Bullet wins first but rain hands second to Thurtle Camaro
20 July 2011
With showers forecast all weekend the weather was always going to have an influence on the racing.
Unfortunately John Wilson's MGV8 was the first casualty of the weekend with engine troubles presumably carried over from a jammed throttle at Donington.
Race 1
Times from practise had the Thurtle Camaro on Pole and Neil Merry's Stingray partnered with Speedworks Cristian Dick alongside. Neil had had a string of bad luck with the cars big block engine and with the car on the front row was hoping for good times. Behind them was the Brown escort with another well known racer, Rod Birley. Alongside the Aston V8 of Rikki and Jo Cann. One to watch was going to be Joss Ronchetti and Julian Westwood starting at the back as they had missed practise in the rush to finish the car.
Lotus Sunbeam and Camaro battled hard, the Bullet got ahead however the American Muscle was smoking and eventually was forced to pit preventing a challenge thus handing the win to Joss and Julian. Rikki was smiling again in second and a delighted Neil Merry third with Cristian who was clearly enjoying the huge horsepower the Corvette had to offer.
Race 2
All afternoon competitors had to dodge the showers which when they arrived came , 'persistently' however shortly after the sun would be out so tyre choice was always going to be difficult.
As the cars made their way to the holding area you could see the different choices competitors had made. The right choice was to be wets as when the cars went to line up the rain fell and fell hard. After the first lap it was now clear to the spectators who was running which tyre as those who made the wrong choices span off on various corners. Boycie on wets pulled away un challenged and a great drive from the Brown BDG Escort saw the car over take all but the Camaro on the first lap with Ronchetti doing well to keep the Bullet on track and hold third despite not being shod in the right rubber.
The conditions even enabled John Dickson in an S1 Esprit as usual ride Cobra was side lined to take the Cann Aston for fourth although a drying track and an unaffected Cristian Dick meant that Dickson/Lim had to settle for fifth in the final standings. Non more surprised than them.
The Heritage is the premier series for classic racing, the grid may not have been full but there was some beautiful cars and some very well known and respected drivers and despite the difficult conditions there were no incidents resulting in the Clerk of the Course complementing the drivers at the awards.
