BRSCC Castle Combe Formula Junior Race 3^rd Aug 2002

Report By Stan Hibberd

This was the first visit of the FJ Championship to the revised Castle Combe Circuit, the paddock started to fill up on Friday evening, with several FJ con-tenders getting organised early for the rigours of scrutineering, several of the cars were repacking their silencers and fitting larger non-standard type extensions, all this activity resulted from a noise warning in the final regs. The paddock facilities are much improved over earlier years and a walk round the circuit was very interesting, the former high speed straights which produced the highest UK lap speeds in those days, had been slowed by the introduction of two pretty tight chicanes, The track and the paddock were tidy and well maintained a big improvement over conditions in the 1980s, but no electricity hook ups available for competitors, surely a must in 2002.Saturday's proceedings got off to the worst possible start for the FJ entry, nearly all the cars failed the noise test, it looked for a while that any car to pass the test would win the race, several cars were re-tested and failed again, people were beginning to get desperate, add on sections were tried, and after a thoroughly miserable morning all the cars were allowed to start in the practice with dire warnings about any that were checked and at fault in practice, as an example of how frustrating this all was, Duncan's Alexis was failed and I reckon that is the quietest car around, it all left a bit of a nasty taste, Castle Combe has always had a problem with residents but it seems to have led to a massive over -reaction by the BRSCC scrutineers.Qualifying got under way at 12.15 pm, Marcus Mussa in his Baillie prepared Lotus 22 set the pace and achieved a lap of 1.21.713 on his way to pole, next fastest was the Mike Hibberd Lotus 27, 1.1 secs adrift, and third fastest was Neil Dawes in his Lotus 20/22, David Stevenson was fourth in his ex Dudley Lotus 22 in spite of a very lurid spin on the fast left kink after the pits, Mark Woodhouse recovered from a pit visit, this to secure his rear undertray on the 20/22 to take fifth, Steve Smith Cooper T59 making up the top six. Derek Walker in the Terrier Mark 1V led the front engined runners in seventh spot, and Reg Hargrave in the Kieft F3 ninth, was the quicker of the two Kieft 500's taking part, throughout the session Jonathan Williamson was suffering chronic gear selection problems in the Lotus 22 but he made tenth on the grid. Significantly during this session all the FJ/F3 500 runners sounded like properly silenced FJ cars should, it made us all wonder what all the fuss was about, did it all achieve anything.As our race was last of the day there was a very long wait, as the cars were checked over and fettled for the race the showers came and went, as the cars went to the assembly area spots of rain sprinkled around but it didn't seem to amount to very much, the race was shortened to seven laps due to earlier race accidents, and eventually got under way at 5.42 pm.From the start Mark Woodhouse stormed into the lead in the Lotus 20/22, with the Lotus 27 of Mike Hibberd mounting a challenge and pole man Mussa slotting into third, Neil Dawes had gear selection problems in his Lotus and made a very hesitant start which delayed several cars lower down the grid, the leading pair were round in what seemed a very short space of time and the Hibberd 27 was trying every way to get past the Woodhouse 20/22, the lap times in the 1.20s were quicker than qualifying, this continued for four laps until Mike Hibberd made a mistake at the chicane and damaged the 27s front suspension on the tyres stacked at the apex of the corner, this left Mark's Lotus well in the lead from Marcus Mussa's 22, Steve Smith had the Cooper T59 up into third and a rapidly recovering Neil Dawes was tearing through the field into fourth, Williamson in the Lotus 22 was fifth, and David Stevenson seemed to have got the measure of his 'new' 22 was running in sixth, a lonely seventh was Reg Hargrave in the Kieft who seemed to have the track all to himself at times, next up was Derek Walker in the Terrier best of the front engined runners, Duncan in his Alexis had a real dice with the Rod Delves Kieft toward the end of the race, Duncan led their dice into the final lap, the pair of them entered the last corner side by side with Duncan taking to the grass in his efforts to hold on to the finish line, Rod hung on by a tiny margin to take the flag. The seven lap race seemed to be over very quickly, Mark Woodhouse had his Lotus in front from the start and pulled away from the rest of the field after lap four, an impressive win.Four cars failed to finish, Mike Hibberd's Lotus 27 damaged on lap four, Andrew Hibberd Lotus 20 broken rocker on lap five, Len Selby Cooper T56 major engine failure on lap five, Martin Carter Elva 100 stopped on lap two.

Stan Hibberd 5-8-2002