connell family Alfa 33 by pipping John Griffiths to class D fastest by half a second. In Class E Ian Brookfield turned the tables on Neil Smith snatching grid honours in his Alfasud from the Uno by less than 0.1 of a second. Surprises were the sight of Chris Snowdon and Ian Stapleton up in 6th and 7th with their Alfa GTVs and Julian Birley at 10th with an ex JL Schlesser Alfa 75 turbo after problems had arisen with his normal car. David Fitzsimons' historic Alfa Giulia added variety. The race had great potential with 32 starters including many newcomers and returnees.
First time round
Neil Smith was relieved of the lead by a fast starting Andy Thompson but soon the two prancing horses caught up and a strong battle for the lead raged between Ted Reddick and Andy. This David and Goliath struggle seemed to have been resolved in favour of Maranello until a loss of gears hampered Ted's progress and Andy was in the right place to take advantage nipping through to take a 1.5 second lead at the line. Graham Scott retired on the first lap with a chunk out of his nearside rear wheel whilst behind the leaders battles raged and Les Charneca got the better of Drummond Bone. For some time Mark Pollard was the thorn in Lindsay Ward's side until the yellow Minari took a liking to going straight on at the chicane finishing seventh behind Giovanni's wailing Fiat 128 and the Lancia Thema. These took care of classes A and B. Next up was John Griffith's Monzasport Alfa 156 who finished first in class D four seconds and four places ahead of second Spot Marc Connell. After the demise of Keith Fawdington's De Tomaso which pulled off opposite the pits there were no finishers in class C whilst Neil Smith managed to be the last of the unlapped runners finishing thirteenth overall and once again taking class E despite some tyre locking moments at the chicane. Second in class E was in dispute until the line, Roger Donnan scraping home with Ian Brookfield virtually alongside. Thanks you to all for making the effort, (by Peter Collins)
You can also read Trevor Nicosia's driver's eye view of the race by clicking HERE.
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