The Drayton Manor Park
MG Metro Cup

Castle Combe 8th August 2009

 

We had wonderful weather for the whole of the weekend at the Wiltshire circuit.  Our entry was down on the usual figures, largely due to the number of mechanical breakdowns suffered at previous meetings.  20 practised and the outcome was that Jon Flanigan was on pole from Paul Ashton. Neal Gardiner took class B pole form Adam Palmer and Terry Bracey-Wright was fastest in class A. 

Unfortunately Richard Garrard suffered a gear box problem in practise so there were 19 on the grid for the race.   Jon Flanigan’s class C car  led from Paul Ashton followed by Dick Trevett. Chris Harris pulled of just after Quarry on the first lap and James Webb’s oil seal problem resurfaced on lap 1, ending his race.  Flanigan and Ashton together with Trevett and Dunkley were having quite a scrap, the lead changing several times. Andrew Ashton held the class B lead and Terry Bracey-Wright led class A from Jon Agar.  Paul Ashton had the lead but Flanigan was having none of this and out braked Paul to take over again. Dick was on a charge and James was well in contention.

From our position at Quarry we could see that Geoff McNamara and Dave Heasman were having a dice approaching the corner. Andrew Ashton still led class B whilst Dick took the race lead with Paul alongside but then Dick lost two places in the back markers.   Flanigan regained the lead and the cars were three abreast as they approached Camp corner. Trevett had the lead but Flanigan was on the inside by Quarry. Trevett came out of the corner in the lead and Ashton was at the side of Flanigan.

Neal Gardiner took over the class B lead on lap 6 and Adam Palmer and Iain Patterson were in close contention.  Unfortunately this finished in tears with Iain ending up on the escape route. Dick had the lead at Quarry but his car began to fire on only three cylinders as he exited the corner. Dick lost two places and then a third as Dunkley went past on the grass. This left Paul in the lead from Flanigan with Dunkley in third. Ashton drove brilliantly to hold his lead to the end and achieve his first race win. Flanigan was second and Dunkley third. Gardiner won class B from Andrew Ashton and Adam Palmer whilst Terry Bracey-Wright won class A from Jon Agar.

This had been a terrific battle from start to finish with great excitement in both classes B and C. To say that Paul was delighted with his win could be the understatement of the year. When he later heard that he had been awarded the trophy for overall driver of the day, he was ecstatic.  I hear that the celebrations went on far into the night and he has requested a game of Bingo at the end of season dinner dance!

Paul kindly loaned his car for the display, which Dave Heasman had organised on Quarry corner for the Sunday to promote the Championship. Dave’s car was also on view and I hear that they generated a considerable amount of interest. Thanks go to Dave and Paul for their efforts. All in all this was a wonderful event with marvellous weather, a super venue and close, exciting racing from a wide range of cars and carts.

Jean Ellis