CLASSIC CLUBMANS CHAMPIONSHIP 2008
Former Champion Mark Charteris suffered his first defeat of the season, when Clubmans veteran Malcolm Jackson claimed the victory laurels at Mallory Park.
There had been little to separate the pair during qualifying, Charteris claiming pole by 4/1000ths. John Harrison’s Mallock and Steve Chaplin’s Phantom were equally close on the second, all four covered by only 0.524secs.
Mike Evans and Mike Hickson shared row three, with Sam Lancaster and Robin Booth next up. Dave Facer outqualified Clive Wood to head the class B runners by 0.16secs, Ian Mitchell was a close third.
All 21 cars made it through qualifying, but defending champion Peter Harper was down in 12th having only completed one lap before his Mallock expired.
It was Charteris that made the best of the start, to head Jackson, Harrison, Chaplin, Harper and Evans. Harper had already made up seven places on the opening lap, and picked off Chaplin for fourth on the second.
As Jackson started to close in to challenge Charteris for the lead, Harrison responded to any threat from Harper and started to consolidate his hold on third. But Chaplin came back too and recovered his earlier lost place from Harper on lap five.
A lap later it was all change as Jackson had turned his marginal deficit into equally marginal lead. But Harrison benefited from the exchange too, with less than 05.secs covering all three. After one more lap of all three running nose to tail, Harrison snatched second only for Charteris to take it straight back.
Despite the intensity of the battle Jackson had to work hard to make his escape. Charteris closed again towards the end, but Jackson still had over a second in hand at the flag. Although Harrison was third on the road, jump start penalty dropped him to fourth behind Chaplin.
Harper, Evans, Hickson, Booth and Lancaster held station behind, while Wood took the class B honours by only 0.5secs after being shadowed for most of the race by Facer.
Mitchell and Robert Beazer completed the top four in class B and class C went to Bob Yarwood, comfortably clear of Richard Fry.
RESULT
1 Malcolm Jackson (Mallock Mk20B) 14 laps in 10m49.689s (104.72mph); 2 Mark Charteris (Mallock Mk20B) 10m51.104s; 3 Steve Chaplin (Phantom P79); 4 John Harrison (Mallock Mk21); 5 Peter Harper (Mallock Mk20B); 6 Mike Evans (Mallock Mk16); 7 Mike Hickson (Mallock Mk20B); 8 Robin Booth (Mallock Mk20B); 9 Sam Lancaster (Mallock Mk20); 10 Clive Wood (Mallock Mk20B). Class A: 1 Jackson; 2 Charteris; 3 Chaplin; 4 Harrison. Class B: 1 Wood; 2 Dave Facer (Mallock Mk18BW); 3 Ian Mitchell (IM MkI); 4 Rob Beazer (Mallock Mk18). Class C: 1 Bob Yarwood (Mallock MK8B); 2 Richard Fry (Mallock Mk8B); no other starters. Class D: no starters. Fastest lap: Harper 45.048s (107.88mph).
Issued by Peter Scherer for the Clubmans Register, May 20th, 2008. Contact 01332 362577/07802 853244 peter@scher.freeserve.co.uk