Lydden May 6th

Torrential rain greeted most competitors when they got out of bed on Bank Holiday Monday. Lydden circuit was wet for first practice and slowly dried out so that for final runs the startline was the only wet part of the track. Jonathan Dalby's 309 GTi was beaten into second place in class A2 by a 405 Mi16. David Balderson was beaten into last place in A3 by a host of much more powerful and modern machinery. In class B4 Mike Edwards took a good win in his Mini with Ross Saville coming 3rd in another Mini. Chris Fulke-Greville took class B5 with Andy Webber trailing in last place - what a difference a week makes! Jon Miles took one look at the weather and used his Evo VI instead of the RS2000 that he had been polishing the day before. He won B6 by a comfortable margin and was 6th fastest overall. Trevor Jones was third in this class, just pipping reigning champion Martyn Ellis. Ian Crocker came second in class C8. Sam Colins had to run his ageing Golf in D10 after forgetting to bring his insurance documents - needless to say everyone else was on slicks and he came last!

Hethel May 19

A very early start for most 7Oaks members saw light drizzle on the way to the Lotus Cars Test Track. However this had stopped by 7am and the rest of the day was gloriously sunny. The track was dry all day. This is a very technical venue and a quick look down the results sheet will bear this out. Many people who are normally quick struggle at this event and instead of the times slowly getting quicker as you move up through the classes they tend to be all over the place. Ross Saville came 2nd in class 4 despite having to add about as much oil to his car as most people add petrol! Class 5 was won by Jon Miles in his RS2000. Chris Fulke-Greville posted a much faster time on his last run but just clipped a cone and had 5 seconds added to his time for second place. In a big class 6 Martyn Ellis posted an identical time to an Impreza but took the win based on their slower times. Neil Armstrong was in 3rd spot with Trevor Jones 4th. Ian Crocker was the highest placed MM contender in a large class 8, coming home 5th out of 13. Nigel Craig won class 10. Jon Miles' wife brought up his new toy to try and speed up the running-in process - a Mitsubishi Evo VII Extremas which should be very competitive in class 6. As I write this the forecast for the next round at North Weald is thunder and lightning - is that place cursed or what ?

North Weald May 26

The weathermen were not far wrong unfortunately! Heavy black clouds kept passing overhead bringing fierce rain that would disappear as rapidly as it started. This meant that, apart from one practice, all runs were wet. Conditions were at their best for first timed runs for most people and this was where most of the quickest times came from. On a day where even the lowest powered cars could get wheelspin most of the way down the straight to the roundabout the 4 wheel drive brigade had a field day. Ross Saville won a big class 4 to score 17 points. Chris Fulke Greville won class 5. In class 6 the action was very close (if you had 4 wheel drive!) with Neil Armstrong winning, and holding FTD until the dying moments of the event when Ali Serpen finally got his act together and hustled his 6R4 into top spot. In fact class 6 had 5 cars in the overall top 10. Martyn Ellis had a day to forget, picking up a mere 5 points in class 6. Andy Davies won class 9 in his Mini. Colin Billings was runner up in class 10 with a very quick time in his rally Golf GTi. Jon Miles is obviously itching to use that new Evo VII of his as he was pleading to be allowed to use it as a 'course-closing car'!

Ian Crocker