PM report:
After a 45 minute lunch the business of sorting out who would run what for the afternoon session commenced. LMP1 had looked 'iffy' in the week, but HONK winner Mike's decision to come racing rather than be down on the Thames, coupled with John O decided to fit an LMP1 to his quick car from the OW races meant the class would have a full final. Paul R, with one eye on the LMP1 Minor points and the other on next season, decided to give Mod a go, this combined with Matty and Julian choosing the class resulted in it's biggest following of the season with six. There would also be six ProMods, the core five being joined by Martin, and four Nascars.
The Nascars got the finals underway. Dave had once again blitzed everyone during qualifying, taking seven of the eight available fastest laps and most laps on the way to pole by 5.1 laps. Lee H had shown his potential by taking fastest lap in blue lane, but Dave's strength lies in consistency as well as speed, his efficiency is that lane at 90% compared to 80-85% for his rivals. The win was less straight forward, Lee and Paul W both heading him early on before offs of their own. Once in the lead, the double champion set about building a big gap and lowering the lap record for the class by several tenths, on the way to win number 12.
LMP1 was next up. Mike, fresh from that mighty win at HONK, had been running sweetly all afternoon, taking pole from Andy W by 1.15 laps mostly due to storming score in red lane. February and March winner Rob was some way back from these two, and only half a lap up on John. Andy seemed very relaxed though, Mike a little tense, and in the end the former was able to take a comfortable win, as well as the EAHORC cup to go with his OW title. He is very close to taking the LMP1 title too, to complete the clean sweep. The only way Rob can prevent that is to finish 16 or so places ahead at Worthing! He did manage to keep Mike on his toes in this round, getting to within half a lap come the finish, but there is no doubt the star of the day was one Andy Whorton.
Next up was Modified, where Paul Rose had used his experience of the class at SCHORC to take pole from Champion Paul H by just 0.15 laps. PH had built up an advantage of 0.8 laps across red and blue lanes, but PR had blitzed every one in white, and that is where pole had been won. Worryingly for those who may have to face Paul in this class next season his fastest lap was nearly half a second better than anyone else could manage. This was translated into a one lap win come the A final, with Paul W content with second ahead of Al, having a quiet time of it due to chassis issues. Lee T was fourth, after a straightforward B final win over Julian Allard and Matty.
The day was completed by two Pro-Mod finals. The first of these was bizarre to say the least. Craig had missed out on the A final due to not completing his yellow lane run and then having an axle go awol after a big crash in white lane. Marc had been going pretty well considering his switch to a WHP chassis is still a recent one, but on past form Craig would be favourite to make the A. However, Marc got into an early lead from Clive, and by the time Craig got into second place he had quite a gap. The Wiltshire racer had really decked his car, and the arm did not like it. It seemed to slow somewhat and Marc was then able to run around flat out and error free to the finish! His lap times were pretty quick and the gap was not coming down fast enough, and so Marc was able to take one of the oddest final wins ever.
If the B final was not a great advert for the fastest class, the A certainly was. Andy Player had taken pole very comfortably, but one could see that Martin was still getting rid of the rustiness. He was further assisted by Deane mistakenly choosing white lane over red in the belief it was the multiple champions best, and handing him what actually was. Nonetheless Andy had blue lane, where he had been mighty, and following his recent dominance was feeling confident in his beautifully turned out car. He was to be undone by three incidents where cars were riding his lane, and will know in future to track call such occurrences instantly, and race flow be damned. Martin had also picked up his pace, finding well over two laps since his heat in the same lane, to take a popular win. He thus has a 100% record in class this season, and I for one hope against hope we see him before December.
Thus ended a top-notch day of racing I was not even sure would go ahead a few months ago. Thank you to everyone who gave up a day of their bank holiday to ensure a large, quality field descended on the capital as HRH celebrated a truly amazing feat. The series now moves to WHO for the end of season bash, with several titles still up for grabs.
DW