Aston Martin Owners Club - Mallory Park 28^th April 2002

Report By Stan Hibberd

The weather which greeted the Formula Junior competitors at Mallory left a lot to be desired, the mini summer had been replaced by wet and windy conditions. FJ scrutineering was late morning with qualifying practice shortly after, the track had dried by the time the Juniors session began.Once the serious business got under way, the pace was set by Neil Dawes Lotus 20/22, Mike Hibberd Lotus 20 was staying close with Simon Armer Cooper T56, Mark Woodhouse Lotus 20/22 in it's new silver livery also in touch, Derek Walker Terrier Mk 1V was mixing it with the rear engined cars, an early visitor to the pits was John Truslove's Elva 100, with soon afterwards Edwin Jowsey Lotus 22 calling in with handling problems caused by unused new tyres. Six and a half minutes into the session out came the red flags, that turned out to be end of session, cause of this turned out to be a three cars stopped on the side of the circuit, one with the driver remaining in the car !! This shortened qualifying session ended with Neil Dawes much improved Lotus 20/22 in pole, Mike Hibberd next in the Lotus 20 and Simon Armer Cooper T56 in third, Derek Walker in the Terrier was the front engined pace setter, Reg Hargraves the quicker of the two F3 Kiefts taking part.Then came a very long wait, the weather was awful during the early afternoon, gazebo's were blowing away and hail and heavy showers of rain made race length reductions inevitable, so just before 5.30 p.m. the two green flag laps took the nineteen juniors onto the grid, the Truslove Elva having failed to complete the assembly lap.Remarkably the weather had brightened up and the track was beginning to dry, but the race was destined to be run at a much slower pace than practice. The start was very close with cars all tightly together into Gerards, Dawes and Hibberd both got away well and were into the first bend together, Hibberd stayed on the outside round Gerards and at the end of the first lap had a tenuous lead over Dawes, at the front of the field this was the pattern for several laps, this changed when first Dawes and then Woodhouse had spins in the tricky damp conditions when closing on the leader, well up with the leading pack was Hargraves in the Kieft making the most of the slowly drying track, at the tail end of the field Paul Hewes was making progress after a poor start in the Lola Mk 2 and passed several cars as the conditions improved slightly. As the final lap started the main challenge to Mike Hibberd, still leading in the Lotus 20, was from the Coopers of Armer and Smith, both these drivers made good use of the slightly drier track and recorded the quickest laps of the race on the final lap, this led to a change of leader at the esses on the final lap when Armer spotted a gap and was through into the lead, once again demonstrating how good he and the Cooper are in wet conditions.A good result then for the Coopers with Simon Armer Cooper T56 winning, Mike Hibberd second in the Lotus 20, and Steve Smith Cooper T59 third, Edwin Jowsey was fourth having driven a sensible race, with the Woodhouse and Smeeth Lotus's making the top six. Reg Hargrave had the Kieft in ninth spot ahead of Derek Walker's Terrier the first of the front engined cars who in turn was just ahead of Crispian Besley Elva 100. Last to finish was the Gemini Mk2 of Erika Pilkington. A very interesting close race in very unpredictable weather conditions.

Stan Hibberd 30^th April 2002.