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The track at Croix is very tight with no obvious fast corners - a real point and squirt circuit, a very tight hairpin leading onto the main straight, at the end of that a tight 180 degree
bend leading onto two more 180 degree bends before a short straight into a 90 right and then the only flowing bend, a 45 left before a short drag back to the hairpin. Testing on Friday was a gloriously hot day with
temperatures in the 80s. Saturday morning arrived with a surprise - the glorious weather conditions of Friday had been replaced with cold, dull weather, grey skies and a feel that it could rain any time. Worse than
that, it had been doing so all night long and so the track started out very wet. Just as well we were some way down the practice times, by the time we got on track, the track surface was essentially dry. The track
still seemed very slippery and felt much slower than on Friday.
Come race time and the track was dry, the threatened rain had not materialised. Some drivers were already regaling tales of woe - Neil Smith reckoned his all-conquering Uno would not last
the weekend, an alternator bolt had dropped out during practice (and left a nice star crack on Trevor Nicosia's windscreen) and the exhaust manifold was causing concern. Jackie Osborne had blown the Alfa 156's head
gasket in testing on Friday but sterling overnight work from her team had seen the car repaired. But as a contingency plan, the Alfa 33 she drove last year had been brought over to France over night. Once it seemed
it wouldn't be needed, her partner Graham took it out in the Alfa series race only for the engine to let go.
The race started well, a long drag down the straight followed by all cars braking heavily for the second gear corner that followed. John Griffiths was forced into an interesting line round
this first corner, taking to the grass on the inside. Russ Yates had made the best start and was scything through the pack in a manner normally associated with Graham's Stratos, which itself seemed to be having
trouble getting past the traffic. On the second lap the Connell's Alfa 33 pulled off the track just before the hairpin, an early sign that this weekend was going to be one of attrition. After a couple of laps Russ
had made it to the front - an outright win was on the cards. This became more likely when on lap 5 the Stratos pulled out with a broken transfer shaft. But then disaster - the marshals were hanging out the black and
orange flag with a number 14 below calling in race leader Russ because his bonnet was flapping. This was secured and Russ was back out on track, he certainly had the red mist big time as he went off at the end of
the straight and somehow made it through the gravel and back on track, with just a little damage to his front splitter. Later Jackie Osborne's Alfa 156 pulled over, but not before dumping oil everywhere.
Neil Smith was out front and just lapped Trevor Nicosia as the chequered flag came out, scoring a fine outright race win. John Griffiths took a solid second, Graham Warner was very close in
3rd and Russ Yates recovered for fourth. In class B both Trevor and Russ played their jokers, so 64 points to Russ and 48 to Trevor.
The second race was on the Sunday morning - bright and sunny weather translated into dullness with imminent rain and as the cars gathered in the assembly area it started to rain, albeit
lightly. It was still raining on the rolling lap, but then it just stopped and the track never did get wet. A newcomer in our race was Sam Laird in an Alfa 75. He had flown from Scotland to take part in the Alfa
series race but his car broke in practice. Now repaired, he figured he would enter in Class A. Graham Scott's team had managed to repair the Stratos and the team had also put a replacement engine in the Alfa 33 -
but to no avail, there wasn't enough time for the job to be completed. So no Jackie and no Ian Connell in this race.
A cleaner start this time meant everyone got round the first bend, Russ found himself boxed in and John Griffiths almost didn't get away to the point that he was last exiting the first bend.
On the second lap three cars entered the top hairpin together with predictable results. John, Russ and Sam exited the hairpin welded together, the obvious damage was Sam's purple door mirror laying in the middle of
the track, not so obvious was that John's suspension was bent. He limped on in obvious distress to collect points some points and consider his subsequent discussion with Sam. A few laps later Neil Smith slowed, Neil
has registered 17 consecutive class E wins, he obviously had a problem. His exhaust was hanging off and he was also limping round to gain some points for a finish. He finished 3rd in class but those 16 valuable
points could prove very important at the end of the year. The race ended with a leisurely class win for John Griffiths, a well deserved win in class E for Graham Warner, another clean sweep for Russ Yates in class B
with Graham Scott the outright race winner followed by Sam Laird.
( This report was largely cribbed from Trevor Nicosia's
excellent website at www.nyssaracing.com ).
Trevor's full driver's eye view of the race can be read HERE.
Full results are below.
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