CLUB100 Sprint championship - Round 8 - Buckmore Park - August
26th
Lightweights
Introduction and Qualifying
Buckmore Park was the host for round 8 of the Sprint championship
on the bank holiday weekend, the latter fact probably accounting
for a slight shortfall of regulars although the majority were on
the grid and blessed with glorious weather. The championship was
now a straight three way fight between Andy Smyth, round7 winner
Jon Pethick and Vince Bond although a careful look at dropped scores
scored that Oliver Allwood was in with a shout provided he had
a few more good results over the coming races.
When the points were added up it was indeed championship leader
Andy Smyth on the pole after a first, second and third in the heats
with Simon Young alongside after an equally impressive run through
the heats. Oliver Allwood was lurking on grid 3 with Dan Gore alongside
whilst Richard Lee had been outstanding in the heats and would
line up 5th ahead of Jon Pethick and the ever improving David Palmer
with Michael Perfect 8th. Jon Wort and Zac Seward locked out row
5 with the other championship contender Vince Bond back on grid
11 and with a fair amount of work to do. Round 6 winner Richard
Higham would have to start back in 13th with regular front runners
Steve Townsend and Tony Simpson a little further back along with
Matt Brooks who only just scraped in back on grid 22!
Chris Lewis and Ben Summers locked out the front row of the B
final ahead of James Akehurst (not having a good day) and Josh
Hill. Keith Segal was another front runner having a day to forget,
lining up 5th ahead of Neil Jarrett, Ross Britten and Jason Sichel.
A penalty in one of the heats left Ashley Davis back on grid 9
with Ray Morgan alongside (now having moved back to the LW class).
Further back and also having a bad day were Rob Moss, Andrew Green
and Alan Beckley, a total of 20 drivers on the grid and ready to
battle it out for a place in the A final.
B Final
It was polesitter Chris Lewis that headed the pack away with the
inside row (as usual at Buckmore!) all storming through with James
Akehurst and Keith Segal making up ground to move into 2nd and
third as the pack filed down the hill for the first time. However,
Segal’s charge was soon over as he spun coming out of Garda promoting
Josh Hill to third ahead of Ben Summers whilst Ross Britten was
already through to 5th and challenging Summers for 4th a position
he would pick up on the second tour. Michael Callow was deemed
to have caused a multiple accident and was hence black flagged,
his race ending there and then!
By the end of lap 4 Lewis was starting to pull away up front whilst
Akehurst was left to defend from the attentive Hill, these two
sufficient clear of Britten in 4th. Summers was next up ahead of
Jason Sichel, Ashley Davies and Ray Morgan although by mid distance
it was Davies who was up to 5th and putting Britten under some
serious pressure as he looked for 4th place. An incident on lap
8 dropped Summers right down the order along with Morgan, these
two effectively now out of the running and leaving Britten, Davies
and Sichel to battle over 4th place whist Andrew Green was now
up into the top 7 but to far back to seriously challenge the leaders.
Lewis ran out an easy winner whilst Akehurst managed to hold onto
second place ahead of Hill, the top three some nine seconds clear
of Davies who finally nipped through into 4th place on lap 9. Britten
missed the cut by one place with Sichel a solid 6th and Green retaining
7th at the flag. Neil Jarrett, Robert Moss and Ray Morgan completed
the top 10.
Star Drive - Andrew Green - on one his charges
once again, this time from grid 18 up to 7th. If only he could
learn to qualify
better!
A Final
With the championship getting ever closer, Andrew Smyth was sitting
in a prime position to score maximum points having secured pole
for A final. At the start it was indeed Smyth that led the pack
away with Oli Allwood swiftly through to second and Richard Lee
up to third as Simon Young fell back to 4th. It was obvious from
the start that Allwood had the upper hand and he was all over the
back of Smyth throughout the opening lap before finally outbraking
the polesitter into the hairpin on lap 2. Once in front, he simply
left the current championship leader for dead, pulling away at
the rate of 3/4th a lap as he catapulted himself into championship
contention with just 3 rounds to go!
With Allwood and Smyth in a world of their own up front, the main
interest in the race was the battle for third and it was still
Lee in third with Young tucked up behind ahead of Dave Palmer,
Vince Bond (up well from grid 11) and Jon Pethick, the latter two
also needing all the points they could get to keep Smyth and Allwood
in sight as far as the championship goes. Nothing much changed
until Pethick demoted Bond and Palmer in consecutive laps around
mid distance to move into 5th, his attentions now on Young and
Lee a little further up the road. Having started 4th, Dan Gore
had found himself shuffled right back down to 10th by lap 2 but
once he had recomposed himself he started to fight back up the
order, up to 7th by lap 10 before then battling his way past Palmer
on lap 11 to take 6th place at the flag, setting fastest lap along
the way on lap 9.
By the time the chequered flag came out, Allwood had pulled out
a massive 5.96 seconds over Smyth who himself was having a lonely
race in second but grateful of the 127 points secured! Allwood
acknowledged this had been easy and his efforts were rewarded with
another massive tally of points that elevated him into what is
now a four way fight for the championship between himself, Smyth,
Bond and Pethick who finished 5th just 2/10ths off third which
was snatched away from Lee on the final lap by the patient Young
who had waited the entire race for the right moment. Lee looked
a little dejected in 4th ahead of Pethick, the flying Gore, Palmer,
Seward, Bond and Steve Townsend.
Star Drive - Simon Young - waited patiently
for his chance and made it count with just two corners to go
with a well judged move
for third place.
