Marshall stars at classic Combe raceday

Westbury’s Shane Marshall expected more of a battle in the circuit’s pair of Special GT championship races but mechanical problems prevented his opposition, in the form of Josh Fisher’s Juno, from appearing. Two easy victories came his way despite starting from the pit lane in race one, demonstrating a car/driver combination in a class of its own.

Taking a deserved result for the best of the rest in race one was Andrew Shanley from Trowbridge, his simple Radical Prosport more than a match for the Radical SR3 of Simon Tilling. Unfortunately, the normally bullet proof car retired from race two whilst Shanley was repeating his performance from Saturday.

Marking the beginning of a new era in class C for highly modified sports and saloon cars, Cheltenham’s Laurence Kilby took a tremendous race one victory after a wheel to wheel battle with Melksham’s Simon Norris. The pair were driving similar Mitsubishi Evos, Norris’s specially adapted to this championship, Kilby’s running in its specification for the circuit’s National Mobile Windscreens Saloon Car championship, apart from slick tyres. With superior power, Norris made a flying start, briefly challenging for third overall, but on lap nine Kilby had moved ahead only to be touched by Norris as the pair entered Camp. A superb save kept him in the race despite a heart stopping moment on the grass and by the penultimate lap Kilby was back ahead, taking a deserved victory. Race two looked to be a repeat for Kilby, with the ‘rat look’ Evo up to 4th overall before pulling off on lap two. His local rival, Norris, was boxed in at the start, but made use of his horsepower to take his first class victory.

Trowbridge’s Mark Funnell who has dominated class C almost since its inception was beaten into 3rd in race one and 2nd in race two, his road going Lotus Exige no match for the mighty horsepower of the Evos.

Nailsea’s Ted Williams, a circuit veteran, debuted his newly acquired Alfa Romeo Giulia Junior by taking class pole position in the COYS Top Hat Pre-66 saloon race, but retired on lap 6. At the front, the mighty American muscle cars, initially headed by ex British Touring Car driver, Patrick Watts in his Mustang, dominated the 45 minute race, only to lose out to the Ford Falcon of Leo Voyazides after the pit stops.

The 45 minute race for the Cloth Cap Pre 66 Gts finished as close as it could have done, with just 3 tenths of a second separating race winner Jamie Boot in the TVR Griffith and Chris Scragg in the Jaguar E Type. Boot had initially built a comprehensive lead, but a ‘safety car’ period put others back in contention, Scragg then leading until the penultimate lap. Just slightly out of touch was the less powerful Marcos 1800 GT of Steve Tandy.

Father and son, Westie and Ben Mitchell, from Cirencester shared the family’s Merlyn Formula Ford in two races on Sunday, both taking pole. Westie, already leading the HSCC Grandstand Motor Sports Historic Formula Ford championship, extended his points lead after a tremendous race long dice with the false starting Robert Wainwright, winning on the road with a decisive pass into Camp on the last lap. Ben, just 17 the previous week, was making his circuit racing debut in the HSCC Classic Racing Car championship, but inexperience dropped him to second in the race.

The National Mobile Windscreens Saloon Car Championship race may have been cut short by a lap but it was still a scintillating event, with action throughout. Out front the Evo’s of Gary Prebble and Barry Squibb swopped places for the lead, Prebble retiring after brake failure on lap 10. Laurence Kilby was the indirect cause of the race being stopped early, his Evo retiring from 3rd at Tower with an oil fire, a marshal inadvertently spraying the driver with extinguishant!

The biggest battle of the race though was for class C, with the 106’s of Bristol’s David Kift, Chippenham’s Will Di Claudio and Yate’s Nick Charles all evenly matched. Only Kift was left by the end though, Charles retiring with engine failure on lap 3 and Di Claudio with drive shaft failure on lap nine, having led Kift for a couple of laps.

Less than happy in class D, despite his win and a consolidation of his overall points lead, was Jason Cooper from Yatton Keynell, his Fiesta battle scarred after contact with the 106 of Bath’s Olly Lewis.

A fine class B victory went to Bridgwater’s Tony Dolley, somewhat bemused at the pace of his Peugeot 206, which took the honours from the SEAT Leon Cupra of Ditcheat’s Kevin Bird.

Despite having won all three of this year’s Castle Combe’s Formula Ford 1600 races, Bratton’s Ben Norton knew he faced a formidable task to add to his victories this weekend. Opposition in the circuit’s oldest championship was considerable, race one pole coming from young hotshoe, Felix Fisher from Bridgwater, the pair joined as one for the entirety of that race. It was the same situation in race two, but this time the pressure was too much for Norton, who spun to 3rd at the Esses, handing the win to Fisher.

The latest young sensation, Marcus Allen, in the ultra successful Swift SC92F of Kevin Mills Racing took a pair of thirds with mature drives despite his lack experience.

Andy Jones, from Castle Combe took a first in race one with his unique Ray, but an incident packed race two saw him drop to tenth.

Bradford on Avon’s David Vivian took two class B third places in his Swift SC92, often in the thick of a battle with Bradford on Avon’s Ed Moore, who had to be content with a pair of 5th places, despite changing his engine and many other parts over the course of the weekend.

The championship hopes of Saltford’s Steven Jensen evaporated somewhat after a difficult qualifying and plenty of dicing with Vivian and Moore only resulted in disappointing10th and 8th places.

Use this link to watch a video of Laurence Kilby's Evo engine bay fire in the saloon car race http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGzvsY3h9sI