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2009 SMRC Championship - Round 3
Alex Knight takes first race win
with Ross Marshall taking overall victory
A single round over two days meant long periods between races but this was deemed well worthwhile as one of the support categories at the prestigious British GT Meeting. We were all a bit nervous as to what the weather was going to do but all our races were run in perfect dry conditions, a torrential downpour at lunchtime on Sunday not affecting us as we were first and last race on the day. We were missing Lance Gauld, Ali Thom, Tim Nichol and Mark Lees but were joined again by Nick Brace, running off the back for his second round as a Rookie, Billy Wait, Jason Ogg ,deputising for Frank, and Irishman Ciaran Peden, also running off the back. In the team cars, Ben Mason was back behind the wheel of car 22 and Andrew Donald at the helm of car 44. And Martyn Lyell joined the pack for the first time after his two rounds as a Rookie. And so 23 cars formed up on the grid. |
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| Heat 1 |
A superb battle raged at the front of the field with a determined Alex Knight taking his first and very popular race win by just 9/100th of a second from Ben Mason with Frank Hynds (from the back of the main grid), Ross Marshall and Alisdair Gauld in close attendance - just 6/10th of a second separating these 5 - and Chris Hynds a shade behind. Tony Caig was next up, having recovered from a clash with Ross Mickel, with Nick Brace (from the very back of the whole grid) on his bootlid. A fraction behind him was Martyn Lyell with Colin Atkinson just adrift of him. Non finishers were Pat Hynds, who had pulled off on the warm-up lap, and the unfortunate Scott Hynds, who was blackflagged suffering the same upper engine oil leak as at the previous meeting. Heat 1 - 8 laps 1st Alex Knight 8m 17.08 secs (73.56 mph), 2nd Ben Mason, 3rd Frank Hynds, 4th Ross Marshall, 5th Ali Gauld, 6th Chris Hynds, 7th Tony Caig, 8th Nick Brace, 9th Martyn Lyell, 10th Colin Atkinson, 11th David Hunter, 12th Aly Hunter, 13th Jason Ogg, 14th Andrew Donald, 15th Stevie Coull, 16th Billy Wait, 17th Ciaran Peden, 18th Ericco Palazzo, 19th Ross Mickel, 20th Michael Hogg, 21st Gerard McCosh DNF Scott Hynds, Pat Hynds. Fastest lap: Nick Brace 60.77 secs (75.31 mph) |
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| Heat 2 |
An early morning Sunday race saw Ross Marshall taking a comfortable win although only after Frank, who had been pressing him hard, retired when a vital bolt came loose on lap 6. Next up was Ben, for his second runner-up spot of the round, with Ross Mickel on his bootlid and Ali G, going one better this time, just a shade behind. Tony was a couple of seconds back with Alex another three seconds behind him. Then came the battling pair of Pat and Gerard McCosh, who had been dicing from the off, with Chris and Nick, also dicing hard, a couple of seconds behind them. Apart from Frank, the only other non-finisher was Scott, once again blackflgged with the same problem. Heat 2 - 8 laps 1st Ross Marshall 8m 08.96 secs (74.88 mph), 2nd Ben Mason, 3rd Ross Mickel, 4th Tony Caig, 5th Alex Knight, 6th Alex Knight, 7th Pat Hynds, 8th Gerard McCosh, 9th Chris Hynds, 10th Nick Brace, 11th Colin Atkinson, 12th Martyn Lyell, 13th David Hunter, 14th Stevie Coull, 15th Aly Hunter, 16th Ericco Palazzo, 17th Jason Ogg, 18th Andrew Donald, 19th Billy Wait, 20th Ciaran Peden, 21st Michael Hogg. DNF Frank Hynds, Scott Hynds Fastest lap: Frank Hynds 60.45 secs (75.71 mph) |
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| Final |
After a long but pleasant day we ventured on track in the late afternoon. From pole Scott led at the end of lap 1 with Frank shadowing him. But the tell-tale smokescreen saw the hapless Scott blackflagged into retirement on lap 3. Frank inherited the lead but was soon deposed by Ross Mickel followed through by, from the back of the main grid, Ross Marshall. The two Ross’s tangled down Railway Straight both of them heading off to the infield. Ross Marshall rejoined the circuit the far side of the hairpin while Ross Mickel bounced and slithered to a stop on the apex of the hairpin dragging a large quantity of gravel onto the circuit with him. Ross Marshall gathered himself together and set off after Frank, these two fighting tooth-and-nail all the way to the line with Ross just besting Frank into the last corner and hanging on to take the win by 2/100th of a second. Behind these two Gerard was running on his own until his crankshaft broke on lap 7. This handed the slot to Alex, but this was short-lived as a cam broke on his engine going past the pits causing an alarming fire which was soon doused once he’d stopped. As so Tony was now in 3rd but he was demoted by a recovering Ross Mickel and Ben, who’d gradually worked his way through also from the back of the main grid. Next up was Martyn in an excellent 6th place from Pat and Colin, a mere half second separating them. A shade behind was Chris with a happy Jason Ogg completing the top ten. Final - 10 laps 1st Ross Marshall 10m 31.07 secs (73.08 mph), 2nd Frank Hynds, 3rd Ross Mickel, 4th Ben Mason, 5th Tony Caig, 6th Martyn Lyell, 7th Pat Hynds, 8th Colin Atkinson, 9th Chris Hynds, 10th Jason Ogg, 11th Ali Gauld, 12th Aly Hunter, 13th Billy Wait, 14th Stevie Coull, 15th Ericco Palazzo, 16th Andrew Donald, 17th Ciaran Peden, 18th Michael Hogg. DNF Scott Hynds, Alex Knight, Gerard McCosh, David Hunter, Nick Brace. Fastest lap: Ross Marshall 61.09 secs (75.42 mph) |
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By a much smaller margin this time Honours for the Day again went to Ross Marshall (560 points) from Ben Mason (530 points) in 2nd place and, with consistent finishes, Tony Caig (430 points) in 3rd place. Much to his surprise and pleasure, the Driver of the Day Award went to Gerard McCosh for his return to competitive form. And the Gentleman of the Day Trophy went, for the second time this season, to Aly Hunter. In the Individual Championship, Ross Marshall has a 500 point lead now over Tony Caig who has leapt into 2nd place some 65 points ahead of Alisdair Gauld who has moved into 3rd with Alex Knight just now 10 points behind him. The Team Car of the Mason brothers increased its lead over team Hunter who is now 70 points clear of team Coull. In the Rookies Martyn Lyell still leads but by just 65 points from Nick Brace. This should prove an interesting contest with Nick joining the pack at his next outing. Given the closeness of some of the racing, it was another excellent show of considered driving by all concerned. Another short window and we are out again at the SMRC’s next meeting on Sunday, 28th June. |
Championship Positions
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