An action packed weekend with classic cars, close racing and incidents galore entertained a huge crowd at Castle Combe Circuit’s Diamond Anniversary meeting.
A frightening incident when the karts of Malcolm Clarke and Louis Wall, of Ashton Keynes, collided on the exit was one of a number of race stopping accidents, thankfully none of them resulting in serious injury.
The Historic Anniversary Trophy marked 60 years since the former wartime air training ground first held a race meeting in July 1950.
Combe legend Vince Woodman put his Cologne Capri on pole by almost three seconds, despite a small collision with an Austin Healey in qualifying.
A jumped start put the septuagenarian on his back foot however, allowing the Ginetta G16 of Graeme Dodd to take the lead and the win.
The Capri was therefore placed third with Frampton Cotterell’s George Douglas fifth in his Ginetta behind the Healey of Dave Smithies.
The 40-minute Guards Trophy GT race saw Swindon’s Ed Lovett lead from pole in his beautiful Chevron B8 only to lose out after his compulsory pit stop.
A couple of spins allowed Andy Newall in the similar car to take victory by seven seconds, with another B8, that of Steve Hodges, in third.
Trowbridge’s Andrew Shanley took his fourth consecutive pole and win in the first of two races for the circuit’s Sports and GT championship.
A scintillating start gave him a strong enough lead to defend easily from Darcy Smith in the Radical PR6, though an oil leak from his fine handling Radical Prosport proved to be more serious than it looked, preventing Shanley starting race two on Sunday.
Josh Fisher had an easy victory in race two.
Two slow starts from reigning champion Simon Tilling saw him drop his Radical SR3 RS to 12th in race one, fighting back to take fourth, with a podium place in race two, despite a gearbox issue which contributed to his slow getaway.
Trowbridge’s Mark Funnell overcame a grass cutting moment in race one after avoiding a coming together with Norman Lackford’s Radical going on to win class B again.
Race two saw another easy class victory and sixth overall in his road-going Lotus Exige after dicing as high as fourth with the faster A class cars. Sole A class entry Brian Cox had an easy run to victory in his Mitsubishi Evo for the majority of the circuit’s first Saloon Car championship race until a slow starting Kevin Bird managed to get his SEAT Leon in range in the last couple of laps. Cox’s massive car advantage was enough to allow him to finish almost two seconds clear.
With only fourth gear, Yatton Keynell’s Jason Cooper did brilliantly to run second for most of the race, having qualified his C class Fiesta there and only giving up his place to Bird on lap ten.
Race two saw a similar result in the first two places with Cooper running second for the first seven laps until an amazing spin-off at Folly while defending from Bird.
Cooper kept his foot on the power, staying on the grass for long enough to build back up to speed, slotting back into the race and ending up fourth.
In the Castle Combe Formula Ford 1600 championship Marcus Allen extended his championship lead after Bratton’s Ben Norton and Felix Fisher from Bridgwater collided at Bobbies.
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