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Intro
This weekends race coincided with two other major events on the calendar, firstly it was Easter weekend, with round 3 of this championship being held on Easter Monday. The second major event of the weekend, for motor racing fans at least anyway, was the British Grand Prix at Silverstone. This years British GP will be remembered not so much for the racing but the rain and the mud! No such problems like that here at Snetterton on a sunny bank holiday Monday, with many people leaving the circuit with a suntan!
A glance of the championship table at the foot of the page, reveals that Julie Clark's two straight wins have yielded her with maximum points thus so far! Obviously Julie will have come to Snetterton looking to make it three wins in a row. Julie though can expect fierce competition from drivers like Peter St Barbe, Lorraine Clark, Gary Smith, Jim Baynam, all who are just as keen to win! There are two MGFs entered for the race, and are proving to be quite controversial. The MGFs have yet to win a race and close examination of the lap times shows that they are not that much (if at all) faster than say the quickest of the MG Midgets. The Class A cars went out onto the circuit for qualifying on time (10.00am) with conditions absolutely perfect, with the air temperature relatively cool, and the track perfectly dry.
Qualifying/Practice - Class A
The qualifying session for Class A was reasonably uneventful apart from Adrian
Olssen, in the Red MGF, had to pull off the circuit with smoke pouring from the engine bay.
The session was stopped as marshals got a chance to play with their extinguishers.
One competitor likened all the smoke from the rear of the MGF to a display by the Red Arrows!
The problem turned out to be oil on the exhaust system. The qualifying session was restarted after Olsson car was made safe, with just a couple laps left many people put their best laps in during this short, but furious final stint.
The times revealed that Darryl Davis was almost a second
ahead of Julie Clark, her car being the fastest of the Midgets and also a further full second ahead of the other MG Midgets
Third fastest was Lorraine Clark, who led an incredibly tightly packed set of times, with only
18 hundredths covering 3rd to 8th. There was an impressive debut drive by Paul Naish, who normally only drives in Class B in a Maestro. Paul was driving in the Dave Rees car from last season. In fifth spot it was Chris Pollard. The top MGB was that of Jim Baynam who was overall sixth fastest.
Class A Top Ten Qualifiers
1st Darryl Davis 1:31.67 @76.65mph
2nd Julie Clark 1:32.40 @76.05mph
3rd Lorraine Cark 1:33.40 @75.23mph
4th Paul Naish 1:33.43 @75.21mph
5th Chris Pollard 1:33.44 @75.20mph
6th Jim Baynam 1:33.52 @75.14mph
7th Ian McCormack 1:33.53 @75.13mph
8th Adrian Olsson 1:33.58 @75.09mph
9th Gary Smith 1:34.12 @74.66mph
10th Peter St.Barbe 1:34.22 @74.58mph
Previos Lap record held by Terry Farman MG Midget 1275cc 1:31.83 @76.52
Qualifying/Practice - Class B
A good session for the MG Maestros and the lone MG Montego of David Watkins. The cool air and dry, wind free conditions made for good numbers from everyone, though no one set any new records!
Class B Top Ten Qualifiers
1st David Mellor 1:31.81 @76.54mph
2nd Nick Evans 1:31.97 @76.40mph
3rd John Lane 1:32.02 @76.36mph
4th Nick Golhar 1:32.06 @76.33mph
5th Andy Campbell 1:32.09 @76.30mph
6th James Perry 1:32.29 @76.14mph
7th Ian Evans 1:32.52 @75.95mph
8th Paul Roberts 1:32.78 @75.74mph
9th Darryl Davis 1:32.84 @75.69mph
10th David Hill 1:33.16 @75.43mph
Race Class A
The A class cars were the second race of the afternoo, the weather was fine -
the track dry, though there were some distant dark clouds!
It was a frantic start when the lights went green. Julie Clark in the MG Midget managed to get the drop on the MGF of Darryl Davis off the line, and led into the first corner.
Start of the year award goes to Jim Baynam, who judged the revs and the timing to perfection, and fairly flew away. Ian McCormack followed through in his wake, and Chris Pollard slotted in behind this
pack, perhaps a little disappointed with his start, but hoping for a mistake on somebody else's part for a change!
This happened sooner that expected when Ian McCormack and Lorraine Clark made contact
McCormack came of quite lightly, being on the inside, and suffered only a
momentary (but significant) lift, whilst Lorraine Clark was not so lucky! she spun and rejoined the circuit last, place. As these two sorted themselves out Chris Pollard found space on the
inside on the drag up to the esses, and managed to squeeze past and sat in behind the now flying Jim Baynam.
As things settled down the leading quartet broke free of the pack, with Julie Clark continuing to
hold off Davis in the shocking pink MGF, Jim following closely, and Pollard glued to Baynams bumper. The gap grew steadily until the best part of the Revett straight separated the
leading four from fifth-placed McCormack, who was fighting a sterling battle with Adrian Olsson in the second MGF.
It was on lap 3 when Davis put move on Julie Clark, Baynam in third saw what was about to take place
and slipped streamed in behind Davis to deliver a double whammy on Clarks Midget, dropping her down to third. There after Julie stayed in touch, but didn't look like she was going to get past Jim, who was on a flyer - the fastest, he said afterwards, that he has ever gone around Snetterton.
The top three positions remained the same all the way to the flag
Meanwhile, LorraineClark who had spun earlier was made steady progress through the back
markers, gaining both points and places steadily.
After the last Snetterton race, Mick Hopkins had said then that he
would fit special widening devices to his car next time so that he could stop
people coming past. He was true to his word - the rear left hub nut let
go, and the wheel and halfshaft worked their way out of their axle, making
Mick the easy winner in the Widest Midget of the day award.
Also unlucky was Paul Naish, when a suspected over-rev excursion resulted in blown engine and retirement. An
unfortunate end to a very promising class A outing. (But he still had to race his Class B Car - The Maestro, later in the afternoon)
The lap times and average speed of the top three cars proved to be incredibly close.
Here I have shown each of their fastest laps during the race.
Fastest recorded lap by Darryl Davis MGF 1:32.91 75.63mph (on lap 6)
Fastest recorded lap by Jim Baynam MGB 1:33.09 75.48mph (on lap 7)
Fastest recorded lap by Julie Clark MG Midget 1:32.90 75.64mph (on lap 8)
Race Class B
The start of this race came to an abrupt end just seconds after it had started, this is how one of the drivers, Vince Hunt, described the start!
"The first corner was absolute amazing with one 'green car' facing the wrong way and cars passing 2 a breast either side of him.it was like watching the amazon river flow past a log! he was bump starting in reverse apparently to escape (understandably!)."
Its not exaclty clear as to who the 'green car' belonged to, but it could have been Paul Roberts? This is his version of the start " At the start I got a flyer and went from 8th to 6th - then at the 1st corner I got a tap from behind (you can hear it on the in car video we took)
then span - and was at one point (apparently) going backwards on two wheels
at 90mph !! with the rest of the field diving all around me - quite interesting viewing !"
What is clear though is that two cars collided heavily, and the race was immediatley red flagged (stopped)
The two main casulties were Ian Evans and Darren Winter, they did not make the re-start.
On the restart David Mellor on pole, along with Nick Evans, Nick Golhar and Andy Campbell all made good starts, and soon established a gap between themselves, and the next fastest men on the track John Lane and Darryl Davis.
In 8th and 9th place Paul Roberts and Doug Cole renewed their battle carried over from Mallory Park.
Roberts in The Netcom Maestro this time, unlike at Mallory managed to hold off Cole, as he battled to pass.
In the final laps of the race the front order changed little except when Andy Campbell passed Nick Evans at Coram Curve.
David Mellors win means that we now have had 3 different winners in as many races. Had this been a twelve lap race instead of ten, I think we would have seen Nick Golhar (no.12) as the winner, he was cetainly giving Mellor a hard time. He (Golhar) will now have to wait until the next round at Pembrey, in South Wales on May 6th & 7th
Non finishers included Simon Kendrick & Daniel Whittington who retired very early in the race (Lap2). Paul Naish, who had also driven in the Class A race, retired on Lap 4
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