The gravel before the finish line was magnetic ....

quite a few cars put a wheel or two in.

CRASH, BANG, WALLOP, WHAT A PICTURE!!! - reporter: Matt Hollis

Lydden Hill is one of those very few tracks where it is possible to see all of the circuit at once when spectating. Although this means that most people are able to follow a race and know what’s going on, it can have its drawbacks, namely not knowing where to look all the time. As if to prove this point, nearly all the drivers who made the ridiculously long trek to everybody’s favourite customs checkpoint decided to drive off the tarmac at some point during the weekend.

With Dover officially being classed as “the furthest place from anywhere else” (narrowly pipping Pembrey to the title), grid numbers were slightly disappointing. The amount of cars was further reduced when Marc Fenner was stopped by police on the way to the track, who promptly impounded his trailer whilst it was checked for any refugees clinging on underneath. All of the morning’s action was taken up by a saloon car time trial, which gave all the 2CV racers plenty of time to fiddle with their cars and ruin the handling for qualifying. Pete Sparrow, in touching distance of the title, decided he needed more of a challenge and promptly failed to make the start of the session. In fact, he missed so much he ended up 16th and last on the grid. Up at the front, Phil Myatt took pole, ahead of the impressive Steve Panas, Wayne Cowling and Roger Lott, who had clearly lost none of his speed despite a significant break from sprint racing.

At the start it was all action as Myatt led away, with Sparrow already having overtaken half the field by the first corner! Such was Pete’s speed that it was pretty clear he would be in the lead before too long, but he never got the chance as the red flags came out. Into the final corner, Greg Wheeler and Richard Hollis had been side-by-side, but on the exit Hollis found himself with no room and skated off into the gravel trap. Unfortunately, he then skated back out of the gravel and into the path of his brother. Matt narrowly avoided him, but Richard had already hit the anchors, bringing him to a dead stop on the racing line. Miraculously, most of the field missed him, but Tim Dodgson (in what he claimed would probably be his last race in his ex-car) was unsighted and slammed into the front-left corner at near full throttle, to then be collected by Bob Rice. The result was three mangled cars, with all three out of the running for the rest of the meeting. Fortunately there were no serious injuries, although Tim and Richard did suffer bruising.

At the restart, Sparrow did exactly the same as before, and promptly took the lead before too long. Myatt didn’t give up though, but eventually his fuel cap did. With fuel leaking out, he was black-flagged and disqualified, which assured Sparrow the championship. It was an unfortunate way to decide the title, but Phil was gracious in defeat. As Phil pulled off, Lott came through to take 2nd place, ahead of the battling Storey, Cowling and Pete Cardell-Williams. Aubrey Brocklebank never even got to race as his gearbox packed up in qualifying, and following the first race pile-up, it left Ben Allan pretty much on his own, as he fought to catch Zoe Cardell, Matt Hollis and Shaun McLaughlin.

After the excitement of the sprint race, most people thought that the non-championship enduro races would be a bit more relaxed. This is officially termed as an “error”. Despite the more normal grid positions, there was still plenty of action, even before the race started. Up the hill on the parade lap, Mick Storey crawled to a halt, and so with the 3 cars from the sprint race already withdrawn, the field was down 12. At the start, Sparrow made the most of pole position ahead of Myatt, with Matt Hollis getting past a slow starting Wayne Cowling to surprise himself into 3rd. As Pete and Phil pulled away, Matt was joined by Ed Mason, Mad Pete and the recovering Wayne. After several laps, Pete and Wayne managed to pull clear, leaving Ed and Matt to fight for 5th. Ben Allan did an impressive spin at Paddock, so impressive that his boot fell off in astonishment. With over half the race gone things were pretty stable until Mark Constable and Jody Lott made contact at that dreaded final corner. The next cars round were Cardell-Williams and Cowling, who promptly hit the brakes. Wayne managed to avoid most of the carnage, but Pete went head-on into the tyres, creating yet another 2CV write-off. Hollis and Mason were similarly close, with Matt choosing to turn right (the correct choice) and Ed going left of the stricken cars (the incorrect choice). Ed caught Pete’s rebounding car, knocking off his rear wing but getting away pretty lightly otherwise. Eventually the red flags came out, though not before Aubrey Brocklebank (who had managed to start this race) had performed an impressive slide to avoid the impending doom. And so ended the first endurance race, with Sparrow winning ahead of Myatt, Cowling, Hollis and Mason.

By this stage, raceable cars were starting to run out. Some drivers were considering commandeering the numerous road 2CVs which had turned up to spectate from a nearby camp. Shaun McLaughlin withdrew as his engine had gone pop, leaving just 11 cars for the second enduro. Gary Adnitt had taken over from Sparrow, and resumed the battle with Myatt that Pete had been having in the first part. This time they were joined by Roger Lott, who was right on their tails, but ultimately had to settle for 3rd behind Gary and Phil. Ainslie Bousfield was driving well in Wayne’s car, but eventually fell back to finish a lonely 4th. Steve Panas went well to start with, but an early off saw him finish back in 8th, before branding the car undriveable. Matt Hollis and Mick Storey were enjoying a great battle for 5th, with Mick suffering from fuel starvation down the back straight, only to recover and re-pass as Hollis struggled with no traction in the slower corners. Ultimately it was Hollis who got the upper hand, despite nearly chucking it away on the last corner of the last lap with a panicky sideways moment (obviously deliberate – just showing off for the spectators). They had been battling with Greg Wheeler earlier in the race, but Greg pulled into the pits after ten minutes, desperate not to damage his car having already escaped narrowly from the two major accidents before (actually it looked like a mechanical problem but you never know!). Ben Allan/Jamie Lister finished 9th ahead of Brocklebank/Francis Rottenburg, who had spent what seemed like the whole weekend trying to make the car run, let alone race it.