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The Enterprise Group Club F3 Championship
Shane Kelly is The Enterprise Group 2006 Club F3 Champion
Shane Kelly is The Enterprise Group 2006 Club F3 Champion after finishing second in the final race of the season at Thruxton. Paul Sibley(above left) claimed the Class B Championship with 10th place at Thruxton and Nicholas Robinson(above right) won the Masters Class Championship after claiming Masters Class victory on Sunday.
Justin Sherwood made his second start of the Club F3 season for Performance Racing and he claimed his second win in as many starts. Gavin Wills also made a return to the Championship at Thruxton in the Team West-Tec Dallara F3-98 and he claimed pole position in a soaking qualifying session, from Justin Sherwood and Daniel Tapinos who has taken over the injured Gary Marsh’s car.
Shane Kelly qualified fourth ahead of his Championship rival Jon Gray in fifth. As the field made it’s way to the grid on a now dry but slippery circuit, Gavin Wills found out just how slippery it was as he spun at the exit of the pit lane, relegating him to the back of the grid.
In a dramatic race, Justin Sherwood led from lights to flag to win from Shane Kelly and Keith Baldwin. Jon Gray finished in fourth place and pole-sitter Gavin Wills was to spin out of third place on the penultimate lap.
Juan Serda won the Class B from Paul Sibley. Chris Needham had to retire after his rear wing collapsed on the first lap.Nicholas Robinson won the Masters Class from Peter Hannam
Ian Smith
The Enterprise Group 2006 Club F3 Championship
Round 8 - Oulton Park
23rd September 2006
Shane Kelly bounced back from two disappointing races to win his 6th Club F3 race of the season at Oulton Park on Saturday. Championship rivals Kelly and Jon Gray traded provisional pole position for most of the qualifying session, before Gray made it his own with a few minutes remaining, Shane would start 3rd after Stuart Gough posted 2nd quickest time
on his Club F3 debut.
As the race got underway, Gray led from Kelly and they both pulled away from the field until Ken Finneran spun at Fosters and was collected by Keith Baldwin bringing out the red flags after 8 laps. At the restart Shane made the better get-away and he led Jon into Old Hall. As before, the two Championship protagonists left the field trailing. With the race shortened to just 10 minutes Shane managed to pull out a 6 second lead over Gray at the flag, with Stuart Gough 20 seconds back in 3rd place Chris Willie won Class B from Paul Sibley and Nicholas Robinson took the Masters Class ahead of Mike White.
As the Championship heads to Thruxton for the final round, there are just nine points between Shane and Jon in the battle for the inaugural Club F3 Title.
Ian Smith
www.ClubF3.co.uk
Qualifying
The weather was cloudy and cool but thankfully dry after rain earlier in the morning.
The first to encounter problems was Shane Kelly even before the start of the session. A faulty wiring loom at first seemed to be the cause and after a long delay and some frantic work by his team, Shane joined the other ten cars out for qualifying. The early leading runners were Justin Sherwood, Ken Finneran, Keith Baldwin and Gary Marsh. Both Shane Kelly and Jon Gray seemed to be having difficulties in threatening the top of the leader board.
Class B runners Chris Willie and Paul Sibley were running close together and ended up separated by only 1/10th of a second – a sign of things to come.
Around midway through the session, Justin Sherwood established the pole with a superb 43.213s lap. Gary Marsh shared the front row, 0.32s adrift. Next up were Keith Baldwin, Ken Finneran, Dave Porter and a troubled Shane Kelly and Jon Gray with debutant John Miller completing the Class A runners.
Paul Sibley pipped Chris Willie for Class B and Pete Hannam brought up the rear of the grid with his Reynard being the sole Masters Class entry. Almost at the end of qualifying, Gary Marsh parked his car just past the pit lane exit with fuel pick-up problems.
www.ClubF3.co.uk
Race Round 7
The staggered grid formed up under threatening skies but thankfully the track was dry. At the green flag the field got away on heir warm up lap with the notable exceptions
of John Miller and Shane Kelly. John’s car was quickly push started by the marshals and
he soon rejoined the back of the grid on its way round.
Shane’s car was more problematic. After getting fired up from a bump-start, he eventually stuttered away but the engine was cutting out badly and his slow progress caused a delayed start to be called. The battery men rushed to their charges on the reformed grid, John Miller and Shane Kelly bringing up the rear.
At the second green flag the whole grid got away on the warm-up lap successfully and came round for the start. The red lights went out and the field roared away towards Gerrards, Justin Sherwood leading from the pole. Disappointingly, Shane Kelly’s problems were terminal and his car, again failing to get away, was pushed off the grid to relative safety on the grass, his race over.
The order at the end of the first lap was, Justin Sherwood with a healthy gap back to Gary Marsh, in turn closely followed by Ken Finneran and Keith Baldwin. Jon Gray was 5th, then came Chris Willie and Paul Sibley, already engrossed in what was to become a terrific tussle for the Class B honours. John Miller, starting from the back of the grid was up to 8th followed by Peter Hannam and finally, Dave Porter, who was already experiencing engine problems that would prove terminal. Dave retired in the pits at the end of the 2nd lap with worrying sounds plus fluid losses, both oil and water, from his motor.
As the race progressed, the top four gradually drew apart, Justin Sherwood looking supreme on his Club F3 debut.
The dice of the race was between Chris Willie and Paul Sibley who were battling furiously less than a car’s length apart as they flashed past the pit wall. John Miller was also now involved in their battle as his clearly faster car sought a way past them. To say it was hectic would be a serious understatement.
Eventually John Miller managed to pass them both and drew away to take up his chase of the now distant Jon Gray who was dropping back from the leading four. With around 16 minutes to go,
Gary Marsh, his qualifying fuel pick-up problems clearly sorted, showed signs of catching Justin Sherwood. To add to the mix, Ken Finneran and Keith Baldwin seemed to be
closing down on Gary.
Over the next couple of laps it looked like there might be a challenge for the lead. However, Justin Sherwood got his head down and reasserted his dominance. The gaps spread out again. Keith Baldwin closed rapidly and passed Ken Finneran, whose car’s handling was
deteriorating badly. Jon Gray also rapidly caught Ken who then spun out on the
approach to Shaw’s Hairpin. At around half distance the order was Justin Sherwood
leading comfortably from the hard trying Gary Marsh and Keith Baldwin, all a few car
lengths apart. Fourth was Jon Gray some distance adrift and John Miller well back from Jon. The Class B battle was sadly over when Paul Sibley’s motor started misfiring badly which took the pressure off Chris Willie in what was now a lonely 6th place. Even with his misfire, Paul Sibley in 7th was able to stay well clear ahead of a troubled and bottoming out, Peter Hannam who completed the remaining runners.
Apart from the leaders making their way through back-markers, that was about it. At the flag, Justin Sherwood, having eased down somewhat on his cruise to the finish, took a magnificent and untroubled win together with the Class A honours on his debut. His lead was around 3.3 seconds over Gary Marsh, with Keith Baldwin a similar distance behind Gary.
The Class B win went to Chris Willie in 6th place. Paul Sibley soldiered on to 7th overall – one lap down, and Peter Hannam struggled home 4 laps down but taking the Masters Class trophy.
Another solid race throughout then, it had its high points and the cars as usual were turned out by their teams in beautiful order. Thanks to all of you for making a go of the event and once again putting on a fine show.
Club F3 - RACE CLASSIFICATION - RACE 5
1 22 A Justin SHERWOOD Dallara F304 24:45.830
2 4 A Gary MARSH Dallara F302 24:49.215 33
3 1 A Keith BALDWIN Dallara F301 24:51.810
4 8 A Jon GRAY Dallara F304 25:14.234
5 28 A John MILLER Dallara F398 25:27.509
6 7 B Chris WILLIE Dallara F396 25:15.074 32 1 LAP
7 6 B Paul SIBLEY Dallara F395/96 24:59.449 31 2 LAPS
8 34 Mas Peter HANNAM Reynard F392 25:09.195 29 4 LAPS
Not Classified
5 A Ken FINNERAN Dallara F302 9:13.144 12 D.N.F.
25 A David PORTER Dallara F399/01 55.102 1 D.N.F.
11 A Shane KELLY Dallara F397 0 D.N.F
Fastest Lap
22 A -Justin SHERWOOD 44.019 18 177.68kph
6 B - Paul SIBLEY 45.756 4 170.93kph
34 Mas - Peter HANNAM 49.368 3 158.43kph
Start Time : 15:11
Weather / Track : Sunny / Dry End Time : 15:36
Copyright © 2006 MST Sports Timing Ltd. All Rights Reserved Printed : 15:38 Sunday 20 August 2006
Wills won well
Round 6 - Brands Hatch
On Sunday Gavin Wills won the Club F3 race, his Dallara F398 crossing the line 19 seconds up on second placed Ken Finneran, also in a Dallara. Wills put in a dominant display at Brands Hatch to win round 6 of The Enterprise Group Club Formula 3 Championship.
The Team WestTec driver scored maximum points with a hat-trick of Pole, win and Fastest Lap.
Reigning ARP F3 Champion Keith Baldwin started alongside Wills on the grid, with run away 2006 Championship leader Shane Kelly in 3rd. A good start from Kelly saw him up to 2nd behind Wills at Paddock Hill Bend, but he and Baldwin would make it no further than Druids. Looking regain his 2nd place Baldwin made a move to the inside at Druids, locking up on cold tyres he slid into the championship leader breaking his own steering and beaching Kelly in the gravel.
"It was completely my fault" said Baldwin. "I went for the inside after Paddock and had a look at Druids - I didn't think Shane could carry as much speed around the outside, but he did and I just couldn't slow down enough to avoid him. I'm sorry he wasn't able to keep going, he only had his rear wheels in the gravel, but the marshals couldn't help him out."
After a brief safety car period, Wills began to pull away from Gary Marsh and Ken Finneran. On lap seven Finneran was through into 2nd and Marsh fell back into the range of Jon Gray, a battle began for 3rd place that lasted until lap 22 when Gray began a move around the outside of Druids before making it stick at Graham Hill.
Crossing the line with a 20 second lead, Wills finally broke Shane Kelly's 5 race winning streak."I had a good race, with no problems - the car was brilliant, I'd like to thank the guys from Endowment Aid who asked me to race it for them here today.
Finneran scored his first podium of the season with 2nd place and Jon Gray closed the gap to Kelly in the championship be taking 3rd.Chris Willie was a deserved winner of Class B after a season blighted withengine problems. Nick Robinson won the Masters Class in 8th place overall.Shane Kelly still leads the Championship on 95 points, with Jon Gray in 2nd on 80 and Gary Marsh 3rd on 67
Shane Kelly made it five wins out of five in the 2006 Enterprise Group Club F3 Championship at Snetterton.
Snetterton 9th July 2006 - Round 5
After the success of Donington, a lower number did not mean it was a quiet race. On the contrary, it was to be a super race that was tightly contested all the way to the flag.
Qualifying
The weather was cloudy but thankfully dry. What more can I say – Chris Willie’s hex struck again, his engine refusing to run properly when installed in his car. Despite the lower numbers, qualifying was a super contest. Times rapidly came down as the initially slippery track dried after the overnight rain. Paul Sibley had a fuel pump failure and parked his car at the Bomb Hole without completing one flying lap.
The sharp end of the grid was under dispute throughout the first part of themsession. Again, Shane Kelly seemed to be struggling. At one time or another each of the Class A runners topped the list – times were super close. At one point all six were well within one second. Gary Marsh tried a tad too hard at Riches and went straight on, perhaps to do a bit of harvesting? This brought out the Red Flag. Once restarted, Jon Gray produced a time that took the Pole. Paul Quinn tried hard but pitted before the end of the session. His reason… “If I had stayed out there I would have fallen off”, he said!!!. Another to finish his qualifying early (after only 7 laps) was Chris Needham who reckoned that no one was likely to better his time. Bad call, Chris - Nick Robertson stuck to his task and eventually bettered Chris’s time by 0.6s.
The Race, Club F3 Round 5
Paul Sibley had fixed his fuel-pump problem and joined the field at the back of the 10 car grid. Everyone made a good start with Jon Gray leading a fast starting Shane Kelly around the first lap. They were followed closely by Paul Quinn, Ken Finneran, Keith Baldwin and Gary Marsh, making up the top six.
By the second lap Jon Gray was under immense pressure from Shane Kelly who was taking a look at a possible passing move into Riches. Gary Marsh displaced Keith Baldwin and then set about putting pressure on Ken Finneran, who on lap 5 had a huge spin under braking for Russell. Ken resumed but from then on wassuffering from a badly flat-spotted tyre.
Paul Sibley had by this time, moved up to 7th place followed by a fierce dice between Nick Robinson and Chris Needham for 8th and 9th. Mike White brought up the rear. Shane Kelly maintained the pressure on Jon Gray and together they started to pull clear of Paul Quinn. Paul was in turn moving clear of the fine battle for 4th between Gary Marsh, Keith Baldwin and the recovering Ken Finneran.
Paul Sibley was by now in a safe 7th place well clear of the ongoing battle between Chris Needham and Nick Robertson for 8th place. The lead battle stabilised with Shane Kelly dropping back a few car lengths – perhaps to take a bit of a breather or maybe to ‘rest’ his tyres in preparation for another charge nearer the end of the race.
As the leaders started to pass the back markers, things tightened up again and Shane Kelly resumed his pressuring of Jon Gray. Things stayed pretty much the same until lap 19 when Shane Kelly finally made his move down the Revett Straight and into the Esses. He made his pass on Jon Gray and appeared in the lead as they exited the Bomb Hole and headed into Coram. Jon dropped back and Paul Quinn started to catch him. However, at the flag Shane Kelly sealed his victory, Jon Gray was 2nd, and Paul Quinn again made the final podium step.
Down the field, Nick Robertson eventually pipped Chris Needham to 8th place after their race long battle.
What a super race. Well done to everyone for putting on a grand show. “Mr 100%” is now on 5 out of 5 wins.
Can anyone break this magnificent run of success? Roll on BrandsHatch – and, we’ll have some new series debutantes to challenge forsupremacy. I Can’t wait !!!
Rick Burgoyne
Club F3 Championship Co-ordinator
Kelly surprise!
Donington Park 17th June 2006 - Round 4
A very warm welcome to Club F3 series debutants Paul Quinn, Gavin Wills, Steve Allen, Dave Porter and Dave Karaskas. But, there are still some other registered Club F3 members who have yet to make their series debuts.
Qualifying
The weather was at last fine and sunny for a Club F3 event, quite appropriate for such a super entry. Sadly, yet again Chris Willie’s desperately bad luck continued, his engine having blown out its coolant after only 6 laps of testing the previous day. Qualifying was as usual a fraught affair which saw times being tightly contested. However, one of the usual suspects was not in his accustomed place atthe front. Shane Kelly was struggling. Series debutant Gavin Wills showed his class and topped the times for quite a while, vying for supremacy with Keith Baldwin, Ken Finneran, Gary Marsh and Jon Gray. However, one amazing “banzai” lap from Gary Marsh, who, “…got Craner Curves absolutely perfect and then just threw the car at Old Hairpin”, put the Pole beyond anyone else’s reach when, a lap later, again at Old Hairpin, his engine deposited most of its oil together with some rather critical internal bits on the track. The things some folk will do to protect their pole position – shades of a certain German cobbler – well perhaps not on this occasion !!!
Notable efforts came from Paul Knapton who once again was the quickest in the Masters Class (ahead of Paul Sibley’s Class B car), after starting hisqualifying efforts late due to helping series debutant Steve Allen to get going. Steve’s efforts netted him an amazing 5th, particularly remarkable given that he had no dash display so was driving purely by ear and
experience and, he set his time on the very last lap of the session after the oil spillage. Series debutant, Dave Karaskas, struggled bravely with a stuck throttle but typically, drove through the problem using the ignition switch.
So the top six were Gary Marsh, Gavin Wills, Keith Baldwin, Ken Finneran, Steve Allen and John Gray. Shane Kelly was a disappointed and un-accustomed 7th. Paul Knapton and Paul Sibley headed the Masters Class and Class B respectively 8th and 9th on the grid. Bringing up the rear of the grid was Dave Karaskas after his trying time.
www.ClubF3.co.uk
The Race,
Initially it was looking doubtful that Gary Marshwould be able to take up his Pole position. However a new motor was arranged and delivered all the way from Norfolk followed by an heroic effort from Gary’s team, which meant that he would start from the pit-lane along with
Paul Sibley. Thirty seconds would have seen Gary out via the Assembly area onto the grid but that’s racing! The beautifully prepared grid formed up behind the vacant pole spot. As the lights went out, Keith Baldwin made a super start from 3rd while Gavin Wills did the opposite.
As the field swept through Redgate, Mike White spun into the gravel trap and retirement. This brought out yellow flags that would have significant consequences. Shane Kelly’s start must have been even better as he took an early lead from a lowly 7th grid slot on the first lap from Gavin Wills, Keith Baldwin and Jon Gray. Ken Finneran held 5th and Steve Allen was 6th.
Gary Marsh had made rapid progress and, at the end of the first lap was up to 13th. But, he passed under the yellow flags on the pit straight, (a feat he then repeated the following lap). Later troubles brewing there then!!! Gavin Wills was catching Shane Kelly and in turn, was being caught by Keith Baldwin.
Paul Quinn moved up to 6th place and then Ken Finneran spun off at Copse trying to pass Keith Baldwin promoting Paul up to 5th. The top six order at around a quarter distance was Wills leading, Kelly second, under great pressure from Baldwin third, then Gray fourth, Quinn fifth and Steve Allen sixth.
Next up was Paul Knapton again showing just how competitive a well driven Masters Class car can be. Keith Baldwin then put in a string of fast laps relegating Shane Kelly to 3rd. With Gavin Wills pulling clear in the lead, the furious battle for second comprised the four cars of Keith Baldwin, Shane Kelly, now under pressure from Jon Gray and Paul Quinn. Around 10
minutes to go and, by this time Gary Marsh, now up to sixth, had disposed of both Paul Knapton and Steve Allen in quick succession. There was also a super battle going on for 9th place between Terry Ludgrove and Chris Needham. Jon Gray and Shane Kelly were swapping 3rd place while further down the field a fine tussle for 15th was developing between Peter Kalpakiotis and Dave Karaskas.
At the front, Gavin Wills was slowing with what was later diagnosed as fuel pump failure. It was the incentive needed for Keith Baldwin to put in the fastest lap and take the lead. The slowing Wills in second place was being caught by Shane Kelly who put in a flier of a lap to pull clear of the dicing Paul Quinn and Jon Gray. Kelly then passed Wills who was forced into the pits and retirement by his failing car. Bad luck Gavin, but what an impressive series debut – well done.
Keith Baldwin continued to lead from Shane Kelly, Jon Gray, Paul Quinn, Gary Marsh and the Masters Class leader Paul Knapton.Terry Ludgrove was next up followed by the Class B leader Chris Needham. Alan Ellis retired from 9th place, promoting Dave Porter. The drama was not yet complete. Keith Baldwin almost tangled with a backmarker at the chicane allowing Shane Kelly back into the lead.
A lap later Keith pitted to have a piece of the chicane ‘furniture’ (a bollard) that was causing histemperature to sky-rocket, removed from his side-pod. At the flag after a brilliant race with a multitude of different leaders, the result was Shane Kelly (making it a surprise four out of four), Jon Gray and Paul Quinn on the podium. Gary Marsh after a superb drive took 4th withKeith Baldwin recovering to 5th. Paul Knapton, the last of the un-lapped runners, took the Masters Class honours with another superb drive to 6th place and Chris Needham took the Class B win in 8th place behind Terry Ludgrove, who it is sad to report was taken off to hospital after the race with what was initially thought to be a case of heat exhaustion.
Rick Burgoyne
Rockingham 6th – 7th May 2006 - Rounds 2 & 3
Qualifying
Weather on the Saturday was generally ok and despite a bad forecast for the whole weekend, thankfully remained dry. The two un-timed sessions were even held in warm sunshine. On the downside, yet again Chris Willie was the bad luck magnet. Sadly, Chris this time suffered what seemed to be a head gasket failure as his engine blew out its coolant. This meant that he was unable to even take part in the qualifying session.
As at Silverstone, qualifying saw times being tightly contested, at one point during the session there were seven cars within 0.7 of a second. Eventually, with echoes of the first round, the pole again went to Ken Finneran with Shane Kelly sharing the front row. Series debutant Paul Knapton showed that a Masters Class car can be very quick taking a fine 5th overall.
The Race. (Race 1 Round 2)
For the first race, the weather was dry but the track remained very greasy after overnight rain had only cleared earlier that morning. Chris Willie was a non-starter. At the green flag, Shane stalled and was passed by the entire field before his battery man could get to him and
get him started. Ken duly brought the field around reasonably well packed which allowed a minimal hold. However as the field took up their grid positions Shane incorrectly reassumed his front row position instead of starting from the back of the grid. If it wasn’t for an amazing
piece of luck, he would have been penalised. However, his luck was truly in. The red lights went out and the field got away. Shane made a lightening start but Ken’s start was dreadful and he was soon down to 6th place.
There were all sorts of spins and the race was almost immediately red flagged due to Alan Ellis’s spin which stranded his car in a dangerous position at the exit of Deene. This of course meant an entirely new race would be started and that allowed Shane to take the start from his original grid position without penalty.
At the restart, Ken once again bogged down and crawled off the line. Shane was off like a rocket and was never headed. It was clearly beneficial to have the outside line at the start. Shane soon built a huge lead (eventually lapping all but the other podium finishers). This doesn’t tell the whole story as there were some great battles back in the field and 2nd place was strongly contested by a group of 4 cars.
Ken’s race was miserable – after finishing the first lap down in 6th place, he eventually spun into retirement on the second or third lap. Alan Ellis’s luck was also out. He just clipped the rear of Nick Robinson’s car and clattered into the wall at Turn 4. Happily Alan was unhurt in what was a very high speed shunt. His car remained there for the entire race and, despite a significant amount of debris being scattered across the track. A yellow flag was displayed and everyone drove sensibly so there was no adverse outcome. Other spinners were Jon Gray and Paul Sibley both of whom continued. Jon then set about catching Paul Knapton who was having an excellent series debut.
There was a great scrap for 2nd place, then held by Keith Baldwin but a wicked vibration was hampering his efforts to say nothing of his vision!!! Eventually he lost out to Chris Needham, Paul Sibley, Jon Gray and Paul Knapton. In the meantime Shane continued to draw away, lapping back-markers and increasing his already massive lead. Ultimately the race for 2nd came down to a superb dice between Chris Needham and Jon Gray with Chris eventually losing out to Jon on the very last lap. However, Chris seriously impressed the Rockingham commentators with a truly amazing pass to take Jon around the outside at the Deene hairpin. Paul Sibley was fourth and Paul Knapton 5th.
Keith struggled home in 6th place with, in addition to his terrible vibration, a recurring misfire. The remaining finishers were Gary Marsh, Nick Robinson, Mike White and finally Peter Hannam. The fastest lap points went to Shane Kelly, Chris Needham and Paul Knapton.
Race 2 – Club F3 Round 3
The track was dry and there were no dramas at the start of the second race other than for the spinners at Deene on the first lap. The field was missing Alan Ellis after his first race damage proved too major (in particular, a cracked bellhousing). Shane again did his disappearing act and simply drove away from the rest of the field.
As in the first race a grand scrap developed for 2nd. Keith Baldwin headed it closely followed by Gary Marsh in a super dice which allowed Ken Finneran, who had made great progress from his back row start to join them. Ken passed Gary to take third and then passed Keith into the chicane to take second. Gary then got by Keith and they traded fastest laps, Gary eventually bagging the extra points.
Fifth to ninth were Paul Sibley, Paul Knapton, Chris Needham, Nick Robinson and Pete Hannam and finally, a misfiring Jon Gray bringing up the rear. Jon, who had made a poor start, pitted with a major misfire. His team thought it was a spark-plug problem and set about changing them. His stop was very long and he eventually resumed, hoping to set a fastest lap to gain the bonus points, but the misfire was chronic. Although Jon completed the race, his time in the pits coupled with his slower pace meant that he was a non-classified finisher (having completed an insufficient percentage of the race).
The second place battle continued and Gary was attacking Ken when Ken spun out at Deene, demoting himself back down to 6th place. Paul Knapton was shown a black and white diagonal flag and pitted (and retired) believing that he’d been flagged because there was a problem with his car. In fact he was being flagged for his driving standards, i.e., corner cutting, so he had not actually needed to stop. Shortly afterwards, another to retire, with a destroyed cv joint, was Peter Hannam. With a few minutes to go, Gary started to make inroads into Shane’s lead – perhaps may have been Shane was easing off?
Meanwhile Ken was closing fast on Chris Needham and made a cool inside pass to take 5th. Shane took the second win of the day to make it the first Club F3 hat-trick. Gary Marsh ran very well and took a fine second place with Keith Baldwin netting the final podium step. Paul Sibley just lost 4th place to Ken Finneran right on the line, the gap a mere two tenths. Chris Needham was the last classified finisher in 6th with Jon bringing up the rear, having completed only 16 laps with his chronic misfire.
Silverstone 15th April 2006 - Round 1
Qualifying Thankfully, the weather remained dry in despite the cloudy and very gusty conditions and TV weather forecasters threatening occasional showers. Chris Willie was unable to take part due to his engine having lunched a couple of pistons in testing the previous day. Of the remaining thirteen competitors, qualifying was mostly uneventful. Mike
White however completed only a handful of laps before problems stopped his efforts. Times were tightly contested and Shane Kelly and Ken Finneran ended up on the front row with Pole Position going to Ken. Paul Sibley, as the only Class B runner was a very creditable 7th on the grid and the fastest Master Class runner was Peter Kalpakiotis (9th overall) just ahead of Nick Robinson (10th).
|The Race.
Weather dry, cloudy-bright and windy – at the end of the green flag lap, Ken Finneran brought the field around reasonably well packed which allowed a minimal hold. As the lights went out, Ken made a good start to take advantage of his ‘pole’ into Copse for the first time. Shane Kelly was right up there too after a super start and threatening to steal the lead. The field swept around the first lap with Ken in the lead, closely followed by Shane and a tight group comprising Jon Gray, Keith Baldwin and Gary Marsh. Paul Sibley consolidated his good grid position in 6th. The rear of the field was brought up by Terry Ludgrove, who lost out badly at the start, and Mike White.
At the front things remained tightly contested until lap 4 when Shane exited Woodcote and powered his car alongside Ken past the pits. Side by side into Copse, Ken had to give way and Shane took the lead. The first 5 cars were still covered by little over 2 seconds. Mike White pitted on lap 3 with sticking gear lever bushes hampering his gear changes and set about fixing the problem. He finally rejoined the race, 15 laps down, on lap 19. On lap 6, Keith Baldwin passed Jon Gray to move up to 3rd and the next lap got by Ken to go 2nd and on lap 7, Gary Marsh got it all wrong and spun down to last place. By this time Ken was struggling with deteriorating handling that turned out to be a slow puncture, probably picked up on the second lap. Nonetheless, Ken managed to drive around the worsening problem and stayed in 3rd place until lap 11 when Jon got by, Ken dropping back badly and finally retiring on lap 12. Also on lap 11, Peter Hannam and Nick Robinson tangled and both went off at Brooklands - neither restarted.
At the front, the action remained fairly static with the first three covered by less than 2 seconds until lap 16 when Jon Gray spun his third place away. He kept the engine going and resumed 26 seconds back in 4th place approx 4 seconds behind Alan Ellis. The next surprise was Keith Baldwin’s exit with a spin at Brooklands – with a dead engine Keith was out. Jon’s recovery drive was electric and he finally re passed Alan on lap 23 to regain his second place.
While all of this was going on, Peter Kalpakiotis, who had pitted on lap 5 with a broken throttle spring, rejoined in the lead of the Masters Class (due to the demise of Peter Hannam and Nick Robinson). Peter later told of his scare as the throttle stayed wide open entering Copse !!!
The race finished after an exciting 26 laps with Shane winning, Jon second and Alan bagging the final podium place. Paul Sibley drove a solid race, finishing a fine 6th, to take the Class B honours and Peter K took the Masters Class in 8th place overall. Well done everyone for putting on a super entertaining race with which our series sponsors, the Enterprise Group were delighted and thoroughly enjoyed.
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