MMALLORY PARK SUNDAY 24th JUNE 2007

GETTING THERE

As usual I had a last minute repair to carry out on the Saturday of the race. Having just returned from a nice relaxing week in Scotland, it was back under the car to remove and rebuild one of the calipers that I had only just rebuilt before Anglesey!

QUALIFYING

The weatherman promised rain, and he delivered! Qualifying was interesting, but most of us got round OK, although Paul Merrett ran out of brakes and lost a headlamp on the rear bumper of Andrew Harrisons car at the hairpin. This was compensated for by being third on the grid! Unfortunately Andrews weekend was to go from bad to worse!

This was my second ever wet qualifying session and I was happy with my 13th (5th in class)!

PRACTICE/QUALIFYING

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Qualifying was a bit damp! (Thanks to Mark Stabler for these 4 pics!)

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THE RACE

Sitting on the grid a bit further forward than usual, I had Mark Russell directly in front of me, with Lawrence Coppock alongside in 12th. The lights went out and I had a reasonable start but unfortunately Mark didn't, which left me boxed in!

The start! Kevin Doyles car can just be seen taking the early lead with Steve Davis in 2nd.

This gave Gary Hastings the perfect opportunity to get in front. We all stayed pretty much in the same position until the Esses when several of us encountered a Paul Merrett at 90 degrees to the track! I managed to slip down the inside and regain a couple of places.

Paul Merrett made negotiating the Esses much more interesting on the first lap! (Pic taken by Rik at Autosuccess and supplied by Ralph Hosier Thanks!)

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Pic 1 & 2 second lap

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Pic1. Lap 3 Lawrence Coppock spins off at Gerrards. Pic2. Steve Davis leads Stewart Lyddall

By Devils Elbow Derek Pearce had made it back past, but I managed to keep everyone else behind. For several laps I managed to keep in touch with John Lock who was giving Gail Hill a run for her money. The gap between myself and John gradually widened but I continued to see the battle between Gail, John, & Mark until the backmarkers came into play.

Gail Hill, John Lock, & Dave Robbie come up to lap Mike Jobson Lap 5

Heavy smoker Andrew Harison retires Lap 5 as David Ball makes his way back up the grid.

Derek Pearce had made it all the way up to 3rd place when on lap 10 he had an off road experience up the hill towards the hairpin, dropping him back to 8th, which very temporarily promoted me to 7th! At about the same time John Lock eventually made it past Gail Hill who had at one time been running in 3rd!

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Pic1. John Lock in pursuit of Gail Hill who is coming up to lap Ralph Hosier. Pic2. Derek Pearce & Dave Robbie lap Bob Beecham as Matt Skelton laps Richard Crossley.

I don't recall seeing too many blue flags whilst trying to make my way through the backmarkers, most of who were having they're own battles. On lap 15 I was making my way through the traffic and was getting ready to pass Ralph Hosier when he went badly out of shape at the Esses, causing me to slow. I was still running second in class but had lost another 3.5 seconds which allowed Matt Skelton to pull alongside on the exit of Devil's Elbow. I was stuck behind Ralph whilst Matt eventually made it completely past me by the start of Gerrards. I was now side by side with Ralph and as we both began to turn in, Lawrence Ball who had been trying to get past the two of us on the inside hit the rear quarter of my car causing us both to spin whilst Ralph attempted to avoid us by taking a trip across the gravel. As No.18 went backwards into the kitty litter myself and Ralph had a coming together damaging both our offside front wings and doors.

<<<<<<< GERRARDS THE MOVIE!

The end to a promising race for No.18! (All but one of the above race Pics were supplied by Mathew & Andrew Jeffery, thanks)

Ralph who had been running in 19th managed to keep going but lost several places finishing 21st, whilst Lawrence managed to get going again, and finished 10th! No.18 remained firmly beached in the gravel perilously close to cars negotiating Gerrards at high speed in worsening conditions. I was very pleased to be out of the car!

Steve Davis won the race with Stewart Lyddall 11 seconds down the road. Chris Palmer was the first class E driver (3rd overall) John Lock managed to stay ahead of Gail Hill to the finish who was out in the her Class E car for the first Championship race this year.

Mike Sharman continued his good form crossing the line in 14th, whilst Kevin Doyle, Jim Quirke, and Andrew Harrison joined myself as a DNF!

Saloon & PBJ page now live. As always I would be most grateful of any pictures from Mallory 2007.

POSS	NAME	CLASS	MALLORY PARK	PICTURE / LINK	CAR No.	CC	QUAL
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.1	Steve Davis	G	.And another one!		15	6L	2
2	Stewert Lyddall	G	Click on Pic for more details>>>>>>		23	5.3L	4
3	Chris Palmer	E	Good improvement on Saturdays result! ..		9	4L	6
4	Mark Russell	G	.		7	5.8L	9
5	John Lock	D	.Another Class D win!		67	4L	11
6	Gail Hill	E	..		1	4L	5
7	Derek Pearce	G	Could have won the race if it had not been red flagged!		58	6L	7
8	Matt Skelton	D	An.		25	3.6L	10
9	Lawrence Coppock	D	Engine failure stopped play!		27	4L	12
10	Lawrence Ball	D	.		63	4L	18
11	Gary Hastings	D	.		2	4L	14
12	Paul Merrett	E	..		73	4L	3
13	Roger Webster	D	Click on Pic>>>>		42	4L	16
14	Mike Sharman	F	Mike again showing good pace in Class F!.		20	5.3L	20
15	Simon Isherwood	D	..		19	3.6L.	15
.16	John Griffin	D	...		39	4L	26
17	David Ball	D	.		4	4.0L	21
18	Paul Reynolds	F	.		47	5.3L	19
19	Bob Beecham	D	.		34	4L	22
20	Richard Crossley	D	.		10	3.6L	24
21	Ralph Hosier	F	Click on Pic for more info>>>>		77	5.3L	23
22	Michael Jobson	F	.		12	5.3L	25
DNF	Dave Robbie	D	"Click on pic for more info>>>>>		18	3.6L	13
DNF	Kevin Doyle	I	.		46	XJS 6L	1
DNF	Andrew Harrison	D	Good result for 2nd ever race!		5	4L	17
DNF	Jim Quirke	D	.		28	4L	8
DNS	Gordan Bobic	F	Not a good weekend for gordan!		24	5.3L	DNS