Saturday 12th April - the start of a new SBD Speed Championship season and for a number of people their first sight of the much improved Lydden Circuit. Pat Doran’s updates were certainly welcome to competitors now parking on flat tarmac, with clean facilities and improved spectator viewing. The track was still familiar though and the mixed weather forecast actually turned into a blustery but mainly dry event to the relief of those with untested machinery.
Kicking us off was class 0a for Standard Prod cars under 2000cc and Chris Avis, running on his lonesome, nevertheless was spurred on to record a sub 90 second time of 89.14 - impressive in this division. Derek Jones was a welcome sight in class 0b although his previous outing here resulted in brake failure approaching Devil’s Elbow and a naturally cautious build up resulted in a 90.12.
Class 1 for Roadgoing Prod Sports and Saloons saw another welcome return from Mike Edwards who got the venerable Mini into the 90s for a 90.66- another highly respectable time. The Dowding family wheeled their Nissan Micra around for 3rd and 4th places, Jonathon besting Roy on this occasion by a second. Class 2 was an all Honda affair with Matt Carter’s S2000 dipping below 90 for a 89.53 ahead of a gaggle of other S2000’s, Civic type R’s and Integra’s. The biggest capacity class 3 saw Kim Adams dominant with a 83.53 with Brian Winstone’s snarling Porsche GT3 RS on 85.27- the car was snarling by the way not Brian.
Into Roadgoing Kit Type cars and class 4 saw saw Paul Bowden triumph with an excellent 83.51 while Stephen Lang took class 5 SBD honours in his Exige, clocking 86.07.
Modified Production cars class 6 was an all Mini affair, Chris Watkinson taking the honours with an 84.61. Close on his heels was the car’s other driver Richard Watkinson only 0.4 behind on 85.00. Steve Harris took 3rd spot with a 89.70.
In Class 7 Lee Chappell took maximum SBD points in his Toyota Corolla on a 96.62. In class 8 for the big bangers - and you don’t get much more of a big bang than Steve Heath’s 5.1 litre supercharged TVR - and the man himself sneaked ahead of Adrian Flagg’s Impreza by 0.8 to bag the win.
Sports Libre Cars and class 9 had Dick Hulbert in our Sponsor's Westfield Duratec flying around to record a class-winning 74.43 to win by a fair old distance. Carol Torkington in the same car took 4th with a 83.54. Mention must be made of Liam Doran’s Ford Fiesta Rallycross car which only managed one run before gearbox gremlins intervened. Seemingly sideways as soon as its driver either turned the wheel or pressed the loud pedal, it drifted through Paddock in a glorious 4 wheel slide - great to see.
In the Racing car class 10 Tony Beasley’s Jedi took the class win on 72.12 but Ian Catt’s OMS purred around (sorry!) for a 72.63 to push Tony hard. Further back the shared Radical of Clive Wooster and Simon Hamilton was much improved over previous times here to take 3rd and 4th places with Clive managing to sneak the BARC SEC member award on the way.
The final class also held FTD man, Tony Staines whose Reynard F. Opel scorched around in 72.01. SBD runner Glenn Del Medico took the Van Diemen around in 80.43 for a class 3rd.
So a good start for most SBD runners with Gurston next on the agenda - lets hope their Test Day conditions of Snow don’t show up again.
Championship Points Tables
