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This double header to round off the year began with so much promise, qualifying saw Graham Scott
plant his Stratos ahead of Julian Birley and Ted Reddick with all three of them below 1:20s. Unfortunately we were denied seeing what Nick Sismey could do with the Lahoma Alfa 33 due to mechanical problems. Next up
was Andy Thompson's Minari, two places ahead of Mark Pollard's similar car. Eighth overall was class D man Marc Connell whilst class C was headed by Ron Davidson with his 24 valve GTV. Charles Cozens was fastest in
class E but Neil Smith and Ian Brookfield were not far from him.
Race one was late on Saturday afternoon, the circuit was dry but the previous races had left
plenty of oil around most of the track. The rolling start was fast but ordered and the twenty three car grid was funnelled into Snettertons turn one. About fourteen came out. Red flags indicated trouble but no one
in the pits realised the extent until those lucky enough to avoid the holocaust reassembled on the grid. A most unfortunate chain of events had started with poor Marc Connell at the centre and he was battered by a
group including Peter Woodard's Alfa 33, Emma Karwaki's Sud, Graham Scott's Stratos. Side incidents occurred as drivers took avoiding action which saw Russ Yates planted in the back of Andy Thompson's Minari, the
Lahoma 33 of Nick Sismey with front end damage. Luckiest man was Ian Stapleton who was heading for trouble when a path just appeared in front of him and he emerged unscathed - he has some alarming video footage of
the events. Also in trouble was Julian Birley who had a broken propshaft and Alan Bates with a punctured oil line. The race was a restart and saw Ted Reddick ease through to record his first ever race win, followed
by Mark Pollard's Minari who just pipped Chris Snowdon for second place by 0.1s on the line. Ian Stapleton was fourth followed by Gary Lucas with his class D Alfa 156.
Race two saw several cars repaired - Julian Birley had replaced his prop, Alan Bates Strada was
back in action and Graham Scott had spent the night with a ten ton porta- power and had got the Stratos sufficiently patched, taped and welded to make the grid. The start was slower but this time Mark Pollard got
out of shape into turn one and was collected by Scott's Stratos. The Minari rejoined in last place and gave chase whilst the Stratos limped back with a wrecked rear tyre. It was Ted Reddick making the early running,
his Ferrari 355 clearing the traffic and putting a ten second gap between himself and Julian Birley. Julian seemed to have a second a lap advantage over Ted and was inexorably closing him down until the last lap,
when an electrical failure sidelined Ted's 355 and gifted the win to Julian. A delighted second was Chris Snowdon in his GTV6. Next up was Ian Stapleton with the 2 litre GTV followed by a recovering Mark Pollard.
Class C was won by Ron Davidson, Gary Lucas took class D whilst class E saw the early demise of pole man Charles Cozens and then an epic battle between Neil Smith and Ian Brookfield, which eventually went in Neil's
favour after Ian ran wide at the Russell chicane.
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