FUELFORCE CLASSIC CLUBMANS CHAMPIONSHIP 2004
Harpers
Double Delight!
After
39 years of waiting for his first
win, Ian Mitchell led home a thrilling three car scrap in B-Sport, to take his 2nd.
win on the trot and close up proceedings at the top of the championship table.
Malcolm
Jackson, Steve Chaplin and Gavin Childs were missing for the first time this
year. Gavin had made the supreme sacrifice and offered his car to David,
following the demise of DC’s Phantom at Castle Combe.
Barry
Webb had offered his car to Ollie Jepson, but sadly, Ollie had an argument with
the barrier at Coram during Saturday testing and was a non-starter. Another
non-starter after testing, was Morgan Burgess. His first ever run in his car in
A-Sport trim was brought to a premature end with Clutch Bearing failure.
Qualifying
Well,
qualifying certainly got off to a fiery start! Ex Royal Navy Commander, Paul
Morris having just purchased the ex-Phil O’Halloran Mallock, got as far as
Riches on his out lap. The petrol pipe came off the carb and smoke from the
resultant fire was visible all around the circuit. Paul certainly passed the
evacuation test. He reckoned he was out of the car in less than a second, having
failed to remove the fire extinguisher pin before he went out! Luckily the
marshals were very sharp and they had the fire under control before it destroyed
the car.
This
caused the session to be stopped and restarted, but it certainly didn’t slow
Pete Harper down. He very quickly
got into the groove, recording a time of 1 min. 12.3 secs, well under the lap
record and some 2.5 seconds faster than 2nd. place man. And this was
with a misfire!
Mike
Hickson joined Pete on the front row, he and Ray Harper in the 1 min. 14.8 sec.
bracket. Both
drivers slower than on previous visits and neither knew why (That’s a
worry!). Next up, recording his best ever grid position, was Anthony
Denham in
Robin
Booth, making a rare trip south, joined him on the row, both logging times in
the 1 min.16’s. Row 5 saw the last of the A-Sports, with Graham Onion
and Reg Powell. Reg’s session was aborted, when the radiator cap came loose,
throwing boiling water straight at the driver! Dave Facer took the B-Sport
pole, but with a time some 1.2 secs slower than in June. Dave said the
car just hadn’t got the same edge that it had at that meeting, but he just
can’t put his finger on it. Jared Wood took the F1300 pole and was
alongside Dave on row 6. This in spite of a spin at the Esses. Ian
Mitchell was on the inside of row 7. Alongside him was Mark Charteris in only
his third outing, Mark having knocked 3 seconds off his previous best. It
certainly won’t be long before Mark is right on the pace. Finally on row
8, we had Alan Davenport and Steve Clamp. Alan’s exhaust broke within three
laps, severely limiting his session. Steve’s continuing engine maladies
limiting him to just one lap.
No
hint of the expected rain, so it was dry and sunny as the cars lined up for the
race. The lights went out and the field all made it cleanly onto the Rivett
Straight, After a storming start, Mike Hickson leading from Pete and Ray. The
front of the field made it through the Esses,
but halfway down the field, a recovering Reg Powell ran into the back of
Jared Wood under braking, blocking the track and bringing out the red flags.
Neither
car were in a fit state to continue, so we were down to 14 cars for the restart.
Unfortunately, Mike Hickson’s car failed to fire up immediately, so as the
field streamed away on it’s 2nd. green flag lap, he was push
started by the marshals. He then overtook the field on the green flag lap, to
take up his original grid position. However, the officials were distinctly
unhappy with this, so he was held back whilst the field took yet another green
flag lap and he was instructed to remain at the rear of the grid. Sadly, this
was just one too many green flag laps for Graham Onion, as his Diff failed
leaving the line.
Once
again the lights went out and the grid got away cleanly. Pete Harper was the big
winner, with a much better start. Dave Facer was the big loser, having taken a
comfortable class lead with the first start, he was held up by Mike Hickson
charging through from the back, allowing Ian Mitchell to grab a comfortable
class lead.
Robin
Booth got as far as the back straight, before his ignition failed and he rolled
to a stop, posting the first official race retirement.
At
the end of the first lap, it was Pete Harper with a comfortable lead and pulling
away. The battle for second however was much closer, with Ray Harper and Mike
Hickson battling mightily, followed by Anthony Denham, DC and Darren Green.
Equally frenetic was the three way battle for B-Class. Ian Mitchell was leading,
but with Dave right on his tail and Mark Charteris keeping them both honest.
Anthony
Denham dropped from the battle for second on lap 4 with suspected head gasket
failure (again?). There was no let up in the rest of the scrapping though
however, as the race settled down into three groups. At the front, Pete was in a
class of his own, opening out his lead at a rate of 2 seconds per lap.
The second group was five battling A-Sports, nose to tail for the whole
race. The third group was then the B-Sport class battle, some way back, but no
less fraught.
Having
lost one of the two F1300 cars at the start, all Steve Clamp in the other car
had to do, was finish to pick up the class honours. He was unable to get his car
to run cleanly however, so he decide to pit and come out again for the final two
laps. Alan Davenport in the final B-sport car was also in trouble, so he adopted
the same tactic.
So,
at the end of the shortened race, it was Pete Harper by 16 seconds. Brother Ray
held off Mike Hickson for second, closely followed by Darren Green, David Childs
and Geoff Cogan, this bunch covered by 2 seconds.
40
seconds further back, Ian Mitchell took the flag for the B-Class win, just ahead
of Dave Facer and Mark Charteris. These three covered by 0.8 secs.
The
final finishers were the rejoining Alan Davenport and Steve Clamp, Steve tactics
worked and he was credited with the F1300 class win.
Look
forward to seeing you all for the long weekend on the Welsh Riviera. Let’s
hope for more cars and a lot less carnage than last year!!
Lots
of love XXX
Sue
Facer
Aka
the Demonic Perm.
Harper's
Snetterton double
Peter
Harper completed a Snetterton double in round seven of the Fuelforce Classic
Clubmans Championship at the
In
qualifying Harper put his Mallock Mk20B on pole position by over two seconds as
he prepared to repeat his Snetterton June victory. Second fastest went to Mike
Hickson's similar car while Ray Harper's Phantom P79 was third. Elsewhere, Geoff
Cogan continued his welcome series return in his Gryphon C73 and qualified just
behind David Childs, who was racing his son's C73/75.
Dave
Facer (Mallock Mk18BW) topped class B from Ian Mitchell (IM MK1) and newcomer
Mark Charteris (Mallock Mk20B) while Jared Wood headed class D in his Batten
Mk1.
Peter
Harper underlined his Snetterton speed by charging to victory in the re-started
race. Over the course of eight laps he pulled out a decisive 15-second lead over
the rest of the class A pack.
In
a remarkable blanket finish, little more than two seconds covered the next five
cars as a great gaggle of Clubmans cars raced to the flag. Ray Harper made it a
family one-two by just beating Hickson, Darren Green (Mallock Mk19), Childs and
Cogan to the line in a spectacular climax.
The
Class B contest was even closer as Mitchell beat Facer to the line by less than
half a second. For Mitchell, it was an amazing second win in two weeks after
waiting 39 years for his first win! With Wood failing to finish, class D spoils
went to the DRAT F1300 of Stephen Clamp.
Result
- 8 laps:
1 Peter Harper (Mallock Mk20) 10m01.140s (93.51mph); 2 Ray Harper (Phantom P79)
10m16.833s; 3 Mike Hickson (Mallock Mk20B); 4 Darren Green (Mallock Mk19); 5
David Childs (Gryphon C73/75); 6 Geoff Cogan (Gryphon C73); 7 Ian Mitchell (IM
Mk1); 8 Dave Facer (Mallock Mk18BW); 9 Mark Charteris (Mallock Mk20B); 10 Alan
Davenport (Mallock Mk18). Class winners: Peter Harper; Mitchell; Stephen Clamp
(DRAT F1300). Fastest lap: Peter Harper 1m 14.030s (94.92mph).
Issued
by Paul Lawrence on behalf of the Clubmans Register
(tel 01952 510382)