CLASSIC CLUBMANS CHAMPIONSHIP 2006
Peter Harper made up for the disappointment of retiring in the opening round, when he bagged double race wins in rounds two and three at Brands Hatch. The unpredictable British weather gave competitors a busy time, with dry qualifying, but a wet race on Saturday, before summer arrived overnight to give an all dry Sunday.
A 23 car line up graced the Kent circuit, although only 22 made it through qualifying, after Andrew Marler inflicted a fair degree of damage to his formerly immaculate Diamond R6 during pre-race testing. Marler had been the innocent victim, going off to miss the spinning Clubmans Cup car of Alex Osborne, hitting the barrier in the process, shaken but otherwise uninjured.
Antony Denham’s Doris qualified on pole ahead of Steve Campbell’s Raffo, while the Mallock’s of Peter Harper and Mike Hickson filled the second row. Steve Chaplin (Phantom) and Ray Harper (Mallock) were next up, before Barry Webb’s Mallock, the fastest of the class B runners. Reigning champion Mark Charteris shared the fourth row with Webb, ahead of the class A cars of Bob Crozier (Mallock) and Gavin Childs (Gryphon).
Jared Wood’s Batten was alone again in the 1300 class but a split oil coiler left him sidelined come race time, along with Reg Powell whose Gryphon had brake problems.
The race was increased from the planned 14 laps to 17 to meet championship regulations.
An excessively slow second warming up lap led to a number of near misses and Charteris was the biggest sufferer, after going off down Graham Hill, tearing off his nosecone and bending the rear wing. Although he took the start he was an early retirement.
Hickson made a rocket-like start to lead from row two, but was then dumped to fourth as the field descended Graham Hill for the first time. Although Harper had the lead it all counted for nothing, when red flags halted things with Robert Beazer’s Mallock stuck precariously at the foot of Paddock Hill Bend.
Harper made a much better start in the 10 lap re-run, and was never headed. Both Campbell and Denham were within a second of the victor at the flag, Campbell deservedly winning the driver of the Day award.
Ray Harper ran third in the early stages, but his down on power spare engine proved no match for its rivals, and he slipped to sixth behind Chaplin and Hickson, but well clear of Peter Carter (Phantom) and Graham Onion (Mallock)
Webb and Clive Wood staged a fascinating class B scrap, trading places until Onion split them. Wood then had a clear run on Webb and decided that points rather than heroics were the order of the day. All 18 cars that made the restart took the flag.
Sunday’s grid was formed from the finishing order of Saturday’s race, but for Campbell it was all over within yards, when a driveshaft broke. He at least made the start unlike Ray Harper who had a diff failure on the warm up lap.
Peter Harper upheld the family honour once more, even having the luxury of slackening his pace in the later laps. Hickson had led the chasers, but went off at Paddock midrace. “My fault, I just lost it,” he explained. His demise left Chaplin and Denham to fill the other podium positions.
Webb and Wood repeated their class B and were joined this time by Charteris, until he ran wide exiting Graham Hill Bend and spun across the grass. Webb looked to have things sewn up until Wood sneaked by on the last lap. Not to be outdone Webb retaliated through Clearways and got through the narrowest of gaps to snatch back the class victory spoils.
From the 22 starters 17 made it to the flag, the retirements including Jared Wood whose car lasted two laps to complete a wretched weekend for the Ruislip driver.Next round Snetterton 25 June 2006
Issued by Peter Scherer for the Clubmans Register May 16th 2005. Contact 01332 362577/07802 853244 or peter@scher.freeserve.co.uk