9:35am Monday 20th July 2009
Chippenham’s Adam Higgins had his best ever birthday present when the gift of a set of tyres gave him his first podium finish in the Castle Combe Circuit’s Formula Ford championship race at the two day Dunlop Great and British Motorsport Festival last weekend.
Higgins had qualified his Van Diemen RF99 in a best ever 4th place, but his tyres were finished and would be useless for the race. Higgins explained, ”I didn’t have the money to buy a new set, which cost £450, so everyone rallied round and bought them for my 23rd birthday next week. Emma my girlfriend bought the front right so I put her name on it!”
Father Bob, who runs the Riadro race team Adam drives for and is a former quadruple champion at Combe, paid for another tyre, as did his brother, Richard, who also recently started racing.
It was a closely fought race, with pole man and championship leader, Ben Norton from Bratton, engaged in a frenetic dice with Marcus Allen and Bridgwater’s Felix Fisher. Higgins was busy with his own battle, fending off Castle Combe’s Andy Jones, who had made a flying start from 8th on the grid.
After the demise of Fisher with mechanical problems, Higgins moved to 3rd, in the process breaking clear of Jones and finishing around 1.5 seconds ahead of him. Meanwhile Allen had taken Norton two laps from the end, the pair virtually joined together for the entire race.
Bradford on Avon’s Ed Moore was fourth following the retirement of Saltford’s Steven Jensen with engine problems, after a great battle. Bradford on Avon’s David Vivian took second in class B, which had been won by Allen, with Bob Higgins taking 3rd in that class and 9th overall after another great drive from 18th on the grid.
Cirencester’s Tom Margetson was a clear class C winner in his Reynard FF89.
Sunday’s Special GT championship race was all about the weather, the intermittent rain making tyre choice an impossible nightmare. As the cars waited in the collecting area, the track was bone dry, but rain began to fall. Simon Tilling, 3rd fastest in qualifying, instructed his crew to change to wets, calmly joining the grid as the rain continued to fall. With just two other drivers on wet tyres, Tilling looked in a strong position, only for the organizers to declare a wet race, requiring all drivers to change to treaded tyres. This was to the detriment of championship leader, Trowbridge’s Mark Funnell who had qualified his road going Lotus Exige an incredible 2nd fastest. Without a pit crew, he was forced to return to the paddock, then threading his way through the pack on the warm up lap, which earned him a 10” penalty. This ultimately proved academic as the Lotus retired with transmission failure on lap 11.
Fellow Trowbridge resident, Andrew Shanley, started from the pit lane on slicks after fixing an electrical problem as the tyre changing went on. His was one of the drives of the race, scything his way through to the lead, until the rain began to fall again, demoting him to the 3rd place which he retained till the flag.
Tilling evolved into a clear winner as the rain began to fall again, the slick shod Darcy Smith an impressive 2nd in his Nemesis, having led for 3 laps. Melksham’s Simon Norris, whose four wheel drive Mitsubishi Evo 3 rocketed into the lead from his 6th place on the grid, took 4th overall and the class C victory, despite an off at Quarry.
Taking a fine class D win was Ditcheat’s Kevin Bird, having an extra race with his SEAT Leon Cupra, which he usually drives in the National Mobile Windscreens Saloon Car championship which rounded off the weekend’s races.
This was another race where tyre choice was difficult. After torrential rain turned to sunshine before the start, a number of brave drivers started on dry tyres, including championship leader Jason Cooper from Yatton Keynell, who qualified his 1.4 litre class D Fiesta an incredible 4th overall. The rain held off, giving Cooper another class win to extend his championship lead. Fastest class lap though went again to Peasedown St John’s Olly Lewis in the 106.
Barry Squibb took another outright win with his Evo 9 ahead of pole man Gary Prebble in the Evo RS7 Sprint. William Di Claudio from Chippenham adapted to the new brakes which caused him problems in qualifying, working his way up to the class lead after qualifying 5th, only to be caught and passed as his wet tyres deteriorated, by Yate’s Nick Charles, also in a 106.
Guy Higgs from Gloucester was a deserved class B winner, taking his BMW M3 to 3rd overall from 15th on the grid, after catching Kevin Bird in the SEAT.
Colerne’s Chris Davison, the principle test driver for Cooper Avon Tyres at Melksham, took a closely fought win and second place in the pair of Westfield Sportscar series races, having qualified his 1.8 Zetec engined machine on pole position.
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