Richard Dalton took his second victory of the day along with team mate Gary Byatt in the first round of the Enduro Cup. It was an incident-packed race, keeping the marshals busy with their yellow flags. A drying track meant that lap times began to quicken - Dalton & Byatt regularly shaving 12 seconds of their pole position time.
It was not all plain sailing for them - Royce Grey took an early lead and held it for the first quarter of the race. The top five cars (Dalton, Sparrow, Whiteley, Lott and Grey) soon began to put space between themselves and the rest of the field.
However, circumstances soon changed for Royce Grey. A bent wing began to foul his nearside rear tyre and slow his pace until, on lap 25, the tyre blew with such force that the wing flew off on the start/finish straight. It was accompanied by a resounding bang that could be heard across the track. Not to be put off, Royce managed to control the snaking car around the rest of the lap and into the pits for a rapid wheel (and driver) change.
David O'Keefe began their remarkable recovery, which took the car from 23rd place up into second position in the space of 30 laps, helped by other cars pitting for driver changes. But Byatt was by now nearly a full minute ahead of the pack and could not be caught.
Tragedy struck the Bousfield/Mason car only 8 laps into the race. The front right arm sheared from its wheel, causing the car to plough into the dirt at the hairpin. They were not alone in their disappointment - a total of six cars failed to last the distance. Tim Grey and Paul Taylor had battled up into 6th position from 26th on the grid only to have their engine seize up. The 'Team Gadget Racing' car of Cowling and Rushton was not helped by being black flagged for overtaking under a yellow flag.
