Pembrey June 2005
Introduction	Practice & Qualifying	In the Pits	Teams	Sprint Race	Enduro Race	The Movie	Conclusion

After his win at Oulton Park, Pete Sparrow was looking to extend his championship lead as the 2CV circus arrived at Pembrey, officially the furthest track from anywhere else in the UK. Just to add insult to injury, unless you go over the hills, you have to pay to enter Wales (it’s completely free to leave though), so getting to the track is quite a task even before racing begins. On the entry list, but missing from the paddock was Phil Myatt, who allegedly hadn’t bought enough change to get over the Severn Bridge. Pete Cardell-Williams, aided by a small amount of alcohol, was talking up his chances after testing, describing his performance as “faster than a fast thing”.

SPRINT

Pete Sparrow duly lined up on pole after qualifying for the sprint race, joined on the front row by Wayne Cowling. Steve Panas was third just ahead of Mad Pete, clearly not faster than a fast thing, but quite fast nevertheless. Simon Pearson, Trevor Williams and Zoe Cardell made their season debuts, whilst Andy Kinch took over the Bella’s Boys car for his first sprint race. 2003 champion Gary Adnitt qualified 6th, driving for Tete Rouge after their victory in the 24hrs. At the start, Sparrow and Cowling got away cleanly, as Richard Hollis made another demon start to climb from 7th to 4th. At the end of the second lap Matthew Hollis lost control on the exit of the flat-out last corner, and collected Andy Smith (who had missed 2nd gear at the start and consequently dropped down the field) as he tried to get out of the way. The end result was pretty messy, with bits of the car on the track, Hollis against the pit wall with broken steering and Smith in the pits with a rear arm that had a bit too much negative camber. Such was the excitement the marshals started waving flags, most of which were red, and the race was stopped.

At the restart, Sparrow and Cowling again pulled away, as Richard Hollis starting slipping back with acute understeer. Andy Smith, after a bit of hammering and a lot of bending amazingly made the restart, and still had enough speed to claim 8th by the end. Zoe Cardell was a frequent visitor to the pits but made the finish, albeit several laps down. In the end, Sparrow held of Cowling for his second win of the season, ahead of Mad Pete, Adnitt, Pearson and Panas. Andy Kinch came home in 11th, narrowly beaten by Shaun McLaughlin.

ENDURO

Several new cars joined the grid for the next day’s enduro race, including Roger Lott and Jon Davis. Gary Adnitt defected from Tete Rouge to join Pete Sparrow for this race, managing to put the car on pole for the second time during the weekend. Cowling and Ainslie Bousfield made it a second front-row start for Team Gadget, ahead of Mad Pete/Mick Storey and Panas/Ed Mason. A welcome returnee to racing after a forced absence was Sam Fritchley, who showed she had lost none of her speed, qualifying 10th with Zoe Cardell.

The battle for first was decided pretty quickly, with Sparrow simply driving away from the battling pack, handing Adnitt an unassailable lead. Further back the battles were more intense, with several cars fighting for 2nd, ahead of Pearson, Smith, M Hollis and Colin Whiteley all trying to get 5th. Behind them, Lott/Evans, Andy Kinch and Cardell/Fritchley were fighting over 9th place. At the pitstops, a slow handover between Cowling and Bousfield dropped them to 4th, leaving the Panas/Mason and Storey/Cardell-Williams machines to claim 2nd and 3rd. The Hollis mobile suffered a long stop after a spark plug lead fell off leaving Graham Wallace 5th, ahead of a rapidly closing McLaughlin. Shaun had managed to get in the tow of leader Adnitt, but ultimately lost out when Roger Lott did the same in a successful bid to keep ahead of Andy Kinch. Jon Davis came home 12th, off the pace with a clearly sick engine.

(reporter: Matt Hollis)