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First LMA Euro Saloons Win for Simon Blanckley
Class Wins for Matt Hale, Richard Buckley and Simon Jackson
Stuart Jefcoate Takes Early Championship Lead
 After a long winter break, the LMA Euro Saloons 2006 season started at a cold and wet Snetterton. An engine blow up in testing
meant that defending champion Simon Taylor was unable to debut his new Class C Honda Civic, but newcomers Martin Byford and Matt Speakman (Renault Clio Cup), Ray Byford (Proton) and David
Roberts (Rover Tomcat) added to a grid of 19 cars, 9 of which were entered in Class A.
Qualifying
Qualifying took place just before lunch on a cold track with little grip, but at least it was
still dry at this point. At the head of the grid, Simon Blanckley (Honda Accord) took pole with a sub-LMA lap record time of 1:14.444 by a second from lap record holder Peter Challis (Nissan Primera)
. Three seconds back, Tony Soper (Alfa Romeo GTV6), John Hammersley (Vauxhall Cavalier) and Martin Byford (Renault Clio) were covered by 0.5 second with Derek Hale in his new for 2006 Honda Accord just
behind in 6th. And excellent performance saw Stuart Jefcoate (Porsche 911 Carrera 3) head Class C in 7th overall, Matt Hale (Vauxhall Vectra) heading the four Class B protagonists in 8th.
All was not plain sailing for the first race of the season. Richard Hawken's Nissan Primera was down in 13th
place with a misfire, Matt Speakman drove 3 slow laps in the Renault Clio which had vibration problems. More terminal were Paul Overton (Vauxhall Vectra) whose gearbox failure ended his day, and Tim Morgan-Barrett
(VW Golf Gti) had a driveshaft failure on the slowing down lap. Finally Simon Jackson was suffering from
brake problems and found his Vauxhall Nova had cracked a brake disc – a trip to Halfords in Norwich saved the day for him.
Race
 Conditions were vastly different by the end
of the afternoon and race time. Rain had been falling on and off all afternoon and left drivers in a quandary over tyre choice. Tony Soper made a late decision to run slicks as
did some of the production class drivers who ran their "dry" treaded tyres. Stuart Jefcoate elected to play his joker after a confident qualifying run, but just as the cars prepared to leave the assembly area, a
hailstorm started ensuring a very wet start to the race.
John Hammersley got the jump from the second row and headed the pack after the
first lap from Martin Byford. Jason Holmes (Rover Tomcat) was hanging on gamely and heading Class B while Tony Soper and Stuart Jefcoate were falling backwards through the pack very quickly. Martin Byford hit
the front on lap 2 and looked to be pulling away slowly from Peter Challis and Simon Blanckley, but Blanckley
hit the front on lap 7 where he remained to the end of the race. Byford had fallen behind Challis that same lap
but got back into second on lap 12 finishing 3 seconds adrift of Blanckley at the end, with Derek Hale having moved up to 3rd a further 5 seconds back.
Class B was won by Matt Hale, with David Roberts second in his first ever race. Richard Buckley won Class C closing right up on John Hammersley at the end. Further back, Trevor Nicosia (Lancia kappa) and Matt
Speakman (Renault Clio) battled for 10 laps, often side by side and Simon Jackson was rewarded for his trip to Norwich with the Class E win.
Overall:
Simon Blanckley (Honda Accord), 2nd Martin Byford (Renault Clio), 3rd Derek Hale (Honda Accord), 4th Richard Hawken (Nissan Primera), 5th Peter Challis (Nissan Primera), 6th John Hammersley (Vauxhall Cavalier)
Class Winners: Class A Blanckley, Class B Matt Hale, Class C Richard Buckley (Honda Integra), Class E Simon Jackson (Vauxhall Nova)
Fastest Lap: Blanckley 1:27.331 (80.46mph)
Next race: Croix-en-Ternois 29/30th April
Report by Trevor Nicosia, Car 10 ( www.nyssaracing.com )
Photos courtesy of Doug Woodward ( DouglasWoodward@aol.com )
Click here for more pictures from the Snetterton paddock
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