Rounds 5 & 6 Cadwell Park June 15th/16th
PENFOLD PARADISE!
I cannot remember the last time a Non Mallock won either of the classes in a Classic Clubmans race. It may be as long as ten years. But that record was finally broken when Tom Dunstan took a superb win from the back of the grid in Class B in race one.
ENTRY
It was a weekend of very mixed weather, but it was a very reasonable turn out of eighteen cars. There were just four A Sports and two Sports 2000’s, but a super entry of eleven B Sports plus the lone Class C car of David Bain took the entry to a very respectable level. It was great to see David Bain in his Mk.11 for the first time in about ten years and it was also good to see Trevor Welsh out in John Bowles Sports 2000 Lola T492
QUALIFYING
Qualifying was a strange affair. Most people only completed a couple of flying laps before, first Tom Dunstan pulled off at the top of the mountain with a mechanical issue and then Anttt Denham lost traction as he took off up the mountain and ended up nose first in the barrier. This brought out the safety car for the rest of the session.
Nonetheless Mark Charteris managed to put a flyer in early and he secured pole by over 5 seconds! He was joined on the front row by Clive Wood. Alan Cook was third and alongside him on row two was Trevor Welsh. Barry Webb secured Class B pole and he was joined on row three by the other Sports 2000, the Royale of Roger Waite.
Row four should have seen Anttt Denham, but his off in qualifying saw an end to his weekend track action. Therefore the sole occupant of row four was Martin Walker in Phil Hart’s Mk.16.
Dave Facer and Trish Hunter were on row five, with Steve Littler and Mike Sales on row six. Adam Paterson was on row seven, Adam still very unhappy with the cars performance. He was alongside Chris Tolchard. The lone Class C entry of David Bain was on row eight, together with Roger Watton. Bringing up the rear was Colin Ralph and Tom Dunstan. Tom discovered that foam from the fuel tank had blocked the fuel line and he managed to fix it just in time to qualify out of session
RACE 1
Fortunately the rain stayed away, so it was a fully dry track as seventeen of the eighteen entries took to the track in early afternoon. At the lights it was a clean getaway for all and Mark Charteris moved comfortably into a lead he would never lose. The power of the A Sports took the first three clear, followed by Trevor Welsh and Roger Waite in the two Sports 2000’s. Barry Webb headed up B Sport, closely followed by Martin Walker, a fast starting Adam Paterson and Dave Facer. Then it was Mike Sales, Steve Littler, Trish Hunter and Tom Dunstan starting his epic climb through the field. Chris Tolchard was next, starting to show signs of increased speed, followed by Colin Ralph, Roger Watton and David Bain.
On lap two, Mark had already pulled clear, but Clive was having real difficulty shaking off Alan. Trevor had eased out a gap and Barry found his way past Roger in the Royale. Adam muscled his way past Martin and Dave followed him through a lap later, now closely followed by Tom in the Penfold.
Sadly at this point we lost Steve Littler. Coming up to the mountain, he heard an almighty clatter from the engine and pulled off right by the track exit point at the foot of the mountain. The hole in the side of the block with a rod sticking out suggested this might be terminal!
In the next two laps, Tom’s speed took him past both Dave and Adam and in hot pursuit of Barry for the class lead. Adam also found a way past Roger with Dave hot on their tails. On lap eight, Roger tried a very late outbrake on Adam at Park and ended up spinning off and then back on the track. Adam took to the grass on the outside and Dave took to the grass on the inside to avoid hitting Roger and in the meantime, Mark came upon the carnage and thought Wold (get it?) War Three had started. Mark found a way through and all three participants managed to recover and continue, albeit with grass filled nosecones.
On lap nine the lead changed in Class B. In trying to lap Chris Tolchard, Barry had a spin and this allowed Tom through, into a lead he would not lose. On the same lap, Adam with Dave in hot pursuit, ran wide exiting the Gooseneck and bounced down the hill into retirement, throwing bits of fibreglass out on his way.
At the flag, Mark had lapped the whole field down to third place and finished fifty seconds clear of Clive in second. Alan had a lonely race in third and Trevor took Sports 2000 honours with a fine fourth overall, albeit just clear of the tremendous tussle for B Sport honours, with Tom taking it from Barry by less than a second.
Roger was next home, followed by Dave who had backed off and was praying for the chequered flag. His radiator was full of grass and the engine temperature was going off the clock.
Martin Walker had a lonely second half to take fourth in class, followed by Mike Sales, just ahead of Trish Hunter. Then came Chris Tolchard, Roger Watton, David Bain and Colin Ralph.
RACE 2
The second race was late morning on Sunday and despite heavy overnight rain the track was dry at race time. This time at the lights, it wasn’t Mark, but Clive who leapt into the lead as the field swept up the hill and through Coppice. Mark held second followed by Alan and Trevor in the Lola. In B Sport it was Tom who got a flyer and led the class onto the back straight. Roger was next up, being hassled by Barry, in a hurry to get through and catch Tom. Martin again got a cracking start and led Dave, followed by Mike, Trish and a very fast starting Adam Paterson from the back of the grid.
At the end of lap one, it was still Clive from Mark with Alan a step behind. Trevor was being pushed by Tom, then there was a gap to Roger and Barry. Martin was keeping Dave at bay, this pair now clear of Mike and Trish. Then came Adam, Chris Tolchard and a gap to Roger Watton, David Bain in the Mk.11 and Colin Ralph.
Clive was maintaining a very slim lead over Mark, the only other action on lap two saw Dave sweep by Martin on the back straight and Adam found a way past Trish. A lap later, Barry managed to overcome the Sports 2000’s speed advantage and overtook Roger to start honing in on Tom.
Finally on lap four, Mark swept by Clive on the run to Park and quickly opened up a gap. Trevor had escaped from Tom and Barry was drawing closer. Adam had disposed of Mike and was almost up with the battle between Dave and Martin. A lap later the inevitable happened, as Barry found a way past Tom and into the class lead.
It was soon evident however, that Mark was in trouble. The initial gap that Mark had opened out was reducing and within a couple more laps Clive was right on Mark’s tail. Mark had front wheel bearing failure and called it a day, Clive inheriting the overall race lead.
By lap ten, Adam was up with Dave and took advantages of Dave’s tardiness out of the hairpin to sweep by on the run down to Barn. Tom initially had held on to Barry’s shirt tails, but Barry soon broke the tow and pulled away into a comfortable class winning position.
At the end of lap thirteen, Clive took the chequered flag over twenty seconds clear of Alan. Trevor was third overall and first Sports 2000 home and Barry was fourth overall taking B Sport honours by over twelve seconds from Tom, these being the last unlapped runners.
Dave kept sticking pins in his little Adam Paterson doll, but this time to no effect as Adam secured the final B Sport podium slot, under a second clear of Dave in fourth. Marin was a lonely fifth and Mike an equally lonely sixth. A further lap down, Chris was seventh, just ahead of the solitary Class C car of David Bain. Then came Roger Watton and Colin Ralph. A very clean race with no incidents and the only retiree being Mark.
All in all a good weekend and for once we were very lucky with the weather. The rains came after lunch and several of the other formulae had completely wet weekends. Once again the hospitality was superb, Sheila briefly coming out of retirement to work with Kerry and produce stunning grub.
It was lovely and very poignant that, despite fast fading health, Steve Clamp made it up on both days and saw his car take the B Sport laurels on Saturday. He was over the moon with Tom’s performance, one which deservedly earned Tom driver of the day (weekend). Tom’s mechanic, Stan, picked up the mechanic award for working hard with Tom to get the Penfold on the grid in the first place.
FOOTNOTE
Many of us suspected that this would be Steve Clamp’s very last race meeting, but nobody realised how soon the end would come. A week later, Steve passed away peacefully at home. What he thought was going to be twelve months, that soon turned into twelve weeks and he then left us for that great circuit in the sky after just half that time. I had the privilege of knowing Steve for almost twenty years, right from the start of Classic Clubmans. Sue and I had the great honour of being invited to his marriage fifteen years ago to the lovely Stella, who will be absolutely devastated at his passing. Steve was never the quickest, but he was always a gentleman, always very calm and always very positive right to the end. R.I.P Steve. We will miss you greatly.
Dave Facer
