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2009 SMRC Championship - Round 7
John Jon Higgins dominates
while Ross Mickel takes first race win since his return this year
Sunday started grey, cold and damp with a strong westerly wind. We were out for our first heat at 9 a.m. on a distinctly slippery track. Even at this early hour there were a number of spectators around the circuit. By lunchtime the circuit had dried and the afternoon saw no more rain but the strong wind had a distinctly keen edge to it. Following camshafts breaking on their own cars, Ben Mason was at the helm of car 07 and Gerard McCosh at the helm of car 70. |
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| Heat 1 |
Ross Marshall took up the running but was overhauled by an on-fire Ross Mickel just loving the slippery conditions and who went on to take his first victory following his return to Legends this year, with Frank also besting Ross Marshall to take second place. In fourth was John Jon, who had worked his way through from the back of the main grid, comfortably ahead of Ali Gauld. Next up was Colin Atkinson followed home by Pat Hynds just fending off Martyn Lyell. Simon Belcher, who’d had an earlier clash with Chris Hynds, recovered to take ninth. Then came a quartet of cars led home by Alex Knight from Ben, off the very back of the whole grid, Nick Brace and Lance Gauld. Following his clash with Simon, Chris was a non-finisher as was Ali Thom who had been tagged and sent into the gravel before the first corner. Heat 1 - 8 laps 1st Ross Mickel 13m 21.83 secs (57.07 mph), 2nd Frank Hynds, 3rd Ross Marshall, 4th John Jon Higgins, 5th Alasdair Gauld, 6th Colin Atkinson, 7th Pat Hynds, 8th Martyn Lyell, 9th Simon Belcher, 10th Alex Knight, 11th Ben Mason, 12th Nick Brace, 13th Lance Gauld, 14th Ben Power, 15th Billy Wait, 16th Andrew Donald, 17th Jason Ogg, 18th Aly Hunter, 19th Scott Hynds, 20th Gerard McCosh, 21st Ericco Palazzo, 22nd David Hunter, 23rd Stevie Coull, 24th Mark Lees, 25th Mike Hogg DNF Chris Hynds, Ali Thom. Fastest lap: Frank Hynds 68.55 secs (66.75 mph) |
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| Heat 2 |
Now on a dry tack and running directly after the first Touring Car race, John Jon stamped his authority with a clear victory. Ross Mickel held off Ross Marshall to complete the podium. A trio of battling cars saw Simon head home Tony Caig and Lance. Next up was Frank just besting Ali G. And then came a quartet with Martyn leading home Ben Power, Alex (who had run wide at the penultimate hairpin whilst holding 2nd place) and Nick. Non finishers were Ben (cracked cylinder head) and Murray Ford. Heat 2 - 8 laps 1st John Jon Higgins 8m 17.94 secs (73.53 mph), 2nd Ross Mickel, 3rd Ross Marshall, 4th Simon Belcher, 5th Tony Caig, 6th Lance Gauld, 7th Frank Hynds, 8th Alasdair Gauld, 9th Martyn Lyell, 10th Ben Power, 11th Alex Knight, 12th Nick Brace, 13th David Hunter, 14th Colin Atkinson, 15th Scott Hynds, 16th Stevie Coull, 17th Jason Ogg, 18th Chriis Hynds, 19th Gerard McCosh, 20th Billy Wait, 21st Aly Hunter, 22nd Andrew Donald, 23rd Ali Thom, 24th Ericco Palazzo, 25th Mark Lees, 26th Miks Hogg. DNF Ben Mason, Murray Ford. Fastest lap: John Jon Higgins 60.62 secs (75.49 mph) |
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| Final |
In front of the still very considerable crowd who had remained behind after the last Touring Car race we took to the track. John Jon showed us all how it should be done with a very fine drive from the back of the main grid (10th row) to take a comfortable victory and establish a new lap record of 59.94 seconds on the way. And stamping his authority as the leading regular Scottish driver, Ross Marshall was next home recording his best lap time which would have been a lap record but for JJ’s time. He was followed home by Tony with Nick, recording his first sub 61 second lap, a couple of seconds back. A little slower in working his way through and some 4 seconds adrift came Ross Mickel with Lance in close attendance. Next up was Martyn with a comfortable margin over Ali G. And then came the real ‘battle’ involving 9 cars separated by barely 1.5 seconds at the line led home by Aly Hunter (from the very back of the grid), Frank (recovering from a clash with nephew Scott), David Hunter, Billy Wait, Ben Power (following an excursion the wrong side of the chicane), Jason Ogg, Colin, Andrew Donald and Gerard. Non finishers were Ali Thom, Scott, Pat and Alex (following contact at the hairpin). Final - 10 laps 1st John Jon Higgins 10m 20.59 secs (73.74 mph), 2nd Ross Marshall, 3rd Tony Caig, 4th Nick Brace, 5th Ross Mickel, 6th Lance Gauld, 7th Martyn Lyell, 8th Alasdair Gauld, 9th Aly Hunter, 10th Frank Hynds, 11th David Hunter, 12th Billy Wait, 13th Ben Power, 14th Jason Ogg, 15th Colin Atkinson, 16th Andrew Donald, 17th Gerard McCosh, 18th Stevie Coull, 19th Mark Lees, 20th Ericco Palazzo, 21st Chris Hynds, 22nd Mike Hogg. DNF Ali Thom, Scott Hynds, Pat Hynds, Alex Knight. Fastest lap: John Jon Higgins 59.94 secs (76.34 mph) * New Lap Record * |
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In the Individual Championship, Ross Marshall now has a seemingly unassailable lead of some 1200 points over 2nd place Alasdair Gauld who is now 125 points ahead of Frank Hynds in 3rd. Ross Mickel has shot up the rankings to lie 4th just 55 points adrift of Frank with Tony Caig and Alex Knight still in contention. The Mason brothers’ Team Car is some 1400 points clear of the 2nd placed car which is now team Coull who is 100 points clear of team Hunter. In the Rookies, Nick Brace still leads Martyn Lyell by some 255 points with 3rd placed David Hunter having slipped back to some 400 behind him. We were running with a Safety Car over the weekend and it only had to be deployed the once with none of the races being red-flagged. Full marks to all drivers in what was a huge grid. And clearly the large crowd which stayed for our last race on the Sunday appreciated the show we put on. The next meeting is also a double header at Knockhill on Saturday and Sunday, 5th & 6th September as part of the SMRC Meeting which also includes a visit from the GT Cup Championship. |
Championship Positions
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