As the long hot summer continues the super and production saloons rolled into Brands Hatch for their second meeting at this circuit this year. A truly varied and eclectic mix of cars assembled for qualifying on Sunday morning.
The session turned out to be quite a surprise as many of the fancied runners had various maladies. Pre-race favourite Rod Birley had the gremlins strike his Ford Escort WRC again, as a really bad misfire restricted him to 16th place. Ricky Coomber missed the session in his rapid Honda, but qualified in a later group putting him right at the back. Poor Jon Mann (Ford Mustang V8) never even got that far, as an issue at scrutineering took too much time to rectify, so he became a spectator. Through all this the production saloons benefitted, with Matt Rowling putting his Honda Civic on pole position. Neal Gardiner planted his similar Honda alongside. Row two contained Gary Barlow (Honda Integra) who turned out to be the quickest super saloon (after a class reclassification). Then came Sam Haywood in his Renault Megane. Row three contained “team mates” Adrian Matthews (Volvo C30) and Terry Waller (Ford Fiesta). Lee Cleugh lined up 7th in his re-liveried Audi TT (initially the quickest super saloon) with newcomer William Lynch 8th in his BMW Mini Cooper S. The top ten was completed by Robyn Woodger in his striking Rover SDI V8, with the diminutive Mini Clubman of Bill Richards alongside.
Christopher-Jon Bushell placed his Honda Civic 11th, followed by Dominic Ryan (Ford Fiesta). Then came Peter Thurston in his mighty Holden Commodore, joined by Colin Claxton in his “new” Ford Escort Mk.1 which is normally aspirated (his other one is turbo charged). Row 8 saw the strange sight of Ian Seale (Ford Fiesta) with Birley alongside. Rick Skelsey was next up, but still suffering over heating issues. Jessica Whitehead (Renault Clio) was 18th flanked by debutant Phil Bennett (BMW E90), who unfortunately terminated qualifying when an oil pipe broke and lubricated the circuit. The rest were led by the shared Pete Daniels/Michael Hartley (Fiesta), Nick Proudlock (Subaru, with turbo pipe issues), Kenny Hunt (VW Golf) and Steve Dann who had a small fire with his VW Polo.
Race one saw a cracking start by Gardiner to head the trio of Hondas at the end of lap one. As they gapped Haywood, attention focused on the progress of Birley and Coomber. Lap two saw Birley in 9th and Coomber in 12th. On lap four Rowling braved it out at Paddock Bend to take the lead, as Barlow now challenged Gardiner. Haywood had Waller and Matthews snapping at his heels, until a certain black Escort appeared on the scene. By lap 7 Rod was fourth, just as Barlow snatched second place going into Graham Hill bend. Coomber was 5th by lap ten and was the quickest car, as Birley had another misfire to contend with. Meanwhile Cleugh and Woodger were having a good battle swapping places a couple of times. Both had Lynch not far behind, going well in the Toad motorsport Mini.
As the time ran down Birley and Coomber picked off Gardiner and reeled in Barlow. Lap 14 saw Birley snatch second, but it took another two laps for Coomber to find a way past. By now Rowling was still five seconds up the road, so Matt took a well-deserved win. Birley was first super saloon, chased by Coomber (who won class B). Barlow was 4th overall winning class C. Gardiner dropped back a bit in 5th (second in T2). Then came the battling trio of Haywood (winning T1), Waller and Matthews. Next up was Woodger, having his first race for well over a decade, chased hard by Cleugh. Lynch was only a couple of seconds further back in 11th, with Bushell a bit lonely in 12th. Bennett got the better of Seale (TP winner) and Thurston, as Hartley nearly caught the slowing Holden (which had fuel pump issues). Ryan, Whitehead and an ailing Claxton completed the finishers. The retirements included Richards, Dann, Proudlock, Skelsey and Hunt.
There was drama before the start of race two, as pole sitter Rowling could not get his Honda to start. Despite being given a bit of extra time it still refused to fire up, so Matt was confined to spectator. Missing were Coomber (after an incident in another race), Dann, Proudlock, Ryan, Thurston and Claxton.
Birley just about led at the end of lap one, but Barlow was sticking surprisingly close to the Escort. There still seemed to be an issue with the leaders car, although the misfire had gone (attributed to a broken spark plug electrode). Lap two and the Integra driver took the lead, with Gardiner’s Civic following through as well. It later transpired that the power steering belt had come off the Escort. As Birley dropped back the two Hondas consolidated their lead. Waller was leading the next group, with Haywood , Matthews and Lynch in close pursuit. Charging up through the field was Richards in the little blue Mini. He soon caught this group to make it a five car train. Woodger had slowed coming up to the start, which allowed Cleugh and Bennett to jump through, although Phil had a quick spin at Graham Hill bend which dampened his progress.
Woodger soon got back into his stride and started picking his way back up to challenge Cleugh again. At the same time Birley steadied the gap to the leaders at around four seconds, then started to close back in again. Lap 9 saw him re-pass Gardiner and set off after Barlow, who was still three seconds up the road. The gap shrunk quite quickly, as Rod led going into lap 12. To be fair Garry hung on well, taking a hard earned second place. Gardiner completed the podium, in a good day for the production cars. Richards snatched fourth overall on the last lap, confining Waller to fifth, then came Woodger. Haywood, Matthews and Cleugh were separated by just over a second, as Bushell got the better of Lynch (who won the TS class). Seale took another TP win, followed by Hunt, Bennett and Whitehead. The only non-finisher was Daniels.
Next up is the 300 circuit at Snetterton on September 19th, when all three series will be competing.
See less