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A slippery track welcomed the Le Mans Auto Italia contenders on their annual visit to the daunting Indy circuit at Brands Hatch.
Graham Scott secured pole with a time of 53.48 secs with some determined driving leaving him 0.5 secs clear of rival Julian Birley. 'It wasn't easy though,' said Graham, 'The car is understeering badly.' Returnee
Drummond Bone with his Maserati Barchetta refettled over the winter was finding the same problem, especially at Clearways where it was 'terminal'. Drummond was fourth overall split from the fastest two by an on-form
Mike Watson who qualified his Alfa 33 within a second of Julian. Fifth overall was newcomer Andy Neate in the Stratos Evoluzione making its debut in Le Mans Auto Italia although it was used once in anger at the end
of last year. His time was set in only four laps of running before the rear suspension collapsed. Keith Fawdington was out again in Class C with his Pantera perhaps not quite so well suited to the twisty Kent
circuit as the open space of Snetterton whereas Neil Smith was pleased with his fastest time in Class E and 9th overall despite the Uno proving deceptively quick to the marshals. Richard Connell seems to be on a roll and snatched Class D pole from Andy Thompson by 0.4 secs. Andy was hampered by tyres that disintegrated during the session. In the race to be the fastest Alfa 156, Jackie Osborne on the second outing in her new mount scraped home less than 0.2 secs faster than John Griffiths similar Class D machine.
As the lights went green Graham Scott made a dash for the front and narrowly missed a multiple coming together at Paddock. This
seemed to be a chain reaction involving Mike Watson, John Griffiths, Giles Groombridge and Mark Baker taking to the infield grass. Three of them retired on the spot whilst Mike soldiered on for three laps billowing
smoke before he was black flagged and did a U turn into the pit lane. Through all of this Graham and Julian forged their way ahead with Graham determinedly putting daylight between himself and his pursuers. Most
notable of whom was Andy Neate proving the speed of the Stratos Evo having passed Birley and was beginning to catch the leader. This all came to nought when his engine exploded spewing 50 metres of flame and started
a serious fire which caused yellow flags whilst the marshals dealt with the problem. It was later determined that Simon Griffiths had overtaken at this point and so he received a 6.5s penalty which dropped him to
7th in the final results, although he still took Class B.
So Graham took the win, Julian was second and Richard Connell was an impressive third and winner of Class D. Andy Thompson outbraked
himself at Druids, possibly on oil, and Mike Watson was forced to retire. Neil Smith took Class E and Keith Fawdington took his rumbly Pantera round to the finish in Class C. See you at Mallory. (By Peter Collins)
You can read Trevor Nicosia's driver's (spectator's ?!) eye view of the race HERE.
Full results are below.
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