| 2008 race 7 - Mallory Park |
| Friday, 03 April 2009 17:47 | |||
 As the competitors arrived at a sunny Mallory Park in Leicestershire, Phil Myatt had a healthy 123 point lead over 2nd place man Andy Smith, with Matt Riley and Mark Turner 180 and 185 points down on Myatt respectively. With 100 points on offer for a win, and two races on the Sunday, it wasn't really time for Phil to relax! Mallory also saw a welcome return for "Wee Fiona" - one of the oldest cars racing in the championship. Recently repainted in the Hollis Motorsport colours (their 3rd car) it was piloted by Nigel Hollis in race one, and Frank Barnard in race two, carrying the number 70. After qualifying for race one, Neil Thompson was rather startled to be on pole - his first! Myatt would start 2nd, and Cowling 3rd. As the race got under way, Neil held the tighter inside line, and so Myatt went around the outside of the first corner, Gerrards. Cowling lost some ground, and Richard Hollis was holding on to the shirt tails of the two cars in front for 3rd.  Around the back of the circuit, there were cars flying everywhere. Thompson was mugged at the hairpin, and at the end of lap one, Myatt was in the lead, followed closely by Martin Hindley up from 7th on the grid! Sandro Proietti moved up to 3rd, Thompson was 4th, Cowling 5th and Rich Hollis in 6th.Neil promptly got past Proietti on the next lap. Sammie Fritchley stormed past Rich Hollis to take 6th, up from 17th on the grid - a superb opening 3 laps for her! The lead three (Myatt, Hindley, Thompson) then developed a bit of a gap to the next bunch on lap 4, which was comprised of Cowling, Proietti, Fritchley, Pirt and Callandar - the latter two separated by inches. For the next 4 laps, the order remained the same. The top 3 formed a pack, as did the next 3, then the next 5. The pack split up into races within the race - each as hard fought as the others. Rich and Matt Hollis were dicing hard for 10th place on lap 8, as Jack Gabriel pitted with problems, which kept him out of the race for the next 8 laps. By lap 12, Andy Smith had worked his way up to 9th, displacing Andy Pirt. Aubrey Brocklebank had fought his way into 10th. Smith then had a 4 lap battle with Christian Callandar - the two of them swapping places almost every lap. Callandar was also trying to get past Greg Wheeler, who was at the front of their bunch, and he managed it on lap 15, demoting Wheeler to 9th, and Smith followed Callandar through to take 8th.  Neil Thompson set fastest lap on lap 16 and Aubrey got past Andy Pirt on lap 18. Sandro Proietti made a bid for 4th place on lap 21, and it paid off, demoting Wayne Cowling to 5th. Behind them, Sammie Fritchley was all on her own in 6th, and then another pack of cars, led by Callandar. Yellow flags were being shown at the Esses. The yellows were brought in by the next lap, and lap 22 was to be the last. At the front, the battle was still raging between Myatt, who just had the nod from Hindley, then Thompson. Proietti was 4th after a gap, then Cowling, then Sammie still on her own. Callander was still holding on for 7th, ahead of a bunch of cars including Andy Smith, Greg Wheeler, and Rich Hollis.  As the first three cars came around the hairpin for the final time, it was neck-and-neck. They fanned out 3 abreast through Devil's Elbow, and as they approached the line it could have gone to any of them. The chequered flag flew, and no one could pick a winner, not even the commentators!After a short time, the timing screens showed that Hindley had taken the win, just 0.056 seconds from Myatt, who was 0.088 seconds from N Thompson! It was literally a photo finish, with only a bumper's width separating the top 3. Sandro Proietti came in 4th (an impressive debut). 5th was Wayne Cowling, then Sammie Fritchley, then Christian Callandar in 7th, Andy Smith 8th, Greg Wheeler 9th, Andy Pirt in 10th, Aubrey Brocklebank in 11th, Matt Hollis 12th, then Rich Hollis, Helen Deeley 14th, Matt Riley 15th, Graham Harper 16th, Then Nigel Hollis.  Mark Turner was a non-finisher after 19 laps. Jack Gabriel was not classified after only 14 laps completed. Darren Baker and Steve Sadler did not finish, with Baker completing just 12 laps and Sadler not completing any.Download results in .PDF format: http://www.tsl-timing.com/barc/2008/83821.pdf Gallery: http://www.2cvracing.org.uk/gallery/10-mallory08
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| Last Updated on Friday, 03 April 2009 18:06 |