Abingdon-June 8
This popular event features two sprints in one day and a field of 150 cars including 25 for the Cooper Challenge. The 'Abingdon' course is a very fast sweeping course while the 'Bentley' course is a series of 90 degree bends and hairpins with short straights in between. The field is split in 2 and each half tackles one course in the morning and the other in the afternoon. Trophies are decided on aggregate score. Dick Athow was the only contender in class 4, taking second place in the lovely Renault Alpine. Chris Fulke-Greville won class 5 from Andy Webber. In class 6 Neil Armstrong had a big off in practice, running over the fire extinguishers at the finish line and doing a fair bit of damage to the drivers side of his car. However Ian Gibson assured me that this was nothing for an Evo VI (!) which are used to hitting trees in the forests and Neil carried on to take the big class and score 22 points. Keith Crocker was the highest placed 2WD car in that class getting 4th place. Ian Crocker won class 8, finally getting revenge on a certain Exige! Class 12 saw the battle of the 6R4s, series sponsor Rik Lee pitting his 700HP bi-turbo against the 480HP ex-works car of Ali Serpen. In the morning, on the Bentley course, Ali was 0.6 seconds ahead. With lots of low speed corners this course is difficult for turbo cars because of the time taken to spool up the turbos leaving the corners. However in the afternoon Rik's massive horsepower, and huge gonads, took him to a 1.1 second margin for the class win. Ali was pushed down to 3rd spot by Gino Cuomo. Neil's accident with the extinguishers was bettered by a Metro driver who took out a marshal at the same part of the track. Despite a heavy dent by the A pillar, and the marshal’s head breaking the windscreen, he was fortunately OK save for a broken wrist and was due to help out again the following day for the rally!
Goodwood June 29
The weather was beautiful for BARC's Goodwood. A warm track, fairly cool air and little wind had many people hoping for a personal best. However this was not to be. Early in practice somebody blew their engine and left a 400m oil slick right on the racing lane all the way from Fordwater to St Marys. There was so much oil that all of the circuit's cement was used up, then all of BARC's, and then a trip to a local builders was necessary. Then, just before lunch another car lost all its oil on the approach to, and all through, Woodcote. At lunchtime an intrepid band of 7Oaks members actually walked the course - something not many people can have done down there. Rumour has it that Jim Giddings' dog would not be getting a walk that night! As a result of all this there was only time for one timed run and most people did not produce anything like their best times. Ross Saville and Darren Russell both used their road cars in class 2 after problems with their competition cars. Ross took 3rd in his MR2 while Darren had a heavy off in his ZX after spinning at the chicane on his first timed run. Chris Fulke Greville won class 5 with Andy Webber second. Jon Miles won class 6 in his Evo VII Extreme S and scored a massive 27 points. Neil Armstrong was second in his antiquated Evo VI... Only joking Neil! Graham Pryme was another Sevenoaks member to crash, making a return to sprinting in his lovely Matra after a long absence. The Jones' had a turbo boost problem which left them floundering near the bottom of the class. Ian Crocker was 3rd in class 8 which seems to be getting quite big these days. Rik Lee
Ian Crocker
| Graham Pryme’s immaculate Matra….not so immaculate after Goodwood bites back |
After 7 events I believe the new scoring system is working well. People who win a big class get 15-20 points depending on class size, those who win a small class or come around the middle of a big class will score in the low double figures, while anybody who scores less than 10 knows they had a bad day regardless of class size. The scores are closer than in previous years and the Championship could go to anybody at this stage.
MARKETING MACHINE CHAMPIONSHIP TOP 20 OVERALL POSITIONS
| Overall Positions | ||||||||||
| Pos | Name | B | Rd 1 | Rd 2 | Rd 3 | Rd 4 | Rd5 | Rd6 | Rd7 | Total |
| Lydden | W'combe | Lydden | Hethel | N Wld | Abingdon | Gwood | ||||
| 1 | Neil Armstrong | 21 | 17 | 18 | 22 | 25 | 103 | |||
| 2 | Chris Fulke Greville | 13 | 14 | 12 | 13 | 15 | 15 | 14 | 96 | |
| 3 | Jon Miles | 16 | 18 | 15 | 11 | 27 | 87 | |||
| 4 | Trevor Jones | 13 | 11 | 14 | 15 | 14 | 9 | 8 | 84 | |
| 4 | Martyn Ellis | 15 | 12 | 21 | 5 | 12 | 19 | 84 | ||
| 6 | Ian Crocker | 14 | 11 | 14 | 11 | 18 | 15 | 83 | ||
| 7 | Andy Webber | 7 | 18 | 8 | 11 | 9 | 13 | 12 | 78 | |
| 8 | Denise Jones | 9 | 9 | 10 | 13 | 12 | 8 | 7 | 68 | |
| 8 | Keith Crocker | 17 | 6 | 9 | 6 | 16 | 14 | 68 | ||
| 10 | Ross Saville | 7 | 11 | 11 | 17 | 11 | 57 | |||
| 11 | Rik Lee | 7 | 8 | 14 | 16 | 45 | ||||
| 12 | Dick Athow | 7 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 43 | |||
| 13 | Stephen Craig | 9 | 10 | 9 | 10 | 38 | ||||
| 13 | Jim Giddings | 7 | 11 | 8 | 12 | 38 | ||||
| 15 | Darren Russell | 7 | 9 | 7 | 8 | 2 | 33 | |||
| 16 | Mike Edwards | 13 | 15 | 28 | ||||||
| 16 | Nigel Craig | 13 | 15 | 28 | ||||||
| 16 | Ali Serpen | 18 | 10 | 28 | ||||||
| 19 | Jonathan Dalby | 10 | 11 | 21 | ||||||
| 20 | David Balderson | 5 | 5 | 9 | 19 | |||||
| Darren Russell’s ZX looking decidedly second hand…..however those flowers would look nice displayed in the Battured Cup!! | Don’t cry for me………..!
Is that oil, water or Darren’s tears! He’d only bought the car about 4 weeks before. |