JOSH Fisher secured the Castle Combe Racing Club Formula Ford title at ‘Combe Countdown’ on Bank Holiday Monday after bagging his fifth victory of the 2019 campaign.

Fisher, who also won the title in 2008 and 2017, was second in qualifying having been pipped for pole position right at the end when Yatton Keynell’s Luke Cooper went fastest.

At the start of the opening race, round eight in the Melksham Motor Spares-backed series, Fisher got the jump on Cooper and led early on.

It was nip-and-tuck throughout, however, Fisher slipped to third, with Cooper and his brother, Felix Fisher, both getting ahead.

Cooper eventually won, with Felix second and Josh a disappointed third.

The second race was again tight at the top, but this time Josh Fisher made the most of his better start to lead from lights-to-flag.

He was pushed all the way by Cooper, with Felix in third.

The results mean that Josh Fisher can now not be beaten in the title race even with if he fails to score at next month’s Grand Finals Day.

Josh Fisher said: “I didn’t really know what the scenarios were for the Championship, but I knew I was in a favourable position.

“I was a bit too cautious in the first race with track limits and with racing wheel-to-wheel because of the championship and that didn’t work.

“So I thought: ‘Forget that’, and In the second race, I treated it like the first race of the season, and just went flat out and hard – and it paid off.”

In the CCRC Reis Motorsport Insurance GT Championship, Lucky Khera did the double in his McLaren GT3, both times getting the better of pole man Kevin Jones, while overall Championship leader Jamie Sturges took two fifth places overall and two more Class D wins in his VW Golf TCR to clinch the 2019 Castle Combe GT title.

Sturges said: “I feel elated. I have been doing the maths for a few days and working out whether we could do it.

“There was still another weekend to play with, but it was one of those things and you have got to play the odds.

“Every time we have gone on the grid we have had a good race and we haven’t had any issues whatsoever.

“It has been almost the perfect season and it has been brilliant today with all my family here to cheer me on.”

Meanwhile, in the CCRC Pro Alloys Saloon Championship, Gary Prebble also doubled up, beating series leader Simon Thornton-Norris in race one and Alex Kite in race two.

Thornton-Norris was slowed by suspected mechanical issues in that second race, limping home ninth overall and third in class.

However, he remains top, in the Saloon Championship, although with the Calne ace’s participation at Grand Finals Day in doubt, he could yet be overhauled by Matt Parr, who was twice victorious in Class C and is the only other man still in contention for the 2019 Castle Combe Saloon title.

As for the Samco Sport CCRC Hot Hatch Challenge, Joe Dorrington beat Sam Stride to top spot in a curtailed race one after Dave Spiller rolled his Mini Cooper S following contact with Erling Jenson. Stride hit back in race two to beat William Oakley.

Of the rest, David Weston and Richard Bridge took a win each in the Lackford Engineering Midget & Sprite Challenge, while Steven Rideout was the overall winner in race one of the Super Mighty Minis and then second overall to Neven Kirkpatrick in race two, the 12th and final one of the meeting.

The Castle Combe Racing Club Championships (conclude next month with Grand Finals Race Day on Saturday, September 14.