Rounds 2/3 of MGOC Race Championship

With the first round at Silverstone having taken place only two weeks before, the 2002 Championship cars made the long haul down to the end of the M4 to Pembrey race circuit. With the sunny but chilly, scene set for two rounds, it was going to be a busy weekend. With some competitors missing due to other commitments and, perhaps the distance from home, there was the potential for some useful Championship points to be picked up.

The Class A cars were out on track first and setting the pace for the weekend was Gary Smith and Silverstone winner Chris Pollard who made up the first row with just 0.231 of a second between them. Paul Naish also in a Midget, lined up next followed by the first of the MGBs of Dave Amphlett. The third row consisted of another pair of Midgets driven by Peter St Barbe and Kelly Anne Mercer.

The Class B & F cars practised about an hour and a half after the Class A cars. Michael Weidner placed his MGF on overall and Class F pole position while Paul Roberts made up the front row and took pole for Class B. The ever quick cars and drivers of Class B took the next six places lining up as Nick Golhar, James Perry, Doug Cole, Paul Naish, Nick Arden and Simon Brynne. All of these drivers being capable of a win, it would be an interesting race. The second Class F car, of Philip Cook, qualified ninth overall with Ian Evans and Mark Trotter being third and fourth in class and eleventh and twelfth overall.

Gary Smith made the most of his pole position using it to good effect and staying in front of the pack to lead the race from start to finish. Christopher Pollard was Smith’s main rival until a spin put him down the order. Paul Naish took up the battle with Smith, chasing hard and finishing just over two seconds behind him for second spot. Dave Amphlett held up the MGB honours being the first B home in third place, while Pollard recovered well to finish fourth with the top five being made up by the Midget of Kelly Anne Mercer.

Michael Weidner made a confident start and led through to the finish in his Class F MGF. Clearly stamping his mark on the Class F lead. Back in the Class B race paint was being swapped between various panels of the Maestros in some very close battles. James Perry made the best of the battles and headed out to chase Weidner finishing only 1.6 seconds behind to take second overall and the Class B win. Doug Cole put in a very good performance starting from fifth and finishing in third overall and second in Class B. The next three cars made up the top five from Class B being Nick Arden, Paul Naish and Martin Lovell. Phillip Cook finished seventh overall in his MGF and took second in Class F, with Nick Evans taking the third Class F spot.

The track time of the previous day helped most of the competitors put in a faster practice time on Sunday. The Class A practice produced a very similar grid to Saturday with Gary Smith taken his second pole of the weekend and again Chris Pollard lined up along side, indeed the top six places had the same ring as Saturday.

Class B & F practice saw many of the MGFs improving over their Saturday times with Class F cars taking the first four overall grid positions. It was Michael Weidner who once again commanded pole position with Ian Evans alongside, Nick Evans in third and Philip Cook in fourth. The Class B pole was taken by Paul Roberts who was fifth overall on the grid. The following six cars from Class B were separated by just 0.4 of a second and lined up as Andy Cambell, Paul Naish, Robert Barnard, James Perry and Simon Brynne.

Sunday’s race left Smith and Pollard to do battle again but this time Paul Naish made an excellent start and following a number of very quick laps allowed him to stay in front of the battling pair although it was a three way fight for most of the twelve laps. However, at the end it was Naish who took a well deserved win followed by Smith and Pollard. Peter St Barbe finished fourth, some fourteen seconds behind the leading trio while Dave Amphlett finished off the top five in his MGB.

As on the Saturday Weidner made best use of his pole position and while being challenged by more MGFs at the front, again led from start to finish. The Class B Maestro of James Perry had an excellent race starting from ninth position and taking the class win and second overall. Nick Evans made up for his poor result on Saturday to take third overall and second position in Class F. Meanwhile the battle for the rest of the places was very close and during lap eleven an incident caused the red flags to be shown and the race stopped. Paul Roberts had been unable to avoid an unsighted, stationary Doug Cole in the centre of the track and unfortunately hit him broadside. Luckily, although both drivers required a visit to the medical centre they were later discharged with no serious injury, although the cars were not so lucky. It was a pure racing incident and a testimony to the cars strength that they gave the protection to the drivers. With the race stopped the results were declared as the order they crossed the line on the previous circuit, lap 10. This gave the results as 1st Weidner (Class F), 2nd Perry (Class B), 3rd Nick Evans (Class F), 4th Doug Cole (Class B), 5th Mark Trotter (Class F), 6th Simon Brynne (Class B).