Race report by Steve Sykes: Sunday was a whole new ball game in every way; another benefit of Trac Mon (let’s use the local moniker) is the different permutations of circuit that are available so this was on the circuit with a nice long extra loop, although it meant losing the Laguna Seca-style corkscrew that ended the lap on the shorter circuit.

For whatever reason, Neil Thompson was on it from the start; as a vegetarian he had not partaken of the club barbecue the previous night so maybe he was carrying less ballast, but he was out on the track like a shot and with a clear road in front of him looked like he would take pole until Nick Paton shaded it by 83/1000ths of a second. Paul Robertson, the man of the moment at Mallory but not on track this weekend, predicted a Thompson victory.

This race was a cracker; Neil led at the end of the first lap (can’t tell you where he got past, control tower was blocking the view) from Nick, with Simon Turner and Simon Clarke immediately behind.

On lap 4 Clarkie took the lead, only for four to become three two laps later when he suddenly became somebody’s emergency braking zone; he kept the car out of the tyres and stayed in the lead for another three corners until the engine expired with a ‘big bang, a cloud of smoke and a rattle’ and he coasted into the pits, but three became five as Lien Davies and Alec Graham joined the battle. Neil and Nick traded the lead, Simon and Lien fought it out, and Alec maintained a watching brief; which was exactly the right thing to do as Simon and Lien tangled at the end and he nipped through into third. And the winner? Neil, after Nick had a moment on the last corner, leaving him the winner by the wide margin (for 2CVs) of 3.7 seconds. Paul Robertson smiled quietly as everyone gathered round him, asking for lottery numbers…